a tavern, with doors shut, can, with any appearance of truth or decency, be called a general meeting of the inhabitants of Georgia. Having now given our reasons at large, we enter this our public dissent to the said resolutions of the 10th, and all the proceedings had or to be had thereon, and do earnestly desire that such resolutions may not be taken as the sense of the inhabitants of Georgia. (Signed.) JAMES FARLEY, JAMES THOMPSON, JAMES E. POWELL, WM. MOORE, WM. Ross, MATTHEW STEWART, HENRY FOREST, The following persons in other districts of this parish have subscribed hereunto: Upon the Island of Skidaway, GEO. BARRY, CHARLES W. McKINON, ROBERT REID. In Vernonburgh, DAVID JOHNSON, GEO. DRON, NATHANIEL ADAMS, WALTER DENNY, PETER THEIS, JOSEPH SPENSER, HENRY NUNGAZER, JOHN CAMPBELL, GEORGE NUNGAZER, JAMES NOBLE, JOHN RANSTAL LER. * Peter La Vein dissents, because he conceives that, as an inhabitant of Christ Church Parish, he was not represented. GOVERNOR WRIGHT'S SPEECH TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, AND THEIR ANSWER. SAVANNAH, GEO., January 18, 1775. This day the General Assembly of this Province met here, when his Excellency, Sir JAMES WRIGHT, Baronet, Governor in Chief, &c., was pleased to deliver the following speech to both Houses, viz: SAVANNAH, GEO., January 18, 1775. Honourable Gentlemen, Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the Commons House of Assembly : This being the first opportunity that has offered in General Assembly, I must not omit acquainting you that in consequence of the Petition of both Houses, his Majesty was graciously pleased to direct, that if this Province should be engaged in any actual Indian war, we should have every proper succour and protection: and I was ordered to apply to the Commander-in-chief of his Majesty's forces in America, for that purpose, who had received directions thereupon. The alarming situation of American affairs at this juncture makes it highly necessary for me to say something to you on the subject ; and it is with the utmost concern that I see by every account all the colonies to the northward of us, as far as Nova-Scotia, in a general ferment; and some of them in such a state as makes me shudder when I think of the consequences which it is most probable will soon befall them. The unhappy disputes with the mother country are now become of the most serious nature, and I am much afraid the very extraordinary and violent measures adopted and pursued, will not only prevent a reconciliation, but may involve all America in the most dreadful calamities. GENTLEMEN,—I think myself very happy in having it in my power to say, that this Province is hitherto clear; and I much hope, by your prudent conduct, will remain so. Be not led away by the voices and opinions of men of overheated ideas; consider coolly and sensibly of the terrible consequences which may attend adopting resolutions and measures expressly contrary to law, and hostile to the mother country; especially at so late a season, when we may almost daily expect to hear the determination of Great Britain on the matters in dispute, and therefore, I conceive, can answer no purpose but that of throwing the Province into confusion: and I tremble at the apprehension of what may be the resolution and declarations of the new Parliament relative to the conduct of the people in some parts of America. You may be advocates for liberty, so am I; but in a constitutional and legal way. You, gentlemen, are legislators, and let me entreat you to take care how you give a sanction to trample on law and government; and be assured it is an indispensable truth, that where there is no law there can be no liberty. It is the due course of law. It is the due course of law and support of government which only can ensure to you the enjoyment of your lives, your liberty, and your estates; and do not catch at the shadow and lose the substance. I exhort you not to suffer yourselves to be drawn in to involve this Province in the distresses of those who may have offended; we are in a different situation, and on a very different footing from the other colonies. Do not consider me as speaking to you as the King's governor of this Province. As such, gentlemen, it is certainly my duty to support his Majesty's just right and authority, and preserve peace and good order within my government, and to contribute as much as possible towards the prosperity and happiness of the Province and people. Believe me, when I tell you I am at this time actuated by further motives than a show only of discharging my duty as the King's governor. I have lived amongst and presided over you upwards of fourteen years, and have other feelings. I have a real and affectionate regard for the people, and it grieves me that a Province that I have been so long in, and which I have seen nurtured by the Crown, at the least expense to the mother country, and grew up from mere infancy, from next to nothing, to a considerable degree of maturity and opulence, should, by the imprudence and rashness of some inconsiderate people, be plunged into a state of distress and ruin. We have been most happy in, I hope, avoiding Scylla, and let me, in the strongest terms, conjure you to steer clear of Charybdis. It is a most melancholy and disagreeable subject, and therefore I shall avoid making any observations on the resolutions adopted by the other colonies but hope, through your prudence and regard for the welfare and happiness of this Province, of yourselves and your posterity, none will be entered into here. The strongest reasons operate against it, and as they must occur to every considerate person, I shall not mention any. GENTLEMEN OF ASSEMBLY,-The very dangerous and critical situation of our affairs with the Creek Indians last spring, preventing your going on with the necessary business of the Province at that time, I therefore hope and depend, that, agreeable to your address to me, of the 12th of March, 1774, you shall now take the several matters formerly recommended to you into consideration, and proceed thereupon with that serious attention they require, and to which I shall only add, that, in order to preserve and continue to us peace and quietness with the Indian trade, and transactions in the Indian country, to prevent encroachments and trespasses on the lands and hunting grounds of the Indians, and other irregularities and abuses being committed by hunters and other disorderly people, both without and within the settlements; and therefore most earnestly recommend a revisal of a Bill relative to Indian affairs, which was before the House of Assembly in the year 1769, in which I am persuaded you will find some clauses that may be most useful and salutary to the Province. I have ordered the treasurer to lay all the public accounts before you, and will very soon send you an estimate of the usual and necessary supplies since the last tax. JAMES WRIGHT. To the Upper House of Assembly. IN THE UPPER HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY, A Message to the Commons House of Assembly:- This House having taken seriously into consideration those matters mentioned by his Excellency, in his speech to both Houses, respecting the present alarming state of the unhappy dispute between Great Britain and the colonies, and conceiving the subject to be of the highest importance to the welfare and safety of both, is therefore desirous of having a free conference with your House thereon, in hopes of being able to fix on such a plan of conduct as may reasonably be expected will prove conducive to the obtaining the great point, which every true friend to America hath or ought to have only in view, to wit: that of securing to its inhabitants, on a clear, solid, and permanent footing, all the rights and privileges to which, as British subjects, they are entitled on the principles of the constitution. For, however warmly this House may and doth condemn the violent and ill-judged measures pursued by some of the other Provinces, which they conceive to have an evident tendency to widen the breach between Great Britain and the colonies, it may involve all America in a scene of the utmost distress and misery; yet it is the sincere wish of this House, as far as in their power, to see every obstacle removed which may interrupt a cordial and lasting union with the mother country, or obstruct or prevent his Majesty's American subjects from enjoying all the constitutional rights of British subjects, and will at once testify loyalty to our most gracious Sovereign, a firm attachment to the British Constitution, and a warm and proper regard to the rights and liberties of America. On Friday, the 20th of January, the following Addresses were presented to his Excellency, viz.: To his Excellency, Sir JAMES WRIGHT, Baronet, Captain-General, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over his Majesty's Province of Georgia, Chancellor and Vice-Admiral of the same. The humble Address of the Upper House of Assembly :— MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,-We, his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Council of Georgia, in General Assembly met, beg leave to return your Excellency our most cordial thanks for your truly affectionate speech to both Houses of Assembly, at the opening of this session. We receive with pleasure and gratitude the information you have been pleased to give us of the favourable reception the petition from both Houses met with from our most gracious Sovereign, and that his Majesty had been pleased to order troops for our protection, in case we had been unhappily engaged in an Indian War. After having had the experience of your Excellency's prudent and equitable administration for upwards of fourteen years, we can have no doubt of your real and friendly concern for the true interest of this Province. The language of your Excellency's speech upon the subject, of the highest importance to the people of Georgia, is so truly paternal, that every unprejudiced person must be convinced of its being dictated by a heart warm with love and affection for the people over whom you preside and we hope it will meet with that return of gratitude and attention which the affectionate spirit it breathes, and the great importance of the subject merits. It is with the deepest concern we see the alarming lengths to which the present unhappy dispute between the mother country and the colonies is carried; lengths that threaten a dissolution of all good order and government, and of that union on which the happiness and prosperity of both countries depend. But, whilst we lament these unhappy discussions, and disapprove of all violent and intemperate measures, and at the same time declare it to be our pride and glory to be constitutionally connected with Great Britain by the closest and most endearing ties, and that we dread nothing more than a dissolution of those ties; yet, anxious for the present welfare of our country, and the interest of our posterity, our ardent wish is that his Majesty's American subjects may enjoy all the rights and privileges of British subjects, as fully and effectually, in all respects, as the inhabitants of Great Britain do; and to that end it now appears highly necessary that the constitutional rights of his American subjects may be clearly defined and firmly established, that so they may hold those inestimable blessings on such a footing as will unite the mother country and the colonies by a reciprocation of benefits, and on terms consistent with the spirit of the constitution, and the honour, dignity and safety of the whole empire. And we wish and hope to see a matter of such importance taken up in a constitutional way by both Houses of Assembly, not in the least doubting, but that if such prudent and temperate measures are adopted by the legislatures of other Provinces, we shall see them crowned. with that success which may remove the unhappy division now subsisting, and bind us to our mother country by the tie of interest, love and gratitude, and establish the prosperity, power and grandeur of the British Empire, on foundations which may last till time shall be no more. Nor can we doubt of success, when we reflect that we are blessed with a King who glories in being the equal father of all his people; and therefore can and do submit our cause with full confidence to his royal wisdom and paternal goodness. Neither will we suppose that a British Parliament, that great and august body, who have so often generously asserted and defended the liberties of other nations, will disregard the equitable claims of their fellowsubjects. We entirely agree with your Excellency in the opinion that where |