in an unidentified hand, one page, folio, “In Provincial Congress,” New York, 17 June 1775, to “The Gentlemen Merchants of Quebec.”

“Mr. Price one of the inhabitants of our Province has signified to us the absolute necessity of keeping up a communication between New York and Canada by the establishment of a regular post. The friendly sentiments which we feel for our brethren in the Northern Parts of this Continent command out acquiescence in those reasons which that Gentleman assigned in favor of such communication as the necessary commercial intercourse between you and the rest of the world…our ability is equal to our wishes to support that communication up to Crown Point. To establish that place or Ticonderoga for the exchange of all mails between your Country and ours…We should be extremely sorry should the misrepresentation of the enemies of America impress our Brethren in Canada with an opinion that the Confederated Colonies on this Continent air at Independence – Our allegiance to our Prince and our attachment to the Illustrious House of Hanover, we rank among our most singular blessings…Our resistance to ministerial measures proceeds not either from a desire to oppose the rightful authority of our sovereign of the Constitutionality of the supreme Legislature of the British Empire. But while we are contented that Great Britain should enjoy that preeminence alone which properly belongs to the Parent State as individuals we are resolved to stand upon the same secure basis of Liberty with our fellow subjects on the other side of the Atlantic, which can never be obtained under Taxations by authority of Parliament. In prosecuting this new idea of Freedom, we include our Brothern the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec…”