the same rank. In order to put New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island upon a line with Connecticut, it would be necessary to dismiss a number of officers in possession of commissions, without any fault of theirs. On the other hand, to bring the Connecticut general and field officers to the same scale with the others, will add to the number of officers, and may be deemed inconsistent with the terms on which they entered into the service, although you add nothing to the expense, except in the articles of provisions. Upon the whole, it is a case which I would wish the honorable Congress to consider and determine.

The estimate made in Congress, supposed all the regiments to be formed upon one establishment; but they are different in different Provinces, and even vary in the same Province in some particulars. In Massachusetts, some regiments have ten companies, others eleven; the establishment of the former is five hundred and ninety men, officers included; of the latter, six hundred and forty-nine. The establishment of Rhode Island and New Hampshire is five hundred and ninety to a regiment, officers included; Connecticut has a thousand men to a regiment.

The reduction of some of them seems to be necessary, and yet it is a matter of much delicacy, as we are situated. I most earnestly request it may be taken into immediate consideration, and the time and mode of doing it pointed out by the honorable Congress.

'As General Gage is making preparations for winter by contracting for quantities of coal, it will suggest to us the propriety of extending our views to that season. But I need

not enlarge upon the variety of necessities, such as clothing and fuel, (both exceedingly scarce and difficult to be procured,) which that season must bring with it, if the army or any considerable part of it is to remain embodied.

'Since I had the honor of addressing you last, I have been applied to by a committee of the General Court, for a detachment of the army, to protect the inhabitants of the eastern parts of this Province from some apprehended depredations on their coasts. I could have wished to comply with their request; but after due consideration, and consulting the general officers, together with those Members of Congress who are here, I thought it my duty to excuse myself. The application and my answer are enclosed, which I hope will be approved by the honorable Congress.

The army is now formed into three grand divisions, under the command of the Generals Ward, Lee, and Putnam; each division into two brigades, consisting of about six regiments each, commanded by Generals Thomas and Spencer at Roxbury; Heath at Cambridge; Sullivan and Greene at Winter Hill. By this, you will please to observe, there is a deficiency of one Brigadier-Gene

ral, occasioned by Mr. Pomroy's refusal to accept his commission, which I beg may be filled up as soon as possible. I observe the honorable Congress have also favored me with the appointment of three brigade majors. I presume they have appointed, or intend to appoint, the rest soon, as they cannot be unacquainted that one is necessary to each brigade; and, in a new-raised army, it will be an office of great duty and service.

'The accession of Georgia* to the measures of the Congress is a happy event, and must give sincere pleasure to every friend of America. I am, &c.'

Lond. ed. vol. i. p. 17.

Wash. Writ.

Sparks, vol. iii. p 49.

GEORGE MERCER to RALPH IZARD.

'MANCHESTER, [Eng.] August 18, 1775. The Provincial Congress of Virginia have entered into the same resolution with South Carolina, "to summon all absentees above twenty and under sixty, to return to their respective Provinces.'

I have not been regularly served with one, nor do I suppose you have. Nevertheless, I am informed, the strict letter of it is meant to be complied with, and that a confiscation general will follow a refusal.'

Cor. of R. Izard, vol. i. p. 116.

THOMAS JEFFERSON to JOHN RANDOLPH, ESQ.

'MONTICELLO, August 25, 1775.

DEAR SIR, I am sorry the situation of our country should render it not eligible to you to remain longer in it. I hope the returning wisdom of Great Britain will, ere long, put an end to this unnatural contest. There may be people to whose tempers and dispositions, contention is pleasing, and who, therefore, wish a continuance of confusion, but to me it is of all states but one, the most horrid.

*

I think it must be evident to yourself, that the Ministry have been deceived by their officers on this side of the water, who, (for what purpose I cannot tell,) have constantly represented the American opposition as that of a small faction, in which the body of the people took little part. This, you can inform them, of your own knowledge, is not true.

I wish they were thoroughly and minutely acquainted with every circumstance relative to America, as it exists in truth. I am persuaded, this would go far towards disposing them to reconciliation.

*

The Congress (of 1774) stated the lowest terms they thought pos

This fact respecting Georgia, communicated to Congress by letter, was recorded in their Journal, July 20th.

sible to be accepted, in order to convince the world, they were not unreasonable.

I wish no false sense of honor, no ignorance of our real intentions, no vain hope that partial concessions of right will be accepted, may induce the Ministry to trifle with accommodation, till it shall be out of their power ever to accommodate.

'It would be certainly unwise, by trying the event of another campaign, to risk our accepting a foreign aid, which, perhaps, may not be obtainable but on condition of everlasting avulsion from Great Britain. This would be thought a hard condition, to those who still wish for reunion with their parent country. I am sincerely one of those, and would rather be in dependence on Great Britain, properly limited, than on any nation upon earth, or than on no nation. But I am one of those, too, who, rather than submit to the right of legislating for us, assumed by the British Parliament, and which late experience has shown, they will so cruelly exercise, would lend my hand to sink the whole island in the ocean. 'If undeceiving the Minister as to matters of fact, may change his disposition, it will, perhaps, be in your power by assisting to do this, to render service to the whole empire, at the most critical time, certainly, that it has ever seen.'

Jeff. Writ. vol. i. p. 150.

RALPH IZARD to THOMAS LYNCH, ESQ.

'WEYMOUTH, September 8, 1775.

'Depend upon it you will never be assisted by any people from motives of generosity; and, if any thing ever looks like it, still interest will be at the bottom of it.

'France, most sincerely wishes America to be disunited from Great Britain. Should the civil war continue, and America form an independent Constitution for herself, and publish an invitation to all powers to trade with her, interest would begin to operate, and I believe that France would then stand forth. * I have the greatest confidence in the wisdom and virtue of the Congress, and do, from my soul, believe them to be the best, the most incorrupt, and disinterested representative body that ever the world saw.'

Cor. of R. Izard, vol. i. p. 120.

SAME to LIEUT. GOVERNOR COLDEN.

WEYMOUTH, September 10, 1775.

The cause of America is approved of by all Europe.

I approve highly of the proceedings of the Continental Congress, and most religiously believe, that the liberties of America have been preserved by them. ** * I can assure you that in the opinion of foreigners, they have done the greatest honor to their country.

'The conduct of the Assembly of New York astonished and afflicted me. If they had succeeded in their attempts to persuade their constituents to disregard the directions of the Congress,

every thing mischievous was to be expected. A disunion is all that our enemies wish; and could they be gralified, our destruction would be the certain consequence.' 'P. S. I write in full expectation that there will be no accommodation. Could such a happy event be brought about, and we again be put into the situation we were, in the year 1763, I should for many years, prefer it to any Constitution that could be formed.'

'SIR,

GENERAL WASHINGTON to GENERAL GAGE.

Ibid. p. 126.

'HEAD QUARTERS, CAMBRIDGE, 20 August, 1775. I addressed you on the 11th instant, in terms which gave the fairest scope for that humanity and politeness which were supposed to form a part of your character.

*

'You advise me to give free operation to truth, and to punish misrepresentation and falsehood. If experience stamps value upon counsel, yours must have a weight which few can claim.

'You affect, Sir, to despise all rank not derived from the same source with your own. I cannot conceive one more honorable than that which flows from the uncorrupted choice of a brave and free people, the purest source and original fountain of all power. Far from making it a plea for cruelty, a mind of true magnanimity and enlarged ideas would comprehend and respect it.

'What may have been the Ministerial views which have precipitated the present crisis, Lexington, Concord, and Charlestown can best declare.

May that God, then, to whom you appeal, judge between America and you. Under his Providence, those who influence the counsels of America, and all the other inhabitants of the United Colonies, at the hazard of their lives, are determined to hand down to posterity those just and invaluable privileges which they received from their ancestors.'

Wash. Writ.

*

Sparks, vol. iii. p. 65.

GENERAL WASHINGTON to RICHARD HENRY LEE, in Congress. CAMP AT CAMBRIDGE, 29 August, 1775. 'Dear Sir, Your favor of the 1st instant, by Mr. Randolph,* came safe to hand. The merits of this young gentleman, added to your recommendation, and my own knowledge of his character,

* Edmund Randolph. The time and occasion of his leaving, appear in the General's letter, Nov. 2.

induced me to take him into my family, as an Aid-de-Camp, in the room of Mr. Mifflin, whom I have appointed Quartermastergeneral, from a thorough persuasion of his integrity, my own experience of his activity, and, finally, because he stands unconnected with either of these governments, or with this, that, or the other man; for between you and me, there is more in this than you can easily imagine.

'I submit it, therefore, to your consideration, whether there is, or is not, a propriety in that Resolution of the Congress, which leaves the ultimate appointment of all officers below the rank of Generals, to the governments where they originated, now the army is become Continental. To me it appears improper; it is giving that power and weight to one individual Colony, which ought, of right, to belong only to the whole. Would

it not be better, therefore, to have the warrants, which the Commander-in-Chief is authorized to give pro tempore, approved or disapproved by the Continental Congress, or a committee of their body, which I should suppose, in any long recess must always sit. In this case every gentleman will stand an equal chance of being promoted, according to his merit.'

Life of R. H. Lee, vol. ii. p. 3. Wash. Writ.

Sparks, vol. iii. p. 68.

The Resolution referred to in the preceding letter to Col. Lee, stands on the Journal as follows:

'IN CONGRESS, June 22, 1775. Resolved, That the Colony of Pennsylvania raise two more companies of riflemen, and that these, with the six before ordered [on the 14th] to be by them raised, making eight companies, be formed into a battalion, to be commanded by such field officers, captains and lieutenants, as shall be recommended by the Assembly or Convention of said Colony!'

GENERAL WASHINGTON to the PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

'CAMBRIDGE, 31 August, 1775. 'SIR,As the filling up the vacant place of Brigadier-General will probably be of the first business of the honorable Congress, I flatter myself it will not be deemed assuming, to mention the names of two gentlemen, whose former services, rank, and age, may be thought worthy of attention on this occasion. Of the one I can speak from my own knowledge, of the other only from character. The former is Colonel John Armstrong of Pennsylvania.

*

chusetts Bay.

The other gentleman is Colonel Frye of Massa

*

'Either of these gentlemen, or any other the honorable Congress shall please to favor with this appointment will be received by me with the utmost deference and respect.

*

'The scarcity of ammunition does not admit of our availing ourselves of the situation, as we otherwise might do.