inform Congress that the five Regiments there are entirely deficient in arms, and many other Regiments in Continental pay, and submit it to their consideration whether any part of the arms lately taken, under these circumstances, should be delivered to the gentlemen applying for them; determining, at the same time, whatever decision they come to will be agreeable to me, and will be literally complied with by, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

To the President of Congress.

GENERAL WASHINGTON TO GENERAL PUTNAM.

Philadelphia, June 3, 1776.

DEAR SIR: I received your favour of yesterday evening’s express, with its several letters and intelligence from General Schuyler, and am much concerned for the further misfortunes that have attended our arms in Canada. I have laid the whole before Congress, who had before resolved to send a considerable augmentation to our Army there. I doubt not that General Schuyler may receive assistance from the Militia most convenient to him for securing the different passes and communications till they can be reinforced. As to sending a reinforcement from New-York, neither policy nor prudence will justify it, as we have the strongest reasons to believe the day not far distant when a large armament will arrive and vigorously attempt an impression there; to oppose which, the forces we have will not be more than equal, if sufficient.

Congress have determined on building sundry gondolas and fire-rafts, to prevent the men-of-war and enemy’s ships from coming into the New-York Bay or Narrows. I must therefore request that you make inquiry after carpenters, and procure all you can, with materials necessary for building them, that they may go on with all possible expedition as soon as the person arrives from hence whom I have employed to superintend the work; he will be there in a day or two.

I am, dear sir, &c.,

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

To Major-General Putnam.

To the Worshipful Justices of His Majesty George the Third, of his Courts of Quarter Sessions and Common Pleas for the County of PHILADEPHIA

The Memorial of the Committee of Inspection and Observation for the City and Liberties of PHILADELPHIA, &c., respectfully showeth:

That the honourable the Congress, by a resolution of the 15th of May last, have declared "; That it appears absolutely irreconcilable to reason and good conscience for the people of the Colonies now to take the oaths or affirmations necessary for the support of any Government under the Crown of Great Britain; and that it is necessary that the exercise of any kind of authority under the said Crown should be totally suppressed,” &c. That this Committee conceive it to be their duty, as it is their inclination, to exert their utmost endeavours for carrying into execution the said resolve, as well as others of that honourable body; and therefore they thus apply to your Worships to surcease the exercise of any authority in the present Courts until a new Government is framed, and all the powers thereof exerted under the authority of the people of this Province.

The Committee need not remind your Worships of the qualifications of Grand Jurors, and how incompatible they are with the present opposition to the King of Great Britain, and the execution of the resolves as well of the Congress as of the House of Assembly of this Province, when they reflect that the disposition of many of your Worships is friendly to the cause of liberty and your country, and that a continuance in the seats you have so worthily filled is no longer conducive to the safety and happiness of the people.

It is with great concern that the Committee have beheld some persons in office in this Province so influenced by their salaries as to prefer their own immediate power and interest to that of their country and their posterity; and they are sorry to find themselves constrained to exert their most strenuous efforts for obtaining those desirable ends—personal security and the preservation of private property—which they apprehend every honest man would be anxious to see fixed on a firm and permanent basis. It is with equal concern that they have seen another set of men in this Province, heretofore notoriously opposing the elections and authority of Committees of all kinds, (bodies, it is confessed, constituted by necessity alone,) now professing a desire for the continuance of them, though evidently militating against the authority of the Crown, and the execution of some of the criminal laws, as well as tending to the discontinuance of trial by jury and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, those bulwarks of liberty. This conduct they can only ascribe to an inclination in these men to prefer confusion to order, tyranny to liberty, and anarchy to legal government, and thereby, in time, to make the people so discontented and unhappy as to desire peace at the expense of everything valuable in this life, as was effected by similar means at the Restoration.

Upon the whole, the Committee think it their duty to themselves, their constituents, and to the Congress, to request your Worships to postpone the business of the above-mentioned Courts until a new Government shall be formed, which they apprehend will be effected so speedily that the delay will be of small if any injury to the present suitors; and in the mean time the minds of men will be quieted from the apprehension of a disaffected Grand Jury or Court attempting to censure or condemn the virtuous measures now pursuing for the happiness and safety of the good people of this Province in particular, and America in general.

Signed by order of the Committee:

THOMAS MC KEAN, Chairman.

June 3, 1776.

In Committee of Privates, Philadelphia, June 3, 1776.

Moved, That an address of thanks be presented to the Officers and Men belonging to the Galleys, for their spirited behaviour in the late engagement with the Roebuck and Liverpool men-of-war, and that the same be published in the several publick papers of this city.

Extract from the Minutes:

JAMES CANNON, Clerk.

N. B. The vote was delayed for some weeks, to give the House of Assembly an opportunity of doing it first.

TO THE HONOURABLE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

The Memorial of the Committee of Privates of the Military Association belonging to the City and Liberties of PHILADELPHIA respectfully showeth:

That your Memorialists, confiding that this House would reject no application which the most pressing necessity urged on the one hand, and the most reprehensible negligence produced on the other, applied some time since for a Continental General, and a few Continental Battalions. The defenceless state of this Province, the prospect of an attack being made on this city, and the great discouragements which our military associators have met with, and the injustice done to their patriotick exertions by men who, if they wished well to our cause, would have treated us in a very different manner,—these, with many other circumstances, pointed out the necessity of having a General of courage and experience with a few Continental Battalions, stationed here. This we requested, and had reason to expect to have our prayer attended to, as it is impossible for us, in the present unconnected state of our Battalions, ever to exert their force to the greatest advantage, and as we, in, consequence thereof, run the greatest hazard of a division in the hour of action. We understand that some of our Delegates give great opposition to the measure, alleging that, were such a thing necessary, the application ought to come from our Committee of Safety. We wish not to fall a sacrifice to the ignorance or inattention of a Committee, in a number of whose members we have not the least confidence, especially since their influence, in all probability, prevented the burning of the Roebuck; and we earnestly entreat that men who endeavoured to withdraw us from the Continental Union, may not have too great weight in the councils which regard our safety. We thought our application so reasonable that there was scarcely a necessity of hinting the matter, and therefore declined troubling the Congress with unnecessary solicitations. And now that opposition is made, the opinion of his Excellency General Washington, and the other General officers at present in this city, may save us the labour of further applications. We do, therefore, pray Congress to take their sentiments on our present defensive preparations; and