|
Copy,
|
[Loudoun to Sharpe.]
Albany NoV 3d 1757. —
Sir
Last Night I had the favor of yours of October 21st with
an account of the Proceedings of Your Assembly, & a Copy
of their address to you. —
I must own the Restriction Your Assembly Endeavored to
Lay on the Troops raised by Your Province last Spring Sur-
prized me, as it Interfered with the King's undoubted prerog-
ative of Commanding all His Subjects in Arms, either by
Himself or those he appoints under him. —
But as the Troops were wise enough to obey His Majesty's
orders given them, by those who alone, had power to give
them; and as I was Informed by a Gentleman from Maryland
that, that Clause of the Act had been Layed before Lawyers,
who had all agreed that it was not in the power of the As-
sembly to Lay such a Restriction, and that of Course the
Clause was Null, I was in hopes the Gentlemen that Compose
the Assembly had Reconsidered that Affair and seen the
Error of it —
But your Letter, & their Redress have shewn me that I was
mistaken; and yet I cannot help having that Charity for my
Fellow Subjects to believe that this Affair has not Appeared
to them in its true Light, for I Cannot think, that the As-
sembly of Maryland ever Intended to Invade the King's
undoubted prerogatives.
Nor can I possibly believe that they Intend to throw the
Frontier Garrisons of His Majesty's Dominions, into the
Enemy's hands, particularly when those Garrisons are in their
own Province, & so Essential to their own protection. —
And yet this measure is big with all those Consequences,
both from its own nature, & still more so, from the season in
which it is taken, the account of it arriving to me late on the
2d of November, in the back Country of the Province of New
York, by which measures they not only Refuse their Aid to
the Common Cause, and Desert the Interest & Security of
their own Province, But by the season they have taken this
Resolution in, put it out of the power of the King's Servants
|
