The Connecticut courant and Hartford weekly intelligencer — Hartford, Conn., 1775-03-06 00:00:00, page 1

(Voted in Assembly the.2Bth of December, 1774.)
Most Gracious Sovereign,
X M ME your Majesty's dutiful and loyal
X M fubjeds, the Assembly of Jamaica,
)§( W X having taken into consideration the
M X present critical state of the colonies,
M. M X humbly approach the throne, to assure
yc*ir Majesty of our most dutiful regard to your
royal peffon and family, and our attachment to, and
reliance on, our fellow fubjeds in Great-Britain,
founded on the most solid and durable basis, the
continued enjoyment of our personal rights, and the
Security of our properties.
That weak and feeble as this colony is, from its
very small number of white inhabitants, and its pe
culiar situation from the incumbrance of more than
two hundred thousand slaves, it cann'ot be supposed
that we now intend, or ever could have intended re
sistance to Great-Britain.
That this colony has never, by riots, or other vi
olent measures opposed, or permitted an act of resis
tance against any lawimpofed on us by Great-Bri
tain, though alwtys truly fenfib ! e of our just rights,
and of the pernicious consequences, both to the pa
rent and infant date, with which some of them must
be attended ; always relying with the most implicit
confidence, on the justice and paternal tendernels of
your^Majefty, even to the most feeble and distant of
your fubje<fts, and depending that when your Ma
jesty, and your Parliament fhonld have maturely
considered and deliberated on the claims of Great-
Britain and her colonies, every cause of diffatisfadi
on would be removed.
That justly alarmed with the approaching hor
rors of an unnatural contest between Great-Britain
and her colonies, in which the most dreadful cala
mities to this island, and the inevitable deftrudion
of the small sugar colonies are involved ; and ex
cited by these apprehensions, as well as by our af
feaion for our fellow fubjeds, both in Great-Britain
and the colonies, we implore your Majesty's favor
able reception of this our humble petition and me
morial, as well on behalf of ourselves and our con
stituents, the good people of this island, as on behalf
of all other your Majesty's fubjefts, the colonists of
America ; but especially those who labour at present
under the heavy weight of your Majesty's displea
sure, for whom we intreat to be admitted as humble
suitors ; that we may not, at so important a crisis,
be wanting to contribute our sincere and well meant,
however small endeavours, to heal those disorders,
which may otherwise terminate in the deftruftion of
the Empire.
That as we conceive it necessary for this purpose
to enter into the different claims of Great-Britain
and her colonies, we beg leave to place it in the royal
mind as the firft established principle of the consti
tution, that the people of England have a right to
partake of the legislation of their country, and
that no laws can affed them, but such as receive
their assent, given by themselves, or their repre
sentatives; and it follows therefore, that no one
part of ^ur Majesty's fubjedts, either can, or ever
could legislate for any other part.
That the settlers of the firft colonies, but espe
cially those of the elder colonies of North America,
as well as the conquerors of this island, were a part
of the Englilh people, and in every refped equal to
them, and possessed of every right and privilege at
the time of their emigration, which the people of
England were possessed of, and irrefragably, to that
great right cf consenting to the laws which fnould
bind them, in all cases whatsoever; and who emi
grating at firft ill small numbers, when they might
have been oppressed; such rights and privileges
were constantly gurrantied by the crown, to the e
migrants and conquerors, to be held and enjoyed
by them in the places to which they emigrated; and
were confirmed by many repeated solemn engage
ments, made public by proclamation, under the
Containing the Freshest A DVI CE 8,
To the KING's most excellent Majesty in Council.
The Humble Petition and Memorial of the
Assembly of Jamaica.
MONDAY, March 6, 1,75.
CONNECTICUT
AND
WEEKLY
Open to all PARTIES----not under the influence of ANY.
THE
faith of which, they did actually emigrate and
conquer; that therefore, the people of England,
have no rights, power, or privilege, to give to
the emigrants; as these were, at the time of their
emigration, possessed of all such rights, equally
with themselves.
That the peers of England were possessed of very
eminent and distinguished privileges in their own
right, as a branch of legillation, a court of jus
tice in the dernier resort, for all appeals from
the people, and in the firft instance, for all causes
instituted by the representatives of the people; but
that it does not appear that they ever considered
themselves as anting in such capacities for the colo
nies, the peers having never to this day heard or de
termined the causes of the colonists in appeal, in
which it ever was, and is their duty to serve the
fubjefts within the realm.
That from what has been said, it appears that
the emigrants could receive nothing from either the
peers or the people; the former being unable to
communicate their privileges, and the latter on no
more than an equal footing with themselves; but
that with the King, it was far otherways; the
royal prerogative as now annexed to, and be
longing to the crown, being totally independant
of the people, who cannot invade, add to, or di
minish it, nor restrain or invalidate those legal
grants, which the prerogative hath a just right to
give, and hath very liberally given for the en
couragement of colonization; to some colonies it
granted almost all the royal powers of government,
which they hold and enjoy at this day; but to none
of them did it grant less, than to the firft conquer
ors of this island, in whose favour it was declared
by a royal proclamation, " That they shall have
the fame privileges to all intents and purposes, as
the free born fubjeds of England."
That to use the name or authority of the people
of the present state, to take away, or render inef
fectual, the legal grants of the crown to the colo
nists, is delusive, and destroys that confidence, which
the people have ever had, and ought to have, of
the most solemn royal grants in their favour, and
renders unstable and insecure, those very rights and
privileges which prompted their emigration.
That your colonists and your petitioners having
the most implicit confidence in the royal faith pledg
ed to them in the most solemn manner, by your pre
decessors, rested fatisfied with their different porti
ons of the royal grants, and having been bred from
their infancy, to venerate the name of parliament a
word still dear to the heart of every Briton, and con
sidered as the palladium of liberty, and the great
source from whence their own is derived, receive
the several ads of parliament of England, and Great-
Britain, for the regulation of the trade of the co
lonies, as the salutary precautions of a prudent fa
ther, for the prosperity of a wide extended family;
and that in this light we receive them, without a
thought of questioning the right, the whole tenor
of our conduct will demonstrate, for above one
hundred years.
That though we received these regulations of
trade from our fellow fubje&s of England, and
Great-Britain, so advantageous to us as colonists,
as Englishmen and Britons, we did not thereby
confer on them a power of legislating for us, far
less that of destroying us and our children, by di
vesting us of all rights and property.
That with reluctance we have been drawn from
the prosecution of our internal affairs, to behold
with amazement, a plan almost carried into exe
cution, for enslaving the colonies, founded as we
conceive on a claim of parliament to bind the co
lonies in all cases whatsoever.
Your humble petitioners have for several years
with deep and silent sorrow, lamented this unre
strained exercise of legislative power; still hoping
from the interposition of their fovereigh, to avert
that last and greatest of calamities, that of being
reduced to an abjeCt state of Slavery, by having an
arbitrary government eftablilhed in the colonies,
Goth FOREIGN and DOMESTIC.
' ' er y attempting of which a minister of your pre
"™ impeached by a House of Commons.'
, llke f ° rr °w dowe find the Popifh religion elta
blifhed by law,which by treatywas only to be tolerated ,
_That the most essential rights of the colonies have
been invaded, and their property given and granted to
your Majesty, by men not entitled to such a power.
rhat the murdererof the colonies hath been encoo-'
ra ged byanother aft, disallowing and annuling their
trials by juries of the vicinage; and that fleets anM ar
mies have been Sent to enforce those dreadful laws.*
'here'ore in this desperate extremity most
humbly beg leave to approach the throne, to de
clare to your Majesty, that our fellow fubjeCts in
Great-Britain, and consequently their representa
tives, the house of commons, have not a right, as
we trust we have Shewn; to legislate for the colonies;
and that your petitioners and the colonists are not,
nor ought to be bound by any other laws, than
such as they have themselves assented to, and are
not disallowed by your Majesty.
Your petitioners do therefore make this claim and
demand from their Sovereign, as guarantee of their
just rights, on the faith and confidence of which, they
have fettled, and continue to reside in these distant
parts of the empire, that no laws shall be made and
attempted to be forced upon them, injurious to their
rights as colonists, Englishmen or Britons.
That your petitioners fully sensible of the great
advantages that have arisen from the regulations of
trade in general, prior to the year 1760, as well to
Great-Brit<jn and her colonies, as to your petitioners
in particular,and being anxi^ufly defirons of en^
creasing the good effects of these laws, as well as to
remove an obstacle which is new 111 our government,
and could not have existed on the principles of our
conllitution, as it hath arisen from colonization, we
do declare for ourselves and the good people of this'
island, that we freely consent to the operation of all
such a&s of the British parliament, as are limited to
the regulation of our external commerce only, and
the sole object of which, is the mutual advantage of
Great-Britain and her colonies.
LEIBER <^j
C O URAN T,
HARTFORD
INTELLIGENCER.
We your petitioners, do therefore beseech your
Majesty, that you will be pleased, as the common
parent of your lubjefls, to become a mediator be
tween your European and American fubjefts, and to
confider the latter, however far removed from your
royal presence, as equally entitled to your protecti
on, and the benefit of the Englilh conftitutlon, the
deprivation of which, mud dissolve that dependance
on the parent state, which it is our glory to acknow
ledge, whilst enjoying those rights under her pro
tection; but should this bond of union be ever des
troyed, and the colonists reduced to confider them
selves as tributaries to Britain, they must cease to
venerate'her as an affectionate parent.
We beseech your Majesty to believe, that it is
our earned prayer to Almighty providence, to pre
serve your Majesty in all happiness, prosperity and
honour, and that there never may be wanting one of
your illustrious line, to transmit the blessings of our
excellent constitution, to the latest posterity, and to
reign in the hearts of a loyal, grateful, and affedi
onate people.
The following calculation, taken from a lift of the
Fol-tax, for the year 1767, may give the reader
an idea of the importance of the island of Jamaica,
to the Kingdom of Great-Britain:
63,160 hogsheads, 7
7,029 tierces and barrels j
12,149 puncheons of rum.
pimento;)
. ' ? packages.
1,947 cotton, °
5,031 bags and calks of ginger.
^5,328 planks of Mahogany.
3,212 tons of fuftick and logwood.
190,914 negroes.
135>77T cattle.
369 cattle )
235 water S mills.
44. wind J
647 sugar plantations.'