- Transcription
North Carolina Ss.
To His Excellency Arthur Dobbs Esq. Capt. General Governor & Commander in Chief in and over the Said Province.
Sir
We his Majesty's most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects the Members of the Assembly of North Carolina return your Excellency our thanks for your speech at the Opening of this session.
We Congratulate your Excellency on the Success of his Majesty’s Arms by sea & Land, wherein Providence has iminently displayed it's self by defeating the destructive Machinations and wicked designs of the Powers combined to destroy the Protestant Interest and the Peace of Europe.
We shall take into consideration what your Excellency has recommended with respect to the supplies; and should be glad your Excellency as requested by your last assembly would be pleased to lay before us an Account of the application of the Public Moneys which have been entrusted to your direction, of which we Expect there will be a Considerable surpluss, & we hope it will be in our Power to furnish the supplies at present required, without Imposing an additional Tax on the Province, already greatly impoverished by repeated and high Taxations.
We thank your Excellency for the justice you have done us in your acknowledgment of the Warmth we have hitherto shewn in defence of his Majesty's just rights and our religion and Liberties; and beg leave to assure your Excellency that if the reduced state of the Country should not permit us to be so Liberal as other Provinces; The most Loyal is not Animated with Greater Zeal for the Success of his Majesty's measures and the Preservation of his sacred Person and Illustrious family.
We shall give great attention to what your Excellency has said in regard to the Bills for establishing Courts of Justice, and Vestries; as being of the highest Importance to the Interior Peace and well being of this Province, which on the one hand is in danger of falling into Anarchy and Confusion from the unrestraned lycentiousness of Mobs and Insurrections, and on the other into profaness and Irreligion from the Defect of a proper provision for the Clergy; And your Excellency may be assured that we shall take proper care to appoint an Agent, and give due attention to every thing else you have mentioned.
We beg leave Sir to make some observations on two Speeches of your Excellency made to your former Assembly the one at the Prorogation in May last, the other at the Disolution in January following Copies of which you declined giving to the speaker; that the House had not the usual Opportunity of explaining such part of their Conduct as seemed to have been the subject of Your Excellencys Animadversion; In that at the prorogation you was pleased to express great displeasure that an Aid had not been granted, and to place the blame of the Miscarriage of the Bill brought in for that purpose on the assembly, Altho' it was rejected not in their House but by the Council; Indeed it was intimated by your Excellency that the Bill was Unconstitutional, by the inserting Clauses foreign to the Aid, but as you did not condescend to mention any Exceptionable clause in particular, it is difficult to give a particular Answer to so general a Charge, however your Excellency will be pleased to remember that the Bill was formed for no other purpose than Granting an Aid to his Majesty and appointing an Agent for the Province, both which were recommended by Mr. Secretary Pitt's Letter, and tho' it gives us the greatest concern to differ in sentiment with your Excellency on any Occasion, we cannot help thinking the Bill was well adapted to now Answer the Purposes proposed by Mr. Secretary Pitt, and beg leave to observe that this was the first Instance in which your Excellency or any of your Predecessors have taken Exception to the manner in which the Assembly had formed a Bill for supplies. At the Session in January last, tho' the assembly had granted the supplies thus required, yet having prepared two Bills Successively for Establishing Courts of Justice both which were rejected by that Council, a Dissolution ensued at which your Excellency in your Speech was pleased to take exception to the Manner in which the Treasurers gave in their Accounts, in that they were not passed before your Excellency; Whereas the Treasurers are by Law to Account with the Assembly, and the Constant Practice has been to Account before a Committee appointed to report the state of the Accounts to the House who re-examine them on the report of such Committee, in this Manner they have hitherto Accounted agreeable to Law and uninterupted Usage, With respect to the Sheriffs, indeed we have observed Deficiencies in several of their Collections but in the present confused scituation of Affairs, from the Turbulent disposition of Fractious Cabals and dangerous Insurrections, we cannot with reason suppose that they, more than Magistrates and other Officers, are Capable of fully complying with the duties of their respective functions, Tho' we hope and doubt not that those Inconveniencies will be removed on the Establishing Courts of Justice on a respectable foundation.
Permit us Sir to Assure you, that these matters are only mentioned in Consequence of the Duty we Owe to our Constituents with whose Liberties we are Intrusted, and not to raise disputes with your Excellency; On the Contrary it will give us the highest Pleasure, as far as is consistent with the rights and Liberties of a free and Loyal People, who never refused a Single Aid you have required, Gladly to Co-operate with you in every thing that may Contribute to his Majesty's Service, and the Interest of the Province; and we shall avoid all Occasion of Unnecessary alteration Whereby the Harmony which ought to subsist between the Several Branches of the Legislature might be Interupted.
Saml Swann Speakr
29th. April 1760—
By Order
North Carolina
Lower House Address to the Governor
