it will enable our officers to pursue such steps as is necessary to accomplish this purpose so much wished for. Not doubting but that you will do everything for us that may appear to you necessary,

We rest, and are, gentlemen, your most obedient humble servants,

To the Hon. the Council of Safety now sitting at Sussex.

I do hereby certify, that the several subscribers to the within letter were sworn to the truth of the facts in said letter set forth before the Council of Safety for the County of Sussex, in Delaware, 5th July, 1776.

By order of the Council of Safety.

DAVID HALL, Chairman.

Testimony of ENOCH SCUDDER, July 4, 1776.

Enoch Scudder, being duly sworn on the holy Gospel, doth depose and say: That on the third of this instant July, in travelling down from Philadelphia, he was overtaken by four men near Cedar Creek, who asked him if he had heard that Lord Dunmore had landed an armament of men in Maryland, and whether he (this deponent) was going to join him: upon which, this deponent asked them if there were any men there that would join Dunmore, and how many, and whereabouts they were to be gathered: upon which, they informed him that fifteen hundred might be collected about Cedar Creek, and between that and the place where Dunmore had landed; and that he, (this deponent,) in several harvest-fields, heard the people converse to this purpose; and that they were determined that the gentlemen who had been busy in calling the Tories to account should not be suffered to pass without a guard; and they further told him that Boymer Lloyd was actually with Dunmore.

July 4, 1776.

ENOCH SCUDDER.

Sworn before

JNO. DAGWORTHY.

PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS TO COLONEL HASLETT.

Philadelphia, July 5, 1776.

SIR: I have it in command from Congress to direct you to station one Company of the Battalion under your command at Lewistown, and to march the remaining seven companies to the town of Wilmington, and there remain until the further order of this Congress. You will therefore immediately put this order into execution.

I am, sir, your most obedient servant,

JOHN HANCOCK, President.

To Colonel Haslett, or Officer commanding the Battalion of Continental Troops in Delaware Government.

P. S. The enclosed Declaration you will please to have read at the head of your battalion.

PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS TO THE CONVENTION OF NEW-JERSEY.

Philadelphia, July 5, 1776.

GENTLEMEN: You will perceive, by the enclosed Resolve, that the Congress have judged it necessary to remove the prisoners from your Colony to the town of York, in Pennsylvania, and have directed me to request you to carry the same into execution immediately. Their vicinity to our enemies, and the opportunity of deserting to them, or keeping up a communication dangerous to the interest of these United States, rendered this step not only prudent, but absolutely necessary.

I do myself the honour to enclose, in obedience to the commands of Congress, a copy of the Declaration of Independence, which you will please to have proclaimed in your Colony in such way and manner as you shall judge best.

The important consequences resulting to the American States from this Declaration of Independence, considered as the ground and foundation of a future Government, will naturally suggest the propriety of proclaiming it in such a mode as that the people may be universally informed of it.

I have the honour to be, gentlemen, your most obedient and very humble servant,

JOHN HANCOCK, President.

Honourable Convention of New Jersey.

PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS TO THE PENNSYLVANIA COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.

Philadelphia, July 5, 1776.

GENTLEMEN: I do myself the honour to enclose, in obedience to the commands of Congress, a copy of the Declaration of Independence, which I am directed to request you will have proclaimed in your Colony in the way and manner which you shall judge best.

The American States being now forever divided from those who wished to destroy them, it has become absolutely necessary, for their security and happiness, to adopt some Government of their own. In this view of the matter, the important consequences flowing from a Declaration of Independence, considered as the ground and foundation thereof, will naturally suggest the propriety of proclaiming it in such a mode that the people may be universally informed of it.

I have the honour to be, gentlemen, your most obedient and very humble servant,

JOHN HANCOCK, President.

Honourable Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania.

GENERAL WOOSTER TO COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS.

Philadelphia, July 5, 1776.

As I understand my conduct in confining Major Gray, Colonel Dufee, and St. George Dupree, has been found fault with, I must beg leave to give the reasons that induced me to it.

Sundry captains of militia applied to me to issue an order, directing them to deliver up the commissions they had received from General Carleton, by which they were obliged to take up arms against the Continental troops whenever they should be commanded by General Carleton; which they did not choose to do, but would rather take commissions under the Continental Congress. Being fully sensible of the propriety of their request, I accordingly gave out an order for that purpose, and allowed every parish the privilege of choosing their own officers, and making a proper return to me; which they cheerfully complied with. I then granted commissions under the honourable Continental Congress to almost all the officers of militia in the District of Montreal, as far as the Three Rivers. As the Field Officers belonging to Montreal had not given up their commissions, several Captains applied to me to oblige them to do it, as they should yet be obliged to take up arms against us in case General Carleton should call upon them to raise the militia; upon which I called upon these officers to deliver their commissions pursuant to my orders, as it was inconsistent for them to pretend either to friendship or neutrality, while they held commissions for the very purpose of taking arms against the Colonies whenever they were commanded by General Carleton or his successor. And here I must observe, these commissions were predicated upon a proclamation issued by General Carleton, in May or June, 1775, denouncing destruction to the Traitors and Rebels of the New-England Colonies. The French officers appeared willing to deliver up their commissions, but Major Gray swore he would not deliver his, let the consequence be what it would, and the whole posse of Tories in Montreal used their utmost endeavours to dissuade the French officers from complying with my orders, which they effected. It therefore became necessary for me to support my authority, or both I and my orders would appear contemptible in the eyes of Tories and Canadians. I told these officers if they persisted in their disobedience they must repair to the fort of Chambly, as a place of security, and to put it out of their power to do us that injury which might be justly apprehended from them.

Major Gray, as early as December, swore we had not taken Quebeck yet, and never should take it; which conversation had a very bad effect upon people who were far from being our friends; indeed, the whole tenour of his discourse in the coffee-house last winter was against the honourable Continental Congress and their measures. Therefore, I judged him a dangerous man, and, with all his adherents, inimical to the cause of the United Colonies; and, as such, pursuant to General Schuyler's orders and my own sentiments, I sent Colonel Dufee and him and St. George Dupree to Chambly.

Here I must observe, that the honourable Commissioners