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GEORGIA GAZETTE.
NtJMBTER 13^.
4
Notwithstanding our advmiting r(V week
tte * stop Was put to the publibationof this Gazette*
tore ftal! continue printing the fame ns long as we are allow
ed to make use of uaihuApt paper.
AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE.
/’ ‘ -W** ** O&obtr t 2.
WEDNESDAY lift the Great and General Court of
* ▼ V mtt here according t adjournment, and
on Friday the Hoefe presented the following Answer to his
Excellency's Speech ae the opening of the Sefflon*
Bar ExtelUny,
fIE House of Representatives have entered
into'a due conuderation of your speech
to both houses at the opening of this ses
sion; and should have earlier communi
cated to your Excellency our feutiments
thereupon, had not the late fcddea and
unexpected adjournment prevented it.
&, that after your Excellency had called
to* together In pursuance of the unanimoue adduce of a very
full council, wc were in hopes yon would have; given the
giTCmbly time then to have cou fide red the critical (late of the
province, and determined what was proper to be done a{ fe
difficult and dangerous a conjuncture.
Voir a Excellency tells us, that the province feeras to b#
.Upon the brink of a precipice ! A fight of its danger is then
neceffarv for its preservation. To despair of the common
wealth U a certain prefege of its fall; Your Excellency may
be allured, that the Representatives of fke people are awake
to a sense of its danger, and their utmost prudence will got
he wanting to prevent its ruin. ,
Ws indeed could not have thought that a weakness in the.
executive power of the province lutd been any part of our
danger, had not your Excellency made such a declaration in
your speech: Certainly the General Afieqibly have done *
Very thing incumbent on them; and laws are already in be
ing for the support of his Majesty’s authority in the pro
vince : Your Excellency doth not point out (0 us any defeat
\n thrift laws j add yet you are pleased to fay, that tht exe
cutive authority is much too weak: Surely you cannot mean,
by calling the whole legHlatfoe in aid of tie executive author
mty, that any new and extraordinary kind of power fbpuld
by law be confirtuted. to oppofc inch ads of violence M
nr Excellency may apprehsud from a people ever wear -
le for their loyalty and good order: tho’ at present un
safe and difeon ten ted. If then the Ws of the provioce for
the, prcfefvat&nof his Majesty’s peace are already fuf&cieat,
your ‘Excellency we are very sure need not to oe told, to
whose departmental fblcly belongs to appoint a fuitabJkuum
fcer a/magi Grates to put those laws is execution or remove
them in case of failure of their duty therein. And we hope
this important truftwill remain with fifety to the prpymee
where the conftitatiqn has lodged it. 4 .
Ybtra Excellency is pleased to tell us, that declarations
have been made and ftitl subsist, that the ad of parliament
tbr granting Stamp Duties in the,colonies (hall not be exe
cuted within this province. We know of no fsch declara
tions—ls any individuals of the people have declared, an uu*
wflftngncfa to futyed themfrives to the payment of the damp
dudes, and chufe rather to lay afidc all business than make
wife of the ftamp’d papers, as we are not accountable for fiich
declarations, 10 neither can we fee any thing criminal in
them: This house has no authority to controul their choice
in this matter: The ad does not oblige them to makeufe of
the papers; it only exads the payment of certain, duties; for
luch papers as they may incline to use : Such declarations
Inay pofiibly have been made, and may drill subsist, veipr
Confidently with the utmost refped to toe King and parli
ament.
Vova Excellency hat thought proper to enumerate very
tUffUtely the incohveniencies that may arise from the damp’d
T H U R 8 D A. Y, Noyember, u %
9 - t
PgPf r 0 * kiag diftribitfed amQng the people; with re*
sped tofomeof which you# love and concern for the province
leads you. to fear more for us than we do foe ourfelv.es. We
cannot tbmkyour Excellency would willingly aggravate out
dangers; we are notin particularfoalaamed, as your Ex*
ceUency stems to be, W|fo the apprehenhoa. ©f the hand of
violence being let loose. Your Excellency* upoa recollec#
tion, will find that all papers relative 1 6 Crowe matters aw
exempt from Stamps, The persons of hex Majeity’s good
lutyech willjtill remain secure from injury: That foife
which your Excellency tails us attacks reputations and palls
down houses, will yet be curbed by the law. . The cfbtei
of the people will remain guarded fromtheft or open violences
There will be no danger of force of arms becoming the only
governing nower. Notr Jhall we real we what ytom Ex ce lien,
cy is plealed to call aft ate of general outlawry. This we
thuak aeceftary to. be observed, without a particulareonfi
d era lion of all the consequences which your> ExoeUeacy
fears, to prevent, if ppfTible, any wrong iiapieffions fro*
fixmg m the minds of ill disposed persons, or remove them
if already fixed. f
Yov are pleased to f*y that the Stamp Ari is an aA of
parliament, and as inch ought to beobftmd. This Houfo,
Six, has too great a reverence for the fu proms kgitiatosc of
the nation, to question irt just authority: It bjruouaeaaa ap
pertains to us to prefeunt to tdjuft the boundaries of. tan
power of parliament; but boundaries there uadoubtediy
pre. We hope we may without offence patyoro Excrittency
to mind of that mod grievous (entente pf excommuaicaciea
foiemply deaoeuced by the church an.theaauurqf the feered
Trinity, in the prefonefi #1 Bing Henry the Third, mid the
•dates of therealok again ft all those who ftusild taoku to.
tutes or observe them being mask contrary ta sk* Nbetties of
Magna C hart a.—We am ready to thiak that them aeafous
advocates foe the conftitutioo utually cdmpartd shtir rib eT
parliament with Magna. Charts; and if it etei happened
that such were made as infringed upon the rights f that
charted they were always repealed. Wc have the feme
confidence in the re&itudc of the paefent parliament, and
therefore cannot but be (Wpriocd at an momatioh in your
speech, that they will require a submission to ah id an I pre
liminary t© thaw granting relief from the uucoriftitutidnal,
burdens of it; which we apprehend includes a feggeftioS
so U far from your Excellency's design, aadfoppofesfoch a
wanton wrrife of mere arbitrary power, as ought never to
be funnifed of the patrons of liberty and iuftiee, ‘ ■'
FuaTmaMoai, your Excellency tells us die the right
of'the parliament to make fowl for the Aiavricari coloaim
remains indripwtable so Wtjtmnjhr: Without ronton din*
this point, we beg lesve just to observe chat the charter#*
this protriace in veils the General Aficrably with, the pouf*
of making lpws for its foteraal government and uxmioftY
and that this charter has never yet neea forfeited. The
liamcnt has a right to make all law* within rim limits of
their own conftiturion; they claim no roonri YoU Exced
lency will acknowledge that there are certain original inhe
rent right# bofongioj w *!• P>P lc which the parliament
itfelf cannot divel them of continent with their ewa ttusfti*-
tutioo: among these it she right of repeefeatatioo so dt
fame body which exercises |he power of taxation. There
is a Qeceffity that the fubjcOs of America should eaercift this
power within themselves, otherwise they can hxvlnofhare
In that moft effenrial right, for they are not rejwefeneed m
parliament, and indeed we think it imprafticaWe. Your
Excellency*s afTertion lead# us so think that yow aae of x dif
ferent mind with regard to this very matnnri pofof. and
that you suppose we are represented: But the sense of the
nation itfelf seems alwaye to have been otherwise. Tho
right of the colonies to make their own law* and tax them*
feivej, has been never that we know of questioned; hat haac
been cpnftantly recognited by the King and parlutmeja. j
The very fuppotiuon thu foe pailsament, though the fw.