people to return the arms taken out, but not to commit the persons in whose possession they were found, in order that they might be brought to the punishment due to so heinous an offence, no less against the peace and good order of the Country than the dignity and authority of the King; when a body of men assembled in the City of Williamsburgh, not only to the knowledge, but with the approbation of every body, for the avowed purpose of attacking a party of the King’s forces, which, without the least foundation, it was reported were marching to my protection, and which, if true, ought to have been approved and aided, not opposed and insulted, by all good and loyal subjects; when, especially, the House of Burgesses, or a Committee of the House, (which is the same,) has ventured upon a step fraught with the most alarming consequences, in ordering and appointing guards, without ever consulting me, to mount in the City of Williamsburgh, as is pretended, to protect the magazine, but which may well be doubted, as there then remained nothing therein which required being guarded; but if otherwise, this step nevertheless shows a design to usurp the Executive power, which, if it be persisted in, subverts the Constitution: I say, when these circumstances are duly considered, I may submit it to your own judgment whether I could reasonably expect any good effect from communicating the ground of my uneasiness to you.

But as you are pleased, Gentlemen, now to assure me that you will cheerfully concur in any measure that may be proposed proper for the security of myself and family, I leave to your own consideration whether that can be effected any otherwise than by reinstating me in the full powers of my office, as His Majesty’s representative, by opening the courts of justice and restoring the energy of the laws, which is all the security requisite for all parties; by disarming all independent companies, or other bodies of men, raised and acting in defiance of lawful authority; and by obliging those who have taken any of His Majesty’s publick store of arms, to deliver them up immediately; and what is not less essential than any thing, by your own example, and every means in your power, abolishing that spirit of persecution, which, to the disgrace of humanity, now reigns, and pursues with menaces and acts of oppression all persons who differ from the multitude in political opinion, or are attached from principles and duty to the service of their King and Government, by which means (the deluded people never hearing but the disfigured side of a story) their minds are continually kept in that ferment, which subjects them for ever to be imposed upon, and leads to the commission of many desperate acts, and endangers the general safety. For the more speedy accomplishment of these ends, and the great object and necessary business of the sessions, I shall have no objection to your adjourning to the Town of York, where I will meet you, and remain with you till your business be finished.

With respect to your entreaty that I should return to the Palace, as the most likely means of quieting the minds of the people, I must represent to you that unless there be among you a sincere and active desire to seize this opportunity now offered to you by Parliament, of establishing the freedom of your Country upon a fixed and known foundation, and of uniting yourselves with your fellow-subjects of Great Britain in one common bond of interest and mutual assistance, my return to Williamsburgh would be as fruitless to the people as, possibly, it might be dangerous to myself. But if your proceedings manifest that happy disposition, which is to be desired ardently by every good friend to this as well as the Mother Country, I assure you, in the warmth of my heart, that I will return with the greatest joy, and shall consider it as the most fortunate event of my life if you give me an opportunity to be an instrument of promoting your happiness, and a mediator between you and the supreme authority, to obtain for you every explanation of your doubts, and the fullest conviction of the sincerity of their desire to confirm to you the undisturbed enjoyment of your rights and liberty; and I shall be well pleased, by bringing my family back again, that you should have such a pledge of my attachment to this Country, and of my wishes to cultivate a close and lasting intimacy with the inhabitants.

DUNMORE.

June 10, 1775.

Resolved, That the said Answer be taken into consideration on Monday next.

Resolved, That this House will, upon Monday next, resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole House, to take into consideration the Governour’s Answer to the joint Address of the Council and this House.

Ordered, That a Committee be appointed to inquire into the causes of the late Disturbances and Commotions, and report the same as they shall appear to them, to the House.

And a Committee was appointed, of Mr. Cary, Mr. Treasurer, Mr. Mercer, Mr. Banister, Mr. Munford, Mr. Jones, Mr. Charles Carter of Lancaster, Mr. Digges, Mr. Whitinge, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Mr. Wood Mr. William Cabell, Mr. Braxton, and Mr. Zone, and they are to have power to send for persons, papers, and records.

Ordered, That leave be given to bring in a Bill for appointing an Agent; and that Mr. Braxton and Mr. Treasurer do prepare, and bring in the same.

Monday, June 12, 15 Geo. III, 1775.

A Petition of the community of Christians, called Menonites, was presented to the House, and read, setting forth, that the Petitioners hold it to be contrary to the holy word of God to swear in any matter whatsoever; so that they cannot become witnesses in matters of controversy depending in any Court; nor can execute the office of executor of any testament; nor undertake the administration of any intestate’s estates; whereby they suffer many inconveniences; and therefore praying, that they may have the same liberty of affirming to the truth of any matter, as is indulged to the people called Quakers, whose religious persuasion that of the Petitioners nearly resembles.

Ordered, That the said Petition be referred to the consideration of the Committee of Religion; and that they do examine the matter thereof, and report the same with their opinion thereupon to the House.

Mr. Cary reported from the Committee appointed to draw up an Address, to be presented to the Governour, that the Committee had drawn up an Address accordingly; which they had directed him to report to the House. And he read the same in his place, and afterwards delivered in at the Clerk’s table, where the same was read; and is as followeth, viz:

MY LORD: We, His Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects, the Burgesses of Virginia, now met in General Assembly, have taken into our consideration the joint Address of the two Houses of Parliament, His Majesty’s Answer, and the Resolution of the Commons, which your Lordship has been pleased to lay before us. Wishing nothing so sincerely as the perpetual continuance of that brotherly love which we bear to our fellow-subjects of Great Britain, and still continuing to hope and believe that they do not approve the measures which have so long oppressed their brethren in America, we were pleased to receive your Lordship’s notification, that a benevolent tender had at length been made by the British House of Commons towards bringing to a good end our unhappy disputes with the Mother Country. Next to the possession of liberty, my Lord, we should consider such a reconciliation as the greatest of all human blessings. With these dispositions we entered into the consideration of that Resolution; we examined it minutely; we viewed it in every point of light in which we were able to place it; and, with pain and disappointment, we must ultimately declare it only changes the form of oppression, without lightening its burden. We cannot, my Lord, close with the terms of that Resolution, for these reasons:

Because the British Parliament has no right to intermeddle with the support of civil Government in the Colonies. For us, not for them, has Government been instituted here. Agreeable to our ideas, provision has been made for such officers as we think necessary for the administration of publick affairs; and we cannot conceive that any other legislature has a right to prescribe either the number or pecuniary appointments of our offices. As a proof that the claim of Parliament to interfere in the necessary provisions for the support of civil Government is novel, and of a late date, we take leave to refer to an Act of our Assembly, passed so long since as the thirty-second year of the; reign of King Charles the Second, intituled “An Act