The Pennsylvania evening post — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-05-14 00:00:00, page 1

For the PENNSYLVANIA EVENING POST.
Serious QUESTIONS addressed to the advocates for
Dependance upon the crown of Britain.
I. /A RE not the American Colonies intitled by nature,
A and by the principles of the British constitution,
to freedom?
^ 2. Have they not a right to assert their claims
against every power whatever?
3. Seeing the King of Great-Britain has concurred with
the British Parliament in attempting to enslave them, should
he not be considered as their enemy?
4. Can it therefore be called taking up the dispute upon
ae<w orfalfe ground to oppose him?
§. Has he not issued proclamations, in which he has called
us Rebels ?
6. Has he not given up his fhaie of prizes to induce his
British fubje&s to ravage our coasts, and to rob us of our pro
perty ? ,
7. Has he not answered our petitions for justice ana mercy
with fleets and armies ?
-8. Has he not Shed the blood of our fathers, brothers, and
children?
9. Has he not dragged some of our countrymen across the
ocean in irons ; and has he not doomed them, by afts of Par
liament, to fuffer for their virtue at Tyburn ?
10. Did he not sue to all the powers of Europe net to sup
ply us with arms and ammunition, and is he not at this time
bribing them to assist him in enslaving us ?
11. In a word, has he not, in a thousand inflances, dii
folved his allegiance to us ?
12. Have the Colonies any constitutional power to arraign
or punish him or his ministers ?
13. Is he not a tyrant 1 If he is not, then we are rebels.
But if he is, then we are bound by the principles of the
British constitution to refill him?
14. Can the wisdom of man, in our present circumstances,
furnifh any other method of refilling him fuccefsfully than
that of proclaiming him a traitor, and dissolving our allegi
ance to him? „ . .
15. Is it not treason to the British constitution to maintain
any longer the least shadow of his power amongst us ?
16. Are not the advocates for Independance the only
true friends to the principles of the British constitution ?
17. Is not Reconciliation an untrodden path; for
where can we find an instance of a people's returning to their
allegiance to a tyrant, after he had violated every political
and moral obligation to them?
18. Is not Independance a trodden path ? Did not the
United Provinces, and the Cantons of Switzerland, eftabliih
their liberty by declaring themselves Independant, the one
of the Courtof Spain, the other of the House of Austria?
19. Is not a dependance upon the crown of Britain as
big with mifehief and folly as submission to the Parliament of
Britain under our present circumstances ?
20. Is it not as criminal now to submit to one as it is to the
other?
81. Is it not just, therefore, to stigmatize with the name of
The PENNSYLVANIA EVENING POST.
Vol. lI.J
Price only Two Coppers. Published every Tuesday, Tburfday, and Saturday Evenings.
TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1776.
241
WILLIAMSBU RG, May 3., .
Extract of a letter from a gentleman in Philadelphia to
his friend in Virginia, dated April 22, 1776.
" We have all the debates in Parliament, by which it ap
pears that the determination of Court is, firft to conquer, and
then to grant pardons to t hose they choose; and for this pur
pose only are the-Comm iffioners declared to be sent, This
is the ostensible plan, but we are informed they are to bribe
through thick and thin, to procure the betraying of America ;
so that it behoves all men to watch, with ^oft attentive consi
deration, the conduct cf those intruded with the public con
cerns whether Colonial or Continental. Their last aft of Par
liament is a curious peace of retrofpe&ive injustice. After de
claring the thirteen colonies in rebellion, and without his
Majesty's protection, and our property made seizable wher
ever found on the water, it goes on to give legal fanciion to
all the violences, robberies, &c. &c. that their people had
committed previous to the passing that ad. The Congress
have, in consequence of this, recommended the fitting out
privateers to cruise on British property. It may be depended
on, as fad, that the owners of the Scotch factors have been
desired by Administration to make no noise about their debts
in America, for that they (the ministry) would fee their debts
paid by forfeiting American eflates. Thus we may account
for the meaning of the intercepted letter lately published in
the Virginia Gazette, wherein the factor is desired to make
out a lift of debts and fend them to Scotland ; and thus these
harpies, after having already pillaged a great part of the pro
perty of Virginia, are now making out accounts, under
court auspices, by which all the remaining property of the
country is to become theirs."
Last Sunday fe'nnight a tender came up Rappahannock,
and chafed a New-England schooner, outward bound, into
Hobb's Hole, from whence she carried her off, as low down
the river as Bowler's warehouse, where she got aground on
an oyster bank, and stuck there till the Tuesday following ;
by which time some spirited gentlemen in the neighbourhood
got together four failing boats, and manned them, with a
view to retake the prize, and, if possible, to board the ten
der, which was commanded by one of old Goodrich's sons,
and had on board a large quantity of fail canvas, &c. &c. As
soon as the tender's people saw our vessels bearing down upon
them, they set fire to the prize, and quitted her; upon which
some small boats from the fliore put off, and arrived time
enough to extinguish the fire, without its materially damaging
the veflel, having only one or two of her fails burned. Mr.
Hugh Walker, and Mr. Richard Banks, who commanded
two of the vessels, got quickly up with the tender, and en
gaged her at close quarters for at least fifteen of twenty mi
nutes, with small arms, during which a valuable Negro man,
a pilot on board Mr. Walker's vessel, was shot through the
head, attempting to board, and three or four of the tender's
people were seen to fall; when a breez : springing up, Mr.
Goodrich took the advantage of it, and ran off, leaving his
Tories all advocates for dependance upon the present arbi
trary and corrupted crown of Britain.
[Num. 205.