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General of the Colony and Dominion of VIRGINIA, and Vice Admiral of the same:
The Humble Address of the HOUSE OF BURGESSES.
MY LORD: We his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects the Burgesses of Virginia, now met in General Assembly, beg leave to return your Excellency our unfeigned thanks for your kind Speech at the opening of this session.
Sensible as we are of the importance of that variety of business which will probably come before us, we shall esteem it our bounden duty to proceed in the discussion of it with coolness, deliberation, and as much despatch as circumstances will admit; and we flatter ourselves that every resolution, we may find it expedient to adopt, will be marked with that prudence and moderation which you are pleased to recommend.
The fatherly attention of our most gracious Sovereign to the happiness of his subjects, in making the good of his people the first object of his thoughts, cannot but impress our minds with the liveliest sense of duty and gratitude; and it is with great satisfaction that we receive from your Excellency those earnest assurances, that you will heartily concur with us in all measures, and assent to all such laws as shall be for the welfare and true interest of this country.
It will ever, my Lord, afford us much pleasure to observe an increase of your domestic felicity: we therefore, with the greatest cordiality, embrace this first opportunity to congratulate your Excellency on the happy arrival of the Right Honorable the Countess of Dunmore, your Lordship's amiable and most respectable lady, with so many promising branches of your noble family, an event which we consider as having brought with it the surest pledges of our mutual happiness.
To which his EXCELLENCY was pleased to return the following Answer:
GENTLEMEN of the HOUSE OF BURGESSES:
The terms of duty and gratitude in which your loyal Address is conceived afford me the highest satisfaction, and must ensure his Majesty's most favourable countenance and protection to this faithful Colony. I shall ever retain a cordial remembrance of the parts you take in my domestic happiness, and of your obliging manner of expressing it on the occasion of the arrival of my family, which event I shall be much pleased to find considered as a pledge of my regard and attachment to this Colony.
[May 12, 1774. By an express, just arrived from Fincastle county, we are informed that very lately three or four skirmishes happened between the white people and the Shawanese Indians. We cannot affirm what occasioned the dispute, but are told one white man had taken some small matter from the Indians, which irritated them to arms; but were soon repelled by the other party, who killed eleven of them, seven of which they scalped.—Another of the Indians was terribly wounded in the groin, and it was imagined, when this express came away, that he could not possibly recover.]
On the 13th of May, his Excellency the Governor ordered the following Petition, with several Papers relative to the imprisonment of Mr. John Conolly, by the Officers of Pennsylvania, while he was acting as a Magistrate under the authority of this Government, to be laid before the House of Burgesses.
To his Excellency JOHN Earl of DUNMORE, his Majesty's Lieutenant and Governor General of the Colony and Dominion of VIRGINIA, and Vice Admiral of the same, and the Honorable the COUNCIL and HOUSE OF BURGESSES,
The Petition of the Inhabitants settled on the Waters of the OHIO showeth:
That the major part of your Petitioners have formerly lived in his Majesty's Colony of Virginia, and preferring the mild, easy, and equitable Government thereof, to the expensive administration of justice in Pennsylvania, which, being a limited and Proprietary Government, hath extended an unlimited, and (as we think) illegal jurisdiction over his Majesty's subjects, settled many miles west of their bounds, which is oppressive to the poor, and burthensome to all, particularly in trying titles to land, and in recovery of small debts, wherein their officers' fees are so disproportioned that they seem rather calculated for enriching individuals than the public good; their practising attornies being left at liberty to exact such fees as they may choose, in all land trials, and will not plead against their jurisdiction, however far west it may be extended. Officers of Government being generally at the disposal of the Proprietaries' Governor, who will neither appoint nor continue any but those who adhere strictly to their master's interest, however contrary to the good of the settlers, his Majesty's subjects; add to this, a heavy Provincial tax, which they likewise exact, a great part thereof being swallowed up by the officers who lay and collect the same, to the great grievance of the subject.
From the aforesaid several grievances, and the farther ill provided defence of the country in cases of emergency, we humbly conceive our lives and properties in imminent danger, from our contiguity to the faithless and barbarous natives, whose treaties, alliance, and sincerity, are never to be relied on, as well as a hearty conviction that the present Government is usurped.
We humbly entreat your Lordship and Council, and the Honorable House of Burgesses, to make such provision for us, in our present distressed situation, as to you shall seem meet; and your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c.
Signed by 587 Inhabitants.
Upon which the HOUSE addressed his EXCELLENCY as follows:
MY LORD: We his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Burgesses of Virginia, now sitting in General Assembly, beg leave to return your Excellency our sincere thanks for the written message, and the several papers therein referred to, which you were pleased to lay before us.
It is our most earnest wish and desire to cultivate and improve that good understanding and friendship which hath hitherto subsisted between our sister Colony of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and therefore we cannot sufficiently lament that any unhappy incident should have interposed which may tend to destroy this pleasing harmony, and create any dissention between us. But, my Lord, however strongly we may be impressed by these sentiments, we shall, on all occasions, think it our indispensable duty to support the just rights of our inhabitants, and protect them from oppression, in whatever quarter it may arise.
The imprisoning officers, acting under the authority of Government in either country, upon a dispute about a boundary, which appears to us never to have been established with any degree of accuracy, we cannot but consider as a wide departure and deviation from that plain and simple plan of accommodation which has been observed in former contests of this nature, and should have suggested a more conciliatory conduct on this occasion; much more should we have expected that it would have prevented that sanguinary measure of subjecting men to death, which, with concern, we observe hath been so precipitately and incautiously adopted.
For the present, we take the liberty of recommending to your Excellency to endeavour to have an equitable temporary line fixed between this Colony and Pennsylvania, until his Majesty shall be pleased to direct the proper and true boundary to be established.
It gives us pain, my Lord, to find that the Indians have made fresh encroachments and disturbances on our frontiers. We have only to request that your Excellency will be pleased to exert those powers with which you are fully invested, by the acts of Assembly, for making provision against invasions and insurrections; which, we doubt not, will be found sufficient to repel the hostile and perfidious attempts of those savage and barbarous enemies.*
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