" A Draft of a Petition to the honourable the Provincial Congress for " the Province of New-York, was read, and is as follows, viz. .

" ( rr- THE Honourable the Provincial Congress for the Prov- ' ' ince op New- York.

'"The Petition of the General Committee for the City and County of " ' New-York, humbly shewcth :

"'That a body of troops,* from a neighbouring Colony, did lately

* It is evident, from these words, that it was, then, supposed to have

Three days afterwards, [December 8, 1775,] that vigorous demand for protection, made by the li-cal revolutionary Committee of the City of New York-- the Committee of Westchester-county made no such movement, nor any other, in the matter -- was presented to the Provincial Congress, by which body, after some time had been spent "in debates thereoD," it was sent to a special Committee, of which John Morin Scott was the Chairman, with instructions to " report thereon with all convenient speed." 5

Four days subsequently, [December 12, 1775,] a Report was made by the Committee, with a draft of a letter to be addressed to the Governor of the Colony of Connecticut, "on the subject matter of the Gen- " eral Committee's Petition," both of which were violently opposed by those who were most revolutionary in their inclinations. The debates were continued through two Sessions of the Congress, and various amendments were made in the letter, when it was adopted, Colonel Gilbert Drake and Stephen Ward, Deputies from Westchester-county, opposing the motion, and Colonel Lewis Graham, also a Deputy from that County, supporting it. 6