THE NEW YORK DELEGATION TO GOV. CLINTON.

Philadelphia 1st June 1779. Sir, We were honored with your favor of the 29th ulto this morning. Congress was then in a Committee of the whole House considering that subject They came to several Resolutions which were almost unanimously agreed to by the House and of which the President sends you a Copy by the Express who carries this.

It gives us Pleasure to inform you that our New England Bretheren came very generally into the measure and appear sincerely disposed to terminate those unhappy Disorders. The Moderation observable in those Resolutions we hope will meet with your approbation. The more gentle just & persuasive the Proceedings of Congress in this Business are the more likely they will be to succeed. and if treated with neglect by the People of the Grants, the greater Degree of Indignation will such neglect create through all the States. These Resolutions coincide exactly with the Ideas of the Eastern Delegates. The Committee will be chosen to-morrow. We shall for many obvious Reasons vote for a majority of eastern men. The Proclamations doing Justice to the Revolters have had a happy effect here. In our opinion it will be wise to abstain from Hostilities for the present and rather suffer a little than shed blood. If the Members of Congress are really as much in earnest as they appear to be all will be well. We are very much disposed to credit their Declarations on the subject & have ground to hope that this and every other Cause of Jealousy may be done away and Mutual Confidence Harmony & good Understanding take place between New York & her sister States to the eastward. These are essential to their common Prosperity & must give sincere pleasure to every well wisher of the American Cause. Be assured that our attention to the Rights of our Constituents on the present important occasion shall not cease and that we are with great Respect and Esteem Your Excellency's most obt. Servts

His Excellency Gov. Clinton.

WM FLOYD
GOUVT MORRIS

JOHN JAY
JAMES DUANE

PRESIDENT JAY TO GOV. CLINTON.

Philadelphia July [June] 34 1779.

Sir, I did myself the Honor the Day before yesterday to transmit your Excellency a Copy of an Act of Congress of the 1st Inst directing among other Things that a Committee be appointed to repair to the Inhabitants on the New Hampshire Grants for the Purposes mentioned in it. The Committee was appointed yesterday. They are the Honble Oliver Elseworth and Jesse Root of Connecticut, Timothy Edwards of Massachusets Bay, Doctor Witherspoon of New Jersey & Colo Atlee of Pensilva. Notice will be immediately sent to each of the Gentlemen of their appointment and I shall take the liberty of pressing them to enter on the Business committed to them without delay.

His Excellency Govr Clinton.

I have the honor to be &c &c

JOHN JAY

534

GOV. CLINTON TO SAMUEL MINOTT.

Camp in the Highlands June 7th 1779 Gent. Your Letter by Mr. Sherburne complaining of the violences lately committed by Ethan Allen & others upon the subjects of this State in Cumberland County I have transmitted to Congress and most earnestly pressed them for their immediate interposition. By an Express I am informed the business is under consideration. As soon as I receive their final Determination, which I have reason to hope will be in a short time I shall immediately transmit it to you.

The Legislature were to have met a few days after Mr. Sherburne arrived which induced me to detain him, but the Incursion of the enemy up the River has prevented their meeting for the present and obliged me to take the field with the Militia to oppose the Common Enemy. The moment the safety of the Country will admit of my Return I shall issue my Proclamation to convene the Legislature & shall lay this most important matter before them, when I trust such measures will be concerted as will most effectually tend to insure the Peace and Safety of the Good People in your Part of the State. In the mean time I most earnestly recommend to you to continue firm in the Cause in which you are engaged and to conduct yourselves with Prudence towards the Revolters and you may rest assured that I shall make every exertion for your Protection of which the Executive Authority of Government is capable.

Samuel Minott Esqr. Chairman of the Committee of Cumberla. County.

I am &c. &c. &c.

GEO. CLINTON.

GOV. CLINTON TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Camp Highlands 7th June, 1779.

Sir, I had the Honor of receiving your Letter of the first of June covering sundry Resolutions of Congress, relative to the pretended State of Vermont at this Place where I have collected a very large body of the Militia of the State in order to strengthen the continental army under Major Gen1. McDougall & to oppose the Designs of the Enemy who had advanced in force within eight miles of our army. The Legislature of this State were to have met on the 1st Inst. but have been prevented by the present alarm great part of the members as well as the principal officers of Government being now in the field. This has rendered it impossible to lay before the Legislature at present the Resolutions of Congress transmitted to me; which from their nature demand in my opinion their most serious Consideration.

It is with an astonishment equal to my Concern that I observe the Congress have passed over in profound silence the Remonstrances on the seizure and Imprisonment of the principal officers of Government in the County of Cumberland by the Revolters of this State. So that without the interposition of this Government (which consistent with the Honor and Justice of the State cannot be withheld) these Persons must fall a sacrifice to the ambitious & interested views of a violent and wicked faction--and what renders their silence still more extraordinary is, that Ethan Allen having the Rank of a Col'. in the service of the united States was a principal Actor in this outrage. How far this Conduct is consistent with the Repeated Resolutions of Congress recorded on their Journals that they will discountenance every species of Disrespect shewn by any Officers in their Service, to

the Legislative or Executive authority of the respective States or with their Resolution of the first of June now transmitted to me "that they will pay an equal Attention to the Rights of the State of New York with those of the other States in the Union" I shall for the present leave it for their Candor to determine. I cannot however forbear observing, that the present Inattention of Congress on this point strikes me with additional surprise when I consider this is not the first Instance in which the Person I have mentioned and some others of their officers of high Rank have aimed a bold stab at the Honor & authority of this State. So long ago as the month of August last I remonstrated to Congress thro' Gen'. Washington on the Conduct of Brig. Gen1. Starke then commanding at Albany for receiving from the revolted subjects of this State several of its citizens who had been apprehended and destined to Banishment by Col1. Allen & his associates & for detaining them under military confinement. To this atrocious insult on the civil authority of this State Congress though made acquainted with it has not to this day thought proper to pay the least attention. However pure the Intention of Congress may have been in this Resolution for appointing a Committee to confer with the Revolted Citizens of this State I am apprehensive it will by no means produce the salutary Effects for which I suppose it was calculated, for notwithstanding the just & generous Terms offered by my different Proclamations founded on the Resolutions of the Legislature of this State, the refractory Disposition of the principal Actors in this Revolt has still Increased. By them it will be considered as an implied acknowledgement of their authority & thereby tend to strengthen the usurpation; and in the minds of the well affected Citizens who know the repeated and uncontradicted Declarations which the principal Revolters have made that they have received Encouragement from several Members of Congress some of whose names are mentioned and who have observed that the most flagrant Insults against the civil authority of this State even by Officers of Congress have been totally disregarded It will I have too much cause to fear excite fresh Jealousies. For these Reasons and because the last clause of the Resolution seems to hold up a principle which may be considered by the Legislature as subversive of the internal Polity of the State. I submit it to the Consideration of Congress whether it would not be prudent to postpone the Journey of the Committee till such time as the Legislature have convened & taken the Resolutions of Congress under consideration. For however prejudicial a Delay in this matter will certainly be to the Interests of the State, the evils resulting from it would not be so extensive as these which might ensue from a breach betwixt the Legislature and the Gen1 Congress.

These Remarks it has become my Duty as the supreme Executive Magistrate of this State to make on the Resolutions transmitted to me.

What the sense of the Legislature on them will be I cannot take upon me to determine; but if I can judge from the sentiments of several members of the Legislature & principal officers of Government now with me to whom I have communicated them I have reason to think they will be considered as by no means satisfactory.

The measure of the sufferings of this State is nearly full. Those which have been brought upon them by their spirited exertions in the Common Cause & the operations of a powerful & enraged enemy, they have I trust submitted to with a becoming firmness. In what light they will consider the attacks made upon them in the Hour of their Distress by those who ought to be their friends and supporters will be best judged of by considering the unconquerable spirit they have shown in resisting the Incroachments and usurpation of the British Government.

As the critical situation in which the Resolutions of Congress have placed the executive authority of this State will constrain me to quit the field in order to convene the Legislature you will be pleased to direct your next letter for me at my house at Pokeepsie. I am &c. &c. &c.

His Excellency John Jay Esq. President of Congress.

GEO. CLINTON.

GOV. CLINTON TO THE N. Y. DELEGATION IN CONGRESS.

Camp in the Highlands 7th June 1779. Gentlemen. I received your letter respecting the Resolutions of Congress relative to the pretended State of Vermont at this Place where I have collected a large body of the Militia of the State in order to strengthen the Continental Army and to oppose the Designs of the Common Enemymy public letter to Congress of this date is expressive of my sentiments on those Resolutions & I am confirmed in them by the concurring opinion of several members of the Legislature & of the principal officers of Government who are now with me in the field. I lament extremely that at a crisis so alarming not only to the safety of the State but to the general weal I should be under the necessity of withdrawing from the immediate command of the militia at this Place & of convening the Legislature in order to lay before them the Resolutions of Congress. What effect this must necessarily have upon the militia I shall leave it to yourselves to determine. Had the Resolutions of Congress taken proper notice of the late attrocious outrage committed against the Authority of this State by an officer holding Rank in their service and had they adopted some measure for liberating the civil & military officers of the county of Cumberland now imprisoned by persisting in their allegiance to this State & for preventing the like outrages in future it might at least for the present have in some measure atoned for the insufficiency of their Resolutions. How the interposition of this State in favor of their Servants can consistent with its Honor & Justice be longer withheld I am at a loss to determine. You will be pleased to direct your next letters for me at Pokeepsie. I am &c. &c. &c.

The honble The New York Delegates in Congress.

GEO. CLINTon.

GOV. CLINTON TO GEN. WASHINGTON.

Camp Highlands June 7th 1779. Sir, It is with infinite Regret I inform your Excellency that in consequence of some violent Outrage lately committed in the County of Cumberland and which the Resolutions of Congress (copies of which I do myself the honor to transmit) do not in my opinion tend to remedy, the Duty I owe to the State will soon constrain me to quit the field, in order to convene the Legislature and to make the necessary arrangements for vindicating the Authority of this government, I had flattered myself that in consequence of my Representation that Ethan Allen having the Rank of a Col1 under Congress had with his associates seized & imprisoned the principal civil & military officers of this State in the County of Cumberland, the justice and wisdom of Congress would have adopted such measures as might have prevented this State from the cruel necessity they will too probably be reduced to in a short time of opposing force to force Your Excellency who knows my Inclinations & Conduct, the Zeal & Exertions of this State in the Common Cause & their long & patient forbearance under the usurpation of its revolted citizens will judge with what anxiety we look forward to the cruel dilemma to which by the great principle of self preservation; we may shortly be reduced ; and this anxiety is rendered doubly Painful by the Reflection, that the gen1 interest of America must necessarily be affected by applying the Resources for maintaining the authority of this State,

which have been so amply and liberally afforded by them since the commencement of the war in support of the common Cause. It is become my Duty however to provide in time for such operations, as the Legislature may think proper to adopt in consequence of the Resolution of Congress, which I have reason to imagine will be considered as by no means satisfactory. I have therefore to request that your Excellency will be pleased to give the necessary Directions for returning within the State the six brass six Pounders together with their apparatus which the State lent for the use of the Army in 1776 or that in case of loss, you will order them to be replaced as soon as possible. In order that timely Measures may be adopted for supplying a sufficient quantity of Provisions for the Army I think it incumbent on me to inform your Excellency that the Magazine of Flour which the Legislature have authorized me to collect may probably be wanted for the operations which may be deemed necessary to support the authority of the State; and that it is not unlikely I shall not only be prevented from filling up the continental Battalions by the drafts from the Militia already made but that by the Attention to the civil and military duties I owe particularly to the State in this critical Conjuncture I may not be able to carry into Execution the measures I suggested to your Excellency, and which you thought proper to approve of, for favoring the operations on the western frontiers: However as I am particularly anxious for the success of the Enterprize in that quarter it is my determination, to abide by my former Intentions, unless restrained by superior Considerations, and to continue to give your Excellency every aid in my Power, under the present Circumstances of the State, for opposing the common Enemy.

His Excellency Gen1 Washington.

I am &c. &c. &c.

GEO: CLINTON.

RESOLUTIONS OF CONGRESS ON THE PRECEDING.

IN CONGRESS June 16th 1779.

The Committee to whom was referred the Letter of 7th June from Governor Clinton brought in a Report whereupon Resolved unanimously that the Officers acting under the State of New York, who were lately restrained of their liberty by certain Persons of a District called the New Hampshire Grants ought to be immediately liberated.

Resolved unanimously that the Committee appointed to repair to the Inhabitants of a certain District known by the Name of the New Hampshire Grants be directed to inquire into the Matters and Things contained in the Letters of Governor Clinton of the 29th May and of the 7th Instant and that Copies of the said Letters be transmitted to the said Committee and that they be directed to report specially to Congress.

Resolved unanimously that it was not the Intention of Congress by their Resolutions of the first Instant nor ought the same or any part thereof to be construed, to hold up Principles subversive of or unfavourable to the internal Polity of any or either of the united States.

That Congress expect very salutary effects from the Appointment of the said Committee therefore, all further proceedings on Governor Clinton's Letter be postponed until they report.

Extract from the Minutes

(Copy)

CHA THOMSON Secry