264 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



A Petition of a number of Freeholders and Inhabitants of the Bor- 

 ough of Lancaster, addressed to the General Assembly of Representatives 

 of the Freemen of Pennsylvania, and to the Hon'ble the Executive 

 Council for said State, setting forth the great inconveniences which that 

 Borough labor under, for the want of Magistrates and Borough Officers, 

 and praying that the Honorable House of Assembly and Supreme Exec- 

 utive Council will provide a remedy, was read. 



It appearing that John Henry, one of the Magistrates appointed for 

 the Borough of Lancaster is dead, and that Mr. Shafner, Magistrate elect, 

 declines serving in that Office ; thereupon, 



Ordered^ That Michael Hubly and John Hobson be appointed Justices 

 of the Peace for the County of Lancaster, and that they be Commis- 

 sioned accordingly. 



"Philad'a, Septem. 10, 1777. 



^'■By the Supreme Executive Council of the Conir)ioniveaUh of Pennsylvania. 



"A PROCLAMATION. 



"The time is at length come in which the fate of ourselves, our Wives, 

 Children and posterity must be speedily determined ; Gen'l Howe, at the 

 head of a British Army, the only hope, the last resource of our Enemies, 

 has invaded this State, dismissing his ships and discumbering himself of 

 his heavy Artillery and baggage, he appears to have risked all upon the 

 event of a movement which must either deliver up to plunder and devas- 

 tation this Capital of Pennsylvania and of America, or forever blast the 

 cruel designs of our implacable foes. Blessed be God, Providence seems 

 to have left it to ourselves to determine, whether we shall triumph in 

 victory and rest in freedom and peace, or by tamely submitting, or 

 weakly resisting, deliver ourselves up a prey to an enemy, than whom 

 none more cruel and perfidious was ever suffered to vex and destroy any 

 people. View then on the other hand the freedom and independence, the 

 glory and the happiness of our rising States, which are set before us as 

 the reward of our courage. Seriously consider on the other hand, the 

 wanton ravages, the Rapes, the Butcheries, which have been perpetrated 

 by these men in the State of New Jersey, and on the frontiers of New 

 York; above all consider the mournful prospect of seeing Americans, 

 like the wretched inhabitants of India, stripped of their freedom, robbed 

 of their property, degraded beneath the brutes, and left to starve amid 

 plenty, at the will of their lordly Masters, and let us determine once for 

 all that we will Die or he Free. 



"The foe are manifestly aiming either by force to conquer, or by 

 Stratagem and Stolen marches to elude the vigilance of our brave Com- 

 mander ; Declining a battle with our Countrymen, they have attempted 

 to steal upon us by surprise. They have been hitherto defeated, but num- 

 bers are absolutely necessary to watch them on every Quarter at once. 



