Gentlemen:
Your Letters of the 25th & 28th of January yesterday were presented me by Mr. Amis from Edenton, they came by Mr.
Bryson, D. Post Master General, &c., whom I have not had as yet the pleasure of seeing. The regulation of the ferries and roads as represented in support of the Post Office demand the attention of the Assembly before whom I shall lay your & that Gentleman’s letter touching the same.The communication you have had the honor to receive from the Court of France, by the hands of their Minister in answer to your address in Behalf of the State, congratulatory on the Birth of the Dauphin has given weight and dignity to your Delegation, also raised the State into foreign importance. I shall with infinite pleasure communicate this high & Royal Testimonial of his most Christian Majesty’s affection for the Citizens and Inhabitants of this State to the Honorable the Legislature. In the mean while you will please to thank his Excellency, the Chevalier de la Lucerne, in the name of the Executive of this State for the great attention he has paid to your address, and the polite and handsome manner he has conveyed to you the sense of his Sovereign.
I have heard of the arrival of Messrs. Nash & Blount but have received no letters from them. I have no news to communicate you of importance except Lord Charles Montague with his Son and four British Officers were brought prisoners into Wilmington a few weeks ago, by a Captain Eve & Crew by the ship Dawes they had taken passage in from Jamaica to New York. His Lordship has requested a parole to New York or some British Post, but this I have denied him, until I can have an enquiry into his conduct of recruiting his Regiment from the Captive Soldiers of the North Carolina and Virginia Lines in the prison Ships at Charlestown who it is s’d were compelled to enlist in his s’d Regiment, and the compulsion was under his Lordship’s directions; a proceeding, if true, greatly violative of the Laws of War, and deeply wounding the honor of the American Empire.
I beg your attention to the enclosed papers respecting the seizure of Captain Spicer’s Flag vessel laden with Tobacco, cloathing & other necessaries, sent from New Bern to our Officers & Soldiers when in Captivity at Charlestown, by the British Commodore or the first Naval Officer at that place, that Congress demand satisfaction for this outrage on humanity & violation of the rights of
Flags, that Justice be done to Capt. Spicer and the State who have received no satisfaction.