Archives of Maryland, Volume 0009, Page 0125 - Correspondence of Governor Sharpe, 1757-1761

Correspondence of Governor Sharpe, 1757-1761

Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 125

Declaration they made in their Address to me concerning the
Upper House must be attributed to their absolute Ignorance
of our Constitution or to a worse motive I cannot tell but they
have I find taken abundance of pains to convince the people
of the Inutility or rather Impropriety of an Upper House of
Assembly in this Province & I have great Reason to beleive
that if they had not at this time given me an opportunity of
stopping them in their Career they would in a year or two
have offered their Rills directly to myself instead of first
sending them to the Gentⁿ of the Upper House for their Con-
currence & their Constituents would no doubt have been told
that it was agreeable to the Usage in Pens^a for them to do so.
If the Information I have taken the Liberty to give our Gentⁿhas the good Effect I intended & prevents such wild Excur-
sions for the future I shall have very little Reason to complain
of their Serjeant's being sent for my Secretary & indeed as
the matter stands at present I am well pleased that they did
so since it has given me an opportunity of vindicating my
Character publickly which I should have wanted if they had
contented themselves with entering on their Journal by way of
Resolve what they have now roundly asserted in their Address
which would most certainly have been the Case had M^r Ridout
declined waiting on them when he was first sent for — The
next thing that the Gentⁿ went upon was an Enquiry into the
Conduct of the Officers & Men that have been supported at
the Expence of this Province for His Majesty's Service & the
security of our Frontier Inhabitants, not that any thing had
happened which rendered such an Enquiry necessary or
proper for we have lost but two people on the Frontiers
during the whole summer but an accusation ag^st the Troops
was to be cook't up at any Rate & in order to furnish them-
selves with materials every Idle & wicked Fellow that could
be found on the Frontiers was brought down to prove before
their Committee that the Soldiers had not done the Duty for
which they were raised. The Result was that the officers were
severely censured nay Ld Loudoun did not escape for giving
as they say improper orders, & it then became a question
whether any of the Troops should be supported to a longer
Day. After mature Consideration it was Resolved that
instead of 500 Men there should be hereafter no more than
300 kept in the Pay of this province & that the Service of
those should be restrained in such a manner as to deprive
both Ld Loudoun & myself of all Command & Authority
over them; As soon as I was advised of their being come to
such a Resolution I dispatched an Express to His Ldp & by
his Return received a Letter from him wherein he was pleased
to require or demand that they should continue to support the

Letter Bk. III

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Correspondence of Governor Sharpe, 1757-1761

Volume 9, Page 125 View pdf image (33K)

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