If so glaring a violation of every sentiment of humanity should be passed over iu silence, if the army is not reasonably restrained fiom such acts of barbarity, the consequence must bo fatal to the cause of a people whose exalted glory it is to be advocates for the rights of luaukind, against the tyranny and oppression of lawless power. The resolutions which the committee of safety have passed upon the subject are herewith transmitted.

"I have the honor to be, ■with great respect, sir, your most obedient and very humble servant, " By order

"PIERRE VAIN CORTLAXDT,

Vice President.^^

"To the HoN'or.ABLE John Hancock,

President of the Congress of the United States. "«

At a. meeting of the committee of safety held Monday morning, 2d December, 1,76. It was resolved, "That the laws of the country are not superseded by the military code in the pesence of the army;" and "That a letter be uTitten to General Washington, requesting that the officer directing the burning of the Court-house and dv/elling-houses at the White Plains, be deUvered to this committee or the Convention of this State, in order to his being tried by the laws of the States, and, if guilty, punished thereby."^

The following account of the military quarters in this town and its vicinity, in October, 1776, is from the address of J. W. Tompkins, Esq., delivered at White Plains on the aSth of October, 1S45 : --

"The County of Westchester, at the commencement of the Revolution, contained a multitude of hardy yeomen inured to toil, whose ancestry had fled from oppression abroad, and in the enjoyment of greater freedom in the colony, had imbibed an ardent love of liberty. When the star of Independence arose in the east, they were read}' to follow its lead ; and when Kew York, in 17T6, was threatened with invasion, they flocked with alacrity to its defence.