Committee for the City of New-York to the Several Counties in the Province

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Committee Chamber, New-York, April 28, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: The distressed and alarming situation of our Country, occasioned by the sanguinary measures adopted by the British Ministry, (to enforce which the sword has been actually drawn against our brethren in the Massachusetts,) threatening to involve this Continent in all the horrours of a civil war, obliges us to call for the united aid and counsel of the Colony at this dangerous crisis.

Most of the Deputies who composed the late Provincial Congress held in this City, were only vested with powers to choose Delegates to represent the Province at the next Continental Congress, and the Convention having executed that trust, dissolved themselves. It is therefore thought advisable by this Committee, that the Provincial Congress be immediately summoned to deliberate upon, and from time to time to direct such measures as may be expedient for our common safety.

We persuade ourselves that no arguments can now be wanting to evince the necessity of a perfect union; and we know of no method in which the united sense of the people of the Province can be collected, but in the one now proposed. We therefore entreat your County heartily to unite in the choice of proper persons to represent them at a Provincial Congress to be held in this City on the 22d of May next. Twenty Deputies are proposed for this City, and in order to give the greater weight and influence to the councils of Congress, we could wish the number of Deputies from the Counties may be considerable.

We can assure you, that the appointment of a Provincial Congress, approved of by the inhabitants of this City in general, is the most proper and salutary measure that can be adoped in the present melancholy state of this Continent; and we shall be happy to find that our brethren in the different Counties concur with us in opinion. By order of the Committee:

ISAAC LOW, Chairman.