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Ordered, That the President, Mr˙ Phillips, and Colonel Porter, Mr˙ Gerry, and Captain Stone, be a Committee to revise and explain the commission of the Committee of Safety.
The Committee appointed to revise the commission of the Committee of Safety, reported. The Report was accepted, and is as follows, viz:
Ressolved, That the Hon˙ John Hancock, Esquire, Dr˙ Benjamin Chuch, Captain Benjamin White, Col˙ Joseph Palmer, Mr˙ Richard Devens, Mr˙ Abraham Watson, Col˙ Azor Orne, Hon˙ Benjamin Greenleaf, Esquire, Nathan Cushing, Esquire, Dr˙ Samuel Holten, and Hon˙ Enoch Freeman, Esquire, be, and hereby are appointed a Committee of Safety for this Colony, with the powers and authorities hereafter expressed, and no other; that is to say; that the said Committee shall have full power, at any time during the recess of this Congress, if they shall judge it necessary, in the shortest and most effectual manner, to summon and cause to come together a quorum of this Congress, forty at the least to be accounted a quorum, at such place as the aid Committee shall judge most proper; and in assembling such quorum, the said Committee are hereby strictly enjoined to notify such Members as may be most expeditiously assembled. Also, that the said Committee be, and they hereby are invested with full power, until the 30th day of July instant, or until their commission shall be abrogated by the representative body of the inhabitants of this Colony, upon application made to them therefor, by the General and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in this Colony for the time being, or whenever the said Committee, without such application, shall judge the safety of
And it is hereby Resolved and Ordered, That any five of said Committee, if a majority are not present, be a quorum, with full powers to act in the same manner as if the whole were present; and the whole of said Committee are desired, notwithstanding, to give their punctual and constant attendance on said Committee.
Resolved, That the said Committee be, and they hereby are fully empowered, until the 30th of July instant, or until their commission shall be abrogated by the representative body of the inhabitants of this Colony, to receive, examine, and discharge, or cause to be confined, according to their wisdom, any person or persons taken captive, that may properly come under the cognizance of the representative body of this people, and to receive and duly secure any interests or effects, the conduct whereof is not already provided for, that shall be at the disposal of this Colony. And all the powers with which the Committee of Safety were vested, by the Resolve of the 18th of May last, except such as are contained in the above Resolves, are hereby revoked, and declared null and void.
Commission of the Committee of Safety
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the lives and property of the inhabitants of this Colony, or of any of them, shall absolutely require it, to warn and cause to be assembled such and so many of the Militia thereof as they shall judge necessary, at such place or places within the Colony as they shall judge proper, and such Militia to retain and discharge as to the said Committee shall seem meet. Also, that the said Committee are hereby empowered, during the time last mentioned, to procure and employ for that part of the said Continental Army raised by this Colony all such Armourers and other tradesmen and artificers as they shall suppose and judge to be needed to further and promote the operations of the said Army and them, as also all such tradesmen and artificers as are now retained and employed for that part of the said Army to regulate, arrange, remove, dismiss, and discharge for unskilfulness, unfaithfulness, or whenever the service may not require the further retaining them, or any of them. And the said Committee are hereby desired to be attentive to the behaviour and performances of such tradesmen and artificers as are now or shall be in the service and employ of this Colony in the said Army, that the Colony be not defrauded by unfaithful and incompetent persons. And the said Committee are hereby authorized to execute all the commissions, and perform all the services which have been given them, and to which they have been appointed in and by any special Resolves of this Congress, made and passed at this session, which they have not yet executed and performed. And, furthermore, the said Committee are hereby empowered to make such further provision for the reception, sustenance, and support of the Poor of Boston and Charlestown, as have or may come out of said Towns, as may appear to be necessary for their comfortable subsistence, according to the intention of Congress, taking all imaginable care to guard against the infection of the small-pox by persons coming out of the Town of Boston, and any other means whatever.