will take every step in your power to have it carried into execution.

I am, sir, your most obedient servant,

ROBERT H. HARRISON.

To Brig. General Nathaniel Heard, New-Jersey Militia.

GENERAL WASHINGTON TO GENERAL LIVINGSTON.

New-York, June 29, 1776.

DEAR SIR: Since Colonel Reed left this, I have received certain information from the Hook that about forty of the enemy’s fleet have arrived there, and others now in sight; that there cannot be a doubt but the whole fleet will be in this day and to-morrow. I beg not a moment’s time may be lost in sending forward such parts of the Militia as Colonel Reed shall mention. We are so very weak at this post that I must beg you to order the three companies which I mentioned in my last for Staten-Island, immediately to this city. If Colonel Heard is the commanding officer, I must request you will lay my several letters written to you before him without delay.

I am, sir, with esteem, your most, &c.,

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

To Brigadier-General William Livingston.

GENERAL WASHINGTON TO COLONEL JAMES CLINTON.

New-York, June 29, 1776.

SIR: The Committee inform me that no evidence has appeared against Fletcher Mathews, and direct his papers may be delivered to him, which I would have you comply with; likewise the request of the Committees of Newburgh and New-Windsor. I have to inform you of the arrival of about fifty sail this day at the Hook; this is part of a fleet of one hundred and thirty, which left Halifax under General Howe the 9th instant. Would have you make all possible preparation, in case the enemy should have in view to push some of their frigates up the North-River, to give them a proper reception. >

I am, sir, yours, &c.,

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

To Colonel James Clinton.

To His Excellency GEORGE WASHINGTON, Esq., Comman-der-in-Chief of the Forces in the service of the UNITED COLONIES:

The most respectful Address of the Officers and Soldiers of the several Regiments in the Second Brigade, stationed in and near the City of NEW-YORK:

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY: When the duty of your station impelled you to vindicate the rights of humanity, which you charitably conceived could not be entirely extinguished, even in that detestable parricide who had directed the hands of those assassins, by whom our brethren, their own brethren, were wantonly massacred at Lexington, we felt with your Excellency the struggle you must have undergone. The necessity of thus exhibiting to the view of mankind the crimes of British chiefs was exquisitely painful to us, for we still were Britons, and most sincerely wished for a reconciliation to take place, remote as it appeared.

The early established fame of Britons for generosity made us believe that the horrors we beheld were but the crimes of individuals; and we fondly hoped that a people who had the same origin, and for whom we entertained a kind of superstitious reverence, never would be suddenly transformed into monsters. Such were the illusions we cherished with singular complacency, even at the time that the British General, sporting with virtue, and the national character of Britons, which his enormities were loading with infamy, boasted to your Excellency, in language of triumph, that “Britons, ever pre-eminent in mercy, have out-gone common examples, and overlooked the criminal in the captive.”

We mourn, the national prejudices we have imbibed will ever make us mourn, that those men have, as a nation, far “out-gone, ” in the Northern and Southern Colonies, such examples as have been given frequently by the most wicked States; and the execrable conspiracy, wherein the murderer and the incendiary were engaged to destroy your Excellency and the whole Army, of which Providence has led you to obtain a seasonable discovery, inspires us with an inveterate

abhorrence of the measures of that people, from whom we never wished to be separated, until the multiplied injuries of our parent State compelled us to seek refuge in a separate Government.

We are, fortunately, exempt, as yet, from those refinements which, in nations corrupted by luxury, expel a just sense of true honour, and give birth to a disagreeable circulation of the foul incense of adulation. Sensible that it does not become us, the humble companions of your military toils, to praise the abilities of our Commander, yet we obey with pleasure the strong impulse of duty and affection which now urge us to engage to live or die by you, whom our common enemies have marked out as one of the principal obstacles which retard their progress towards despotism, an acknowledgment than which none can more incontrovertibly prove the just sense they have of your virtue and military abilities.

We assure your Excellency of our firm attachment to the rights of our country, and the person of our General, and our abhorrence and detestation of those methods to subvert the one and destroy the other, to which the villany of our enemies have descended, which would disgrace the annals of the most barbarous nations. The wisdom and justice of your Excellency’s government induces us to place the highest confidence in your measures to bring to condign punishment the authors of this horrid combination, and restore the peace of our country on a permanent basis; for which purpose, nothing in our stations proper to be done shall be omitted which your Excellency may see fit to order.

By desire, and in behalf of the several Regiments in the Second Brigade,

Camp in New-York, June 29, 1776.

JACOB BLACKWELL TO QUEENS COUNTY (NEW-YORK) COMMITTEE.

New-York, June 29, 1776.

SIR: Enclosed we send you some resolutions, by which you will see that it is determined that all the stock in those parts of your County which lie to the southward of the ridge of hills on the north side of the plains, except as is therein excepted, be immediately removed, either into Suffolk County or to the northward of said ridge of hills. The matter admits of no delay, as the enemy are at the Hook, and will, in all probability, make a push for them immediately. We would, therefore, earnestly request you, with the advice of as many Committee-men as you can conveniently consult upon the occasion, to cause the said resolutions to be carried into immediate execution.

We are, sir, with respect, your very humble servant,

JACOB BLACKWELL.

P. S. The commanding officer of the Militia, or the Committee of Queens County, is requested to take effectual measures, at the publick expense, to keep the said stock within the limits above-mentioned.

To the Honourable Provincial Congress of NEW-YORK.

The humble Petition of the General Committee of TRYON County, humbly showeth :

That the extent of this County is very great, and the Militia of necessity divided into four battalions; that we are a frontier, large, weak, and greatly exposed to the enemy. We lie open to the Indian nations, and through us is the passage to Oswego, Niagara, Oswegatchie, and other parts possessed by the enemy. If our Militia are to be of any effectual service to us in this critical situation, it is necessary we should be under the command of a General Officer in the County. Against the Brigadier-General who is appointed over this County, we have no objection but his distance.

We do, therefore, earnestly request you will hear our Delegates upon this subject, and appoint some General Officer with as much despatch as our circumstances require. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c.

JOHN FREY, Chairman.

Tryon County Committee-Chamber, June 29, 1776.