in which you can be more extensively useful, could alleviate the regret they feel on the removal of their Colonel.

We are instructed unfeignedly to congratulate you on your election to the distinguished department you now fill, which we have no doubt you will conduct with honour to yourself and advantage to the cause in which our lives and fortunes are so deeply engaged; and permit us to assure you that the officers and privates of the Second Battalion will always esteem it a peculiar privilege to be under your command, and you may depend upon their zeal and readiness on all occasions to support your authority and execute your orders.

Signed by order and in behalf of the Battalion:

JOHN BAYARD, Colonel.

JONATHAN SMITH, Captain.

SAMUEL MASSEY, Lieutenant.

Philadelphia, July 10, 1776.

GENERAL ROBERDEAU'S REPLY.

GENTLEMEN: The sense which the Officers of the Second Battalion express, in this obliging Address, of my attention to, and zeal in, the service of my bleeding country, in that particular line of duty marked out by their free unanimous voice, is not only very honourable, but also highly pleasing, as it is a fresh proof of the regard of a corps with whom I have had uninterrupted happiness ever since our first connection, and whose esteem I would ever studiously cultivate. At the same time that I accept with thanks, as a further mark of regard, your congratulations on my late honourable appointment at Lancaster, permit me to say that neither that appointment nor your congratulations can prevent the pain of an ingenuous mind under the conscious sense of a want of talents for so important a station. However, the cause in which we are engaged is the cause of God, who loveth justice and hateth oppression. He can give efficacy to the feeblest efforts. The concurrence of officers and privates, in a general assurance of their zeal and readiness in the service of their country under my command, presages a happy, and, I trust, a successful campaign, for which they have my hearty thanks. I expect no less from every friend to America, engaged in the service, as I can have no private or sinister view, and it is evident union alone can serve our suffering country, whereas divisions would destroy it.

DANIEL ROBERDEAU.

Philadelphia, July 10, 1776.

LANCASTER (PENNSYLVANIA) COMMITTEE.

In Committee, Lancaster, July 10, 1776.

The necessity for Arms at present is such, that it is recommended to Thomas McClenaghan, a journeyman of Michael Rhinehart, (gun-barrel maker,) to go to work with the said Michael Rhinehart, as it is the opinion of the Committee that gun-barrel makers, and persons of such trades as are immediately necessary for the publick service, ought to continue at their particular employments.

BUCKS COUNTY (PENNSYLVANIA) COMMITTEE

In Committee, Bucks County, July 10, 1776.

Resolved, That this Committee will use their utmost endeavours that the Resolve of the late Provincial Conference for imbodying four hundred of the Associators of this County, be immediately put into execution; and that the following gentlemen be appointed Officers, being the proportion allotted to this County, viz: Colonel, Joseph Hart; Captains: John Followell, William Roberts, William Hart, Valentine Up, John Jamison; First Lieutenants: John KrÆsen, Henry Durroch, Hugh Long, Philip Trumbower, Dennis Middleswart; Second Lieutenants: Abraham Dubois, James Shaw, Jacob Drake, Samuel Deane, John Irvine: Ensigns: —— McKissack, William Hines, Joseph Hart, Stoffel Keller, John McCommon; Adjutant: John Johnson; Surgeon: Joseph Fenton, Jun.; Quartermaster: Alexander Benstead.

Resolved, That where any person or persons within any Township of this County, shall refuse to deliver his or their Firearms to the Collectors of Arms, either chosen or appointed, agreeable to a late resolve of the Assembly of this Province, the said Collectors, or any one of them, shall apply to the Colonel, or, in his absence, the next in command of the Battalion to which the Associators of that Township belong, who shall thereupon give orders to such officer and such number of men as he shall apprehend proper and sufficient to enforce the said resolve of Assembly.

Resolved, That where it shall appear to the Collector of Arms, that any person or persons have been possessed of good Firearms, and do not deliver them, or satisfy the Collectors where they are, the said Collectors, or any of them, cite such person or persons to appear before this Committee at their next meeting, and satisfy this Board how the said Arms have been disposed of.

Agreeable to two Resolves of the Committee of Safety of this Province, this Committee have appointed Gerret Dungan to cause the Firearms collected from Non-Associators in this County, to be immediately rendered fit for use.

Matthew Bennet is appointed for the First Battalion, and Jared Irvine for the Second, Third, and Fourth Battalions of Associators in this County, to seize the guns and mark the size on the breechpin, or lower end of the barrel.

By order of the Committee:

JOSEPH HART, Chairman.

SAMUEL TUCKER TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

[Read July 12, 1776. Referred to the Board of War.]

In Provincial Congress of New-Jersey,

Trenton, July 10, 1776.

SIR: By order of the Provincial Congress, I am to inform you that, on the sudden call of the Commander-in-Chief at New-York, the Militia of several of the eastern Counties have marched to the General's assistance; and also a number from the western part of the Colony there, together with the new levies for the requested brigade, have greatly drained us of men, at a time when the grain (the support of the Colony) is in imminent danger of being neglected and lost. The condition of this Colony, from the present situation of the enemy, has been such that the Militia have been necessarily detained hitherto. In such circumstances, we have with pleasure received information that the Militia of Pennsylvania is about to march to our assistance. While we thus enjoy the pleasing prospect of more effectually opposing our common enemy, we hope the Congress will give such directions as may afford an opportunity for immediately dismissing our Militia for the present, in order that they may save and secure their grain, already suffering.

At Trenton, where we understand the camp is to be formed, the Pennsylvania Militia cannot effect the purpose, which we have greatly at heart, of relieving our people from their attendance, that their harvests may not perish. We submit to Congress, therefore, the propriety of sending forward our friends from Pennsylvania to the eastern part of this Colony; if not all, at least such part of them as may be thought more immediately necessary.

Besides the danger of our harvest suffering, a more pressing one, if possible, urges us to this application, which is that of our people from the interior Counties deserting the service in order to preserve their crops; the rather as some of our Counties have in a great measure withheld, their force, whilst others have turned out almost to a man.

We are, sir, your most humble servants.

By order of Congress:

SAMUEL TUCKER, President.

To the Hon. John Hancock, Esq.

DR. WITHERSPOON TO COLONEL HARRISON.

Dr. WITHERSPOON'S compliments to Colonel Harrison. The bearer of this is Mr. Rowland Chambers, recommended by the Provincial Congress of New-Jersey as Paymaster to the three thousand three hundred men raised in Jersey for the Army at New-York. He will be obliged to Colonel Harrison, if he is appointed, to let him know as soon as possible the condition of the bond to be taken of him, and the nature of the security, that no time may be lost in providing it.

Philadelphia, Friday, July 12, 1776.

In Provincial Congress of New-Jersey,

Burlington, June 27, 1776.

Resolved, That Mr. Rowland Chambers be recommended by this Congress to the honourable Continental Congress as a proper person to be Paymaster of the new levies raising in this Colony to reinforce the Army at New-York

Extract from the Minutes:

WILLIAM PATERSON, Secretary.