The New-England chronicle — Boston [Mass.], 1776-07-25 00:00:00, page 1

3 O STO N : Printed by P OWARS and WILLIS, at their Office opposite the new Court-House, Queen-Street.
T H~E
NEW-ENGLAND CHRONICLE.
The learning and abilities, the integrity and patrio
tic frmnefs of Judge Drayton are too -well
known to the world to need any encomium. The
profoffon of the law may justly boafl offuch a man,
and South Carolina account itfef happy in such
a dijpenfer ofjuftice. Had ad the Colonies been
blfl with such Judges whe+fifo w^have
been prevented What blood feared! Had the
constitution been defended with the judgment and
spirit of a Drayton, by those who were obliged
b y °ffi ce f ° be the guardians of it, our rights had
never been so infamously violated by Britifb
arms, or the violence had been earlier,and with
lefsfruggle repelled.
'/is charge, some years ago, to the grand jury, has
been read and admired through the whole Conti
nent :—The following charge at once appears
worthy his great charabler. It is a bold and
nervous, it is a clear and conclufae vindica
tion, upon principles of law andthe constitution,
of the present war and revolution on the part of
America. Every friend to justice, and to the
rights of mankind, mus read it with fmgular
pleafare.
From the South-Carolina Gazette, May 28.
At an Adjournment of the Court of General
Seffioris of the Peace, Oyer and Terminer,
Assize and general Goal Delivery, held at
Charleftown, for the Diftri& of Charleftown,
on Tuesday the 23d Day of April, 1776—
before the Honorable William Henry Dray
ton, Esq; Chief Justice, and his Associates
Justices of the Colony of South-Carolina.
On Motion of Mr. Attorney General, Ordered,
That the Charge of his Honor the Chief
Justice, delivered to the Grind Jury, be pub
lished.
B, Order of the Court,
JOHN colcock; c. c s.
The CHARGE to the Grand Jury.
Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,
WHEN by evil machinations tending to
nothing less than absolute tyranny,
rials by jury have been discontinued : and
nies in difeharge of their duty assembled, as
3011 as met been Silently and arbitrarily difmif
.d without being impannelled, whereby in
ontempt of magna charta, justice has been
delayed and denied : It cannot but afford to
every good citizen, the most sincere fatisfa&ion,
vice more to fee juries, as they now aie legal
- impannelled, to the end that the laws may be
nly administered—l do most heartily congra
ulate you upon so important am event.
In this court, where silence has but too long
efided, with a direct purpose to loosen the
ands of government, that this country might
convolved in anarchy and confufion ; you
e now met to regulate your verdicts, under a
row constitution of government, independent
royal authority : a constitution which arose
cording to the great law of nature and of
Rons; and which was established in the late
ongrefs on the 26th day of March last ; a day
at will be ever-memorable in this country —
month, remarkable in our history, for having
ven birth to the original constitution of our
overnment in the year 1669 : for being the
ra-of the American calamities by the ftamp
d: in the year 1765 ; for being the date
the repeal of that a& in the following
ear ; and for the conclusion of the famous
lege of Boston, when the American arms com
eikd General Howe, a General of the firft
.putation in the British service, with the largest,
est difciplincd, and best provided army in that
•vice, supported by a formidable fleet, so
rccipitately to abandon the most impregna
^ fortifications in America, as that he left
hind him a great part of the bedding, military
ores, a^d^; yourvedels m^. So many
(Vol. VIII.)
Messieurs Powars and Willis,
THURSDA Y, July 25, 1776.
important events, is the month of March re
markable in our annals. —Bu I proceed to lay
before you the principal cau es leading to the
late revolution of our government—the law
upon the point—and the benefits resulting
from that happy and nectffary establishment.
—The importance of the tranfa&ion deserves
such a state—the occasion demands—and our
future welfare requires 112 To do this may
take up some little time ; but the fubje& is of
the highest moment, and worthy of your
particular attention : I will therefore confine
my difeourfe to that great poimt; and after
charging you to attend to the due observance
of the jury law, and the patrol and negro a&s,
forbearing to mention the other common
duties of a grand jury, I will expound toyou,
the constitution of your country.
"he house of Brunswick was yet scarcely
fettled in the British throne, to which it had,
been celled by a frcefyeople, when in the year
1719, our ancestors in this country, finding
that the government of the Lon ds Proprietors
operated to their ruin, exercised the rights
tranfinitted to them by their forefathers of
England: And casting off the Proprietary Au
thority, called upon the house of Brunswick to^
rule over them—a house elevated to royal do
minion, for no other purpose than to preserve
to a people, their unalienable rights. The
King accepted the invitation : And thereby in
disputably admitted the legality of that revolu
tion. And in so doing, by his own aft, he
vested in those our forefathers, and in us their
posterity, a clear right to effe<ft another revo
lution, if ever the government of the house of
Brunswick should operate to the ruin of the
people —So the excellent Roman Emperor
Trajan, delivered a sword to Saburanus his
Captain of the Praetorian Guard, with this ad
mired sentence. " Receive this sword, and use
it to defend me if I govern well, but, against
me if I behave ill."
With joyful acclamations, our ancestors by
act of alterably passed on the 18th day of Au
gust 1721, recognifed the British Monarch :
The virtues of the second George are still reve
red among us—he was the father of his people :
And it was with extacy we saw his Grandson
George the third mount the throne possessed
of the hearts of his fubje&s.
Rut alafs I almost with the commencement
of his reign, his fubje&s felt causes to complain
of government. The reign advanced—the
grievances became more numerous and intdlle
rable—the complaints more general and loud—
the whole empire resounded with the cries 'of
injured fubjefts ! at length, grievances being
unredeemed and ever encreafing ; all patience
being borne down ; all hope destroyed ; all
confidence in royal government bladed !—be
hold! the empire is rent from pole to pole !
perhaps to continue asunder for ever !
The catalogue ofour oppressions, continen
tal and local, is enormous. Of such oppressi
ons, I will mention only some of the most
weighty.
# Under colour oflaw, the King and parlia
ment of Great-Britain have made the most ar
bitrary attempts to enslave America ;
By claiming a right to bind the Colonies, "in
all cases whatsoever •,"
By laying duties at their mere will and plea
sure upon all the Colonies ;
By suspending the legislature of New-York ;
By rendering the American charters of no
validity, having annulled the most material
parts ofthecharter of the Ma£cb„dfetts-Bay ;
By divesting multitudes of the Colonists of
their property, without legal accusation or
trial ;
By depriving whole Colonies of the bounty
of providence on their own proper coasts ; in
order to coerce them by famine ;
And, thus America saw it demonstrated, that
no faith ought to be put in a royal proclamati.
on :—for I must oblerve to you, that in the
year 1763, by such a proclamation people were
invited to fettle in Canada; and were aflured
of a legislative representation, the benefit ofthe
common law of England, and a free govern
ment. It is a misfortune to the public, that
this is not the only instance of the inefficacy of
aroyal proclamation ; however, having given
you one instance of a failure of royal faith in
the Northern extremity of this abused Conti
nent, let it fuffice, that I dired your attention
to the Southern extremity ; refpe&ing which
the fame particulars, were in the fame manner
promised ; but, the deceived inhabitants of St.
Augustine, are left by their grand jury, in vaiz
to complain and lament to the world, and yet
scarcely permitted to exercise even that privi
lege, diflinguifhing the miserable, that royal
faith is not kept with them !
Fhe proceedings which I have enumerated,
either immediately or in their evident conse
quences, deeply affixed all the Colonies ; ruin
flared them in the face. They united their
councils, and laid their just complaints before
the throne, praying a redress of grievances.
But, totheir aftoniihment, their dutiful petiti
on for peace and Safety, was answered only by
an a&ual commencement of war and military
deftru&ion!
In the mean time, the Britiffi troops that had
been peaceably received by the devoted inhabi
tants of Boston, as the troops of their Sovereign,
bound to protest them ! fortified that town, to
imprison the inhabitants, and to hold that ca
pital against the people to whom it belonged !
and the British rulers having determined to
appeal from reason and justice, to violence and
arms, a fele& body of those troops, being in the
night suddenly and privately marched from
Boston—at Lexington, on the 19th day of
April, 1775, they by furprize drew the sword
of civil war, and plunged it into the breasts of
the Americans !—againft this horrid injustice,
the Almighty gave instant judgment: An hand
ful of country militia, badly armed, suddenly
coilc&ed, and unconne&edly and irregularly
brought up to repel.the attack, difeomfited
the regular bands of the tyranny ; they retreat
ed, and night saved them from total Slaughter.
By declaring, that the people of Massachu
setts-Bay are liable for offences, or pretended
offences done in that Colony, to be sent to,and
tried for the fame inEng land; or in any Colony,
where they cannot have the benefit °f~ -Jury
of the Vicinage ;
By eftablilhing in Quebec, the Roman Catho
lic religion, and an arbitrary government ; in^
stead of the protestant religion, and a free go
vernment.
Colony of the Maffaebufetts fTo all whom it ms, Conerm.
By— M^U D stria. | °
NOTICE it hereby given, That the Maritime Court sot the
Middle piftri& cf said Colony will be held at Salem in
the County of Essex, on Friday the fecoad Day of August 17760
at the Hour of Ten in the Forenoon, to try the Justice if the
Capture of 8 Sloop named the T,o Friende, Burthen about ,
Ninety-Five Tons, (lately commanded by one Peter Rose) and of
her Cargo and Appactenancei f against which a Lible i, filed be^
fore me; (the said Sloop being brought into the Middle Diftrift
aforefaid) by Jeremiah Obrien Commander cf the arm'd Sloop
named the Machin Liberty, in Behalf of the Officers, Marne*
and Marinara of the fame Sloop, end of the Officers, Marines end.
Mariners of the armed Schooner called the D 1 gent, Commanded:
by John Lambert, both in the Service as the Goearnmaat and
People of the M^achufettb-Bey : And the Owners of laid SUop
Two Friende, or any Perfone concerned, may appear and {hear
cause, jf any tbd, have, why the fame Sloop anther Cargo and'
Appurteaaacet should not be condemned.
TIM, PICKERING, pa. ,% of said&%
By reftrifling the trade and commerce of America ;
By fending to, and continuing in America,
in time of peace, an armed force without, and
against the consent of the people;
By granting impunity to a foidiery instigated
to murder the Americans ;
(Numb. 414.)