During the month of January there were received at the Library by purchase 1,283 books and 162 pamphlets, and by gift 1,241 volumes and 2,836 pamphlets. There were catalogued 5,953 books and 5,322 pamphlets, for which purpose 23,301 cards and 1,194 slips for the printer were written.

The following table shows the number of readers and the number of volumes consulted in both the Astor and Lenox branches of the Library during the month:

Among the important gifts received this month were 85 volumes and 98 pamphlets and also a package containing over 500 caricatures and affiches issued during the French Commune; also a package of letters from different libraries and institutions to Alexander Vattemare, received from Mr. Bigelow, which complete the collection given by him last year. Other notable gifts were 11 volumes and 63 pamphlets relating to sports, from Mr. F. M. Crossett; 121 volumes and 83 pamphlets from Mr. H. V. Poor, and 21 volumes and 44 pamphlets from Mr. Philip Schuyler. Large collections of public documents were received from 21 States during the month, and 15 English cities forwarded copies of their public documents.

HENRY LAURENS'S LETTER FROM THE TOWER, 1781.

Το

(From the original manuscript in the Emmet Collection, New York Public Library.)

The Right Honorable

THE EARL OF HILLSBOROUGH

The Right Honorable

VISCOUNT STORMONT

The Right Honorable

LORD GEORGE GERMAINE

His Majesty's principal Secretaries of State.

The underwritten Representation & Prayer of Henry Laurens close Prisoner in the Tower of London is with all possible Respect & deference submitted.

1st That the Representer was bred up in principles of Loyalty Love & attachment to the Royal House of Brunswick, & through all the Changes which have happened of late Years he hath never lost his affection to Great Britain.

2 That in the Year 1756 or 1757. he was elected one of the Representatives in the General Assembly of South Carolina for Charles Town & regularly reappointed to the same Duty from time to time till the unpropitios Epoch 1775.

3d That in his Public Character he never did nor consented to any Act derogatory to the Honor of the Crown or repugnant to the Constitution of Great Britainthat always to the utmost of his, very limited, abilities, he supported the prerogatives of the King & the true Jnterests of the people not detered by the stigma of 'King's Man & Governors Man" sarcastically affixed to his character by some of his fellow Citizens-for general proof of these facts, he dares appeal to several Noble Lords & Honorable Gentlemen who have been Governors of So. Carolina & three neighboring provinces.

66

4th That his conduct & actions in private life were strictly conformable to his professions in public.

5th That he was a Merchant upward of Twenty Years in very extensive Commerce, that he never did in any one Instance wilfully violate or infringe upon the Act of Navigation, which he ever held as a sacred Pact between Great Britain & the Colonies; on the contrary, he ever discountenanced & as much as in him lay discouraged, every attempt to illicit Trade to the prejudice of the Revenue & the Legal Rights of Great Britain, although temptations to enter into such Trade have been held out to him with prospects of great gain by persons in this Kingdom, & once by a Collector of His Majesty's Customs with the highest probability of safety from detection. of all which, he can give proof.

6th That in the Year 1764. when it was intended to Tax America by Stamp Duties, altho' the Act appeared to him to be unjust & he was convinced it was at least impolitic, he recommended in the House of Assembly of So. Carolina, the Constitutional mode of Petitioning & Treating for redress, in preference to the novelty of a general Congress & that he refused to Vote for Delegates to the Congress which met at N. York 1765.

7th That in 1765. he was summoned as a Member of Assembly to attend a public meeting of the People, where he found the deliberations to be, upon means for seizing the Stamped Paper just arrived in Charles Town & for awing the Officers appointed to distribute it. That he expressed peremptory dissents to every proposition leading to Violence & again strongly urged Petitions & expostulation, pledging his whole Fortune that Petitions would be received & favorably discused; That in resentment of his declarations on that occasion, he was publicly charged as an Abettor of the Stamp Act, his House beset at Midnight by a large Body of Armed Men, who under pretence of searching for Stamped Paper violently seized his person, threatned his Life, & greatly affrighted & annoyed his family; but being unintimidated himself he would concede to none of their very many propositions & demands, but he reiterated his recommendation to Petition &ca again pledging his Life his reputation & Estate upon the Wisdom & Iustice of the King & the Parliament of Great Britain.

8th That in the Year 1767 or 1768. when the Colonists entered into general Resolutions for counteracting the internal Tax or Duty on Paper Paint Glass & Tea, although the Representer had invariably deported himself as, in his judgement, became a good Subject & Citizen, although he enjoyed the universal esteem of the people as an honest Man & was classed among the most wealthy, he was not held to be a fit person in any Committee for enforcing those Resolutions. "He was a King's Man & had a predilection to Great Britain."

9th That in the Year 1774 being in London, the Representer joined with other American Subjects in Petitions which were presented to the King & both Houses of Parliament on American greivances.

And that being invited thereto when he delivered one of those Petitions, he had the honor of intimating his sentiments to the Right Honorable the Earl of Dartmouth, to this effect,

“that if the Bills respecting America then pending in Parliament should pass into Acts the people of the several Colonies from Georgia to New Hamshire would be animated to form such an Union & Phalanx of resistance as he had theretofore believed nothing less than a divine Miracle could establish."

10th That in October 1774 he left London embarked for So. Carolina & arrived at Charles Town early in December.

11th That upon his arrival, he was asked if he had not Petitioned The King Lords & Commons & what Answers he had recieved? and a Memento was sounded in his Ears of the Guarantee which he had so often taken upon him, & of his Pledges.

12th That he nevertheless anxiosly wished & most ardently strove to confine the growing dispute between this Kingdom & the Colonies within bounds admissible of an happy reconciliation-that for himself as an Individual, notwithstanding the seeming injustice of Taxing America he would have submitted to the imposition in preference to a breach with the Mother Country from an assurance in his own mind, that the certain impolicy & unprofitableness of the project, would after a few Years experience, induce His Majesty's Ministers to abandon it.

13th That before the commencement of hostilities he persisted in discountenancing all acts of compulsion & violence towards Men who acted honestly & consistently, however much they might differ from the American Resolutionists in political

tenets. & that to every such person coming within his sphere, he extended consideration, humanity, kindness.

In one instance of his impartiality towards persons deemed, "suspected & disaffected" he incured such displeasure & resentment as obliged him to take the Field & stand up to be shot at by a Youth who was Born, after he had been a Father of Children. very many Men there are, some now in London, who will bear testimony to these facts.

14th That when a motion was urged in an Assembly of the People of So. Carolina for prohibiting the Payment of debts due in Great Britain, the Representer opposed the measure to the utmost of his power, & finally declared, he would not hold himself bound by a Resolution which his Conscience informed him was unjust & iniquito s. this fact is well known by a Gentleman who was present at the time alluded to & now in London.

15th That after his arrival at Charles Town as abovementioned, he writ & continued writing to his friends in England, lamenting the prospect which the times presented & pressing for their exertions in order to avert the Evils which he predicted as consecutive to the subsisting animosity. and so late as 27th February 1776, in a Letter to Will: Manning Esquire. he expressed his feelings in the following terms.

"J weep for Great Britain, J love & reverence her, but alas! J perceive Jam to be seperated from her & that my Children are to be called by some new name." "The cry here is, "let us resist against violence, we cannot be worse off than we are, one Year more will enable us to be Jndependent. Ah! that word cuts me deep, J assure you J seign not, when I say the bare expression has caused tears to trickle down my Cheeks; We wish not for Independence, but Britain will force a seperation & Jndependence will soon follow." "My Son will shew you a Pamphlet lately published in Philadelphia & republished here, (Common Sense on American Idependence) the Doctrines contained in it are not relished with us yet. and never will be, if Great Britain will act Wisely hereafter."

He also writ to the same effect in a Letter to Richard Oswald Esq! which Letter M Oswald laid before Lord Dartmouth.

The Representer was unapprized of the line of seperation, which was at the time of his writing drawn or drawing by an Act of Parliament.

16th That in June 1775. When an Association was forming by the people of South Carolina for defence, & Articles for that purpose reduced into writing to which the Representer was ordered to sign first, he absolutely in the face of the People, refused to set his Name without certain previo s reservations, which he then explained.

2d Charity towards his freinds & others who might refuse to sign the paper.†

* From a cursory reading of the Articles he apprehended they looked a little beyond mere defence. One Article declared, that every Man who should refuse to sign should be deemed an Enemy to his Country & treated accordingly against which he strenuo sly excepted & never would conform to.

And here he cannot forbear remarking that the then Lieut! Governor, who as he is informed is present Lieut! Governor of So. Carolina, to whom the Articles had been tend red for his signature, intimated his approbation of the measure & regretted that he could not resign his Commission into proper hands & thereby qualify himself for signing the Association.**

The Representer does not introduce this as an invidiōs charge against Mr. Bull, his meaning is to display to Your Lordships the very high encouragement given to the People (some of whom were doubting) to beleive themselves right & to enter heartily into a defensive Band.

17th That after the actual commencement of hostilities & open War declared by Actions on both sides, the Representer persevered in his attentions to honest & consistent Non-conformists, not only to Individuals but to whole bodies of Quietists. He also embraced every opportunity of alleviating the distresses of British Prisoners of War, for many of whom he obtained Parole enlargement to work their Exchanges, to others he lent or gave Money or other necessaries according to their respective needs, & here he might produce a Cloud of Witnesses & among others appeal to Civil Officers & Officers of the British Army & Navy, but he forbears troubling Your Lordships with any more than the voluntary Declarations of Capt. Lach: McJntosh & Capt. Peter Bachop, Copies of which will accompany this. 18th That since the Representer's confinement in the Tower he has learn'd that many false & injuriōs Reports respecting his conduct in America have been circulated & particularly that Your Lordships have been induced to believe, he was a Promoter of a certain Vote of Assembly in So. Carolina for remitting 1500. St in the Year 1769. to the Society for supporting the Bill of Rights in London.

When that Vote passed, he was 160. Miles distant from Charles Town & had received no premonition of the intended Act, his first information of it was gathered from a News Paper which he read in the Country and immediately in presence of divers persons passed his Censure in very plain language. "these Chaps will get a rap o' the knuckles for this."

It is true he regretted the mode of resentment afterward adopted by His Majesty's Ministers which manifestly threw an advantage into the hands of those persons who originally were transgressors & who might have been easily & effectually checked upon the spot by constitutional applications without giving any trouble to Ministry; the L Governor might even have the Vote or payment of the money out of the Treasury.

Jn vindication of himself under this Charge he may appeal to The Right Hon ble General Conway & to Charles Garth Esquire sometime Agent for So. Carolina.

In a word, the Representer never acted the Demagogue or Incendiary of the People, never suggested or promoted any measure which could possibly be affrontive to His Majesty or tend to disturb the order of good Government & he cannot forbear contrasting the present circumstances of persons who did act in such Characters & persecuted him as described above. who are now treated as Prisoners of War & also in possession of their Estates—with his own.

** An Answer in such terms was delivered as from the Lieutt Governor to the people, by his Nephew Stephen Bull Esq! repeated by his Nephew W. H. Drayton Esq. & again by both, possibly the Lieut! Governor might have designed only to amuse the People, be that as it may, the intimation had its effect, it was grateful & highly encouraging to them, all this he can also prove.