In consequence of the above Proclamation [for Proclamation see ante page 721—Editor] and in obedience to His Excellency's Command signified to me under his hand and seal at arms and received yesterday by an Express I have thought proper thus to publish to my friends, the friends to his Majesty, the Peace, Quiet and Happiness of this my favorite county, the hearty concern which I feel for the miserable situation of this County, at this present, compared with its late happy and flourishing state. Its but a few months ago since I prided myself more, on being the Representative of this People, and the opportunity which I had to exert myself in its interest & the general good of the Community to which I belong than to any single circumstance of my life. I gloried in the name of an Orange man, and was happy in seeing and experiencing the favorable, obliging and willing aid & concurrence of His Excellency the Governor, the honble Members of His Majesty's Council, and the members of the General Assembly, to bring Law, and Justice to be administered at our own doors, and to grant every other benefit and indulgence, which a happy and free people, under the Administration of a Governor in blessing to our land appointed by our most gracious Sovereign to rule over us, could hope or wish for, while we discovered the spirit of loyalty, to His Majesty & obedience to His Laws, and am authorized by His Excellency to say, if any Grievance subsists, in this County if the same is made known by a suitable Petition, to the legislative Body it shall meet with his support if they make themselves the deserving Objects, of the legislative
notice, by immediately dispersing to their several Habitations by behaving themselves in an orderly and peaceable manner and by paying a due and proper Obedience to the Laws, such my friends is the unequalled beneficence of His Excellency, from which I am promised to hope that all such honest, industrious and well-meaning Persons, who have unwarily and unadvisedly entered into the unlawful, and to them only dangerous Conspiracy against His Majesty's Laws and Government, will if they pay a suitable regard to His Excellency's Proclamation be exempted from Punishment or Damages for their past conduct. At the same time I must inform them, that 'tis proper to let me know of such their disapprobation of their past conduct and they shall find me a Friend to their Cause, and I declare in the integrity of my soul that I ever have been to the true Interest, and happiness of this County, Neither in my soul do I believe that the Public has ever been cheated or wronged by the Burgesses, Justices, Vestry or Sheriffs, in their Public settlements, I neither design or wish any Violence or Injury, to any man. Neither do I intend to suffer any injury myself but I intend to use my endeavors to enforce an obedience to His Majesty's Laws & Governments & if there are not loyal subjects enough in this County to do it, a People in whose Countenance at a late General Muster, I thought I could discover the spirit of loyalty, in-stamped in the most legible characters, I have Orders from His Excellency to call to my aid the regiment of Militia of Halifax, Bertie, Granville, Johnston, Cumberland, Anson, Rowan and Mecklenburgh, and if they are insufficient I have still further assistance promised, and that at hand, and the daring Insurgents and Violators of His Majesty's Peace, and the Laws of the Government, and the common rights of mankind may not after this expect, if they continue in their seditious, riotous and tumultuous Practices no exemption or mitigation of Punishment for their crimesGiven under my hand at Hillsborough the 1st May 1768