"I do require and demand of you, therefore, and expect you will answer me in plain and positive terms, whether you own the authority of the Lords Proprietors as Lords of this province, and having authority to administer or authorise others to administer the government thereof; saving the allegiance of them and the people to his most sacred majesty King George? Or, whether you absolutely renounce all obedience to them, and those commissioned and authorised by them? Or, whether you admit their general power, and only dispute that particular branch of their authority, in constituting a council after the manner they have now done? If you deny their general power and authority in this province, and say, that their Lordships have forfeited their charter, as Mr. Berrisford asserted, and you all acquiesced in; then I demand of you, that you signify wherein the Lords have forfeited their charter, and what particular branch thereof they have broken: and I demand of you, that supposing (not granting) they have made a forfeiture of their charter, by what power do you presume to renounce their authority, and to model a government out of your own heads, before such time as that, by a court having lawful jurisdiction of the same, it shall be adjudged that the Lords have made a forfeiture of their charter, and that the powers granted them are null and void? If the King is of opinion, that any corporation or society have made a forfeiture of the rights and powers granted by their charter, although his majesty may have the advice of his Attorney and Solicitor-general, and his Judges and Council learned in the law, that such a forfeiture has been made, (and this he may more reasonably depend on than any advice or assurance you can have); yet, notwithstanding this, and his supreme authority as King, he never dispossessed the persons of the powers granted them, before a quo warranto or some other process had been brought, and judgment obtained against the same. And if the King doth not assume such a power, by what authority do you assume it?
"I desire you further to consider the consequence that attends that assertion, Of the charter being forfeited, before judgment is given upon the same. For if it be so, then the forfeiture must be from the time that the fact was committed that caused the forfeiture; and then you must remember, that, by the charter, the Lords have granted to them, not only the power of ordering the government, but also the lands are granted to them by the said charter; so that if there is a forfeiture of the rights and prerogatives of the government, there is also a forfeiture of their rights to the lands; and so all grants made by their authority of any lands, since the fact committed that caused the forfeiture, according to your own doctrine and assertion, must be null and void; and therefore, how many persons titles to their lands will become void, I leave you to consider. And though, it may be, you will assign some new late fact, that you say will cause such a forfeiture, by which you may think to avoid the ill consequence that attends the titles to the lands; yet know, that the facts that you assign may not be the only ones that may be thought to have made the forfeiture of their charter. And if your present assertion is true, that they may be dispossessed before a judgment; it may be, other persons may assign other causes of the forfeiture, besides those which you assign, which may have been committed many years ago: for you cannot but know there have been persons in the province, that, for several years past, have publicly asserted, that the Lords have done facts, for which their charter was become forfeited. Which if so, I leave you to consider what a gate you will leave open to call in question, nay, utterly destroy, several hundreds of peoples titles to their lands. And though you have most unjustly and untruly suggested to the people, to create a prejudice in them to the Lords Proprietors, that their Lordships designed to dispute their titles to their lands; yet, by this assertion and practice, you are the persons that will not only call in question, but effectually destroy their titles.
"And if you persist in disowning the council as now authorised, then I desire you further to consider, in what capacity I can act with you, and to what purpose you pretend to sit and transact the public business of the province. You know very well I am not able to join with you in passing any law without the consent of my council; and surely you cannot pretend to pass laws without me: and what an absolute occasion there is now to pass some laws, that the province may be put in a posture of defence, and the contingent charges thereof defrayed, I leave you seriously to consider, and hope you will not lose the whole province to the enemy, for your own humours.
"But I am further to tell you, that, in case you continue to deny the authority of the council, you cannot properly style yourselves the representatives of the people; for you know very well you were chosen members of assembly, pursuant to and by virtue of the writs signed by myself and council; for it is not the peoples voting for you that makes you become their representatives; the liege people of this, or any other province, have no power to convene and chuse their representatives, without being authorised so to do by some writ or order coming from authority lawfully empowered. And if you pretend that the writs signed by me, as Governor, were sufficient: to that I answer, that I do not pretend to any such authority, but jointly, and with the consent of my council, it being the express words of my commission; nor did I sign the writs in any other capacity than in conjunction with my council, who also signed the same. But if my signing the writs were sufficient authority for the people to chuse you, then you must allow, that as the power lies solely in me to call you, it lies also solely in me to dissolve you; and therefore, if by your actions you will force me to make use of that power, I do hereby publicly protest and declare, you only must be answerable for the ill consequences that may attend such a dissolution, and for the loss of the lives and estates of the King's subjects in this province, by any attack that may be made upon them by our public enemies the Spaniards, or from the Indians, by reason of the province's not being put into such a posture of defence as it ought, and would, if you proceeded to transact the public business under a lawful authority; and this I would have you seriously to consider of.
"Notwithstanding stories that have been industriously spread to prepossess the people, that you are the only persons who stand up for their rights and privileges; by which, it may be, you have so far engaged them in your favour, that you may have their assistance to enable you to commit any act of force or violence upon the government, and the authority of the Lords Proprietors; yet know, and be assured, that the matters in dispute are of that consequence, that they must and will be decided by an authority in England, having lawful jurisdiction of the same; and that there it must be law and right that must justify your claims, and not the consent and approbation of the people of Carolina, who will have no weight there, but the right and merit of the cause.
"I must farther mention to you, that it is notoriously known, you have promoted two forms of associations, and have persuaded the people to sign them. How far you can be justified at home, behoves you to consider: but as I am satisfied no matter of such public concern ought to be carried on without my knowledge, so I do hereby require and demand of you, an attested copy of both associations; and though it may not concern me to have the names of every individual person that has signed them, yet I do insist upon it that you do acquaint me which of your own members have signed both, or either of them, as also the names of such persons who have commissions, or hold any places civil or military under their Lordships, or of such persons who practise the law in their Lordships courts, and have signed them.
"To what is here demanded of you I do require your plain and positive answer in express terms, and that you do in writing give me the same in a body, and under your hands."
[Sidenote] Their message in answer to it.
This long and elaborate speech, which was also given them in writing, they were not long considering of, but soon returned with the following message; and shewed him that they were neither to be shaken by persuasion, nor intimidated by threats, from their firm purpose. "We have already acquainted you, that we would not receive any message or paper from your honour, in conjunction with the gentlemen you are pleased to call your council; therefore we must now again repeat the same, and beg leave to tell you, that the paper your honour read and delivered to us, we take no notice of, nor shall we give any farther answer to it but in Great Britain."
Immediately after this they came with the following address to the Governor, publicly avowing their resolution to cast off all obedience to the proprietary government, and urging and intreating him to comply with their desire, and take upon him the government of the province in the name of the King. "It is with no small concern that we find ourselves obliged to address your honour, in a matter which nothing but the absolute necessity of self-preservation could at this juncture have prevailed on us to do. The reasons are already by us made known to your honour and the world, therefore we forbear to rehearse them; bur proceed to take leave to assure you, that it is the greatest satisfaction imaginable to us, to find throughout the whole country, that universal affection, deference and respect the inhabitants bear to your honour's person, and with what passionate desire they wish for a continuance of your gentle and good administration; and since we, who are instructed with, and are the assertors of their rights and liberties, are unanimously of opinion, that no person is fitter to govern so loyal and obedient a people to his sacred majesty King George, so we most earnestly desire and intreat your honour, to take upon you the government of this province, in his majesty's name, till his pleasure shall be known; by which means, we are convinced, that this (at present) unfortunate colony may flourish, as well as those who feel the happy influence of his majesty's immediate care.