Petition from the Committee

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Friday, March 1, 1776.

"To the Honourable the Representatives of the Freemen of the Province of PENNSYLVANIA, in General Assembly met.

"The Petition of the Committee of Inspection for the County of BUCKS, humbly showeth:

"That as a general uneasiness prevails among the Associators in this County, on account of the late Military Resolutions of this honourable House, and many persons have signed them under a full persuasion that amendments would be made therein; and as there are many able bodied men, between the age of fifty and sixty years, possessed of large estates, who are entirely exempt from military duty and expense, your Petitioners therefore humbly pray that the Association may be extended to the age of sixty.

"And as the tax upon Non-Associators is confined merely as an equivalent for personal services, and the Associate' s have no compensation for their arms and accoutrements, not to mention the dangers they will be exposed to when called into actual service, your Petitioners pray, that an additional tax be laid upon the estates of Non-Associators proportionate to the expenses of the Associate' s necessarily incurred for the general defence of property.

"And as, by marching whole Battalions or Companies of Militia, large tracts of country will be left destitute of men, except those who either hold all resistance unlawful, or such as are disaffected to the present measures; your Petitioners therefore beg leave to submit it to the consideration of the House, whether it would not be better to direct the Colonels to draft from their Battalions such number as shall, from time to time, be requisite; thereby affording an opportunity for those whose circumstances will not always admit their going to get volunteers in their stead, and, at the same time, leaving sufficient force in every part of the country to quell any local insurrections.

"All which your Petitioners humbly pray may be taken

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"Per order of the Committee:

"JOSEPH HART, Chairman.

"Bucks County, in Committee, February 27, 1776."

Ordered to lie on the table.