OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 205 



time the Speaker would probably have invited them to a conference or 

 convention in tlieir private capacity. 



What we have therefore to request is, that if you approve of the mode 

 expressed in the second proposition, the whole or part of the Committee 

 appointed, or to be appointed for your county, will meet the Committees 

 from the other counties at Philadelphia, on Friday the 15th of July, in 

 order to assist in framing instructions, and preparing such matters as may 

 be proper to recommend to our Eepresentatives at their meeting the 

 Monday following. 



"We trust no apology is necessary for the trouble we propose giving 

 your Committee, of attending at Philadelphia ; as we are persuaded you 

 are fully convinced of the necessity of the closest union among our- 

 selves both in sentiment and action; nor can such union be obtained so 

 well by any other method, as by a meeting of the county Committees of 

 each particular province, in one place, preparatory to the general con- 

 gress. 



We would not offer such an affront to the well known public spirit of 

 Pennsylvanians, as to question your zeal on the present occasion. Our 

 very existence in the rank of Freemen, and the security of all that ought 

 to be dear to us, evidently depend upon our conducting this great cause 

 to its proper issue by firmness, wisdom and unanimity. We cannot 

 therefore doubt your ready concurrence in every measure that may be 

 conducive to the public good ; and it is with pleasure we can assure you, 

 that all the colonies, from S. Carolina to N. Hampshire, seem animated 

 with one spirit in the common cause, and consider this as the proper 

 crisis for having our differences with the Mother Country brought to 

 some certain issue, and our liberties fixt upon a permanent foundation. 

 This desirable end can only be accomplished by a free communion 

 of sentiments, and a sincere fervent regard to the interests of our com- 

 mon country. We beg to be favoured with an answer to this and 

 whether the Committee for your county can attend at Phila., at the time 

 proposed. 



Signed by order of the Committee, 



Thomas Willing, Chairman. 



Pursuant to the publication of the resolves of the Committee before 

 mentioned, there was held a meeting of a very respectable number of 

 the freemen and inhabitants of the county of Lancaster, on Saturday 

 the 9th of July, 1774. George Ross, Esq., in the chair. 



This assembly, taking into their serious consideration the several late 

 acts of the British parliament relative to America, came unanimously to 

 the following Declarations and Resolves, viz : 



1. We do sincerely profess and declare, that his most gracious Majesty 

 King George the Third, is our rightful and lawful sovereign, and that 



