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L. H. J.
Liber No. 49
Dec. 15
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the Lower House would not have known that the Papers in Question
went through my Hands, if they had not learn'd it from my Letter to
Col. Cresap of the 28th of May, 1755, I cannot help observing to your
Excellency, that a few Days after you sent Col. Cresap's Bundle of
Papers, with a Message, to the late Lower House of Assembly, a
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p. 206
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Messenger came to me, as he said, from some Gentlemen of the Com-
mittee, (who had been informed as I understood by the Clerk, of the
Papers having been returned to your Excellency) and told me, that
they wanted those Accounts of Col. Cresap's, which had been hereto-
fore laid before the House; I told him, that I would wait on the Gentle-
men in the Afternoon, and give them an Answer. It happened that
just as I came on the Parade the House was adjourned, but I ad-
dressed myself to one of the Committee, as I understood, and ac-
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p. 207
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quainted him with my Design of coming thither. I told him what I
knew about the Papers, and said, I presumed Col. Cresap would
readily lay. them before the Committee, in case they should think
proper to call on him for them. Since the Beginning of this Session,
Mr. Casson, who was a Member of that Committee, as well as One of
that which was appointed in February 1755, has told me, he remem-
bers well, that when some of the Committee asked after the Papers,
in March 1756, Col. Cresap told them that he had left them at Home :
And if any Gentleman of the present House, has a Desire to see
those Papers, I have Reason to believe that Col. Cresap, who is now
a Member, will be able to produce them. I think it incumbent on me
to observe farther to your Excellency, that if the Gentlemen had
only wanted a Witness against their Clerk, they need not have sent
for one out of the House, for I have been well informed, one of the
Members has said, since I was before the House, that if the Gentle-
men had Questioned him concerning the Papers, instead of sending
for me, he could have told them how they went out of the House,
and that he was not the only One among them that could have given
them such Information. But whatever the Gentlemen's Design was,
in desiring that I might be sent for, I find, that from my declining to
answer about a Matter which I could not instantly recollect, an Occa-
sion has been taken to calumniate and asperse my Character. False
Stories have been artfully and most industriously propagated through
the Province. Many People have been made to believe, that the Sum
of £40,000 which was Granted some Time since for his Majesty's
Service, had passed through my Hands, and that I absolutely Refused
to Account for it : This I have been advised of by Mr. Waggaman, a
Member of the House, who did me the Justice to undeceive the People
whom he heard mention it. In some Counties it has been alledged,
that I denied my Hand- Writing; and in Others, that I had Stole an
Account which had been passed by the Assembly, and secretly put
another in it's Room, by your Excellency's Order, with a View of
Defrauding the Public of several Hundred Pounds. To whose Gen-
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