" That it be recommended to the Legislatures of "the several United Colonies, to pass Laws for pun- "ishing, in such manner as they shall think fit, per- " sons who shall counterfeit, or aid or abet in coun- "terfeiting, the Continental Bills of Credit, or who "shall pass any such Bill, in payment, knowing the "same to be counterfeit.

" By order of Congress,

" John Hancock, President." '

The Journal of the Continental Congress tells us that this remarkable paper formed a part of the Report of the Committee on Spies, to that body ; and that Com-

1 Journal of Die ProviHcial CongreM, "Wednesday morning, June 26, " 1776."

s Journal of Ihe Provincial CongreM: Correspondence, ii., 196. See, also, Journal of the Continental Congrete, "Monday, June 24, " 1776."

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

mittee appears to have been composed of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Edward Rutledge, James Wilson, and Robert R. Livingston ;^ but the character of those who framed the Resolution only increases our surprise, and, more clearly than before, indicates the desperate straits into which, even at that early date, the Continental Congress had been crowded, unless the "spies " against whom the Committee fulminated its Report were those Commissioners whom the Ministry had authorized to treat for Reconcilation and PeacCj^ and who were, at that time, nearing and not distant from New York ; and unless, also, the Continental Congress, by these Resolutions, proposed to naturalize Admiral Howe, and General Howe, and the forces which were respectively under their command; and to transform ail these, on their arrival within the harbor of New York, into " members of " the Colony " of New York, " owing allegiance to " the Laws of the United Colonies," and subject to be tried on a charge of " Treason against such Colony " of New York, should they become prisoners of war.