ings on such a footing as will unite the mother country and the Colonies by a reciprocation of benefits, and on terms consistent with the spirit of the Constitution, and the honour, dignity, and safety of the whole Empire. And we wish and hope to see a matter of such importance taken up in a constitutional way by both Houses of Assembly, not in the least doubting but that if such prudent and temperate measures are adopted by the Legislatures of the other Provinces, we shall see them crowned with that success which may remove the unhappy divisions now subsisting, and bind us to our mother country by the ties of interest, love, and gratitude, and establish the prosperity, power, and grandeur of the British Empire on foundations which may last till time shall be no more. Nor can we doubt of success, when we reflect that we are blessed with a King who glories in being the equal father of all his people; and therefore can and do submit our cause, with full confidence, to his royal wisdom and paternal goodness. Neither will we suppose that a British Parliament, that great and august body, who have so often generously asserted and defended the liberties of other Nations, will disregard the equitable claims of their fellow-subjects.

We entirely agree with your Excellency in opinion, that where there is no law there can be no true liberty, and that it is the due and regular course of law and support of Government which can alone insure to us and our posterity the enjoyment of our lives, liberty, and property.

We will cheerfully concur in the several matters recommended by your Excellency, and give them that serious attention which the utility of them requires.

By order of the House,

N. JONES.

His Excellency's Answer.

Honourable Gentlemen:

The loyalty and affection expressed towards his Majesty in this Address, gives me the greatest satisfaction, as it likewise does to see that your sentiments on the very important matters mentioned, in many respects coincide with my own; and happy would it have been for America, had the several Legislatures proceeded in the manner you propose.

I return you my best thanks, gentlemen, for your kind opinion of my regard for, and wishes to serve this Province.

JAMES WRIGHT.

To his Excellency Sir JAMES WRIGHT, Baronet, Captain General and Governour-in-Chief of his Majesty's Province of GEORGIA, Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the same.

The Address of the Commons House of Assembly. May it please your Excellency:

We his Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of Georgia, in General Assembly met, return your Excellency our thanks for your Speech to both Houses on the opening of this session.

We are greatly obliged to his Majesty for his gracious intentions; but allow us, sir, to observe, that we apprehended the Province was actually involved in a war when we submitted our Petition for assistance; and whilst we confess our real obligations to your Excellency for your conduct, assiduity, and perseverance, and render you our warmest acknowledgments for putting a happy end to that war, we cannot but with horrour reflect on the dreadful crisis to which this Province must have been reduced, had we experienced no other resource than those dilatory succours which Administration meant conditionally to afford us.

We cannot be less affected by, and concerned for, the present alarming situation of our affairs between Great Britain and America, than your Excellency; we must be equally insensible not to feel our numerous grievances, and not to wish them redressed; it is that alone which every good American contends for; it is the enjoyment of our constitutional rights and liberties that softens every care of life, and renders' existence itself supportable. At the same time, in all our proceedings, we shall studiously avoid every measure that shall not appear to us at once strictly consonant with our duty to his Majesty, and the interest, liberty, and welfare of our constituents. We shall, on all occasions, exert ourselves to accomplish every assurance we have already made, or may make to your Excellency, and will not fail to take into consideration the Bill which you are pleased to point out and recommend.

When the Publick Accounts and Estimates are laid before us, we will give them proper attention.

By order of the House,

WILLIAM YOUNG, Speaker.

His Excellency's Answer.

Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Commons House of Assembly:

I am sorry that I must beg leave to differ with you in opinion with respect to the state we were in when your Petition to his Majesty was given to me, and which I immediately transmitted. It is true several people had been murdered by some Indians, but I conceive that could by no means be called being actually involved in a war with that Nation. They were murders committed by a small party only of the Creek Indians, without the concurrence or even the privity of the Nation, and disavowed by them as soon as they knew of it; and I apprehend something farther was necessary, before we could be said to be engaged or involved in an actual war with the Indians; and every account I received from them after that time, was favourable, and showed rather a pacifick than an hostile disposition, and which accounts I always transmitted to his Majesty's Secretary of State, as it was my duty to do.

It gives me great pleasure to observe my conduct approved of by the Representatives of the people, and for which I thank you. I have every inducement to serve the Province, and to promote the welfare and happiness of the people, and which I shall continue to do to the utmost of my power; and, on the other hand, I cannot doubt but you will also approve of my endeavours to discharge my duty to the Crown with honour and integrity. And let me assure you, gentlemen, that no man can more wish his Majesty's American subjects the full and perfect enjoyment of their constitutional rights and liberties than I do.

JAMES WRIGHT.

House of Assembly, Georgia, January, 1775.

The House taking under consideration that the Parliament of Great Britain claim a power of right to bind the People of America, by Statute, in all cases whatsoever, and who have, in some Acts, expressly imposed Taxes on the Americans, under various pretences, but in fact, for the purpose of raising a Revenue; hath established a Board of Commissioners, with unconstitutional powers, and extended the jurisdiction of the Courts of Admiralty, not only for collecting the Duties imposed by the said Acts, but for the trial of causes merely arising within the body of a County. And whereas Standing Armies have been, and now are, kept in America, in time of profound peace; and being resolved, in Parliament, that by force of a Statute, made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Henry the Eighth, Colonists may be transported to England and tried there upon accusations for treasons and misprisions, or concealments of treason committed in the Colonies; and by a late Statute such trials have been directed in cases therein mentioned. And whereas, also, Assemblies have been frequently dissolved, contrary to the rights of the People, when they attempted to deliberate on Grievances; therefore this. House doth, as Englishmen, their ancestors, in like cases have usually done for assisting and vindicating their Rights and Liberties, Declare,

First, That the inhabitants of the English Colonies of North America, by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English Constitution, and the several Charters or compacts, have the following Rights:

Secondly, That they are entitled to life, liberty, and property, and they have never ceded to any sovereign power whatever a right to dispose of either without their consent.

Thirdly, That our ancestors, who first settled these Colonies, were, at the time of their emigration from the mother country, entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural-born subjects within the Realm of England.

Fourthly, That, by such emigration, they by no means forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of these rights, but that they were, and their descendants now are, entitled to the