That Persons of considerable Rank Influence and Authority in the neighbouring States are deeply concerned in the said Designs with a view of dismembring this State and for that Purpose have promulgated a Report that it is the Intention of the honorable the Continental Congress to aid and assist in the Independence of the said Counties.

That such Report hath received great weight and authority from the appointment of Seth Warner to be the Colonel of a Regiment to be raised within that Part of this State and to appoint his own officers independant of this State and utterly contrary to the usual mode of appointment in such cases and also to a Representation made by this Convention of the eleventh Day of July last.

That the said Seth Warner hath been principally concerned in divers Riots Outrages and Cruelties committed in the said Counties in direct opposition to the former Government of this State and is otherwise utterly unfit to command a Regiment in the Continental Service. From which and from sundry other Facts resting within their knowledge the disaffected Persons aforesaid do conclude and affirm that the Congress meant by the said appointment to give direct and ample Testimony of their Intentions to protect them in their wicked and unjust designs aforesaid.

That this. Convention hath not only advanced considerable sums of money for the Protection of the said Counties in common with other Parts of this State but also for their immediate and particular Defence at their special Instance and Request.

That the Counties aforesaid are of great Extent and Fertility forming a very considerable and very valuable Part of this State and that therefore it is the Duty of this Convention to take speedy and vigorous measures for reducing them to an obedience to the

same.

That other the Inhabitants of this State are greatly and justly alarmed at the Proceedings abovement and are many of them determined rather to submit to the Tyranny of Great Britain than suffer so valuable a Territory to be purloined from them as they do consider the Proceedings with Respect to that Country to be in Consequence of a deep and dangerous Conspiracy against

their Rights and Privileges frequently intimated in the earlier Part of the Dispute between Great Britain and America.

That until the Commencement of the present Contest with Great Britain the Inhabitants of Gloucester and Cumberland Counties in general submitted to the Jurisdiction of this State many of them obtained confirmations of Title from the late Government and Justice was administered by magistrates of its appointment.

That the Spirit of disaffection hath been now extended to those Counties thro the arts and misrepresentations of certain Inhabitants of the County of Charlotte distinguishing themselves by the name of Green Mountain Boys and others the Emissaries aforesaid.

That the Congress and Conventions of this State have contemplated the Effects of this dangerous Defection with silent Concern being restrained from giving it effectual opposition from an apprehension that it might at so critical a Juncture weaken our Exertions in the common Cause.

That taking advantage of this patient Forbearance and flattered by the strength which they have acquired by being embodied into a Regt under the immediate authority of the hon: Cont Congress in Derogation of the Rights of this State the arrogance and Presumption of the said Green Mountain Boys and their adherents are become so far inflamed that they have lately excited the Inhabitants of several Towns within those Counties to join with them in assuming a total Independence of this State chusing a mock Convention and framing a Petition to Congress for its sanction and approbation of their wicked and unprovoked Revolt.

That the Loss of so great a Part of this State will not only oppress the Remainder with the Payment of the Enormous Debts which have accrued during the present War but will at every future Period expose it as to be intruded into & overrun, its Jurisdiction to be denied and its authority set at Defiance.

From all which your Committee do conclude that it is highly necessary as a preliminary step to the quieting of the aforesaid Disturbances that it be

Resolved therefore that a pressing application be immediately made to the hon the Congress to whose Justice the said Insurgents.

have appealed and on whose advice they pretend to rely requesting them to interpose their authority and recommend to the sd Insurgents a peaceable submission to the jurisdiction of this State and also to disband the said Regiment directed to be raised by Mr Warner as this Convention hath chearfully and voluntarily undertaken to raise a Regiment in addition to the Quota assigned for this State by Congress have opened their utmost Resources to the wants & necessities of the American Army have a very great proportion of their militia now in the Field & are heartily disposed to contribute to the public service in every Respect as far as the Circumstances and abilities of the State will permit. All which nevertheless is most humbly submitted.

HON. A. TEN BROECK TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Sir,

I am directed by the committee of safety of New York, to inform Congress, that by the arts and influence of certain designing men, a part of this state hath been prevailed on to revolt, and disavow the authority of its legislature.

It is our misfortune to be wounded so soon, sensibly, while we are making our utmost exertions in the common cause. The various evidences and informations we have received, would lead us to believe, that persons of great influence in some of our sister states, have fostered and fomented these divisions, in order to dismember this state, at a time when, by the inroads of our common enemy, we were supposed to be incapacitated from defending our just claims: but as these informations tend to accuse some members of your honorable body of being concerned in this scheme, decency obliges us to suspend our belief.

The Congress will, doubtless, remember, that so long ago as in the month of July last, we complained of the great injury done us by appointing officers within this state, without our consent or approbation. We could not then, nor can we now, perceive the reason of such disadvantageous discrimination between this state and its neighbors. We have been taught to

believe that each of the United States is entitled to equal rights: in what manner the rights of New-York have been forfeited we are at a loss to discover. Although we have never received an answer to our last letter on this subject; yet did hope that no fresh ground of complaint would have been offered us.

The convention are sorry to observe, that by conferring a commission upon Col. Warner, with authority to name the officers of a regiment to be raised independent of the legislature of this state, and within that part which hath lately declared an independence upon it, congress hath given but too much weight to the insinuations of those who pretend, that your honorable body are determined to support these insurgents; especially as this Col. Warner hath been constantly and invariably opposed to the legislature of this state, and hath been outlawed by the late government thereof. However confiding in the honor and justice of the great council of America, hope that you have been surprised into this measure.

By order of the house, Sir, I enclose you their resolution upon the important subject of this letter: and I'm further to observe, that it is absolutely necessary to recal the commissions given to Col. Warner and the officers under him; as nothing else will do justice to us, and convince these deluded people, that Congress have not been prevailed on to assist in dismembering a state, which, of all others, has suffered most in the common cause. The King of Great Britain hath, by force of arms, taken from us five counties; and an attempt is made, in the midst of our distresses, to purloin from us three other counties. We must consider the persons concerned in such designs, as open enemies of this state, and, in consequence, of all America. To maintain our jurisdiction over our own subjects is become indispensibly necessary to the authority of the convention; nor will any thing less silence the plausible arguments by which the disaffected delude our constituents, and alienate them from the common

On the success of our efforts in this respect, depends, too probably, even the power of the convention. It is become a common remark in the mouths of our most zealous friends, that if the state is to be rent assunder, and its jurisdiction subverted, to VOL. IV.

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gratify its deluded and disorderly subjects, it is a folly to hazard their lives and fortunes in a contest which, in every event, must terminate in their ruin. I have the honour to be, with great respect your most obedient and very humble servant,

January 20 1777.

(By order,)

Hon. John Hancock, Esq., President, &c.

A. TEN BROECK, P.

GENL JACOB BAILEY TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK CONVENTION.

Dear Brethren,

[Miscellaneous Papers XXXVIII.]

Newberry, Feb. 19th, 1777.

With the utmost Concern for the Publick welfare of the United States, and this in particular I take my Pen to write when I consider the Absolute nessecty of an Intiere Union of all the Friends to truth the American cause I mean and when I see all the Friends of hell Combined and using all their Deiabolicall Arts to Disunite us and now the Deivil as usuall at the last efforts of Changing thomselves into angles of light now pleading you were abused by the State of N, Y, they having taken away your property Imposed upon you in every shape you having nothing better to expect than as heretofore. Now is the time to separate &c and so far has this timptation prevailed that a number (not from this County) has declared Independacy of the State of N. Yk., and the Committee of Dorset has Directed a Convention of all the New Hr. Grants to meet at Dorset to fill up by Draft or Raising a bounty Collo Warners Regt. houever Incocistant to there own plann I Supose the

1 A convention of Delegates purporting to be from the several towns and counties in the New Hampshire grants was held at Westminster on the 15th January, 1777, when a Declaration of Independence was agreed to, and it was resolved that the new State should hereafter be called "by the name of New Connecticut."-Appendix to Prof. J. D. Butler's Address; in Pamphlets, Vol. 22, in N. Y. State Lib.