Information had no sooner been received by the Provincial Congress of New York, that a Brigadiergeneral was to be appointed by that body, for the command of the four Battalions which were to be raised in New York, than it was announced "the "Congress conceived it necessary towards carrying "the several Resolutions and requisitions of the "Continental Congress into execution, to appoint a "Brigadier-general and a Major of Brigade of the "Militia of Westchester-county " -- the Congress did not reveal in what that declared "necessity" existed, however; and as those offices had been created on the twenty-second of the preceding August' and had not been occupied, during the entire intervening per-

1 Journal of the Coulinental Congresf, "Monday, June 3, 1776." ^Journal of the Provincial Congrete, "Friday morning, 9 ho., June 7, " 1776."

^Journal of the Provincial Congrett, " Die Veneris, 4 ho., P.M., June 7. " 1776."

* Journal of the Provincial Congresf, " Sundiiy aftornuun, Juno 9, 1776." > Ibid.

« Vide imge 278, ante.

iod, while neither pay nor emoluments were derivable from them, it ia very evident that that Brigadiergeneral and that Major of Brigade became a " neces- "sity," very suddenly, and only when a contingent possibility appeared that they, if they were already in place, might receive the appointments to the newcreated offices of the same respective ranks, in the Brigade of Militia which the Continental Congress had called into the service of the Continent, with the honors, the pay, the emoluments, and the increased social and political influences which they would certainly ensure. Not a moment was lost, therefore -- the Congress was not even permitted to refer the letter from the President of the Continental Congress and the exceedingly important enclosures which it covered, to a Committee, for consideration and report -- when, with indecent haste, some ready made Certificates which had evidently been kept on hand, ready for immediate use, whenever they should be needed, were laid before the Provincial Congress, showing that, in the opinion of the enlightened County Committee, in Westchester-county, Lewis Morris was just the man for a Brigadier-general's command, and that Lewis Morris, Junior, could not be excelled as a Major of Brigade.