PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.

Philadelphia, July 13, 1776.

SIR: I am to acknowledge the receipt of your favour of the 10th instant, and to acquaint you that it is now under the consideration of Congress.

The enclosed resolves I do myself the honour to transmit, as necessary for your information. I have written to General Schuyler and the Commissioners for Indian Affairs respecting the same.

In obedience to the commands of Congress, I have enclosed you two copies of sundry resolves they have passed relative to the treatment of our prisoners by Captain Forster in Canada. I am to request you will take the proper steps to send one of them to General Howe and the other to General Burgoyne. I transmit, also, a third copy for your own use.

Should the United States of America give their sanction to the Jesuitical and villanous distinction which Captain Forster adopts to justify his conduct, there would be no end to butchering our prisoners. They have therefore very properly reprobated it; and, in the genuine spirit of freedom, resolved, that such cruelty as shall be inflicted on prisoners in their possession, by savages or foreigners taken into pay by the King of Great Britain, shall be considered as done by his orders, and recourse be immediately had to retaliation. It is to be hoped their determination will have the desired effect, and that for the future such barbarous scenes will never be acted under the eye and approbation of a British officer; for there is the greatest reason to believe that Captain Forster engaged the Indians to join him, on the express condition of giving up to them all such prisoners as might fall into his hands. His subsequent conduct, indeed, renders this conjecture more than probable.

I have the honour to be, with perfect esteem, sir, your most obedient and very humble servant,

JOHN HANCOCK, President.

To General Washington.

One o'clock, P. M. This moment your favour per post of the 11th instant came to hand. I shall lay it before Congress on Monday morning.

PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS TO GENERAL SCHUYLER.

Philadelphia, July 13, 1776.

SIR: I am so extremely hurried at present that I must beg leave to refer your attention to the enclosed resolves; and, indeed, this is all I have time to do.

I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, sir, your most obedient and very humble servant,

JOHN HANCOCK, President.

To General Schuyler.

PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE.

Philadelphia County Committee, July 13, 1776.

Resolved, That this Committee, in consequence of a Letter from the honourable Continental Congress, as well as from a recommendation of the Provincial Conference, do proceed to raise our part of the Flying-Camp, and that the following gentlemen be appointed as Officers: Colonel, Robert Lewis; Lieutenant-Colonel, Isaac Hughes; Major, John Moore, Esq.; Surgeon, Enoch Edwards; Quartermaster, Marshall Edwards; Adjutant, Solomon Bush. Captains: Archibald Thompson, George Smith, Henry Derringer, Jacob Laughlin, Rudolph Neff, Aaron Levering, Christian Shnyder, Henry Pawling, Joseph Jones. First Lieutenants: Marshall Edwards, Solomon Bush, Samuel Swift, William Wilson, Casper Doll, Samuel Hainds, Graudus Schlatter, Mordecai Morgan, David Schrach, Stephen Porter, Thomas Rossetter. Second Lieutenants: William Armstrong, Leonard Doll, James Hazlet, George Bringhurst, Matthew Holgate, Jesse Roberts, Alexander Hall, Peacock Major. Ensigns: Andrew Barge, William North, William Nox, Abraham Duffield, Nathaniel Childs, Alexander Wright, James Potts, Rees Nanna.

Extract from the minutes:

ENOCH EDWARDS.

The Officers appointed by the Committee of this County to compose the Flying-Camp are requested to meet at the Conestoga Wagon, in Philadelphia, on Saturday, the 20th instant, at nine o'clock in the morning.

ROBERT LEWIS.

JOHN COX TO JASPER YEATES.

Philadelphia, July 13, 1776.

MY DEAR FRIEND: The enclosed letter came to hand a day or two after you left Philadelphia. My young man, not knowing but that you intended returning home this way, kept it till I came home.

Our Militia are all in motion, except three companies that are ordered to stay to guard the frigates, &c. The last of the Second Battalion will march off this afternoon, and I shall follow them this evening or to-morrow morning as their Lieutenant-Colonel. Where we shall go, or how long we shall continue in the service, God only knows. Our first encampment will be at Trenton, where I suppose we shall continue a few days, and advance towards the enemy. I am told the Militia of your County turn out with great cheerfulness. I make no doubt of our being able to muster twenty thousand men by the last of next week; if so, I take it there will be two to one in favour of our being ordered to dislodge the enemy, now at Staten-Island; if so, I hope and pray we may distinguish ourselves as men fighting for everything that is valuable and dear.

We have got one of the most gentlemanly fighting fellows you ever knew to command our privateer; and hope it will not be long before we shall be in possession of half a dozen rich sugar and dry-goods ships.

Whenever you find it convenient, you will remit to my brother William two hundred pounds, which will be somewhere about the amount of your share of the vessel. Should anything extraordinary turn up on the present campaign, you may expect to hear from me. I hope you reached home without any accident, and that you are all the better for your jaunt.

I shall be much obliged by your setting the matter with Captain Patterson as soon as possible, as God only knows whether I ever shall return; and I should like matters so settled as to give those who come after me as little trouble as possible.

God bless and protect you and yours, and believe me to be, with unfeigned sincerity, your affectionate and humble servant,

JOHN COX.

To Jasper Yeates, Esq.

P. S. The packet mentioned above has been delivered to Colonel Ross, by his particular request.

HENRY HALLER TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Reading, July 13, 1776.

SIR: We have received your letter, containing a resolve of Congress for the removal of the privates who are prisoners in this town, to Lancaster, which we shall carry into execution with all the despatch in our power.

We received a letter from the honourable the Delegates of this Province, mentioning that we should be informed by express, or by the gentlemen from our County then at Lancaster, that all the Militia that could possibly be equipped and armed should be called forth. We also received a letter from the Committee of Lancaster, enclosing copies of letters from a Committee of Congress, and from the Committee of the City of Philadelphia; in the former of which it is mentioned that the forces from the several Counties should be collected and marched to Brunswick; in the latter it is mentioned that only the four thousand five hundred men ordered to be raised in the Province, as part of the Flying-Camp, were meant by the letter of the Committee of Congress. We, therefore, continued our plan of raising our quota for the Flying-Camp, and, indeed, added a company more, to complete the battalion, hoping for the approbation of Congress in so doing; since which we have seen in the publick prints the proceedings of the Conference of the Delegates of the several Counties, and of the Committee of Safety of the City and Liberties. But as we had nearly raised several companies to compose the Flying-Camp, (the place of which this Militia is intended to supply,) and the others were proceeding with great success, considering the great scarcity of every kind of tolerable arms among the people to arm such a multitude, we hope our completing the original plan will be approved of, as the men will be more quickly raised and better equipped than if we were to take down the whole Militia.

Our conduct is dictated by the warmest attachment to the