USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Amherst > History of the town of Amherst, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire (first known as Narraganset township number three, and subsequently as Souhegan West) > Part 29
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In Capt. Nathan Ballard's company :
1st Lieut. Joseph Farnum,
Moses Peabody,
2d Lient. Eli Wilkins,
Benjamin Sawyer,
Sergeant Nathan Hutchinson,
Daniel Smith,
Moses Averill,
Samuel Stewart,
Samuel Curtice,
William Stewart,
Allen Goodridge.
William Talbert.
Asa Lewis,
Henry Trivett,
Aaron Niehols,
Thomas Underwood,
Ebenezer Odell,
Solomon Washer.
1
After the fall of Ticonderoga, an earnest appeal was made by the people of Vermont to the authorities of New Hamp- shire for aid to resist the progress of the British forces through their state.
The legislature met at Exeter, and in three days organized an ex- pedition to march to their assistance against the common enemy.
Col. John Stark was put at its head, and it resulted in the victory at Bennington, the turning point of the war for Independence.
After organizing this expedition, the legislature appointed the seventh day of August following to be observed as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, throughout the State.
In the battle of Bennington the regiment commanded by Col. Nichols, of Amherst, commenced the attack, and Capt. John Brad- ford, of the Amherst company, is said to have been the second man who mounted the Hessian breast-work.
The Amherst men engaged in the battle were :
Col. Moses Nichols, commanding a regiment. Col. Stephen Peabody, aid to Gen. Stark. John Bradford, captain. John Mills, 1st lieut.
Nathan Cole,
Joseph Farnum, 2d lieut.
John Patterson, ensign. Joel Ilowe,
Nathaniel Hazeltine, ! Jonathan Wilkins. James Gilmore. L-
sergeants.
Jacob Curtice, corporals. Amos Elliott, J Reuben Boutell, David Burnam, Israel Burnam, Jonathan Burnam, Stephen Crosby.
387
THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.
William Crosby,
Jonathan Lamson,
Isaac Curtis,
Asa Lewis,
Samuel Curtis,
Benjamin Merrill,
Stephen Curtis,
Ebenezer Odell,
Roger Dutton,
Joshua Pettingill.
Jedidiah Ellinwood,
James Ray,
John Everdon,
Benjamin Sawyer,
Laraford Gilbert,
Andrew Shannon,
Allen Goodridge.
Daniel Green,
Samuel Harris,
William Hogg,
Benjamin Stearns, Samuel Stewart, . Simpson Stewart, Benjamin Taylor, Henry Trivett,
Obadialı Holt,
Joseph Jewett,
John Wallace,
Caleb Jones,
Eli Wilkins,
Eli Kimball,
George Wilson, privates.
Solomon Kittredge,
In Capt. Ford's company, Nichols's regiment, were
Silas Gould, Solomon Hutchinson,
Robert Parker, and
Eleazer Usher.
Col. Nichols was employed 72 days in this campaign. Capt. Brad- ford and company 71 days. They received $243 as bounty and advance wages, at the time of their enlistment, and $461. 7s. 9d. as a balance due for their services 18 October, 1777.
Archelans Towne. Francis Grimes. and
Archelaus Towne, jr., William Ilogg.
marched and joined the army under Gen. Gates, at Saratoga, in Sept. 1777.
Among the old papers in the office of the Secretary of the State, is the following order for payment of supplies furnished for the Bennington expedition :
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, April 2, 1779.
To Nicholas Gilman, Esq., R. G .:
Pursuant to a vote of Council and Assembly, pay Josiah Crosby and Hezekiah Lovejoy twenty-five pounds, twelve shillings, for camp utensils for Gen. Stark's brigade.
M. WEARE, Presid't. €25,12s.
XVIII.]
388
HISTORY OF AMHERST.
[Chap.
The articles of confederation and perpetual union agreed upon by Congress, 15 November, 1777, were laid before the town at a meeting held 27 January, 1778.
After hearing them read, the town voted "their approval of the articles of confederation and perpetual union."
At the same meeting William Bradford, Oliver Carlton and William Lamson, were appointed a committee to provide the necessaries of life for the families of the non-commis- sioned officers and soldiers from this town in the army.
By an act of the General Court of New Hampshire, passed 19 No- vember, 1778, seventy-seven persons named in the act, who had left the State, were forbidden to return without leave first had and obtained by special act of the General Court, and should they thereafter be found at any time within the limits of the State without such license, they were to be arrested, and after examination sent to some part of the British dominions, or to some place in the possession of the British forces, at their own expense ; or if they were unable to pay the expense they were to be sent at the expense of the State. If they were found within the limits of the State thereafter, they were to be put to death.
Many of the persons thus proscribed had been among the leading men in the province. Gov. John Wentworth, Capt. Robert Rogers, the famous ranger; Benjamin Thompson, afterward Count Rumford ; Edward G. Lutwyche, of Merrimack; William and John Stark, brother and nephew of Gen. John Stark, were of the number; also two citizens of Amherst, Zaccheus Cutler. Esq., trader, and John Holland, gentleman.
By another act of the General Court, passed 28 November, 1778, the estates, real and personal, of many of the persons named in the pre- vious act, were declared to be forfeited to the use of the State. Three commissioners were appointed in each county to take possession of such estates and sell the same at auction, and account to the State for the proceeds of the sales. Col. Moses Nichols, of Amherst, James Underwood, Esq., of Litchfield, and Col. Noah Lovewell, of Dunstable, were appointed commissioners for Hillsborough county.
The following advertisement is found in the N. H. Gazette, pub- lished at Portsmouth, 12 January, 1779 :
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Hillsborough ss. To be sold at public auction, on Tuesday, the twelfth day of January next, at 10 o'clock A. M., at the house lately
389
XVIII.] THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.
occupied by Zacchens Cutler, Esq., at Amherst, an absentee, all the personal estate of said Cutler.
By order of the General Court, MOSES NICHOLS, ). NOAHI LOVEWELL, Committee.
Amherst, December 25, 1778.
A brigade of the New Hampshire militia, under the com- mand of Gen. William Whipple, was sent to Rhode Island in the summer of 1778, to assist in an attack upon the British forces stationed there.
Col. Moses Nichols commanded one of the regiments, Lieut .- Col. Stephen Peabody one of the battallions. Capt. John Bradford was adjutant in Col. Nichols's regiment, and Col. Daniel Warner, quartermaster.
The following Amherst men served in Col. Nichols's regi- ment, in the company commanded by Capt. Josiah Crosby :
Josiah Crosby, captain.
Hezekiah Lovejoy, lieut.
Reuben D. Mussey, Timothy Nichols, jr .. Ebenezer Odell,
John Mills,
Josiah Crosby, jr., &sergeants.
John Odell,
Allen Goodridge,
Peter Robinson,
John Cole,
Joseph Rollins,
Jonathan Wilkins, >
corporals.
Jacob Stanley,
John Bontell,
Samuel Stanley,
Enos Bradford,
Jotham Stearns,
John Carlton,
Thomas Stevens,
Daniel Chandler,
William Stewart,
Stephen Crosby,
Benjamin Taylor,
Silas Cummings,
Jonathan Taylor,
James Ellinwood,
William Talbert,
John Everden,
Bartholomew Towne,
Stephen Farnum,
Solomon Washer, privates.
Benjamin Lewis,
In Capt. Reynolds's company were
Roger Dutton, Ebenezer Odell,
James Ray, John Stevens, John Wallace, privates.
Joshua Pettingill,
390
HISTORY OF AMHERST.
[Chap.
In Capt. Dearborn's company were
William Hastings,
John Ellsworth.
Andrew Burnam,
William Hastings was wounded by a cannon ball, 29 August, 1778, and lost a leg in consequence of the wound. After his return he applied to the General Court for assistance, which was granted, £49, Ss. being allowed him for his expenses at Rhode Island, and his name was placed on the pension-list to receive half pay from 1 January, 1779. He continued to receive a pension from the State and the I'nited States during the remainder of his life.
8 March, 1779. Benjamin Hopkins, jr., William Odell, and James Woodbury, were chosen a committee to provide for the families of the non-commissioned officers and soldiers belonging to this town in the army.
7 June, 1779. The town voted "that they will take a method to raise the soldiers called for to serve in the Con- tinental army."
Voted "that the selectmen prepare and present a petition to the General Court asking for a law to enable the town to make and recover an average of what has been paid as an encouragement to soldiers to go into the service of their country."
29 June, 1779. Voted to add fifty bushels of Indian corn, or its equivalent in currency, to the State and Conti- mental bounties offered cach soldier who shall enlist during the war, and the raising of the soldiers on the above en- couragement was referred to the commissioned officers (of the militia).
5 August, 1779. Mr. Timothy Smith, Col. Stephen Pea- body, and Capt. John Bradford, were appointed a committee to procure the quotas of men which should hereafter be re- quired of the town during the war, and they were instructed, immediately after they had raised the men, which from time to time might be required, to render a true account, upon oath to the selectmen, of the money they had advanced or promised to the men they had hired, and the selectmen,
391
THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.
XVIII.]
for the time being, or their successors, were instructed to assess the same upon the inhabitants of the town in the same.manner that the state, county, and town taxes were assessed ; collect the money as soon as might be, and pay it over to the committee for the payment of the liabilities they had incurred in the said service.
At the same meeting the town voted that they would not allow any thing for the time spent by the volunteers last summer at Rhode Island, in the average for raising soldiers for the Rhode Island and Continental service the present year.
15 September, 1779. Voted to raise twenty thousand dollars for hiring their quotas of men for carrying on the war in the future, and the selectmen were directed to assess the above sum in the common way of assessing, and pay it into the town treasury as it is collected.
Capt. Lovejoy was added to the committee for hiring men for the army, and the committee were authorized to hire such sums of money as might be necessary in case the grant made this day should be insufficient for the purpose required.
6 September, 1779. The town voted to join with the other towns in this State in holding a convention at Concord, on the 22d day of September inst., for the purpose of regu- lating the prices of produce and merchandise in said State, and chose Col. Moses Nichols and Lient. Reuben Mussey, delegates to attend said convention.
2 November, 1779. Capt. John Bradford, William Odell, Col. Stephen Peabody, James Woodbury, Jonathan Lund, Dea. John Seaton, Thomas Wakefield, Capt. Hezekiah Love- joy, Elisha Felton, Dea. Samuel Stevens, and Richard Gould, were appointed a committee to settle the prices of produce and articles of trade for this town.
At a meeting held 2 November, 1779, the town voted to allow credit to those persons who had done more than their proportion in carrying on the present war.
392
HISTORY OF AMHERST.
[Chap.
25 June, 1779, a petition from Susannah Munroe, of Amherst, was presented to the House of Representatives, asking that the sum of £560, allowed her husband, Capt. Jonah Munroe, for the depreciation of the paper.currency, might be paid to her as her husband was absent and she needed the money for the support of herself and family, which request was granted, and the President was directed to issue an order for the payment of the money to Capt. Josiah Crosby for her use, 15 June, 1779.
Capt. Archelaus Towne, of Amherst, presented a petition to the House of Representatives, in which he stated that he and his son, Archelaus Towne, jr., did, on the 24th day of July, 1777, " set out from Amherst, and marched and joined the Continental army, commanded by Gen. Gates ; served as scouts, and did duty as other soldiers ; were in the battle on the 19th of September, near Stillwater, and continued in the service until about four days before Gen. Burgoyne surrendered, when, being taken very sick, he was obliged to return home; that neither himself nor his son had received any recompense for their ser- vices from any person whatever ; wherefore he prayed that the same allowance might be made to himself and his son that others had re- ceived for similar services."
To substantiate the statement of Capt. Towne, Lt. Robert B. Wil- kins testified that he " saw Capt. Archelaus Towne, of Amherst, in the front of the battle, on the 19th of Sept., 1777, at Bemis's Heights, and spake with him in the height of the battle; that he saw his son Ar- chelaus the next day, who told him he was in the battle, which he believed, although he did not see him there. They were both volun- teers."
Dr. John Hale, surgeon in Cilley's regiment, certified that he saw Capt. Towne and his son just before the battle with Burgoyne, and Capt. Towne told him that he and his son came up as volunteers, and he judged they were both in the battle on the 19th of September, 1777.
Nine men were furnished for the Continental army in 1779, to serve one year, as follows :
Samuel Clark, enlisted 14 July, 1779 ; discharged, 20 Aug., 1780.
Charles Davenport, 66
Calvin Honey,
Abraham Littlehale, 24 July,
7 Aug.,
66
66
66 24 July, 66
66 20 June, John McKean, 20 " 66
Joseph Perkins, 13
Joseph Rawlins, 14 Aug., Archelaus Towne, 21 July, 27 July,
20 Aug.,
died 1 Dec., 1779.
Joseph Wilson, "
discharged 20 June, 1780.
66
393
THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.
XVIII.]
JOSEPH WILSON'S RECEIPT.
Received of John Bradford and others the sum of six pounds, thirteen shillings, and four-pence, L. M., after the rate of Indian corn at three shillings and six-pence a bushel, for which sum I promise to serve one year in the Continental army.
JOSEPH WILSON.
SOLDIERS AT RHODE ISLAND, 1779.
Col. Hercules Mooney commanded a regiment sent to Rhode Island from this State in the spring of 1779, to assist the army stationed there. The following Amherst men served in this regiment, in the company commanded by Capt. Daniel Emerson, of Hollis :
Moses Barron, ensign. Alpheus Crosby, Moses Averill, drummer. John Odell, and John Carltou, Levi Woodbury.
In September of this year Capt. Hezekiah Lovejoy and Joseph Nichols enlisted for six months in the garrison at Portsmouth.
394
HISTORY OF AMHERST.
[Chap.
CHAPTER XIX. THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.
1780-1785.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TOWN .- CONTINENTAL SOLDIERS, 1780 .- NICHOLS'S REGIMENT AT WEST POINT .- SOLDIERS FURNISHED, 1781 .- CONTINENTAL AND OTHER SOLDIERS, 1782 .- AMHERST MEN WHO SERVED FOR OTHER TOWNS .- AMHERST MEN WHO SERVED IN THE PRIVATEER SERVICE .- PROCEEDINGS OF THE TOWN .- PROCLAMATION FOR THANKSGIVING .- BOUNTIES, ETC., PAID SOLDIERS .- LIST OF SOLDIERS AND SAILORS .- LIST OF SOLDIERS WHO DIED OR WERE KILLED IN THE SERVICE .- MEETING OF REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS, 4 JULY, 1820, ETC.
At a meeting held 20 March, 1780, Kendal Boutell, James Hartshorn, and Enos Bradford, were appointed a committee to provide for the families of the non-commis- sioned officers and privates in the Continental army belong- ing to this town.
A number of men being called for to fill the battal- lions in the Continental army, at a meeting held 27 June, 1780, the town voted to instruct and empower their com- mittee to engage the men that they shall hire to go into the army on the same standard that the General Court has stated ; namely, their wages, Indian corn at 4s. per bushel, grass fed beef at 4d. per lb., and sole leather at 1s. 6d. per lb.
Eleven men were furnished for the Continental army this year.
395
THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.
Peter Abbot, enlisted 8 July,
discharged 6 Dec., 1780.
Robert Campbell,
66
21
Alpheus Crosby,
6
66
Stephen Crosby,
..
4
Isaac Curtice,
4
Jacob Doyen, 29 June,
31
Obadiah Holt, 8 July,
..
18
Jacob Stanley,
18
66
Jotham Stearns,
6
66
Bimsley Stevens, 29 June,
21
66
Jesse Woodbury, 8 July,
66
6
A regiment under the command of Col. Moses Nichols served three months at West Point, in the Autumn of 1780. Dr. Henry Codman was Surgeon. In the company com- manded by Capt. William Barron, of Merrimack, we find the following Amherst men :
Daniel Averill,
Joseph Nichols,
Nahum Baldwin, jr.,
Benjamin Stearns,
Andrew Bradford,
William Tolbert,
Daniel Kenny,
William Wallace (fifer).
Ilenry Kimball,
Daniel Weston.
David Melvin,
William Brown served in another company.
Seventy-four men, including those then in the field, being called for to serve three years, or during the war, the town, at a meeting held 8 Feb., 1781, appointed Capt. Nathan Hutchinson, Capt. Israel Towne, and Amos Flint, a commit- tee to raise the men required.
Capt. Hezekiah Lovejoy, Thomas Wakefield, Daniel Campbell, Benjamin Davis, Eli Wilkins, and Lieut. Ebenezer Weston, were subsequently added to the committee, who were authorized to hire money to procure the men needed.
At a meeting held 13 April, 1781, the sum of forty thousand dollars was appropriated to fill the town's quota this year.
Another requisition for soldiers being made, the town, at a meeting held 18 July, 1781,
XIX.]
395
HISTORY OF AMHERST.
[Chap.
Voted that the committee hire the soldiers to fill the town's quota. At this meeting, Capt. Hutchinson, Capt. Towne, and Mr. Wakefield, members of the committee, resigned.
The selectmen were directed to give security in hard money for the beef they had purchased for the army, or in money equivalent thereto.
9 October, 1781. The town voted that one dollar in hard money should be equivalent to one hundred dollars in old Continental money, in payment of taxes due for 1781, and that all taxes due that were assessed before 1781 should be paid equal to the scale of depreciation.
In arranging the pay of the soldiers hired this year, it was agreed by the committee that each man should be entitled to the value of twenty neat cattle, as many months old as he served months in the army. This seems to have been paid as a bounty for enlisting, in addition to the pay he received for his services. Minutes of settlement with some of these soldiers are preserved in the town records.
The families of William Brown, James Cochran, Richard Hughes, Farrar Miller, Nathan Tuttle, and Joseph Wilson, soldiers in the continental army, were assisted by the town this year.
John Abbot Goss,
Joseph Pedrick, and
Francis Lovejoy,
Daniel Wilkins, 3d,
Joseph Lovejoy,
were mustered in 5 March, 1781, to fill the quota of three years' men required of the town at that time.
In July, 1781, nine men were required to serve six months, and the requisition was filled by
Nahum Baldwin, jr., Henry Hunt,
Ebenezer Curtice,
Michael Kieff,
David Hildreth, Joseph Nichols,
Caleb Hunt, Allen Stewart,
and William Cowen ; but there is no record that he joined the army until December following, when he enlisted for three years.
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THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.
XIX.]
Late in the summer of 1781 eleven men were called for to serve three months. They marched 23 September of that year. In the selectmen's account they are mentioned as " 11 soldiers at Charlestown, 1781," and were probably raised in apprehension of trouble on the western and northern frontiers of the state. Their names were-
Peter Abbot,
Edward Hartshorn,
Daniel Averill,
Joshua Heywood,
Elijah Averill,
Samuel Phelps,
George Christopher,
Peter Wakefield, and
Paul Crosby,
Daniel Weston,
John Fields,
and they served in a company commanded by C'apt. John Mills.
Among the papers in the Adjutant-General's office, in Con- cord, is the following account of beef and fat cattle collect- ed in the town of Amherst by Francis Blood, in the year 1781, for the army :
23 July, 2 cattle weighing
1250 lbs.
7 Aug., 6
3140 6.
22 Aug., 4 66 2775
9 Oct., 7 66
1355
19 Nov., 9
66
4485
66
Beef furnished by Nichols,
8560
Total, 24,565 lbs.
Being the amount the town was required to furnish.
In 1782 fourteen three years' men were required to fill the town's quota in the Continental army, and the following men were furnished :
James Auld, Adam Patterson,
Andrew Bradford,
John Peabody,
Enoch Carlton,
Thomas Peabody,
Ephraim Goss,
Alexander Runnels,
l'eter Goss,
Benjamin Tuck,
Henry Handley, Daniel Weston, and
William Heywood, John Grout.
Peter Abbott [fifer], Moses Pettengill, and James McKean, privates, enlisted in a company commanded by ('apt. Ebenezer Webster, which
398
HISTORY OF AMHERST.
[Chap.
was raised for the protection of the northern frontiers of the State in 1782.
Stephen Dike, of Amherst, served six months for New Boston, in 1781.
David Truel, jr., served six months for Merrimack, in 1781; and William Henry Wilkins, son of the minister, enlisted to serve three years for Candia, in June, 1777, but died at Yellow Springs, Pa., 22 June, 1778.
Luther Dana served in the navy a short time, near the close of the war.
Capt. Joseph Perkins served on board a privateer vessel, which was taken by the British, and he was carried a prisoner of war to England, where he was confined for some time.
Levi Woodbury served on the privateer Essex, which was taken, and he was carried to England, a prisoner of war, where he died.
Jonathan Wilkins served on the ship Hague, and was wounded in an action with a British vessel.
At a meeting held 18 March, 1782, the town voted to grant supplies of the necessaries of life to the families of those soldiers who enlisted into the army last spring, for three years, provided the cost of such supplies may be entered as pay on the obligations given said soldiers by the committee.
At this meeting the following petition was laid before the town :
To the town of Amherst, convened at the Court House in said Amherst, on the 18th of March, by adjournment :
GENTLEMEN :- You may remember that I, your petitioner, did en- gage in the public service of the United States, to serve as a soldier for this town for the term of three years, which time I served faith. fully, and then engaged to serve in the Continental Army during the war, and I have not received any bounty from this town, or any other ; and as this is the town I first went for, and my family living in it, I shall choose to go for this town still. Wherefore your petitioner prays you would take his case under your consideration, and give him snch
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THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.
XIX.]
a bounty as others have received in like circumstances, and vour Peti- tioner, as in dnty bound, will ever pray.
his WILLIAM X BROWN. mark.
In answer to the above petition the town voted to allow the petitioner one hundred dollars, hard money, on the same considerations that the three years' soldiers were hired in 1781.
11 April, 1782. More soldiers having been called for to fill the town's quota, the town voted to add Lieut. Darius Abbot, Robert Means, William Lampson, Samuel Dodge, Capt. William Dana, and Capt. Ephraim Hildreth, to the committee to hire soldiers.
29 October, 1782. The sum of thirty pounds was granted for the support of the families of Joseph Lovejoy and Daniel Wilkins, jr., the same to be indorsed on the seenri- ties given them by the town's committee for hiring soldiers.
Voted not to give up their claim to William Cowen, as a Conti- nental soldier, to the town of Merrimack.
23 December, 1782. Voted to return the bounties of the three years' soldiers which were retained from the wages, provided the soldiers shall make it appear that they per- formed three years' service for this town.
4 February, 1783. The town again voted not to give up their claim to William Cowen as a Continental soldier.
20 October, 1783. Dea. Samuel Wilkins, Mr. Solomon Kittredge, and Mr. Daniel Campbell, were appointed a com- mittee to agree and settle with Joseph Lovejoy and the other soldiers that the committee agreed to pay in young cattle for going into the army for three years.
The war had now closed. The great miracle of the eight- eenth century had been wrought, and the people of the United States were appropriately called upon to give thanks to the Supreme Ruler of all human events by the following Proc- lamation :
400
HISTORY OF AMHERST.
[Chap.
By the United States in Congress assembled.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas it hath pleased the Supreme Ruler of all human events to dispose the hearts of the late belligerent Powers to put a period to the effusion of human blood by proclaiming a cessation of all hostilities by sea and land, and these United States are not only rescued from the dangers and calamities to which they have been so long exposed, bnt their freedom, sovereignty and Independence ultimately acknowl- edged : And whereas in the progress of a contest on which the most essential rights of human nature depended, the interposition of Divine Providence in our favor hath been most abundantly & most graciously manifested, and the citizens of these United States have every reason for praise & gratitude to the God of their salvation :- Impressed there- fore with an exalted sense of the blessings by which we are surrounded, & of our entire dependence on that Almighty Being from whose good- ness & bounty they are derived ;- The United States in Congress Assembled, do recommend it to the several States to set apart the Second Thursday in December next as a day of public Thanksgiving, that all the People may then Assemble to celebrate with grateful hearts & united voices, the praises of their Supreme & all bountiful Benefactor, for his numberless favours and mercies ;- that he hath been pleased to conduct us in safety through all the perils and vicissi- tudes of the war; that he hath given us unanimity and resolution to adhere to our just rights ; that he hath raised up a powerful ally to assist us in supporting them, & hath so far crowned our united efforts with success ; that in the course of the present year hostilities have ceased & we are left in the undisputed possession of our liberties & Independence, and of the fruits of our lands, & in the free participa- tion of the treasures of the sea ; that he hath prospered the labour of our Husbandmen with plentiful Harvests ; and above all that he hath been pleased to continue to us the light of the blessed Gospel & secured to us, in the fullest extent, the rights of conscience in faith and worship: And while our hearts overflow with gratitude & our lips set forth the praises of our Great Creator, that we also offer up our fervent supplications, that it may please Him to pardon all our offences, to give wisdom and nnauimity to our public councils, to cement all our citizens in the bonds of affection & to inspire them with an earnest regard for the national honor and interest ; to enable them to improve the days of prosperity by every good work, and to be lovers of peace & tranquillity ; that he may be pleased to bless us in our husbandry, our commerce and Navigation ; to smile upon our
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