354 Journal and Correspondence

C. S. C.

No. 125.

[Council to Maryland Deputies.]

To the Deputies of Maryland in Congress
Gentⁿ
We received the Hon^ble M^r Hancock's letter of the 16^th Inst,
yesterday Afternoon inclosing a Recommendation of Congress
that we should immediately cause the Person and Papers of
Governor Eden to be seised, and secured and convey such of
the Papers as relate to the American Dispute, safely to Con-
gress; and also the Person and Papers of A. Ross and to
transmit the letter likewise to Congress. Previous to our
Receipt of the above we had fully investigated the Charge
that the intercepted Letters imported, in which we conducted
ourselves agreeable to what we wrote you by M^r Green, and
finally concluded the Affair with our Answer, a copy of which
we now inclose you.
The extraordinary Manner of communicating the Intelli-
gence by the Council of Safety of Virginia to us with the
Behaviour of the Committee of Observation for Baltimore give
us Cause to complain of the Indignity offered our Board, and
we cannot suppress our Suspicion that matters have been con-
certed so as to preclude all Information which might otherwise
have been laid before you from hence. The Letter from the
Council of Safety of Virginia is dated the 7^th Ins^t and was
conveyed thro' Baltimore to us on the 15^th about 3 o'clock

P M. by four Gentlemen deputed by that Body to wait on us

with it, whose Conduct was very disingenuous, and exception-
able, and the Resolves passed on the 16^th We are at a loss
otherwise to account for the Length of Time the Letter was
passing from Williamsburg to us, and the Expedition with
which the Dispatch appears to have been transmitted from
Baltimore to Philadelphia. The instructions given Cap^t Sam^l
Smith by the Committee of Baltimore and those given by
Captain Nicholson to his Lieutenant, copies of which we
likewise send you; the Originals came into our Hands acci-
dentally, and the whole of the Proceedings of the Baltimore
Committee were kept from us. Whence this unmerited Treat-
ment has sprung we cannot conceive, as we ever most chear-
fully co-operated and assisted the Colony of Virginia in such
Measures as we could justify from our Situation, and have
always considered the Interest and Security of Baltimore as
essential to this Province, and acted correspondently with those
Ideas — reflecting upon these Circumstances and being fully per-
suaded the Congress would have determined differently if they
had been furnished with the same Evidence upon which we
proceeded — we cannot but hope they will rest satisfied with
what we have done — more especially as a Convention is