forts in granting supplies and raising forces. Yielding to no British subjects, in affectionate attachment to your Majesty's person, family and government, we too dearly prize the priviledge of expressing that attachment by those proofs, that are honourable to the prince who receives them, and to the people who give them, ever to resign it to any body of men upon earth. Had we been permitted to enjoy in quiet the inheritance left us by our forefathers, we should at this time have been peaceably, cheerfully and usefully employed in recommending ourselves by every testimony of devotion to your Majesty, and of veneration to the state, from which we derive our origin. But though now exposed to unexpected and unnatural scenes of distress by a contention with that nation, in whose parental guidance on all important affairs we have hitherto with filial reverence constantly trusted, and therefore can derive no instruction in our present unhappy and perplexing circumstances from any former experience, yet we doubt not, the purity of our intention and the integrity of our conduct will justify us at that grand tribunal, before which all mankind must submit to judgment We ask but for peace, liberty, and safety. We wish not a diminution of the prerogative, nor do we solicit the grant of any new right in our favour. Your royal Authority over us and our connexion with Great Britain, we shall always carefully and zealously endeavour to support and maintain. Filled with sentiments of duty to your Majesty, and of affection to our parent state, deeply impressed by our education and strongly confirmed by our reason, and anxious to evince the sincerity of these dispositions, we present this petition only to obtain redress of grievances, and relief from fears and jealousies occasioned by the system of statutes and regulations adopted since the close of the late war, for raising a revenue in America-extending the powers of courts of admiralty and vice admiralty-trying persons in Great Britain for offences alledged to be committed in America-affecting the province of Massachusettsbay, and altering the government and extending the limits of Quebec; by the abolition of which system, the harmony between Great Britain and these colonies so necessary to the happiness of both and so ardently desired by the latter, and the usual intercourses will be immediately restored. In the magnanimity and justice of your Majesty and parliament we confide, for a redress of our other grievances, trusting, that when the causes of our apprehensions are removed, our future conduct will prove us not unworthy of the regard, we have been accustomed, in our happier days, to enjoy. For appealing to that Being who searches thoroughly the hearts of his creatures, we solemnly profess that our councils have been influenced by no other motive, than a dread of impending destruction. Permit us then, most gracious sovereign, in the name of all your faithful people in America, with the utmost humility to implore you, for the honour of Almighty God, whose pure religion our enemies are undermining; for your glory, which can be advanced only by rendering your subjects happy and keeping them united; for the interests of your family depending on an adherence to the principles that enthroned it; for the safety and welfare of your kingdoms and dominions threatened with almost unavoidable dangers and distresses; that your Majesty, as the loving father of your whole people, connected by the same bands of law, loyalty, faith and blood, though dwelling in various countries, will not suffer the transcendant relation formed by these ties to be farther violated, in uncertain expectation of effects, that, if attained, never can compensate for the calamities, through which they must be gained. We therefore most earnestly beseech your Majesty, that your royal authority and interposition may be used for our relief; and that a gracious answer may be given to this petition. That your Majesty may enjoy every felicity through a long and glorious reign over loyal and happy subjects, and that your descendants may inherit your prosperity and dominions 'til time shall be no more, is and always will be our sincere and fervent prayer' Henry Middleton Jn Sullivan Rob Treat Paine Sam: Ward Elipht Dyer Roger Sherman E Biddle John Dickinson John Morton Tho M: Kean Geo: Read Mat. Tilghman 1" The committee which brought in this admirably well drawn, and truly conciliatory address, were Mr. Lee, Mr. John Adams, Mr. Johnston, Mr. Henry, and Mr. Rutledge. The original composition has been generally attributed to Mr. Lee."Marshall's Washington, II., 180, note. "The draft first reported was from the pen of Mr. Lee-the language of it, however, was not deemed, by a majority of congress, sufficiently conciliatory, and it was recommitted. John Dickinson, who had just taken his seat in congress, was added to the committee, and the petition finally reported and adopted, was drawn by Mr. Dickinson.”—Pitkin's Hist. United States, I., 296, note. Writing mainly from recollection, thirty-nine years after the event, John Adams says: "The first draught was made, and all the essential materials put together by Lee. It might be embellished and seasoned afterwards with some of Mr. Dickinson's piety, but I know not that it was."—Works, X., 79. His biographer appends to the same page this note: "It is now well known to have been the composition of Mr. Dickinson. Much light is shed upon this question by an article in the American Quarterly Review, I., 413." "Mr. Henry was designated, by his committee, to draw the petition to the king, with which they were charged. * * His draft was unsuccessful, and was recommitted, for amendment. Mr. John Dickinson (the author of the Farmer's Letters), was added to the committee, and a new draught prepared by him was adopted."-Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, third edition, Phila., 1818, 109. Lord Chatham "thought the petition decent, manly, and properly expressed," and the king himself at first received it " very graciously," and promised to lay it before Parliament.-Franklin's Works, V., 34, 28. The petition is published in Griffith's Historical Notes, 136, and in 4 American Archives, I., 934-6.-[W. N.] Proceedings of the Inhabitants of Cumberland County, in accordance with the recommendations of the Continental Congress--disapproval of the Destruction of Tea at Greenwich. [From Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet, or the General Advertiser, Monday, January 19, 1775.'] At a general meeting of the inhabitants of the county of Cumberland, in New Jersey, held at Bridge-town, on Thursday, the 22 day of December, 1774. The articles of the Association entered into by the American Continental Congress being publickly read, were unanimously approved of; whereupon it was 1 The above account has been carefully copied for this work, from a file of the paper in the New York Historical Society's Library. It was also published in the Historical Magazine, April, 1873, 251. The substance of it is given in the History of Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland Counties. Philadelphia, 1883, 536. 2 resolved, that a committee of thirty-five persons be appointed to carry the same into execution throughout the county;' accordingly the following persons were chosen, viz.: Abraham Jones, Thomas Maskell, Ephraim Harris, Silas Newcomb, Ephraim Seely, Daniel Elmore, Jonathan Ayres, Elijah Hand, David Bowen, and Joshua Brick, Esquires, Messieurs John Wheaton, Benjamin Mulford, Abijah Holmes, Thomas Brown, Joel Fithian, Dariel Maskell, John Gibbon, Michael Hoshell, Thomas Daniel, Jonathan Smith, William Aul, Joseph Sheppard, Isaac Preston, Samuel Leek,' Mark Ryley, John Buck, Ezekiel Foster, Joseph Newcomb, Jonathan Lore, John Terry, Gideon Heaton, Richard Wood, Joshua Ewing, John Laning, and Thomas Ewing. As soon as the committee were chosen, they were publickly informed, that a quantity of Tea had been secretly landed at Greenwich, and that the inhabitants of that town had taken the alarm, and had chosen a pro tempore committee of five persons, to take care of the same until the committee of the county was chosen; the general committee then withdrew, in 1 The first Continental Congress, which met at Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, on October 20 formally signed the famous Association, or Non-Importation Agreement, the eleventh article of which provided: Eleventh, That a committee be chosen in every county, city and town, by those who are qualified to vote for representatives in the Legislature, whose business it shall be, attentively to observe the conduct of all persons touching this Association; and when it shall be made to appear, to the satisfaction of a majority of any such committee, that any person within the limits of their appointment has violated this Association, that such majority do forthwith, cause the truth of the case to be published in the Gazette, to the end, that all such foes to the rights of British America, may be publickly known and universally contemned, as the enemies of American liberty; and thenceforth we respectively will break off all dealings with him or her." This was in accordance with the following article of the Non-Importation Association: "Tenth, In case any merchant, trader, or other persons, shall import any goods or merchandize after the first day of December, and before the first day of February next, the same ought forthwith, at the election of the owner, to be either re-shipped, or delivered up to the committee of the county, or town wherein they shall be imported, to be stored at the risque of the importer, until the non-importation agreement shall cease, or be sold under the direction of the committee aforesaid: and in the last mentioned case, the owner or owners of such goods shall be |