Your Favor of the 9th was deliverd to me by Mr Brailes.... one day this Week & the Day following that of the 28 of Feb by the Post.—­” New York presses Congress hard upon the Resolution, in Regard to Vermont.” &c.  Our Assembly in their first Letter to Congress on the Subject, expressd a Doubt whether they should be ready by the Time appointed.  They immediately appointed a Come to state their Claim, consisting of three Gentle-men, two of whom viz Mr Bowdoin & Mr Lowell are not Members.  The great Business of the Convention of which all the Come were Members intervened.  Their Report however is expected in a very few Days.  I wish this Matter could be settled to the Satisfaction of all.  If there was Reason to expect that all would be satisfied with a Decision of Congress, I should think the sooner it is done the better.  But the Grant People, you say, now refuse.  It may be a Question then whether it wd be best to attempt a Settlement in the Time of War, and especially at a Juncture of it, when the only Object of all should be to prosecute it with their utmost united Force and Vigor.  Nothing however but the Multiplicity of most pressing Affairs, has prevented this State being ready hitherto.  They are in Earnest to support their Claim.  They were discontented with the Decision in 1739, and I think afterwards directed their Agent Mr Bollan to manifest it to the King in Council.  I will examine the Letters of that Day & make this certain to you.  Ethan Allen was in this Towne last Winter, and returnd disgusted on his being informd that we were determined to support our Claim.

The Resolutions of Congress, a Sketch of which you sent to me, came to the Council by the same Conveyance.  The Assembly being sitting, they were laid before them.  Every practicable Measure is taking to promote the great Business of recruiting the Army & every other Essential to a vigorous Campaign.  I have noticed the honest Intention of ——­ without feeling any Jealousy on the Occasion.  It is always my Endeavor to render the recommendations of Congress most respectable; tho I perceive, that the artful Writers in some of the Philadelphia Papers affect to hold up a Contrast between the present & the “illustrious Congress of ’74”—­I may be supposd

[to] be impartial, having had the Honor of being a Member from the Beginning; and I do verily believe that in point of Understanding, Wisdom, Integrity, and Diligence in Affairs they are as respectable now as they were then.  It is the Wish of Tories and Britons to make them appear little in the Eye of the World.  Under God they have done Wonders.  By an affectionate Union of the Members with each other, by their joynt & unwearied application to the publick Business, by Vigilance Zeal and an inflexible Independence of Spirit they will continue reverd by the Friends and dreaded by the Enemies of our Country.