WITH an humble confidence in the mercies of the supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the universe, we most devoutly implore his divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict, to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war.

"In our

"About the tenth of July, the declaration of congress, setting forth the reasons of their taking up arms, was proclaimed at the head of the several divisions. It concluded with these patriotic and noble sentiments. own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birth right, and which we ever enjoyed until the late violation of it; for the protection of our property, acquired folely by the honest industry of our forefathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed, shall be removed, and not before.

"With an humble confidence, in the mercies of the supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the universe, we most devoutly implore his divine goodness to conduct us happily through this great conflict, to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and thereby, to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war."-As soon as these memorable words were ⚫ pronounced to general Putnam's division, which he had ordered to be paraded on Prospect-Hill, they shouted in three huzzas a loud amen!”

HUMPHREYS's life of General Putnam.

SECOND

PETITION OF CONGRESS.

TO THE

KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,

WE your majesty's faithful subjects of the colonies of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the counties of New-Castle, Kent, and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, and South-Carolina, in behalf of ourselves and the inhabitants of these colonies, who have deputed us to represent them in general congress, intreat your majesty's gracious attention to this our humble. petition.

THE union between our mother country and these colonies, and the energy of mild and just go

vernment, produced benefits so remarkably important, and afforded such an assurance of their permanency and increase, that the wonder and envy of other nations were excited, while they beheld Great-Britain rising to a power the most extraordinary the world had ever known.

HER rivals, observing that there was no probability of this happy connection being broken by civil dissensions, and apprehending its future effects, if left any longer undisturbed, resolved to prevent her receiving such continual and formidable accessions of wealth and strength, by checking the growth of those settlements from which they were to be derived.

In the prosecution of this attempt, events so unfavourable to the design took place, that every friend to the interest of Great-Britain and these colonies, entertained pleasing and reasonable expectations of seeing an additional force and exertion immediately given to the operations of the union, hitherto experienced, by an enlargement of the dominions. of the crown, and the removal of ancient and warlike enemies to a greater distance.

Ar the conclusion therefore of the late war, the most glorious and advantageous that ever had been carried on by British arms, your loyal colonists

having contributed to its success, by such repeated and strenuous exertions, as frequently procured them the distinguished approbation of your majesty, of the late king, and of parliament, doubted not but that they should be permitted, with the rest of the empire, to share in the blessings of peace, and the emoluments of victory and conquest.

WHILE these recent and honourable acknowledgements of their merits remained on record in the journals and acts of that august legislature the parliament, undefaced by the imputation or even the suspicion of any offence, they were alarmed by a new system of statutes and regulations adopted for the administration of the colonies, that filled their minds with the most painful fears and jealousies; and, to their inexpressible astonishment, perceived the danger of a foreign quarrel quickly succeeded by domestic danger, in their judgment of a more dreadful kind.

NOR were these anxieties alleviated by any tendency in this system to promote the welfare of their mother country. For though its effects were more immediately felt by them, yet its influence appeared to be injurious to the commerce and prosperity of Great-Britain.