582 Assembly Proceedings, Mar. 28-May 13, 1758.

L. H. J.
Liber No. 50
April 17

of the Militia without your Advice; but if you think it necessary,
I will issue Orders for that Purpose." That Message was taken into
Consideration the Eleventh of the same Month, and on that Occa-
sion, those Gentlemen of this House, who were of the late House,
seem to have acted under a Caution, which the Use they began to
find was to be made of their former Approbation of your Excel-
lency's Conduct, in sending out the Militia, had taught them; when
they joined the other Members of this House in an unanimous Re-
solve the same Day, that there was no Necessity then of sending
out the Militia, as there were Forces then in the Pay of this Prov-
ince more than sufficient to guard the Frontiers thereof, and in Con-
sequence of that Resolve, on the Fourteenth, sent your Excellency
the following Address: " We are greatly concerned to find by your
Message of the Seventh Instant, that while there have been a Number
of Troops kept up under your Command, in the Pay of this Province,
on the Frontiers thereof, more than sufficient for the immediate
Defence and Security of the back Inhabitants, there should be Appli-
cation made to you by Capt. Joseph Chapline, and a Number of those
People, for Protection against their Savage Enemies : And we cannot
but be of Opinion, that if even a Part of those Troops had been put
under and punctually performed the Duty clearly enjoined them by
the Law, by which they were raised and supported, there would not
have been any Room for those Applications, or the least Pretence for
ordering out any Part of the Militia in Consequence thereof. And
this Opinion we are confirmed in by the Sentiments of Capt. Joseph
Chapline, now a Member of our House, and several other back In-
habitants. And therefore, as the ordering out the Militia is a Measure
we cannot approve of, as to what has past, so we think it would be
wrong for the present." We presume, if your Excellency had then
obtained the Approbation of this House, for sending out the Militia
on that Occasion, you would not, in order to have prevented the
Settlement of Conococheague being immediately broke up, and to

p. 42

have quieted the People, then in a Consternation by the Account of
the Death and Captivation of Seventeen Persons at Opeccan, have
ordered out the Militia of Queen-Anne's and Kent Counties, or even
Calvert, though it was then a mild Season of the Year: Why then
would your Excellency, contrary to the Opinion of this House, at the
most severe Season of the Year, and at a Time when not so much
as a Report of an Incursion was stirring, send out the Militia of
Queen-Anne's and Kent Counties, far distant from the Frontiers,
and on the Eastern Side of the Bay ? Or, Why the Militia of Calvert
now, when may be added to these Circumstances, the Protection we
all expect from the Party of Cherokees, who, your Excellency knows,
are well encouraged by a proper Present made them this Session, and
have engaged to act offensively in our Interest, and other numerous
Parties, which, 'tis said, are now on, and coming to, our Frontiers,