The Potowmac guardian, and Berkeley advertiser. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1790-1798, 1797-03-16

les, We have always conndered TINS practice as IN"
famous as it is baroarous and Inhumsn--bot, itand-
lug as we do in DO ones way, we little expected
we ihoud be IT ade the nt sct Of this kind OF abue.
In dis we have been milf akena writers who lgns
himelf TIE People, with what propriety the real
people will judge, anxious TO induce The people OF
Ibis County 10 leave OF their late Repre-
ienta,iyts at the eniuing election, TO make room,
perhaps, for hmielf or his friend, among other
things has charged him with prefenting and iup-
porting Petition, which went from this County,
and we are told, that petition preien,ed in
names TO TIE latt alssmoly, is the petition alluded
70 if this is really The petition TO which he al
ludes, there is wlckedneis there is maIevolence
in he repre- .enia;on be gives OF it, and its receipt
on, that We did not ferpue any man upon earth
could be guilty Of.
The petition prefented for Us, we verify believe,
would lave teen figned by hundreds in this Coun
ty, had it been thought Necessary by US, have OBJ
tanned other fgnaIurcs to II. We know that hum
dreds in this County were intertittd in the
oft. We know that iimilar petitions were pre-
tented from Hardy, Hampihjre, ard Shanondoah,
hgued by nearly tbouiand people OF thoie Coun-
ties. Had this writer wIihed to have lain the iub
iecl of cur petition fairly before The people, he
ly would not have been totally hlent with reipect
to the petitions from thole Counties. He could
not have been ignorant of it, becaue We find it in
the fame iourna!s which he refers TO- page IL, en-
tered in hete Words
"a petition Of numb er of The inhabitants of
the CounIiea of Hardy, H ainPlhire, and Shenopdo-
ahs Prfiented and read, letting forth, that in
the year 81 the LeeiGsture Of this ttste, paised
law sbollihIne the right OF the late Lord Fairfax,
to lands in the Northern Neck, and authorifg the
citizens of the Commonwealth to make locations
therea hat Under the laid law they proceeded 10
make locations, and have made Comfortable i'm
provements on the property thus acquired, fnce
which the heirs and repreen,atiVes OF he iaid Lord
Il IL. !
tuits N the Federal Court for their recovery, and
obaised decree in their favor, declaring void the
itate law, and reveitng the lands in them and
praying the interference OF the Legislature on the
occa.iun
" Orae,ei, That the faid petitions be referred to
the Committee for Courts ot lnftice that they 60
ezamne the thereof, and report the fame,
with their opinion thereuron, TO the Eou!e."
We would Elk this writer, what uit did this
petition aslude ; 1t was the iuit brought by Denny
Fairfax, agsislt us, in the Federal Court, on which
he obtained Judgment, and from which judgment
the Governef and Council, without even con.ultng
US, took appeal Oh behalf oe this Stare, to the
Supreme Court of the United States, where it re-
NAMED undetermined. We would ak this writer,
what was tie object of Ibis petition from Hardy,
Hsmpii,ire, and Shanondoah Was il not, that
cauie of iuch immenfs Importance which involved
their rights, and the rights of every peron who had
taken up lands in the Northern Neck, under the
laws OF the State, ihoud not be left few indi-
viduas to ddend, but that the Legislature ihould
interfere int? And what was the object of our
petition Preciie!y the fame. We inGiled that the
Commonwealth, having received nearly half mil
lion of dollars from the people, in coniequence of
opening their land flee for the Northern
Neck, it hut jiult and reafonabic that a
tmal par. of it fhouId be applied TO defend Tire
rights OF the Commonwealth to thofe lands
We complained that it was hardfhp upon US
defend saw-nir at our own expence, in
which hnndreds OF individuals were equally inter
cited, and which included the rights of the Com.
monwealth to the unspPropriared lands of The Nor
thern Neck, amounting to perhaps, million of a
ores; and weconciuded, by praying that if the Lee
g'1ature thought otherwe, and determined not to
interfere in the CONTEXT, we mi eht withdraw our
teves from it, return warrants into the Regii-
ter's office, and receive from the freaiurer, what
gold and ilver, in lieu of certificates? Mo-
iuch idea is be found any WHERE bot in the
writer's own brain. We wiihed our own certih-
Gates to be returned, which bore all interelt of FIX
per cent. and we wi!hed the exPences had been
put to, in defending the rehr of the Common
wealth, to be repaid Was this unjuIt, in the
opinion of this writer if 70, we think his ideas of
juttice extremely defective. But give US leave TO
ak him few more aueitons. Would it have been
taxing the people, to apply iinal part of the
ney paid n'o the Treatury by the people of the
Northern Neck, for unaPpropriated lands, to de-
fend the rights of the Stare ttofe lands We
think not Did we viih m pur nur hands into