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L. H. J.
Liber No. 54
Nov. 30
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Representatives of the People of Maryland; and I am therefore
deeply affected with Concern, to be thus driven to express a Dis-
approbation of the Spirit by which some of your Proceedings have
been guided, and which prompted your last Address. My Duty I
shall always esteem it to be, to avoid every Occasion of reasonable
Complaint, but I must not forget that it is my indispensible Duty,
to check the Exercise of such Powers as are incompatible with the
indubitable Authority of Government, the permanent Security of
Property, and the constitutional Liberty of the Subject. Pretences
for Censure are so easily framed, that the most circumspect Be-
haviour cannot prevent them. When they unhappily excite Animosity,
give Rise to querulous Expostulation, tend to promote a popular
Discontent, and obstruct the Course of Publick Business, tho' the
Mischiefs they produce are much to be lamented, yet I cannot but
derive great Consolation from Reflection when they spring from
Passions I am not answerable for. Your positive assertion, that the
last Prorogation was an undue and ill advised Exertion of Power,
permit me, Gentlemen, to observe, carries with it no Reasoning to
convince my Judgment, nor any Authority to preclude a Vindica-
tion, especially as the Motives which influenced me to apply for the
Advice of 'those who are appointed by the Constitution to give it, and
the Reasons by which they evinced the Propriety of their Opinion,
have not been explained to you. When Conjecture is indulged, there
is great Danger of Deception. Jealousy may raise an Alarm, which
an accurate Information of Circumstances might prevent, and under
this Influence, Animadversion be directed against the Product of
mere Imagination. Whether it would have been more regular in your
Department to have called for a Detail of those Motives and Reasons,
and arraigned my Conduct in the Exercise of an unquestionable
Prerogative, because not agreeable to your Views, or conformable
to your Ideas, than it would be in mine, should I require an Account
of, and on the same Ground condemn, your Conduct, when exercised
in any peculiar Privilege of your House, I shall not undertake to
determine; but I must remark, that a precise Information of the
Subject ought to have preceded your Decision upon it, especially a
Decision derogatory from the Character of those, who are bound by
the strictest Ties not to deserve the Reproach it conveys.
I do not mean to shelter, under fforms, the Principles on which I
was advised, and pursued the Measures of Prorogation, and shall
therefore frankly explain them. When I acted upon them, I acted on
a Conviction that I performed a most incumbent Obligation. When
I review them I have a great Complacency in the firm Persuasion,
that I did what I ought, and should have been culpable if I had
omitted. It can hardly, I presume, be a Question, whether, when a
Subject in this Government is illegally deprived of his personal
Liberty, it is the Duty of the executive Power to relieve him?
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