claiming it in such a manner that the people may be universally informed of it.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir,

Your most obedient and very humble servant,

JOHN HANCOCK, President.

The Council Journal of the 12th goes on to say: "The matter and manner of publishing the Independency, as recommended by Congress, largely discoursed, and many things given out relative to the matter, &c., and concluded to lay it by for the present."

Governor Trumbull at Lebanon on July 13 replied to the foregoing letter:

"Yesterday I received your letter of the 6th instant, enclosing the Declaration of the United States of America. I shall have it proclaimed in the Colony in such a manner that the people may be universally informed of it."

The Declaration was printed in the "Connecticut Courant," then published at Hartford on Mondays, weekly, in the earliest number in which it could have come out regularly, — that is, in the number for Monday, July 15, 1776.

On July 18 the Council of Safety again took up and largely discoursed the matter of publishing the Independency, and finally thought best to let it remain for the determination of the General Assembly at their next stated session, to be held at New Haven on the second Thursday of October then next; and whether the Declaration of Independence was then, or ever, formally proclaimed in Connecticut I do not know. It was approved by the Assembly at the October session, 1776, and at the special session held at Hartford in August, 1777, ordered to be recorded at length in the records of the Assembly.

Mr. Hoadly's Communication respecting the Journals of the Continental Congress.

It is not generally known, and in fact I have never seen it stated, that any portions of the Journals of the Continental Congress were ever published by authority in a fuller form than we now have them in the editions published in thirteen volumes.

On the 31st of March, 1779, on motion of Mr. Drayton, Congress passed the following resolution: —

"Whereas it is essential to the interest and security of every free state, that the conduct of the public servants should be known to their constituents:

Resolved, That, from the first of January last, the journals of this house, except such parts as have been or shall be ordered to be kept secret, be printed immediately; and that, for the future, the journal, except as above, be printed weekly and sent to the executive powers of the several states, to be by them laid before their respective legislatures; and that a printer be engaged to print for congress; and also a printer or printers be employed to bring up the journals from the time of their present publication to the said first of January."

Of the Journal published weekly under this resolve I have the following:

April 24

* May 1

to May 10,

* May 10

pp. 16.

to May 15,

May 17

pp. 14.

to May 22,

* May 24

pp. 24.

to May 29,

* May 31

pp. 20.

to June 5,

* June 7

pp. 15.

The New York State Library also has those to which a star is prefixed, and the following in addition:

All these were printed by David C. Claypoole. How long the weekly publication of the Journals was continued I cannot say.

These pamphlets contain a more complete record of the proceedings of Congress than is to be found in the annual volumes: for example, here is the record of Monday, April 26, 1779:

"A letter of the 20th from T. Johnston, governor of Maryland, was read:

66

"Ordered, That it be referred to the board of treasury.

"A letter of this day from colonel M. Swoope was read:

"Ordered, That it be referred to the commissary general of prisoners. "A letter of this day from major general Arnold was read:

"Ordered, That it be referred to a committee of three.

"The members chosen, Mr. Paca, Mr. Duane and Mr. Burke. "A letter of this day from S. Deane was read:

"Ordered to lie till the other dispatches are gone through.

"A letter of the 24th from Charles Pettit was read; also a letter of the 23d from general Washington.

"Ordered, that the same be referred to the board of treasury.

"Another letter of the 23d from general Washington, and one of the same date from major general Howe, were read.

"A letter of this day from J. Carleton was read:
“Ordered, That it be referred to the board of treasury.
"A letter of the 22d from mons. de Conty was read:
"Ordered, That it be referred to the board of war.

"A letter of the 23d from W. Livingston, governor of New Jersey, was read, enclosing an original letter signed Dartmouth directed to the earl of Dunmore, dated Whitehall, August the 2d 1775:

"Ordered, That the same be referred to the committee of intelligence. "The delegates of South Carolina laid before Congress two letters from T. Bee, lieutenant governor of South Carolina; one of the 2d and the other of the 5th instant:

"Ordered, That the letter of the 2d be referred to the board of treasury, and that the letter of the 5th be referred to a committee of three.

"The members chosen, Mr. R. H. Lee, Mr. Burke and Mr. Laurens. "Mr. Scudder, a delegate from New Jersey, attended and took his

seat.

"On motion of Mr. G. Morris seconded by Mr. Searle,

"Resolved, That the marine committee be directed to purchase the vessel called the Jason, lately captured and carried into Boston.

"Resolved, That the reports of the board of treasury and board of war be postponed till to-morrow.

Congress resumed the consideration of the report of the committee on foreign affairs, and after some time spent thereon,

66

Adjourned to ten o'clock to-morrow."

Now, of the above only that portion which is italicized appears in Vol. V. of the revised text published by order of Congress.

Mr. T. C. AMORY recalled to mind that at the time of the adoption of the State Constitution, in 1779, the Judges of the Supreme Court, consisting of Cushing, Sullivan, and Sumner, were directed to adapt the statutes of the Commonwealth to conform to our republican institutions, a duty that occupied several years, but was for the most part completed by 1785. Judge Sullivan, then on the bench, for the first fifteen years President of this Society, had several classes of subjects allotted

to him. The volume of Acts presented by Judge Chamberlain is particularly valuable, as covering the period it embraces; but a volume presenting the alterations in the statutes and resolves to conform to our new institutions would be also of interest to historical and professional students, prepared either by the State or municipal government.

Judge Sullivan, then Attorney-General of the State, was appointed by Washington, in 1797, to represent the United States under Jay's Treaty in determining the Northeastern Boundary so far as respected the river intended as the St. Croix, in the treaty of peace of 1783. The Commission met at Halifax, and later in Boston. Egbert Benson was selected by Judge Howell and Mr. Barclay as the third Commissioner. Attended by experts and surveyors, they explored the Bay of Fundy and its neighborhood to ascertain the actual river St. Croix, as understood and intended by the contracting parties in 1783. The final report, Oct. 25, 1798, declared that the mouth of the river St. Croix was at Ive's Point in Passamaquoddy Bay, Lat. 45° 5' 5", and Long. 3° 54' 15" east from Harvard College, - 67° 12' 30" from London.

Sullivan argued in favor of the Magaguadavic, lying somewhat farther east, as the river St. Croix, as proved by Indian traditions as well as by Lescarbot and other authorities; but Barclay and Benson, influenced by the fact, it is said, that the British Government had made grants of land to the refugee loyalists about St. Andrews, and by some other considerations, reported for a line farther west. The islands in Passamaquoddy Bay were divided under the Treaty of Ghent, 1815, and the line of the highlands fixed by that of Washington in 1842.

When preparing the memoir of Judge Sullivan, published in 1858, the family of Judge Howell sent Mr. Amory about eighty letters from Judge Sullivan in connection with the Commission, which after the publication of the work were returned to Providence. If any trace should be found of that correspondence, it might be an object for the custodians of our repositories of historical material to obtain the originals or copies for preservation.

The suggestion seems advisable that a more complete journal of the Continental Congress should be printed, as it is now not always easy to procure. That journal consisted of three

parts, the general journal, the domestic, and the foreign (which was kept secret), and the whole would be better understood if the arrangement were slightly changed.

Mr. HAYNES called attention to the following citation from the Boston "News-Letter," No. 1084, Oct. 29- Nov. 6, 1724, and asked if any member of the Society could give him any information in regard to it:

"PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 22. We hear from Jamaica that there has lately arrived there from New Spain on their way home two New England men, who have been absent from their country near fifteen years. They were, with some others, taken captive by the Indians and carried to Canada, from whence they soon after made their escape with a small party, and travelled over the whole continent of America to California; where building a barque they coasted down along to Panama, and so came overland to the North Sea. One of them is an ingenious man, and has kept a journal of their travels, discoveries, and adventures, which, 't is said, are very extraordinary."

This story is not referred to in the exhaustive study of authorities to be found in Mr. Andrew M. Davis's article on "The Journey of Moncacht-Apé," published in the "Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society," April, 1883.

Mr. Haynes also stated that from the same source of information he had discovered the explanation of a reference in Sewall's Diary which had puzzled the editors. In the Diary, Feb. 9, 1720-1,1 Sewall says:

"Mr. Yeomans, speaking of the N. England Colibacy, said, such things ought not to be printed in a well-ordered Government."

To this the editors have appended the following note:

"This work, if it were a published book, seems to be unknown. But the Courant,' later in the same year, printed numerous communications on the subject of the discouragements to matrimony, and it would seem as though there might have been some publication on the subject."

Now, in the "News-Letter," No. 883, Feb. 6-Feb. 13, 1721, there had appeared the following communication:"SALEM, Dec. 13, 1717. A specimen of New English Celibacy.

"Tho' Rome blasphem the Marriage Bed,

And Vows of single life has bred;

1 Vol. iii. p. 280.