1. Hancock is referring to GW’s letter to him of 18 Aug. concerning Lord Drummond’s peace proposals. For Congress’s response, see Hancock to GW, 24 August.

2. The enclosed resolutions of 21 Aug. concern Basil Bouderot’s trial for murdering Samuel Holden Parsons’s brother, capital punishment for persons “found lurking as Spies in, or about the Fortifications or Encampments of the Armies of the United States,” appropriation of $500,000 for the army at New York, procurement of cannon for Gates’s army, continuance of Artemas Ward as eastern department commander, and procurement of copper (DLC:GW; see also JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends , 5:692–94).

3. The warrant of 17 Aug., which Robert Hanson Harrison signed by GW’s command, directs Jacob Shafer of New York City to apprehend Thomas Reed, Patrick Ballantine, and Robert Gilmour “late of the Colony of Virginia . . . who passed from the above said City this morning to Powles Hook” and who “are persons unfriendly to the rights and liberties of the United States of America and are carr[y]ing on sundry malpractices against the interest of said States.” Shafer was to take the prisoners to Philadelphia and deliver them to the president of Congress (ADS, sold by Parke-Bernet Galleries, catalog 1190, item 31, 30–31 Oct. 1950; the ADS was sold again by Sotheby, Parke-Bernet, catalog 4158, item 79, 3 Oct. 1978). Congress resolved on this date to send the prisoners to the Pennsylvania council of safety for examination (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends , 5:695), and on the reverse of the warrant Hancock instructs the officers of the prisoners’ guard to carry out that order. No record of the council’s action on this matter appears in its minutes.