On this day 250 years ago in New York City, the New York Provincial Congress wrote to the Continental Congress

that in the case a Continental army should be established by authority of your respectable body . . . we are unanimous in the choice of Colo. Philip Schuyler and Capt. Richard Montgomerie, to the offices of major and brigadier-general

The New York Provincial Congress also wrote that “[w]e have hitherto received no sufficient supply of powder or other ammunition, for the defence of our Colony” but neglected to mention that the day before that the Sons of Liberty, led by Lt. Marinus Willett, had seized 5 wagonloads of arms that a detachment of British soldiers was in the process of removing from the City to ships in New York harbor. Perhaps in response to this incident, the cautious Provincial Congress

Resolved, That whensoever doubts shall arise, with respect to the recommendations or resolutions of the Continental Congress, or of this board, in the minds of private persons, it is the duty of such persons to aply to this board for an explanation thereof. And that any attempts to raise tumults, riots or mobs, either under colour of a dubious interpretation of such recommendations or resolutions, or for any other reasons or purposes, is a high infraction of the general association, and tends directly to the dissolution of this Congress.

Sources: Journals of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety and Council of Safety of the state of New-York : 1775-1777 (Thurlow Weed, Albany, New York, 1842) at pp. 32-33 accessed at https://archive.org/details/journalsofprovin01newy/page/32/mode/2up; Lowenthal, Larry, Marinus Willet Defender of the Northern Frontier (Purple Mountain Press, Fleischmans, New York, 2000) at 17.