John Jay and all those with whom he was associated, in the great political questions of that period, were aiming at something else than Independence, at something which was directly antagonistic to Independence; and he and they felt at liberty, under the license of that unholy ambition which controlled them, to resort to and to employ whatever means, of whatever character, which would promote their controlling purpose of keeping the Colony of New York out of the current which was evidently setting toward Independence, and in a continued political and commercial dependence on Great Britain. Whether others will justify either the fraud or those who perpetrated it, is a matter in which we have no concern.

Having thus disposed of its unwelcome guest, the Provincial Congress appointed John Jay and " Col- " onel a Committee to draft an answer to the

" letter of the Delegates in the Continental Congress," which had been the basis of all the proceedings which are now under consideration ; and it is probable that such an answer, conveying a copy of the Resolutions^ but evidently not one of the Agreement, was sent to the Delegates, on the afternoon of the day on which the Resolutions were adopted, although no mention was made of any such answer in the Journal of the Provincial Congress -- the files of that bodyj however, contain a letter from the Delegates, dated on the seventeenth of June and addressed to the President of the Provincial Congress, acknowledging the receipt of two letters, of different dates, in one of which " the " sentiments of the Hon. the Convention relative to " the important subject on which we thought it our " duty to ask their opinion," had been transmitted, was duly acknowledged. 1