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THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH TO BOTH HOUSES, APRIL 11, 1776. (From the MS. In the State Department.) April 11, 1776. Honorable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the General Assembly: It has afforded much satisfaction to observe, that, though the season of the year rendered your setting very inconvenient, your private concerns, which must have suffered greatly by your long and close application in the late Congress to the affairs of this Colony, requiring your presence in the country, yet, continuing to prefer the public weal to ease and retirement, you have been busily engaged, in framing such law, as our peculiar circumstances rendered absolutely necessary to be passed, before your adjournment. Having given my assent to them, I presume you are now desirous of a recess. On my part, a most solemn oath has been taken, for the faithful discharge of my duty. On yours, a solemn assurance has been given, to support me thereinthus a public compact between us stands recorded. You may rest assured, that I shall keep this oath ever in mind; the Constitution shall be the invariable rule of my conduct; my ears shall be always open, to the complaints of the injured; justice, in mercy, shall neither be denied or delayed; our laws and religion, and the liberties of America, shall be maintained and defended to the utmost of my power. I repose the most perfect confidence in your engagement. And now, gentlemen, let me entreat that you will, in your several parishes and districts, use your influence and authority, to keep peace and good order, and procure strict observance of, and ready obedience to the law. If any persons therein, are still strangers to the nature and merits of the dispute between Great Britain and the Colonies, you will explain it to them fully, and teach them, if they are so unfortunate as not to know their inherent rights. Prove to them, that the previleges of being tried by a jury of the vicinage, acquainted with the parties and witnesses, of being taxed, only with their own consent, given by their representatives, freely chosen by, and sharing the burthen, equally with themselves, not for the aggrandizing a rapacious minister, and his dependant favorites, and for corrupting the people, and subverting their liberties, but for such wise and salutary purposes, as they themselves, and of having their internal polity regulated, only by laws, consented to by competent judges of what is best adapted to their situation and circumstances, equally bound too by those laws, and inestimable, and derived from that Constitution, which is the birthright of the poorest man, and the inheritance of the most wealthy. Relate to them, the various unjust and cruel statutes, which the British Parliament, claiming a right to make laws for binding the Colonies in all cases whatsoever, have enacted, and the many sanguinary measures which have been, and are, daily pursued, and threatens to wrest from them, these invaluable benefits, and to enforce such an unlimited and destructive claim. To the most illiterate it must appear, that no power on earth can, of right, deprive them of the hardly-earned fruits of their honest industry, toil and labor. Even to them, the impious attempt to prevent many thousands from using the means of subsistence provided for man, by the bounty of his Creator, and to compel them, by famine, to surrender their rights, will seem to call for Divine vengeance. The endeavors, by deceit and bribery, to engage barbarous nations, to embrue their hands in the innocent blood of helpless women and children, and the attempts, by fair but false promises, to make ignorant domestics subservient to the most wicked purpose, are acts, at which humanity must revolt. Show your constituents, then, the indispensible necessity, which there was for establishing some mode of government in this Colony, the benefits of that which a full and free representation has established, and that the consent of the people is the origin, and their happiness the end of government. Remove the apprehensions with which honest and well meaning, but weak and credulous minds, may be alarmed, and prevent ill impressions by artful and designing enemies. Let it be known, that this Constitution is but temporary,till an accommodation of the unhappy differences between Great Britain and America can be obtained, and that such an event is still desired, by men who yet remember former friendships and intimate connections, though for defending their persons and properties, they are stigmatised and treated as rebels. Truth, being know, will prevail over artificial misrepresentationconviction must follow its discovery. In such case, no man, who is worthy of life, liberty or property, will, or can refuse to join with you, in defending them, to the last extremity. Disdaining every sordid view, and the mean, paltry considerations of private interest and present emolument, when placed in competition with the liberties of millions, and seeing that there is no alternative, but absolute unconditional submission, and the most abject slavery, or, a defence becoming men born to freedom, he will not hesitate about the choice. Although superior force may, by the permission of Heaven, lay waste our town and ravage our country, it can never eradicate, from the breats of freemen, those principles which are ingrafted in their very nature; such men will do their duty, neither knowing or regarding consequences; but, submitting them with humble confidence to the omniscient and omnipotent Arbiter and Director of the fate of Empire, and trusting that his Almighty arm, which has been so signally stretched out for our defence, will deliver them in a righteous cause. The eyes of Europe, may, of the whole world, are on America. The eyes of every other Colony are on thisa Colony, whose reputation for generosity and magnanimity is universally acknowledged. I trust, therefore, it will not be diminished by our future conduct, that there will be no civil discord here, and that the only strife amongst brethren will be, who shall do most to serve, and to save, an oppressed and injured county. J. RUTLEDGE. (From Documentary History of the American Revolution, by Gibbes, Volume 1, p. 273-275 ) Doc ID: Gibbes, v. 1, p. 273 Date: 4/11/1776 |
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