To the Magistrates and Inhabitants of the Town of Wilmington:

I have been much surprised to receive an answer to my requisition directed to The Magistrates & Inhabitants of Wilmington from a Member of the lawfull Majestracy in the Name & under the Traiterous Guise of a Combination unknown to the laws & Constitution of this Country, as if the Magistrates and Inhabitants of Wilmington chose rather to appear in the Garb of Rebellion than in the Character of his Majesties Loyal & faithfull Subjects.

The quantity of flour that I required for his Majesty's Service I concluded from the information I had received, that the Town of Wilmington might have well supplied within the time I appointed by my Note and I should have been contented with the quantity that was obtainable: The requisition was not made, as the answer to it imports, for a prelude to the destruction of that Town, which has not been in contemplation, but was intended as a Test of the disposition of its Inhabitants, whose sence I am unwilling to believe is known to the little arbitrary Junto (stiling itself a Committee) which has presumed to answer for the People in this and other Instances.

The revilings of Rebellion & the Gasconadings of Rebels are below the Contempt of the loyal & faithful People whom I have most justly stiled Friends of Government, and the forbearance of menaces I have little reason to consider as a mark of Respect from the Chairman of a Combination founded in Usurpation & Rebellion.