Morris County (New-Jersey) Meeting

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At a Meeting of the Freeholders of the County of Morris, at Morristown, on Monday, the 9th day of January, 1775,

The Committee of Correspondence, for the County of Morris, having produced and read the Association of the Continental Congress, the same was deliberately considered by the whole assembly, and by them unanimously approved as a wise, prudent, and constitutional mode of opposition to the late several tyrannical and oppressive Acts of the British Parliament. Whereupon they unanimously determined strictly to abide by the same, and gratefully expressed their acknowledgments and hearty thanks to the Delegates of this Colony for their great attention to the rights and liberties of their constituents, and for the faithful discharge of the important trust reposed in them.

The assembly then unanimously agreed that the inhabitants of each several Township in the County should meet at their respective places of holding Town Meetings, on Monday, the 23d day of January instant, at one o' clock in the afternoon, then and there respectively to choose (by those who are qualified to vote for Representatives in the Legislature) a Committee of Observation, pursuant to, and for the purposes expressed in the eleventh Article of the said Association. After which the Committee of Correspondence declared to the assembly that they had thought proper to dissolve themselves, in order that their constituents might have an opportunity of a new choice, and that they were dissolved accordingly: Whereupon Jacob Ford, William Winds, and Jonathan Stiles, Esquires, Messrs˙ Jacob Drake, Peter Dickerson, and Ellis Cook, together with Samuel Tuthill, Doctor William Hart, and Abraham Ogden, Esquires, were elected; and at the same time authorized to instruct the Representatives of this County, when convened in General Assembly, to join in the appointment of Delegates for this Colony, to meet in General Congress, at Philadelphia; but if the said Assembly should not appoint Delegates for that purpose by the first day of April next, then the said Committee of Correspondence to meet with the several County Committees of this Colony, and appoint the said Delegates, at such time and place as shall be agreed upon by the said Committees.

The assembly afterwards taking into consideration the conduct of James Rivington, Printer in New-York, in publishing two certain Pamphlets; the one entitled "A Friendly Address,"&c˙, &c˙; the other, under the signature of "A˙ W˙ Farmer,"and several others; all containing many falsehoods, wickedly calculated to divide the Colonies-to deceive the ignorant, and to cause a base submission to the unconstitutional measures of the British Parliament for enslaving the Colonies, do unanimously resolve, that they esteem the said James Rivington an enemy to his country; and therefore that they will for the future, refrain from taking his Newspapers and from all further commerce with him; and that, by all lawful means in their power, they will discourage the circulation of his Papers in this County.