pedient for the Colonies immediately and unitedly to adopt, in order to obtain relief for an oppressed people, and the redress of our general grievances. Signed by order. JONATHAN D. SERGEANT Clerk. Letter from the Standing Committee of Correspondence and Enquiry, of the New Jersey Assembly, to Benjamin Franklin, inquiring as to the proceedings of the Parliament of Great Britain Sir, [From Works of Benjamin Franklin, edited by Sparks, VIII., 126.] BURLINGTON, 26 July, 1774 At the last session of Assembly we were appointed a committee, to obtain amongst other things the most early and authentic intelligence of all acts and resolutions of the Parliament of Great Britain, or the proceedings of administration, that may have relation to, or any ways affect, the liberties and privileges of America. We know of no person so proper to make application to, on this occasion, as to you, our Agent: and we should be glad if you would favor us with any, that should come to your knowledge, or that you would point out any more proper mode to enable us more effectually to answer the purpose for which we are appointed. We are sensible of the difficulties, which an attention to your trust has already laid you under; and it will give us great pleasure to find you rise superior to all the late attempts to do you prejudice, Perhaps the request we make may be attended with an impropriety, which escaped our attention. If it does, be pleased to favor us with your sentiments; they will be received with great respect on this, or any other occasion; for, with great truth we can assure you, that we should be glad of all opportunities to show the high esteem we entertain of your integrity, as well as of your abilities. We are your most humble servants and friends, SAMUEL TUCKER Letter from Gov. Franklin to the Earl of Dartmouth, relative to the first Congress in Philadelphia, and containing "secret intelligence." [From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 177 (195).] BURLINGTON Sept! 6th 1774 The Right Honourable the Earl of Dartmouth My Lord, I duely received your Lordship's Dispatches No 9, 10, and 11, with the several Papers referred to therein. Since my last nothing of a public Nature worth communicating has occurred in this Province, except that there has been a general Meeting of the Committees of the Several Counties at New Brunswick, when they came to Resolutions Similar to those of the other Colonies, a Copy of which is contained in the enclosed printed Paper. The Delegates from the Several Provinces met Yesterday for the first Time in Philadelphia.—As I think 1 Messrs. Tucker and Mehelm were from Hunterdon county; Price was from Gloucester, and Paxson was from Burlington. it my Duty to inform His Majesty of every Matter which may come to my Knowledge that may eventually affect his Interest or the public Welfare, and as the Proceedings of the present American Congress are indisputably of that Nature, I have sent your Lordship, enclosed, Extracts of two Letters from a Gentleman who is one of the Delegates, which not only contains an Account of their first Day's Transactions, but will serve to give an Idea of the Dispositions of some of the principal Members of that Body, and what may be expected from them.-The Gentleman who wrote these Letters is a very prudent and moderate Man, extremely averse to the violent and rash measures proposed by the Virginians and Bostonians, and was in hopes to have formed a Party among the Delegates sufficient to have prevented a Non-importation agreement for the present; but he seems now to despair of Success, as a Majority of the Southern and Northern Delegates are so much for that Measure, that those of New-York, New-Jersey and Pennsylvania who are of different Sentiments, begin to think it will answer no good End to make any Opposition.-It was likewise his Purpose to propose a Plan for a political Union between the two Countries; and, in order to prepare the Minds of the People for it, and to put them, as he says, in a proper Train of Thinking on the Subject, he has wrote the enclosed Pamphlet intitled Arguments on Both Sides, &c. But whether, now he finds the Sentiments of a great Majority of the Delegates so very different from his own, he will venture to publish his Pamphlet, tho' the whole is printed off, is uncertain. The principal Part of his Plan is, as I am told, the making an Application for Leave to send Representatives from each Colony in America to the Parliament in Great Britain; a Measure which, notwithstanding the many Difficulties and Objections made thereto, on both Sides the Water, he thinks will be the only effectual Remedy for the present Evils, and prove a lasting and beneficial Cement to all the Parts of the British Empire. These Communications are made to me by a Gentleman of Character, in Confidence that they will be kept entirely Secret; and your Lordship must be fully convinced of the Impropriety of their being made known to any but His Majesty and his most confidential Servants; for should they be once publicly known in England they will be certainly known here, and of course a Stop will be put to my obtaining any farther Intelligence from that Quarter. I have the Honour to be, with the greatest Respect and Regard, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient & most humble Servant, WM FRANKLIN [SECRET AND CONFIDENTIAL] Extract of a Letter from one of the Delegates for the Congress at Philadelphia-Dated Saturday Sept: 3 1774 "I am just returned from Philadelphia, where I have been to wait on, and endeavour to find out the Temper of the Delegates. Near two Thirds of them are arrived, and I conclude all will be ready to proceed on Business on Monday. I have not had any great Opportunity of sounding them. But so far as I have, I think they will behave with Temper and Moderation. The Boston Commissioners are warm, and I believe wish for a Non-importation Agreement, and hope that the Colonies will advise and justify them in a Refusal to pay for the Tea until their Aggrievances are re dressed-They are in their Behaviour and Conversation very modest, and yet they are not so much so as not to throw out Hints, which, like Straws and Feathers, tell us from which Point of the Compass the Wind comes. I dined with them on Thursday." "I have had two Opportunities, one with the elder Rutlidge of Carolina, whose Sentiments and mine differ in no one Particular so far as I explained myself— and I was reserved in no Point save that of a Representation in Parliament-He is a Gentleman of an amiable Character-has look'd into the Arguments on both Sides more fully than any I have met with, and seems to be aware of all the Consequences which may attend rash and imprudent Measures-His younger Brother is rather warm.-My other Opportunity was with the two New-Hampshire Gentlemen-I found Col. Folsom very cool & moderate-Major Sullivan rather more warm, but very candid and has thought solidly on the Subject-I think neither of them intends to attach himself more to the particular Cause of Boston than will be for the general Good-They requested Opportunities of exchanging Sentiments with me often on the Occasion-and all my Observations seemed to have full Weight with them.-The Marylanders are not arrived, and but Three of the Virginians, Peyton, Bland, and Lee are arrived." "I have intimated to several of the Delegates the Necessity of sending Commissioners over, fully authorized, to the British Court, as a Mode pursued by the Roman, Grecian & Macedonian Colonies on every Occasion of the like Nature-That thro' them we may be enabled, in case our first Plan for accommodating our unhappy Differences should not be acceptable, to know the better what to propose next-that having these Gentlemen at the Scene of Action we shall be no longer misled by News paper Accounts and private Letters, but shall proceed on solid Information and Principles of Safety-That without this, any Petitions or Plans, not having any Persons to explain and Sup |