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To his excellency Horatio Sharpe Esquire governor and commander
in chief in and over the province of Maryland
The humble address of the house of delegates.
May it please your excellency,
In answer to your excellency's message of the 20.th we must
observe, that, if the letter from the Speaker of the house of repre-
sentatives of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, addressed to, and
communicated by our Speaker, to this house, be the same with the
letter, a copy of which you are pleased to intimate, hath been com-
municated to the Kings ministers; it is very alarming, to find, that
at a time when the people of America think themselves aggrieved
by the late acts of parliament, imposing taxes on them, for the
sole and express purpose of raising a revenue, and in the most dutiful
manner are seeking redress from the throne, any endeavors to unite
in laying before their Sovereign, what is apprehended to be their just
complaint, should be looked upon "as a measure of most dangerous
and factious tendency, calculated to inflame the minds of his Maj-
esty's good subjects in the colonies, to promote an unwarrantable
combination, excite and encourage an open opposition to, and denial
of, the authority of parliament, and to subvert the true principles
of the constitution;" we cannot but view this, as an attempt, in some
of his Majesty's ministers, to suppress all communication of senti-
ments between the colonies, and to prevent the united supplications
of America, from reaching the royal ear. We hope, the conduct of
this house, will ever evince their reverence and respect for the laws,
and faithful attachment to the constitution; but we cannot be brought
to resent an exertion of the most undoubted constitutional right of
petitioning the throne, or any endeavors to procure, and preserve,
an union of the colonies, as an unjustifiable attempt, to revive those
distractions, which, it is said, have operated so fatally to the prejudice
of both the colonies and the mother country. We have the warmest,
and most affectionate attachment to our most gracious Sovereign,
and shall ever pay the readiest and most respectful regard to the
just and constitutional power of the british parliament; but we shall
not be intimidated, by a few sounding expressions, from doing what
we think is right
The house of representatives of the colony of Massachusetts Bay,
in their letter to us, have intimated, that they have preferred an
humble, dutiful, and loyal petition to the King, and expressed their
confidence, that the united, and dutiful supplications, of his distressed
American subjects, will meet with his royal and favorable acceptance,
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L. H. J.
Liber No. 52
June 22
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