New York Committee of Sixty to the New Haven Committee, 17 April 1775
[New York, 17 April 1775]
Gent
We have rec d . your friendly ^ Your ^ Letter of the 6 th : March Inst. 1 and haves ^ been ^ laid it before the Committee. They have directed us to return you their Thanks for the Candor diffused thro– & particularly for your it and to assure you that the association is rig had been rigidly adhered excep has hitherto been rigidly adhered to except in the Instance of landing some goods from the Beulah by the Mess rs . Murray–s whose Case has been published And all Dealings with them have accordingly ceased.
Notwithstanding a small Majority of our House of Assembly have taken no notice of the Proceedings of the Congress the People ^ in general ^ are zealous in the Cause. A provincial Convention for the Appointment of Delegates will be held next month ^ this week ^ and this City & the City and county of Albany ^ County & indeed all the almost all the principal Counties in the Province ^ have already chosen their Deputies. 2
The anonymous Letter you have rec d . contains many Misrepresentations, and in Times like these we must expect them ^ Misrepresentation is too common to cause Surprize. ^ It is the Interest of our Enemies to sow Jealousies & Dissentions among us which ^ & ^ Nothing had ^ but ^ mutual Confidence & a free & candid Intercourse between us ^ with each other ^ can prevent it.
The Beulah has very probably gone to Halifax but this was not in our Power to hinder–All we could do was to prevent her unloading here–for this Purpose a Subcommittee was appointed to watch her, at a very considerable Expence, and we have Reasons to believe proved very useful 3
In short we have no Reason to apprehend a Defection of this Colony, whose Inhabitants are as sensible of the Blessings of Liberty as any People on the Continent and will are never consent to yield them to the Disposal of any Ministry whatever too well apprized of the Importance of the present Union of the Colonies not to violate or destroy it.
Men there ^ are ^ among us, and such there are in every Colony, to whom a Defection would be an agreable Event, but happily for us this is not the Case with the Maj. Bulk of the People & ^ At present ^ little more is to be feared from this Class of Individuals than impotent Invectives & illna illiberal Calumny We are Gent[lemen] with the greatest Respect your most ob t . & h–ble Serv ts .