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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from George Sackville Germain, Viscount Sackville
Sackville, George Germain, Viscount, 1716-1785
November 09, 1780
Volume 15, Pages 147-149

LORD GEORGE GERMAIN TO GOV. JOS. MARTIN.
[B. P. R. O. Am. & W. Ind., Vol. 434, P. 97.]

Whitehall, 9th Novr., 1780.

Govr. Martin.
Sir:

I received by Captn. Ross, who arrived here the 9th of last month from Charles Town, your letter of the 18th of August, dated at Campden and Duplicate of one mark'd Private of the 10th of June, the Original of which had not come to hand.

If any Proofs were wanting of your zeal for the King's Service and ardent desire to forward His Majesty's measures for restoring the Constitutional Dependence of America upon Great Britain the honorable & repeated Testimony Lord Cornwallis has given in His Dispatches of your constant and ardent endeavours to promote the attainment of that great object, and especially your spirited Exertions at the Battle of Campden, would be sufficient to place you high in His Majesty's favour, and I Trust you will believe me that it would give me particular pleasure to forward the wishes of so meritorious a servant of the Crown. I have therefore much satisfaction in acquainting you that His Majesty is graciously pleased to accept of your Recommendation of Mr. Lewis de Rosset to be Secretary of North Carolina; and as soon as I am informed that Province is restored to Peace, which I hope will not be long, I shall lay the proper Instrument for his Appointment before His Majesty for His Royal Signature. His Majesty was apprized of Sir Henry Clinton's Intention, as His Majesty's

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Commissioner, to appoint you Governor of South Carolina, when that Province should be recovered, and His Majesty would undoubtedly have confirmed your appointment, but the power of appointing Governors and other Civil Officers was only given in that Commission which the Earl of Carlisle was at the Head of, and was not continued in that which appointed Sir Henry Clinton Sole Commissioner, any more than in the one he now acts under. It is, however, extremely agreeable to the King that you should continue Governor of North Carolina, as you prefer it to the other.

You have certainly an equal claim to compensation for your losses by the Rebellion with other Governors of the revolted Provinces, but I understand that no compensation has been made by the Treasury to any Governors but for losses in Things attached to their public capacities, and not on account of what they suffered in their private property as individuals, it being intended that compensation for such losses should arise out of the Rebels' Estates which may be confiscated and applied to that purpose by the legislatures of the respective Provinces when their antient constitutions are restored.

I am much obliged to you for the detail you have given me of Military Affairs in South Carolina preceding the glorious event at Campden, as there are many particulars in your letter which I could not have otherways known, but which concur with all other accounts in extolling Lord Rawdon's able conduct, and doing justice to His distinguished Military Talents. I impatiently expect to hear of Lord Cornwallis' further progress in consequence of His decisive victory. The exemplary punishment he so judiciously inflicted on some of those who had broken their paroles and violated their Oaths by joining the Rebels after having made their submission must have the best effects in deterring others from being guilty of the like duplicity in hopes of receiving, if detected, that indiscriminate Lenity which has unfortunately been so long extended to all, and, by shewing those still in arms that we are not afraid to punish Rebellion, must operate to induce them to bethink betimes of their own Safety and withdraw from a cause which is evidently declining, before their Situation

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becomes desperate. I am therefore not without hope your next dispatch to me will be dated from the Capital of your province.

I am &c.,
GEO. GERMAIN.