This instant, the enclosed, express from the provincial congress of New York, was delivered into my hands, but as these gentlemen probably are not fully apprised of the danger hanging over their heads, as I have received intelligence from the camp that the fleet is sailed, and that it is necessary to urge my march, I shall proceed with one division of the forces under my command to that city. A moment's delay may be fatal. The force I shall carry with me is not strong enough to act offensively, but just sufficient to secure the city against any immediate designs of the enemy. If this is to give umbrage, if the governor and captain of the man of war are pleased to construe this step as an act of positive hostility, if they are to prescribe what number of your troops are and what number are not to enter the city, all I can say is that New York must be considered as the minister's place, and not the continent. I must now, sir, beg pardon for the length of this letter, and more so, for the presumption in offering so freely my thoughts to the congress, from whom it is my duty simply to receive my orders, and as a servant and soldier strictly to obey; which none can do with greater ardour and affection than, Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, CHARLES LEE. To the honourable John Hancock, esquire, president of the continental congress. * * * * * NOTE--No. VI. _See Page 153._ THE NAMES OF THE MEMBERS WHO SUBSCRIBED THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE WERE AS FOLLOWS, VIZ: _New Hampshire._ Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton. _Massachusetts Bay._ Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry. _Rhode Island, &c._ Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery. _Connecticut._ Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott. _New York._ William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris. _New Jersey._ Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abram Clark. _Pennsylvania._ Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross. _Delaware._ Cesar Rodney, George Reed. _Maryland._ Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll, _of Carrollton_. _Virginia._ George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, jun. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton. _North Carolina._ William Hooper, Joseph Hughes, John Penn. _South Carolina._ Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, jun. Thomas Lynch, jun. Arthur Middleton. _Georgia._ Button Gwinn, George Walton, Lyman Hall. The people of the United States have taken such universal interest in the composition of this celebrated instrument as to excuse a more minute attention to it than has been bestowed on the other cotemporaneous state papers.