The fifth grievance stated that " the Star Chamber Court of commissioners for detecting & defeating conspiracies ought to be abolished & that three men or more should be appointed in each District by the civil Magistrates and field officers of said District which men so appointed ought to be authorized & required by Law to examine all persons of suspicious appearance & characters and detect, and prevent all conspiracies and combinations against the good people of this, and the United States by apprehending and bringing before the civil magistrates all enemies to and Disturbers of the commonwealth with the witness against them." 1 The nature and multiplicity of these grievances precluded separate consideration,whereupon both houses agreed to the appointment of a joint committee " to prepare and report the Draft of an Address from the Legislature to their Constituents, on the subject of the several Matters, suggested as Grievances in the Representations to the Legislature." 2 This address These original representations are in Assembly Papers -- Miscellaneous vol. 2, pp. 18, 38. Senate Votes (fourth session), pp. 43, 46, 50, 64, 69; Assembly Journal, 1781 (Albany, 1820), pp. 29, 31, 52, 54. The address of the legislature was printed in pamphlet form by Samuel Loudon at Fishkill, for official circulation among the people.

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was presented and read in the senate on March 13, 1781, and is a masterful document. It answered the complaint against the commissioners for conspiracies in the following manner, viz.: "The extraordinary Powers given to Commissioners for defeating Conspiracies, may undoubtedly be justified by our peculiar Situation, and by the Practice of all Nations under similar Circumstances. On this Occasion, we are again impelled to call on your Candour, and to ask (beset as we are by avowed Enemies, and infested with concealed Traitors, who with Facility maintain criminal Intercourse, scatter the Seeds of Disaffection, and take Advantage of the Credulity of the Honest, but uninformed) whether it is not absolutely necessary, to be attentive to their Motions, to compare Intelligence received from different Quarters, to counteract the various Machinations they are incessantly practising to subjugate us to British Tyranny, that the Legislature should delegate such powers as these Commissioners are invested with.