58 NATIONAL ORIGINS PROVISION OF IMMIGRATION LAW
of that Continental Congress in private hands, and I collected these
yolumes one by one myself over a period of many years.
I wish to read to you a few sentences from the volume, which by a
fortunate accident was owned by and bears the signature of Thomas
Stone of Maryland, one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, and he has not only attached his signature with its date to
the volume, but has added to it an explanation in his own holograph
why the volume was printed at what is now York. Pa., but was then
known as York Town.
Senator Reep. The Continental Congress met at York for awhile,
did it not?
Mr. FRIEDENWALD. Yes: that is what I was gong to refer to.
{Reading :]
Journals of Congress Containing (The) Proceedings, From January 1, 1776, to
January 1, 1777. Published by order of Congress. Volume II, York-Town:
TPennsylvania.l Printed by John Dunlap. MDCCLXXVIII.
To which Thomas Stone adds—
when he, [Dunlap] left Philadelphia on account of the enemy.
(To Senator Reed :) That was the fact you referred to, as York-
Town was the Capital in 1778.
A resolution was introduced on August 9, just exactly one week
after the members of the Continental Congress had signed the
Declaration of Independence. A committee was appointed, consist-
ing of James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, chairman; Thomas Jefferson,
of world fame; and Richard Stockton, of New Jersey, all signers of
the Declaration of Independence, and I might add parenthetically
for the benefit of those of you who are not lawyers, that James Wil-
son, of Scottish birth, was one of the greatest jurists of this country,
whose participation in the proceedings of the Constitutional Con-
vention of 1787 was of an importance that even those among you who
are not lawyers or jurists must be familiar with, and that he was
appointed by Washington as one of the original justices of the
Supreme Court of the United States. This committee was 1n-
structed to.
Devise a plan for encouraging the Hessians and other foreigners employed by
the King of Great Britain and sent to America for the purpose of subjugating
these States to quit that iniquitous gervice.
They reported five davs later as follows. [Reading:]
\Wherens it has been the wise policy of these States to extend the protection
+f their laws to all thoso who <hould settle among them. of whatever nation
or religion they might be. and to admit them to a participation of the benefits:
of civil and religions freedom, and the benevolence of this practice as well as its
satutary effects have rendered it worthy of being continued in future times,
And whereas his Britannic Majesty, in order to destroy our freedom and
happiness, has commenced against us a cruel and unprovoked wal; and unable
to engage Britons enfficient to execute his wanguinary measures, has applied
for aid to certain foreign prinees who are in the habit of selling the blood of
their people for money. and from them has procured and transported hither
considerable numbers of foreigners. And it is conceived that such foreigners
if apprised of the practice of these States would choose to accept of lands,
Iiherty, safety, and a communion of good laws and mild government in a country
where many of their friends and relations ave already happily settled rather
than continue exposed to the toils and dangers of a long and bloody war
waged against a people guilty of no other crime than that of refusing to
exchange freedom for slavery; and that they will do this more especially when:
