a longer session than the House at this time might incline to, and might be productive of some controversy. Whereupon, the House taking the same into their consideration, and also being of opinion that any thing which might interrupt the harmony, in this present critical situation of the Province, ought not to be entered into at the present session, unless something should occur during their sitting which may, in their opinion, render it necessary, do order that the report be postponed.

A Message from his Excellency, by Mr. Deputy Secretary Pettit:

MR. SPEAKER: His Excellency is in the Council Chamber, ready to receive the Address of the House.

Whereupon, Mr. Speaker left the chair, and, with the House, went to wait upon the Governour; and being returned, Mr. Speaker resumed the chair, and reported, that the House had waited on the Governour, and delivered their Address, in these words:

To His Excellency WILLIAM FRANKLIN, Esq., Captain-General, Governour, and Commander-in-Chief, in and over His Majesty’s Colony of NOVA -CÆSAREA, or NEW-JERSEY, and Territories thereon depending, in AMERICA, Chancellor and Vice-Admiral in the same, &c.

The humble Address of the Representatives of the said Colony, in General Assembly convened.

May it please your Excellency:

We, His Majesty’s loyal and dutiful subjects, the Representatives of the Colony of New-Jersey, in General Assembly convened, have considered your Excellency’s speech at the opening of the present session.

We sincerely lament the unhappy situation of publick affairs; and we regret that, though we have presented a dutiful petition to His Majesty, yet we have little prospect of his favourable interposition for the removal of those grievances under which we suffer, in common with his other American subjects.

There is nothing we desire with greater anxiety than a reconciliation with our Parent State, on constitutional principles. But if the resolution of the House of Commons, of the 20th of February, could, without departing from the duty we owe to our constituents, have been accepted, or made the basis of a negotiation which would probably have led to any plan of accommodation, we have been and still are greatly mistaken.

We are surprised to hear that any persons could have advised your Excellency to have sought an asylum on board of one of His Majesty’s ships. We cannot imagine that your Excellency could have had any just reason to fear any insult or improper treatment from the people of the Colony; and if your retreat would necessarily be attributed to either the effect or well-grounded apprehensions of violence, and be productive of mischiefs to the inhabitants, however such advisers may deserve to be esteemed your “best friends,” we cannot suppose them to be really so to the Colony.

Your Excellency’s safety, or that of any of the officers of Government, we apprehend to be in no danger. We place our own safety in that protection which the laws of our Country and the executive powers of the Government afford to all the King’s subjects. It is the only asylum which we have to fly to; and we make no doubt but that it will be, as it hitherto hath been, found fully equal to the purpose both of securing your Excellency and others. And we hope to find that the officers of Government will conduct themselves so prudently as not to invite any ill usage, and that they will not make any supposed “infatuation, or disorder” of the times, a pretence to leave the Province, and thereby endeavour to subject the inhabitants to any calamities.

We know of no sentiments of independency that are, by men of any consequence, openly avowed; nor do we approve of any essays tending to encourage such a measure. We have already expressed our detestation of such opinions, and we have so frequently and fully declared our sentiments on this subject, and in particular in our petition to the King at the last session of Assembly, that we should have thought ourselves, as at present we really deserve to be, exempt from all suspicion of this nature.

We have already resolved to support His Majesty’s Government, and look upon it to be our duty to use our influence to promote peace, order, and good government.

By order of the House:

CORTLAND SKINNER, Speaker.

House of Assembly, November 29, 1775.

To which His Excellency was pleased to make the following answer:

GENTLEMEN: I return you my thanks for your resolution to support His Majesty’s Government, and cannot but approve your determination to promote peace and good order.

I shall avoid, for the reasons I gave you in my speech, any remarks on your sentiments respecting the present unhappy situation of publick affairs, and shall transmit to His Majesty your opinion of the resolution of the House of Commons. Thus much, however, I would only observe, that if you really thought, or still think, that the making that resolution the basis of a negotiation would not have led to some plan of accommodation, on terms that Americans have heretofore solemnly and repeatedly declared would give them full content, then you have been and still are greatly mistaken.

Your surprise that any persons could advise me to seek an asylum, when so many Governours and Crown officers had been before compelled to do the like, is as extraordinary as your supposition that those persons must therefore be no friends to the Colony.

It gives me pleasure, however, to find that you make no doubt but that the laws of the Country, and the executive powers of the Government, will afford safety, and prove an asylum to all the King’s subjects. On the strength of this assurance, His Majesty’s officers, who have now the misfortune of being confined in Trenton, by some supposed unlawful authority, cannot hesitate to apply for that legal remedy, an habeas corpus; nor can any of His Majesty’s Justices of the Supreme Court have the least scruple to grant it, nor ought any one to doubt “but that it will (as you say) be found fully equal to the purpose.”

Your hope that the officers of Government will conduct themselves prudently, will, I trust, be greatly gratified, at least by some of them, if a manly, conscientious discharge of their duty to their King and Country, as far as may be in their power, is consistent with your ideas of prudence. As they have not even made the real disorders of the times a pretence for leaving the Province, it seems rather unkind to intimate any suspicion that they would do it on a “supposed disorder of the times;” equally unjustifiable is it to insinuate that any of them would be so absurd as to “invite ill usage,” or so wicked as to “endeavour to subject the inhabitants to any calamities.” But such suspicions and such language must, I suppose, be attributed to the fashion of the times.

In speaking of the sentiments of independency, openly avowed by some men of present consequence, I had not the most distant thought that you would consider the remark as at all meant for or applicable to your House. If any faith is to be put (as you say) in your frequent and full declarations of your sentiments on this subject, you certainly deserve to be exempt from all suspicions of that nature. I even intimated, in my speech, that you must entertain “an abhorrence of such design.” Your present disapprobation of the essays tending to encourage that measure gives me great satisfaction, and I sincerely wish that both you and I may, ere long, have the happiness to see those, who either openly or privately avow sentiments of independency, men of no consequence.

On motion made, that this House do send a message to his Excellency, requesting him to dissolve the present Assembly at the end of the present session, and give the people another choice of Representatives: The Previous Question was demanded, “Whether the said question shall now be put or not.” It passed as follows, viz:

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