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Resolved that a bounty of Ten dollars be given to every noncommissioned officer and soldier who will enlist to

Agreed

serve for the term of three years.

Resolved that letters be written to the Conventions of New Jersey & New York and to the Assembly of Connecticut recommending them to authorize the Commander in chief in the colony of New York, to call to the assistance of that colony (when necessity shall require it) such of the militia of those colonies as may be necessary; and to afford him such other assistance as the situation of affairs may require. And that it be further recommended to the Convention of New York to empower the said Commander in Chief to impress carriages and water craft when necessary for the public service, and also to remove ships and other vessels in Hudson's and in the East rivers for the purpose of securing them from the enemy.

Resolved that General Washington be permitted to employ the Indians whom he may take into the service of the United colonies pursuant to a resolution of Congress of the 25 May last in any place where he shall judge they will be most useful, and that he be authorized to offer them a reward of one hundred dollars for every commissioned officer, & of thirty dollars for every private soldier of the King's troops that they shall take prisoners in the Indian Country or on the frontiers of these colonies.

TO WILLIAM FLEMING.1

DEAR FLEMING,

PHILADELPHIA, July 1, 1776.

Yours of 22d June came to hand this morning and gratified me much, as this with your former contains interesting intelligence.

Our affairs in Canada go still retrograde, but I hope they are now nearly at their worst.

1 From the Southern Literary Messenger, III, 306.

The fatal

sources of these misfortunes have been want of hard money with which to procure provisions, the ravages of the small pox with which one half of our army is still down, and an unlucky choice of some officers. By our last letters, Genl. Sullivan was retired as far as Isle au noix with his dispirited army and Burgoyne pursuing him with one of double or treble his numbers. It gives much concern that he had determined to make a stand there as it exposes to great danger of losing him and his army; and it was the universal sense of his officers that he ought to retire. Gen. Schuyler has sent him positive orders to retire to Crown point but whether they will reach him in time enough to withdraw him from danger is questionable. Here it seems to be the opinion of all the General officers that an effectual stand may be made and the enemy not only prevented access into New York, but by preserving a superiority on the lakes we may renew our attacks on them to advantage as soon as our army is recovered from the small pox and recruited. But recruits, tho long ordered, are very difficult to be procured on account of that dreadful disorder.

The Conspiracy at New York is not yet thoroughly developed, nor has any thing transpired, the whole being kept secret till the whole is got through. One fact is known of necessity, that one of the General's lifeguards being thoroughly convicted was to be shot last Saturday. General Howe with some ships (we know not how many) is arrived at the Hook, and, as is said, has landed some horse on the

Jersey shore. The famous major Rogers is in custody on violent suspicion of being concerned in the conspiracy.

I am glad to hear of the Highlanders carried into Virginia. It does not appear certainly how many of these people we have but I imagine at least six or eight hundred. Each effort should be made to keep up the spirits of the people the succeeding three months; which in the Universal opinion will be the only ones in which our trial can be

severe.

I wish you had depended on yourself rather than others for giving me an account of the late nomination of delegates. I have no other state of it but the number of votes for each person. The omission of Harrison and Braxton and my being next to the lag give me some alarm. It is a painful situation to be 300 miles from one's country, and thereby opened to secret assassination without a possibility of selfdefence. I am willing to hope nothing of this kind has been done in my case, but yet I cannot be easy. If any doubts has arisen as to me, my country will have my political creed in the form of a “Declaration" &c. which I was lately directed to draw. This will give decisive proof that my own sentiment concurred with the vote they instructed me to give. Had the post been to go a day later we might have been at liberty to communi

cate this whole matter.

July 2. I have kept open my letter till this morning but nothing more new.

Adieu.

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1 The text in the first column is from a copy in the handwriting of John Adams, now in the Adams papers at Quincy, for which I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Charles Francis Adams and Mr. Theodore F. Dwight. From a comparison of it with the fac-simile of Jefferson's rough draft, it is evident that it represents the first phrasing of the paper. The text in the second column is approximately that reported by the committee to Congress, and is taken from Jefferson's rough draft reproduced herein in fac-simile from the original in the Department of State. The text in the third column is from the engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence, also in the Department of State. Another MSS. copy in Jefferson's writing, slightly altered in wording, was inserted by him in his Autobiography, and is printed, ante, 1, 30. This is in the Department of State, as is likewise a copy in his handwriting made for Madison in 1783, which is reproduced in facsimile in the Madison Papers, vol. III. Between July 4th-10th, Jefferson made copies of the Declaration, indicating his phrasing and that adopted by the Congress, and sent them to R. H. Lee, Wythe, Page, Pendleton, and Mazzei, and probably others. Lee gave his copy to the American Philosophical Society, where it now is. Those of Wythe, Page, and Pendleton have never been heard of. Mazzei gave his to the Countess de Tessie of France, and it has not been traced. A copy in Jefferson's writing is now owned by Dr. Thomas Addis Emmett, and a fragment of another is in the possession of Mrs. Washburn of Boston. Thus at least five copies and a fragment of a sixth are still extant. Cf. ante, 1, 30.

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government & to provide new

V

quards for their future secunty such has been the patient rufferance of these colonies, & such is now the these colonies, & such is now the necessity

alter

which constrains them to [expunge] their former systems of government thing of Great Britain

the

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the history of present waysty

be is a

appears

no

repeated history of tunremitting injuries and solitary fact

usurpations, [among which, au af at t Imply to contra

-dict the uniform tenor of the rest,

establishment of an absolute tyranny

butfall.

having

att of which [have] in direct object the

over these statia to prove this let facts be

submitted to a candid world. [for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood]

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