Home / Scharf, J. Thomas, ed. History of Westchester County, New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I. Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co., 1886. / Passage

History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I

Scharf, J. Thomas, ed. History of Westchester County, New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I. Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co., 1886. 315 words

Again : we have not found on that Journal, any definition of the authority of the third of those Congresses -- that authority which, in the text, the Secrctarv- is said to have read, on the afternoon of the tenth of June -- but the Credentials of the Deputies from Kings-county, compared with those of the Deputies from Orange-county, indicate that the authority sought to be delegated to that third Provincial Congress by its constituent Counties, under the Resolutions providing for their election, included "full powers, iu behalf of the said County, to appoint Delegates "to represent the Colony in the Continental Congress, and to make such " orders and take such measures as they shall judge necessary, not repug- '•nant to or inconsistent with any Rules or Orders of the Continental "Congres), for the preservation of the Rights, Liberties and Privileges of "the inhabitants of this Colony."

The.se, or their equivalents, were, undoubtedly, what the Secretary read to the Provincial Congress, as stated in the text.

"The powers of the Delegates at Continental Congress," which until it became convenient to refer to them In order to promote a selfish end

effort to make haste slowly, in spending "some time, "in the consideration of the letter" of the Delegation,* without, however, taking any action whatever, ou it or on the subject to which it jeferred.

Nothing whatever was done by the Provincial Congress, concerning the letter of the Delegates nor concerning Independence, on the following morning, [June 11, 1776;]" but, during the afternoon of that day, with that peculiar disregard for those with whom he was associated which invariablj- distinguished John Jay from all others, that Deputy presented "several Resolutions on the subject of Independ- "ence," which were seconded by Colonel Henry Remsen, of the City of New York, "again read by "paragraphs, amended, and agreed to, and are in the "words following, to wit:'