COUNCIL OF NORTH-CAROLINA.

At a Council held at Newbern, the 12th of April, 1775, Present: His Excellency the Governour, the Honourable James Hasell, Alexander McCulloch, William Dry, Samuel Strudwick, Martin Howard, and Samuel Cornell, Esquires:

The Governour laid before the Board the Proceedings of a body of people calling themselves Delegates of the Inhabitants of this Province in Convention, signed John Harvey, Moderator, wherein are certain Resolves highly derogatory to the honour and dignity of His Majesty’s Government, tending to destroy the peace and welfare of this Province, in the highest degree oppressive of the people, and utterly subversive of the established Constitution:

He, therefore, submitted to the consideration of this Board the propriety of marking its indignation of such unlawful and dangerous proceedings, by striking Mr. John Harvey out of His Majesty’s Commission of the Peace for the County of Perquimans, where he resides.

The Board fully concurring with His Excellency’s sentiments of the foregoing proceedings, unanimously advised that the said John Harvey should be struck out of the Commission of the Peace for Perquimans County.

The Honourable William Dry, Esquire, took again the oath appointed to be taken by Privy Counsellors.

HEMPSTEAD (NEW-YORK) RESOLUTIONS.

Mr. RIVINGTON: You are requested to publish the following Resolutions, unanimously entered into at the most numerous Town Meeting that has been held here for many years past:—

Hempstead, April 4, 1775.

At this critical time of publick danger arid distraction, when it is the duty of every honest man and friend to his Country to declare his sentiments openly, and use every endeavour to ward off the impending calamities which threaten this once happy and peaceful land, we, the Freeholders and Inhabitants of Hempstead, in Queen’s County, in the Province of New-York, being legally assembled on the first Tuesday in April, 1775, have voluntarily entered into the following Resolutions:

1st. That as we have already borne true and faithful allegiance to His Majesty King George the Third, our gracious and lawful Sovereign, so we are firmly resolved to persist in the same line of duty to him and his lawful successors.

2d. That we esteem our civil and religious liberties above any other blessings, and those only can be secured to us by our happy Constitution; we shall inviolably adhere to it, since deviating from it and introducing innovations, would have a direct tendency to subvert it, from which the most ruinous consequences might be justly apprehended.

3d. That it is our ardent desire to have the present unnatural contest between the Parent State and her Colonies amicably and speedily accommodated on principles of constitutional liberty, and that the union of the Colonies with the Parent State may subsist till time shall be no more.

4th. That as the worthy Members of our General Assembly, who are our only legal and constitutional Representatives, have lately taken the most rational and effectual measures to bring about this much wished-for accommodation, by petitioning his most gracious Majesty, a Memorial to the House of Lords, and a Remonstrance to the House of Commons; we are determined, therefore, patiently to wait for the issue of these measures, and carefully avoid every thing that might frustrate those laudable endeavours of our Representatives.

5th. That as choosing Deputies to form a Provincial Congress, or Convention, must have this tendency, be highly disrespectful to our legal Representatives, and also be attended, in all probability, with the most pernicious effects in other instances, as is now actually the case in some Provinces—such as shutting up the Courts of Justice, levying money on the subjects to enlist men for the purpose of fighting against our Sovereign, diffusing a spirit of sedition among the people, destroying the authority of constitutional assemblies, and otherwise introducing many heavy and oppressive grievances—we therefore are determined not to choose any Deputies for such Provincial Congress or Convention, nor consent to it, but do solemnly bear our testimony against it.

6th. That we are utterly averse to all mobs, riots, and illegal proceedings, by which the lives, peace, and property of our fellow-subjects, are endangered; and that we will, to the utmost of our power, support our Legal Magistrates in suppressing all riots, and preserving the peace of our liege Sovereign.

HULET PETERS, Town Clerk.

TO THE PUBLICK

Hempstead, April, 1775.

At a time when every possible artifice is made use of, not only to create real divisions and dissensions among us on points of the last importance to the general weal, but, at the same time, to hold up an idea of much greater difference than, in fact, exists, it is the duty of every friend to truth and the welfare of his Country, to represent transactions of a publick nature in a fair and genuine light.

Influenced by this consideration, I am induced to make a few remarks on the proceedings of the Town of Hempstead, which have been published in Mr. Rivington’s Gazetteer of the 6th instant.

By that publication, it might seem that the Town-Meeting at which the Resolves were passed, had been assembled for the purpose of signifying their sense relative to the appointment of Deputies to join in the proposed Provincial Congress, and that the inhabitants of Hempstead were unanimous in their disapprobation of the measure; but this is far from being a just representation of the matter.

The meeting was nothing more than an annual one, in order to choose Town Officers. No previous notice had been given, by advertisement or otherwise, that any thing beside the ordinary business of the day was to be transacted. Not only so, but the Resolutions entered into were introduced late, after many people had retired from the meeting. A considerable number of respectable Freeholders, who are well affected to the appointment of Deputies, would have attended had they been apprized of what was designed, and the apparent unanimity with which the publick has been deceived, could have had no colour of pretence.

I am one of those who think the union of the Colonies, in a general and spirited plan of opposition, absolutely necessary to the preservation of our rights; and I know there is a number of principal Freeholders in this Town of the same sentiments. Our reasons for being willing to concur in the choice of Deputies, are as follow:

1st. Though we feel ourselves, impressed with sentiments of unshaken loyalty towards our rightful Sovereign, George the Third, and should view with indignation and abhorrence every attempt to diminish his just and constitutional authority over us; yet we can by no means conceive that loyalty implies in it an abject submission to the unjust and arbitrary mandates of the British Parliament, or precludes the use of those expedients which are requisite to preserve our lives and properties from the rapacious, hand of tyranny and oppression.

2d. The claim of Parliament to bind us by statutes in all cases whatsoever, and the several acts passed in consequence of it, appear to us an open and flagrant violation of our rights, both as men and Englishmen, and ought to be opposed by every necessary means.

3d. It is our opinion that no rational mode of opposition could, in our present circumstances, be concerted, but by the united concurrence of all the Colonies. Without this, our measures must be partial and divided, and consequently weak and ineffectual. One Colony could not oblige another to accede to any thing itself might deem prudent and efficacious. Difference in opinion might prevent the adoption of those measures which were most likely to succeed, and our opposition, instead of tending to any desirable end, would only serve to render us contemptible, and the scoff of our enemies.

4th. Provincial Assemblies have frequently been dissolved for asserting their rights; and it would be in the power of the several Governours to keep them from sitting whenever they found they were likely to take any step that would serve to frustrate the designs of the Ministry; so that not much reliance could be bad upon their exertions