Albany, New-York, Committee to Col. Guy Johnson

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Committee Chamber, May 23,1775.

SIR: Several letters have been handed to us, addressed to the Magistrates of Schenectady and Mayor and Corporation of Albany, some of which you requested to be communicated to us, whereby we, with great concern, observe you are much alarmed with apprehensions of evil intentions against your family, and self in particular, from a body of New-Englanders or people from those parts, so as to put you under the necessity of fortifying yourself for safety. From what cause these terrible ideas have sprung, we are entirely ignorant. If any real ones you must be better acquainted with them, than we are; however, we do assure you that the first and last knowledge of such designs have come to us from you, and of course must have originated somewhere near you. We are not ignorant of the importance of your office as Superintendent, and have been perfectly easy with respect to any suspicions of the Indians taking a part in the present dispute between Great Britain and her Colonies, knowing them to be a people of too much sagacity to engage with the whole Continent in a controversy that they can profit nothing by, and which would throw them into endless war and misery. As long as they are peaceable, they need not be under apprehensions of hostilities commencing against them.

We have been some time ago informed that there was to be a Congress at your house of the Indians, and hope such methods may be taken then as will give them a just sense of the nature of the present disturbances, and that they may govern themselves by such a line of conduct as will appease the minds of such persons in your County as may be uneasy on their account.

The information we have from time to time received, very lately from travelers passing by your house, has given us some pain, as we find the communication betwixt this and your County in a manner stopped, insomuch that no person is permitted to pass without undergoing a strict examination. These proceedings will, if not speedily stopped, raise the resentment of the people, we fear, and cause them to undertake such acts as will not be in the power of any authority to restraint. We would, therefore be glad, and permit us to recommend it seriously to your attention, that you would leave the communication free, and disperse your guards, and not interfere with the meetings of the people, intended solely to Concert measures for the preservation of their liberties, in conjunction with the other Counties of this and the rest of His Majesty' s Colonies.