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To the officers and soldiers in the service of the king of Great Britain, not subjects of the said king: The citizens of the United States of America are engaged in a just and necessary war-a war in which they are not the only persons interested. They contend for the rights of human nature, and therefore merit the patronage and assistance of all mankind. Their success will secure a refuge from persecution and tyranny to those who wish to pursue the dictates of their own consciences, and to reap the fruits of their own. industry.

That kind Providence, who from seeming evil often produces real good, in permitting us to be involved in this cruel war, and you to be compelled to aid our enemies in their vain attempts to enslave us, doubtless hath in view to establish perfect freedom in the new world, for those who are borne down by the oppression and tyranny of the old.

Considering, therefore, that you are reluctantly compelled to be instruments of avarice and ambition, we not only forgive the injuries which you have been constrained to offer us, but we hold out to your acceptance a participation of the privileges of free and independent states. Large and fertile tracts of country invite and will amply reward your industry.

Townships, from twenty to thirty thousand acres of land, shall be laid out and appropriated to such of you as will come over to us, in the following manner.

Every captain who shall bring with himself forty men from the service of the enemy, before the first day of September, 1778, shall receive eight hundred acres of good woodland; also four oxen, one bull,

three cows, and four hogs. If this captain is accompanied with his lieutenant, the lieutenant shall receive four hundred acres of woodland, also two oxen, two cows, and four hogs.

Every sergeant who shall accompany his captain shall receive two hundred acres of land, two oxen, one bull, one cow, and three hogs.

Every soldier who shall accompany his captain shall receive fifty acres of land, one ox, one cow, and two hogs.

If a lieutenant, or other commissioned officer under the rank of a captain, shall bring off from his company twenty-five men, he shall receive six hundred acres of land, two oxen, two cows, and four hogs.

Every sergeant or non-commissioned officer who shall bring off parties of men, shall receive an additional bounty of twenty acres of land for every man so brought off. And every soldier, who shall come off without a commissioned or non-commissioned officer, shall receive fifty acres of land; and if he brings off his arms and accoutrements, an additional bounty of twenty dollars.

Such officers and soldiers shall be at liberty immediately to employ themselves in the settlement of their farms, without being obliged to do any military duty; and they shall receive rations in proportion to their rank for the space of six weeks.

The stock hereby offered shall be given to such officers and soldiers as shall actually settle on the lands respectively granted to them.

Such of the officers and non-commissioned officers as choose to enter into the military line, shall receive

an additional rank in detached corps, which shall be formed of native Germans of those who now reside in America; which corps shall not be employed but with their own consent in any other service than that of guards at a distance from the enemy, or in garrison on the western frontiers.

Such of you as are skilled in manufactures, over and above these lands and other articles, will find riches in prosecuting your occupations, the necessaries of life being very cheap in proportion to the price of manufactures, and the demand for them is so great, that every mechanick will find full employment. Some of you have had an opportunity of observing the truth of these assertions, and will doubtless inform their countrymen and acquaintance of these facts.

We have hitherto met you in the field of battle, with hostile minds, urged on by the great principle of self-defence; yet in those instances, where the fortune of war hath delivered any of your countrymen into our hands, we appeal to them that our enmity hath ceased the moment they were disarmed; and we have treated them more like citizens than prisoners of war. We now address you as part of the great family of mankind, whose freedom and happiness we most earnestly wish to promote and establish.

Disdain, then, to continue the instruments of frantick ambition and lawless power. Feel the dignity and importance of your nature. Rise into the rank of free citizens of free states. Desist from the vain attempt to ravage and depopulate a country you cannot subdue, and accept from our munificence what can never be obtained from our fears. We are willing to

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receive you with open arms into the bosom of our country. Come, then, and partake of the blessings we tender you in sincerity of heart.

In the name of these sovereign, free, and independent states we promise and engage to you that great privilege of man, the free and uninterrupted exercise of your religion, complete protection of your persons from injury, the peaceable possession of the fruits of your honest industry, the absolute property in the soil granted to you to defend, unless you shall otherwise dispose of it, to your children and your children's children for ever.

Resolved, That it be recommended to the several states, who have vacant lands, to lay off with as much expedition as possible, a sufficient quantity of lands to answer the purposes expressed in the foregoing address; for which lands no charge is to be made against the United States.

On the question to agree to the foregoing address and resolution, the yeas and nays being required

Massachusetts Bay, Mr. Gerry,

Mr. Lovell,

Ay.
No. Ar.

Mr. Dana,

Ay.

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So it was resolved in the affirmative.

Ordered, That one thousand copies of the address be published in the German language and dispersed as general Washington and the board of war shall direct.

MAY 21, 1778.

The committee, consisting of Mr. R. H. Lee, Mr. F. L. Lee, and Mr. G. Morris, to whom was referred a memorial from divers persons, late inhabitants of Nova Scotia, report as their opinion

That the wresting Nova Scotia from the British power, and uniting the same to these states, is, for many weighty reasons, a very desirable object; but that the propriety of making this attempt at the present crisis seems doubtful; and upon the whole it appears most wise to wait a while, until the event of a war taking place between France and Great Britain,

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