ately
transpired, has not only forfeited the confidence of the
good people of this Colony, but that he may be justly
esteemed an enemy to America; and that as well his excuse
published in his Proclamation of the fourth instant, as his
verbal answer to the address presented him on that occasion
by the city of Williamsburgh, are unsatisfactory and
evasive, and reflect, in our opinion, great dishonour on the
General Assembly and inhabitants of this Colony, as from the
latter a suspicion may be easily deduced, that the
Representatives of the people are not competent judges of
the place wherein arms and ammunition, intended for the
defense of the Colony, may be safely lodged, and that the
inhabitants (unlike other subjects) can not, in prudence, be
trusted with the means necessary for their protection from
insurrection, or even evasion; so in the former a very heavy
charge is exhibited against the best men among us, of
seducing their fellow-subjects from their duty and
allegiance; a charge, we are confident, not founded in
reality, and which, we believe, is construed out of the
discharge of that duty which every good man is under, to
point out to his weaker countrymen, in the day of publick
trial, the part they should act, and explain, on
constitutional principles, the nature of their allegiance,
the ground of which we fervently pray may never be removed,
whose force we desire may never with reason be relaxed, but
yet may be subservient to considerations of superior regard.

"The Committee being informed by some of the officers who
commanded the Troops of this County that marched on the
above occasion, that the reason of their marching no farther
than Fredericksburgh was, their having received repeated
requests from the Honourable Peyton Randolph, Esq., to
return home, assuring them that the peaceable citizens of
Williamsburgh were under no apprehensions of danger, either
in their persons or properties; that the publick treasury
and records were perfectly safe, and that there was no
necessity for their proceeding any further; three of the
other Delegates appointed to the Continental Congress, the
only civil power we know of in this great struggle for
liberty, being of the same opinion.

"_Resolved, nemine contra dicente_, T