January 19th, 1775. Address from the Committee of Correspondence of the Township of Jamaica, presented to the Delegates who represented this Province in the late General Congress.
GENTLEMEN: We cheerfully embrace this opportunity of publicly acknowledging, in behalf of ourselves and our constituents, our most grateful sense of the arduous, faithful, and important services, you have rendered your country in the present alarming conjunction of affairs.
Permit us to declare our hearty acquiescence in the prudent, just, and well-concerted measures, adopted by you at the last General Congress, held at Philadelphia, and to assure you, that we will exert our utmost endeavors to carry those measures into execution.
We joyfully anticipate the pleasure of seeing your names, and the names of your very respectable brethren of the Congress, enrolled in the annals of America, and transmitted to the latest generations, as the friends and deliverers of your country; of beholding your conduct and measures applauded and adopted by every city, town, and county, in the British Colonies, and of having your just and well merited praises resounded from one end of this extensive continent to the other.
Gentlemen, with hearts penetrated with unutterable gratitude, and overflowing with benevolent wishes for every blessing on you and your posterity, we have the honor of being your affectionate countrymen, and much obliged humble servants.
By order of the Committee
ABRAHAM KETELTAS, Chairman.
To Philip Livingston, John Jay, Isaac Low, Henry Wisner, James Duane, John Alsop, Simon Boerum, and William Floyd, Esqrs.
Jamaica, Jan. 27, 1775. Whereas, a few people in this town have taken upon themselves the name of a Committee, said to be chosen by a majority of the inhabitants, we the subscribers, freeholders and inhabitants of the said township, do think it our duty to declare, that we never gave our consent toward choosing that Committee, or making any resolves, as we utterly disapprove all unlawful meetings and all tyrannical proceedings whatsoever; and as we have always been, so it is our firm resolution to continue, peaceable and faithful subjects to his present Majesty, King George the Third, our most gracious sovereign; and we do further declare, that we do not acknowledge any other Representatives but the General Assembly of this Province, by whose wisdom and interposition we hope to obtain the wished redress of our grievances in a constitutional way.
Signed by 136 persons, (names omitted,) 91 of whom are freeholders, and the others very respectable inhabitants. There are not above 160 freeholders at most in this township.