|
|
L. H. J.
Liber No. 50
May 5
|
was stirring, I cannot help observing to you, That Two Days before
my Instructions were sent to the former, I received Advice by a
Person who came hither Express, that a large Party of French and
Indians had been discovered near Fort Cumberland within this Prov-
ince; there is a Gentleman in your House who must acknowledge,
that, in a Letter which he was pleased to write from the Mouth of
Conococheague, the 15th of December, and which I received the 19th
of that Month, he referred me to the Bearer, and told me that he
could inform me " of the French that appeared the Saturday before
at Fort Cumberland." Some Letters from another of your Members
(which, agreeable to his own Desire, I laid before you in a former
Session) convinced you, I believe, that Alarms have been frequently
given, and that Parties of the Enemy have been said to be committing
Murders almost in the Heart of Frederick County, when, in all Prob-
ability, there were none within the Distance of a Hundred Miles
of the Province; but the Action or Skirmish that happened in Decem-
ber last, between a Detachment of our Forces and the French above-
mentioned, leaves us no Room to doubt but a considerable Party of
the Enemy was in this Province at that Time; one of them who was
taken Prisoner in that Skirmish, and brought immediately to An-
napolis by Lieutenant Riley, declared, on his Examination before Col.
Haldiman, Sir John St. Clair, and Myself, that the Party consisted of
Two Officers, Six Cadets, Twenty Soldiers, and Eight Indians, and
that their Intention, when they came from Fort Duquesne the 2/th
of November, was, to make a Descent on this Province.
There is one Remark more that I shall take the Liberty to make
before I quit this Part of your Address, and it is this, that while you
would persuade your Constituents, that by the Troops on our Fron-
tiers not being compelled to do their Duty, the Inhabitants are neither
protected nor made quiet and easy, you endeavour to shew that those
Inhabitants were entirely satisfied, and that scarce a Person could
be found, who could truly say, he was apprehensive of any Danger
at all. Had I founded my Power, or Right, to order any of the
Militia of Kent, Queen-Anne's, or Calvert, Counties to the Frontiers,
on the Address that was presented to me the 30th of September 1756,
by the late Lower House of Assembly, or it I had taken any Step,
|
|
|
|
p. 171
|
upon a Supposition that I was by that Address vested with any
Authority which I before wanted, your Intimations about the Danger
of affording Precedents, and your Observation, that we ought to
guard against every bad Consequence which may possibly flow from
a Stretch of Power beyond its due Bounds, might perhaps have been
more aptly introduced than they seem to be at present; but I assure
you, Gentlemen, that although it will always give me great Pleasure
to know that the Members you allude to, approve my Conduct, yet, I
shall not think that the Unanimity, or more than Unanimity, of
any Part of your House, in approving or disapproving, will make a
|
|
