Page:Journal of the First Congress of the American Colonies (1765).djvu/6

 appointment of Delegates; in consequence of which a rule was adopted to admit as Delegates several committees of the members of Assembly from such Colonies. This was the case with New York, among others; and her Delegates were the corresponding committee above referred to, viz.: Robert R. Livingston, John Cruger, Philip Livingston, William Bayard, Leonard Lispenard. From the pen of the second on the above list, Mr. John Cruger, proceeded the "Declaration of Rights," the first that appeared in America, and from that of Mr. Robert Livingston the admirably written memorial to the king.

This first glorious assembly of the patriotic and patriarchal spirits of our country, has been justly regarded as the fountain spring of our revolution—a noble and enviable distinction, accorded it by all the journalists of that period. In the interesting "Sketches and Anecdotes of the Revolution," by the veteran, Major Garden, (of the South Carolina Continental Line,) this Congress is designated the "ovum reipublicæ;" and such, beyond a doubt, it was; although the citizens of New York have hitherto listlessly and ingloriously allowed the people of Boston, and other sections of our country, to claim this exalted glory, in the performance of acts which occurred nearly ten years subsequent to its session. ls it not time that we should vindicate the lofty patriotism and noble zeal of our ancestors in this earliest assertion of our Rights and Liberties? Or are the inhabitants of our State and city of the present century to prove themselves for ever deserving of the too general accusation of the civilized world—of being wholly absorbed in the accumulation and hoarding of wealth alone?

We have several times promised to treat our readers with a correct copy of this venerable manuscript, detailing the first movements of the friends of freedom in the New World. It is an official copy, under the signature of John Cotton, Esq., Clerk to that illustrious body; and we have reason to believe the only one extant. It was handed to the editor by