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To the Honourable the Delegates elected by the several Counties and Districts within the Government of NEW-YORK, in Colonial Congress convened: The respectful Address of the Mechanicks in Union, for the City and County of NEW-YORK, represented by their General Committee : ELECTED DELEGATES : With due confidence in the declaration which you lately made to the Chairman of our General Committee that you are, at all times, ready and willing to attend to every request of your “constituents or any part of them;” we, the Mechanicks in Union, though a very inconsiderable part of your constituents, beg leave to represent that one of the clauses in your Resolve, respecting the establishment of a new form of Government is erroneously construed, and for that reason may serve the most dangerous purposes; for it is well known how indefatigable the emissaries of the British Government are in the pursuit of every scheme which is likely to bring disgrace upon our rulers, and ruin upon us all. At the same time we cheerfully acknowledge that the genuine spirit of liberty which animates the other parts of that Resolve, did not permit us to interpret it in any other sense than that which is the most obvious, and likewise the most favourable to the natural rights of man. We could not, we never can. believe you intended that the future delegates or yourselves should be vested with the power of framing a new Constitution for this Colony, and that its inhabitants at large should not exercise the right which God has given them, in common with all men, to judge whether it be consistent with their interest to accept or reject a Constitution framed for that State of which they are members. This is the birthright of every man, to whatever state he may belong. There he is, or ought to be, by inalienable right, a co-legislator with all the other members of that community. Conscious of our own want of abilities, we are, alas ! but too sensible that every individual is not qualified for assisting in the framing of a. Constitution. But that share of common sense which the Almighty has bountifully distributed amongst mankind in general, is sufficient to quicken every one’s feeling, and enable him to judge rightly what degree of safety and what advantages he is likely to enjoy, or be deprived of, under any Constitution proposed to him. For this reason, should a preposterous confidence in the abilities and integrity of our future Delegates delude us into measures which might imply a renunciation of our inalienable right to ratify our laws, we believe that your wisdom, your patriotism, your own interest, nay, your ambition itself, would urge you to exert all the powers of persuasion you possess, and try every method which, in your opinion, would deter us from perpetrating that impious and frantick act of self-destruction; for as it would precipitate us into a state of absolute slavery, the lawful power which till now you have received from your constituents to be exercised over a free people, would be annihilated by that unnatural act. It might probably accelerate our political death; but it must immediately cause your own. The continual silence of the bodies which are, by election, vested with an authority subordinate to that of your House, would strike us with amazement should we suppose that, in their presence, your resolve ever was interpreted in a sense that was not favourable to the free exercise of our inalienable rights. But we, who daily converse with numbers who have been deceived by such misconstruction, conceive that we ought to inform you in due time that it has alarmed many zealous friends to the general cause which the United Colonies are defending with their lives and fortunes. As the general opinion of your uprightness depends in a great measure on your explanation of that matter, and it being self-evident that the political happiness or misery of the people under your Government must be deeply affected by the measures which they may adopt in consequence of such explanation, we trust that you will receive this respectful Address with indulgence, and that all our brethren in this and the other Colonies in the Union will do us the justice to believe that it was dictated by the purest sentiments of unconfined patriotism. The Resolve which contains the obnoxious clause already mentioned, is, together with the introduction to it, in the following words, to wit: “And whereas doubts have arisen whether this Congress are invested with sufficient power and authority to deliberate and determine on so important a subject as the necessity of erecting and constituting a new form of Government and internal police, to the exclusion of all foreign jurisdiction, dominion, and control whatever : And whereas it appertains, of right, solely to the people of this Colony to determine the said doubts: Therefore “Resolved, That it be recommended to the Electors in the several Counties in this Colony, by election in the manner and form prescribed for the election of the present Congress, either to authorize (in addition to the powers vested in this Congress) their present Deputies, or others in the stead of their present Deputies, or either of them, to take into consideration the necessity and propriety of instituting such new Government as in and by the said Resolution of the Continental Congress is described and recommendded; and if the majority of the Counties, by their Deputies in Provincial Congress, shall be of opinion that such new Government ought to be instituted and established, then to institute and establish such a Government as they shall deem best calculated to secure the rights, liberties, and happiness of the good people of this Colony, and to continue in force until a future peace with Great Britain shall render the same unnecessary.” We cannot forbear expressing our astonishment at the existence of the doubts alluded to in the introduction just quoted. But when, in compassion to those weak minds which gave them birth, you condescend to declare that “it appertains solely to the people of this Colony to determine the said doubts, ” you have, in the spirit of the recommendations of the General Congress, demonstrated to your constituents that you will, on all occasions, warn them to destroy in its embryo every scheme which you may discover to have the least tendency towards promoting the selfish views of any foreign or domestick oligarchy. Your enemies never can persuade people of reflection that you fully instructed the most ignorant amongst us, by such a positive declaration of our rights, for the purpose of surreptitiously obtaining our renunciation of them. Human nature, depraved as it is, has not yet, and we hope never will, be guilty of so much hypocrisy and treachery. We observe, on the contrary, that your Resolve is perfectly consistent with the liberal principles on which it is introduced; for, after having set forth what relates to the election of Deputies, you recommend to the Electors, “if the majority of the Counties shall be of opinion that such new Government ought to be instituted, then to institute and establish such a Government.” Posterity will behold that Resolve as the test of your rectitude. It will prove that you have fully restored to us the exercise of our right finally to determine on the laws by which this Colony is to be governed; a right of which, by the injustice of the British Government, we have till now been deprived; but a forced and most unnatural misconstruction, which is artfully put upon your Resolve, has deceived many who really believe that we will not be allowed to approve or reject the new Constitution. They are terrified at the consequences, although a sincere zeal for the general cause inspire them to suppress their remonstrances, lest the common enemy should avail himself of that circumstance to undermine your authority. Impressed with a just fear of the consequences which result from that error, we conceive it would be criminal in us to continue silent any longer; and therefore we beseech you to remove, by a full and timely explanation, the groundless jealousies which arise from a misconception of your patriotick Resolve. As to us, who do not entertain the least doubt of the purity of your intentions; who well know that your wisdom would not suffer you to aim at obtaining powers of which we cannot lawfully divest ourselves; which, if repeatedly declared by us to have been freely granted, would only proclaim our insanity, and for that reason be void of themselves; we beg leave, as a part of your constituents, to tender to you that tribute of esteem and respect to which you are justly entitled for your zeal in so nobly asserting the rights which the people at large have to legislation, and in promoting their free exercise of those rights. You have most religiously followed the line drawn by the General Congress of the United Colonies; their laws, issued in the style of
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