USA > North Carolina > The state records of North Carolina, Vol XV > Part 19
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The petition of George Lamkin, Late Sheriff of Tryon County, HUMBLY SHEWETH,
That your Petitioner, in the year 1772, ye 27 Day of October, Entered into the office of Sheriff, and Law Did not continue over three Months in full force, and after Law Dropt your petitioner Indeavoured to collect the taxes Due for that year, and got a lit-
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tle over one hundred pounds, as will appear by the settlement with Tryon Court. At that time Law Stoopt no trade nor money to be got, so that people could not pay there Dnes. I made Des- tress on sum person's goods, but could not sell. Soon after there was a Committee appointed in the county. Complaint being made to yr. Committee, thought fit to stop your petitioner from collecting or making Distress. Soone after your petitioner moved to Examine the Sheriff's List before them, that I might know how many persons was gone out of the Country since the settlement with Tryon Court, and there was wanten 107 persons that was taxt in yr. Sheriff's List. Soone after this the Indians broke out and did drive all the county as Lo as buffalo Creek 50 miles in. Sum few got into forts, sum went to Virginia, sum, went to ye South and Sum Down in this State, to the amount, by My List, 257 taxable persons, and now the tory party has broke out, being ye upper part of said County ; what feu was left after ye Indians is now gone, so that it is impossible for your Petitioner to make any collection; now therefore I humbly pray you will take into your consideration that your petitioner may be dis- charged, as I have none of the publick money in My hands but what I have accounted for, and a ticket I tuck in after of Robert Blackburn's, one of ye Burgesses, which I have sent Down; and your petitioner, as in Duty bound, shall pray.
GEORGE LAMKIN.
PETITION OF REV. MR. ADAM BOYD. (Agreed to.)
To the Honorable General Assembly of the State of North Caro- lina.
The Petition of the Rev. Mr. Adam Boyd HUMBLY SHEWETH,
That he hath obtained a furlough to be absent from his Brigade until the Ensuing Spring. He therefore prays that Mr. Blood- worth or Mr. Mallet, Contractors for the public, may be directed to supply him with his rations and forage, due or to become due to him, agreeable to the Continental arrangement, and as in duty Bound he shall ever pray, &e.
ADAM BOYD.
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THE PETITION OF CAPT. HANCE BOND.
To the Honorable the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina now sitting.
The Petition of Hance Bond, Captain of Marines on board the Ship Caswell,
HUMBLY SHEWETH,
That your Petitioner hath served this State as Captain of Marines on board the said ship Caswell eleven months under a Commission from his Excellency, Governor Caswell ; that the said ship is now laid up, and the materials, Stores and men are removed on board the ship Washington. That your Petitioner, with his Officers and Marines, have not received their pay ; he therefore prays your Honors to afford him snch relief as you in your great wisdom shall think proper, and your Petitioner, as in duty bound, shall ever pray.
HANCE BOND.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF PRIVILEGES AND ELECTIONS.
The Committee, being informed that Mr. Cocke, who was returned a member for Washington County, was Clerk of the Court of said County, called Mr. Cocke before them, and upon examination it appeared by a record from the Court of the Wash- ington District, corroborated by the testimony of Charles Robin- son, that he was elected Clerk of Washington District, now Wash- ington County, on the fourth Tuesday in August, 1777;
Resolved, therefore, that Mr. Cocke, as being Clerk of a County Court, is not entitled to keep his seat in the House of Commons.
The Committee, having taken into consideration the petition of Clement Crocke, respecting the election of Isham Webb and Joshua Swain, for Tyrrell County, and finding the same unsup- ported by any Testimony, saving only a single Deposition taken ex parte ;
Resolved, that the Election aforesaid is good and valid, and that the said Swain and Webb ought to keep their seats.
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The Committee, being informed that General. Butler, a member for Orange County ; Colonel Jonas Johnston, for Edgecomb ; Mr. William Robinson, for Pitt; and Mr. Timothy Bloodworth, for New Hanover, were appointed Entry Takers in their several Coun- ties, and, upon Enquiry, finding the same to be true, proceeded to consider the twenty-fifth section of the Constitution, whereby it is declared that no person who heretofore has been, or hereafter may be, a receiver of publick money, shall be entitled to a seat in the General Assembly until he shall have fully accounted for and paid all monies for which he may be liable : Therefore it was Resolved, as the Opinion of the Committee, that Entry Takers come within the meaning of the aforesaid Section, and therefore that General Butler. Colonel Jonas Johnston, Mr. William Rob- inson and Mr. Timothy Bloodworth are not entitled to seats in the House of Commons.
WILLIE JONES, Ch.
MEMORIAL OF JAMES DAVIS.
[Consideration, Wednesday.]
Mr. Davis begs leave to represent to the General Assembly that the very extensive settlements of this State, and the great number of counties into which it is erected, makes it impossible for him to transmit the Acts of Assembly & Journals to the several Counties as directed by Law. That he thinks the Justices of the several Counties and Members of Assembly would receive them with much greater certainty if they were sent to the Clerks of the several Distriet Courts, sealed up in Packets and directed to the several County Court Clerks within the District, and that such Clerks should send for them at the Expence of their Counties, and be laid under an Injunction to deliver theni to the several Justices of the County. If this plan should be adopted, Mr. Davis could deliver them to the several District Clerks much within the time limited him by Law.
It is with much Reluctance that he makes any further Applica- tion to the General Assembly with regard to his Salary, but, small as it is, should have been contented with it had it not been for the
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very extraordinary Rise in Paper, that Article now selling at Newbern from Eighty to one Hundred pounds per Ream, so that if the Business of this Session should be of any Length, as it has taken upwards of one hundred Copies of the Acts of Assembly to supply the State, it will require about thirty Reams of Paper to complete thew, amounting, at the present Priee, to more than the Salary allowed him for the services of the whole year. As it is possible that the price of Paper may be lessened before the next Session, all that Mr. Davis now requests of the Assembly is to be allowed the sum that he may be obliged to advance for the Busi- ness of this Session only, and that, as he promises to procure Paper on the best Terms he can, on his producing to his Excellency the Governor an Account on Oath of such Charges, that he be impowred to give him a warrant on any of the Treasurers for the amount. Mr. Davis begs leave to represent to the General Assembly the very great loss and inconvenience he has sustained for two years past in printing the publie business of this State. That at the General Assembly in April, 1778, he was allowed twelve hundred pounds per annum, to be paid half-yearly, which sum, had it been regularly paid to him, was far inadequate to the services he was obliged to perform, but as he never received it until February last, he need not inform the Assembly that the depreciation of the currency had reduced it to about £25 real value. That at the Assembly at Smithfield, as he could not attend there in person, he laid before them a Memorial complain- ing of the loss he was likely to sustain, but was unhappy enough to receive no other consolation than being again appointed printer to the state with a salary of twenty five hundred pounds. If this sum had been immediately advanced to him then, it would not have reimbursed him the expence of paper and other charges he was at in performing the business of one Session only ; but as the state should not suffer for want of the Laws being published, he undertook it cheerfully, in hopes of receiving satisfaction at the next assembly. That happened at Halifax in October last, when he attended there, and fully, as he thought, represented his griev- ances to the Assembly. Tho' he was unfortunate enough to see his most reasonable petition then opposed by some worthy members of the assembly, yet he had hopes of redress, and left the Assembly in full confidence of it. When the Gentlemen returned
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from the Assembly he found that he had been totally neglected, and not the least provision made for him. Surprised and astonished at this conduct, as they had not only neglected him but increased the duty on him by erecting four new counties, he found himself under an absolute necessity of resigning the busi- ness, as the article of paper had then risen to one hundred pounds per ream. Of this resolution he informed the then Speaker of the Senate, Mr. Coor, and several other Gentlemen ; they told him that as the damage to the State, by not having the Laws published, would be very great, and that however he had been neglected by the Assembly at Halifax, it was certainly their intentions to pay him very handsomely, therefore earnestly solicited him to publish the business of the session. As he had not yet received any part of the small salary allowed him, and the paper only, upwards of twenty reams being requisite, required a large sum, he applyed to the Governor and Council to advance him as much money as would purchase it. They readily gave him a warrant on the treasury for twenty-five hundred pounds, but still his hard fate pursued him ; he could get no money, there being other warrants of greater dignity. It then became necessary for him to advance upwards of twenty-five hundred pounds before he could get the laws published. When the Gentlemen of the Assembly met here in February last they were delivered to the members of the sev- eral counties that then appeared, and were all sent but four or five of the Western Counties.
He now begs leave to acquaint the general assembly that he has served them two years ; has printed and published the Laws and Journals of four Sessions, which has taken 70 or 80 reams of paper ; has advanced large sums of money for transmitting them to the several counties, for journeymen's wages, and every other article requisite for supporting his office, and has not received more than 20 or 30 pounds of real value, besides about as much money as paid for the paper used for the business of last Session, which he received only a few weeks ago. He therefore relies on the justice of the assembly, and hopes they will now grant him a sum adequate to his past services. He also begs leave to inform them that, when this country had about thirty counties only, and the justices and others whom he was obliged to supply with copies of the several acts of the assembly amounted to abont 500, he was
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allowed £250 per annum. That there are now 50 counties in this state ; the number of justices and members of Assembly is upwards of 1,500, and the business of the state increased to four times what it then was, and he imagines that he need not inform the Gentlemen of the assembly from the western Counties who have travelled to this assembly of the very great sum it will take to transmit the laws thro' this extensive state. There are repeated complaints that all the justices of the several counties do not get the laws, but when it is considered that when they are delivered out of his hands they are then ont of his power, the neglect can- not be justly charged on him, for he cannot by any art he is mas- ter of convey them to their right owners after he has parted with them ; but the truth is, the clerks to whom they are always directed do not faithfully deliver them, and untill they are made account- able for all they receive it will be in vain for him to send them.
Upon the whole, Mr. Davis thinks that the printing and pub- lishing the Laws and journals of the assembly is now become a matter of very great consequence to the state; that it is now one of the most expensive civil departments, and requires no small share of attention to perform it with accuracy and precision. That if they will now give him a salary sufficient in real money, not subject to any depreciation, he will undertake to serve them in such a manner that there shall be no just complaint.
JAMES DAVIS.
GOV. ABNER NASH TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
To the Honorable the General Assembly.
GENTLEMEN :
I am very glad an opportunity is at last afforded me of address- ing you in Gen. Assembly, and I believe I may truly say there never has been a time before in which the united wisdom of the state was more perfectly called aloud for than the present. You have seen the neighboring states of Georgia and S. Carolina fall, one after the other, into the hands of the Enemy, & you see the people of those states, lately so free and happy, now groaning under every degree of wretchedness that Lawless power can inflict.
15-15
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All these evils, Gentlemen, and more than I can describe, await us, and will sooner or later be our inevitable fate, unless proper measures are speedily taken to avert them. No one can, I pre- sume, have a doubt respecting the immediate designs of the Enemy agst. this state; their plan of policy pursued of late plainly points them out. In point of conquest we stand next in rotation, and indeed had it not been for the bravery and public spirit that of late has so immenently distinguished the good people of this State, there is no saying how far the Enemy's views might not have been effected before this Hour. These people, not waiting for the calls of government, nobly stept forth in defence of their common rights, and under every disadvantage they attacked, defeated, and finally expelled the Enemy from the state. These great and memorable actions, together with the successes of the militia agst. the Enemy in the District of Edenton and other parts of the State, have had the most extensive and important good consequences. At the same time that they struck the Enemy with consternation, they animated the rest of our citizens and taught them to know their own strength, & perhaps it affords you, Gentlemen, this happy opportunity of further providing for the general safety by adopting such wise measures as will in future bring forth the strength and resources of the whole country. By wise Laws this may be effected, but so long as you trust to the uncertain and unequal, and I may say oppressive, method of seiz- ing and impressing for the support of the army, the public bur- thens will be so unequal, and the supplies so difficult of collection, that I fear nothing but distress and disappointment will be the fruit of your endeavors. Could this plan of impressment be made to fall on the monopolist only, he who takes his measures with a view to his own interest, regardless of the public calamities, the measures would consist with good policy ; but to make it fall on the industrious citizen, he who by his Labour has acquired some- thing over and above the wants of his family and his proportion of the public wants, to subject his house to a search, & his produce on the road for market to seizure, is impolitic, because, by its direct tendency to discourage industry, a fatal scarcity of the nec- essaries of Life in a short time must be the inevitable consequence.
· I admit that in cases of extreme necessity every sovereign state has a right to impress for the public security, but it is the necessity
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of the case only that will justify the measure ; &, Gentlemen, I beg you will consider how different that is from a Law authoriz- ing general impressment as an ordinary means of providing for the army. The Acts of Congress, Original Letters, and other state papers which I have the honor to lay before you are so full & pathetie on this subject that, added to what I have said & your own reflection, I am persuaded you will, on this important occa- sion, take such measures as will answer the reasonable expecta- tions of Congress, & thereby secure effectually the freedom and independence of the state.
I wish it were in my power, Gentlemen, to give you a satisfac- tory account of the operations of our principal army to the west- ward, and of the progress made by your officers & commissioners in providing magazines of provisions & other military stores. In the common course of things, no doubt it might be expected of me to be able to give some account of these publie transactions ; But, Gentlemen, at your last session at Hillsborough, for reasons unknown to me, it was thought expedient (as I conceive it) to change our form of Govenment ; for By your Acts you have effect ually transferred the powers vested by the constitution in the Governor into the hands of commissioners. As I said, I am entirely ignorant of the causes which lead to this strange resolution. In the preceding April I had been elected into office by a very large majority of the General Assembly. This mark of confidence, added to the affectionate manner in which the honours of my appoint- ment were conferred upon me, impressed me with the deepest sense of gratitude ; &, anxious for an opportunity to render some service to my country suitable to the rank I held in it, I applied to the assembly for their approbation to proceed myself into South Carolina with the aid intended for the relief of that state; but, as I was informed, the measure was at this time thought inadvisable on account of the dangers apprehended from the disaffected within the state, & I was better satisfied with the will of the assembly, as the command was, on that important occasion, given to one of your worthiest citizens, one who with reputation had filled the highest offices in the state, & who had been experienced in military affairs, an advantage I could not boast of. Since then, Gentlemen, I have constantly exerted my best abilities, such as they are, for the public good, and upon the strictest self-examination I am not con-
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scions of having done any thing, or omitted to do any thing, in my public character but with a direct view to the Honor and interest of my country. When you elected me governor of the State you presented me the Bill of rights and the constitution. At the same time you presented me with the Sword of the state as an emblem of the power I was invested with for the protection of the constitu- tion and the rights of the people, and in a solemn manner you bound me by an oath to preserve the constitution inviolate; and yet four months after my Election the very same assembly deprived me of almost every power, privilege and anthority belonging to my office. My authority as commander in chief of the militia is abolished, & every officer and commissioner of the state, your chief magistrate not excepted, is made amenable & subject to a contronl of a board of war. They are impowered to direct me when and in what numbers to call out the militia, & when called out they are to direct what post they are to occupy and what expeditions they are to undertake ; in short, from having a right to the chief direction, I have now no right even to a share in the councils of administration. In consequence of these measures I have been excluded from all intelligence or correspondence with the army ; the commanding officer of your militia has honoured me, it is true, with one Letter since his appointment to the supreme command, as it is termed, but this was only to acknowledge the recpt. of mine, sent express to advise him of Gen. Leslie's having left Vir- ginia. I have no doubt that the secret Enemies of our Free con- stitution exult at the introduction of such an innovation, & rejoice at seeing the first officer in the state rendered useless and contempti- ble; but I question if you, Gentlemen, upon experience, will find any good consequences to result from such experiments. On the con- trary, the worst of consequences are, in my opinion, justly to be apprehended from them, & particularly from weakening instead of strengthening the hands of government in times of imminent danger.
I readily acknowledge the merit of the Gentlemen who compose the board of War, & that I thought the establishment of such a board necessary. I also thought it necessary that extraordinary powers should be lodged somewhere, equal to the exigency of the times &, agreeably to the recommendation of Congress, to be exercised on extraordinary occasions ; and being not ambitious of
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power myself, I recommended that the extraordinary power should be in the Board of war, so as to make them a legal Basis for the support of the Executive ; & this, as expressed by Congress, might have been in lieu of the assembly sitting constantly. But instead of giving them powers which lie dormant except when the assem- bly are in session, you give them powers comprehending, and of course superceeding, those of the Executive, which are never Dor- mant. In short, Gentlemen, I hold at present but an empty title, neither serviceable to the people nor honorable to myself. It will therefore become an act of necessity, however disagreeable at a time like this, that I resign my office, unless you restore it to a condition as respectable as it was when you did me the honour to confer it upon me.
A. NASH.
COL. MALMEDY TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
To the honourable representatives of North Carolina.
GENTLEMEN :
I do wish that the committee my address was referred to had agreed with the opinion of General Greene respecting the advantage of raising a body of Light horse, and that the hon- ourable assembly be pleased to honour me with the command of that corps.
If you do, gentlemen, I beg Leave to offer you my opinion upon the means to raise and enable them to take the field instantly, and render Essential and speedy services. Any volunteer who will enter that corps, to serve twelve months, and furnish himself with a good horse, shall be free of being drafted for the continental services ; and after his time will be expired he shall enjoy the exemption of any duty for twelve months.
It may be observed that these volunteers will have some ten- dence against raising of your continentals ; I beg Leave to answer to it. If you intend to draft one of thirteen, a body of 390 vol- unteers will reduce your continental Line only of 30 men ; will not 390 volunteers Light horse, raised in fifteen days, render more services, in a time of an invasion, than 30 continental soldiers who cannot meet so soon to the general rendezvous ?
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With regard to the accoutrements, I beg Leave to consent with the quartermaster of the state if there are no adequate sup- plies in the public stores. I request as a particular favour that the honourable assembly will grant me the Leave to exert myself for putting that corps in a situation of serving instantly.
I entreat, gentlemen, that you would discriminate the motives of my Earnestness; the Enemy are on your frontiers, in your country.
My attachment for the common cause, particularly for your State, and my honour urge me to repair to the field as far as possi- ble ; and any provision you will be pleased to make for me I shall be perfectly satisfied with.
With due respect, I have the honour to be, gentlemen,
Your most obedient, very humble servant, MALMEDY.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE REPRESENTING THE MARQUIS OF BRETIGNY AND COLO. MALMEDY.
The Committee appointed to take into consideration the Memo- rial of Colo. Malmedy, the Marquis of Britainy, and Other Papers laid before them, beg leave to report as followeth :
It is the Opinion of your Committee that Colo. Malmedy is an experienced and brave Officer, and that your Committee have the highest sense of his attachment to the Common Cause of America, & do recommend him in the strongest terms to the Legslative or Supreme Executive Powers of this State for a Command suitable to his Dignity, Bravery, Military Skill and experience ; and further, resolved,
That his Excellency the Governor be requested to acquaint the Marquis of Britaigny of the great estimation in which he is held in the General Assembly, and that he may rest assured of the good intentions of this Country towards him, and that as soon as opportunity serves he may depend on their making ample pro- vision for him, and in the mean time be it recommended to his Excellency the Governor to grant him the commission of Inspec- tor General to the State and Military Troops now to be raised. THOMAS PERSON, Chair'm.
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COL. MALMEDY TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA.
To the Honourable Representatives of the State of North Carolina. GENTLEMEN :
I think myself very much honored with the resolve that you were pleased to pass yesterday in my favour, and I entreat that the assurances of my first gratitude might be agreeable to the house. Permit me, gentlemen, to observe that that resolve has no support whatever with my petition. I beg leave to Explain it ultimately in its proper sense.
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