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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from Alexander Martin to the North Carolina General Assembly
Martin, Alexander, 1740-1807
April 30, 1783
Volume 16, Pages 781-782

AN ANSWER TO THE ADDRESS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY APRIL 30TH.
[From Executive Letter Book.]

Gentlemen of the Honorable the General Assembly:

This public approbation of my conduct in the chief Magistracy of the State from the Honorable the Legislature, is very acceptable and pleasing to me, and impresses on my mind the most grateful sensations.

If I have been any ways instrumental in reducing the State to order, during the time of and since the late intestine commotions, it was pursuing the path of duty, and discharging the high trust reposed in me by my Country, from this full conviction, that the happiness of my fellow Citizens consisted in the equal enjoyment of those Constitutional blessings which peace restores, and which our free and happy Government, now acknowledged by the world was bound to bestow. Honored again by your suffrage to this high and important station, I can only promise in return that my endeavours will be stimulated, and my constant study and employment shall be to answer as far as in me lies, the expectations of my Country; though my exertions be feeble, when supported with Legislative aid,

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they will become strong; Laws tempered with wisdom carry with them almost their own coercion, and require only the formal power of the executive. I beg leave to return you my hearty thanks for this honorable testimonial of the people’s respect for the past, as well as for the hopes you are pleased to entertain of my future, administration.

At the same time Mr. Speaker of the Senate, accept my thanks for the polite and handsome manner in which you have conveyed to me the sense of the Honorable the General Assembly.


30th April, 1783.