Mr. Pinkney,

We are highly pleased with the conduct of the people of South Carolina, who have taken the troops destined for Virginia from Saint Augustine, and think ourselves the more obliged to those brave Carolinians,² as those troops were to have been a reinforcement to the sixty men who have been so very formidable to the towns of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Gosport. What might have been the consequence had they arrived! But to be serious: How long will the inhabitants of those Towns suffer themselves to be so shamefully insulted by l——d D—————e [Lord Dunmore] and the Captains of the men of war? To what is it owing that their committees have so unaccountably acquitted some late extraordinary delinquents? Is it to a want of zeal in the glorious cause, or of spirit to prosecute it? But we trust that the people of Norfolk will remove our doubts and jealousies, and wipe off every stain on their characters, by making a proper use of the golden opportunity Heaven has now afforded them. To do this nothing is requisite but a little spirit, with some address and ingenuity in the application of it. A number of small vessels may be easily fitted out as fire ships, and may be used with almost certainty of success, and without the least risk of lives on our part. Nor can the most loyal of his majesty's subjects condemn this measure, since it is but a proper chastisement of the most despicable tools of his greatest enemies; nor can humanity forbid it, because it is dictated by some of its first feelings, an honest indignation, and the love of our country, and is en joined by the first law of nature.

When king, lords, and commons, have combined to enslave us; when a corrupt and abandoned Parliament have voted their lives and fortunes at the service of a perfidious, cruel, and bloody administration, in the execution of their wicked plan; when, in consequence of this, fleets and armies are sent against us, which have pillaged our coasts, bombarded our towns, and but for the glorious intrepedity of our countrymen, under the particular favour and protection of the Almighty, would have spread desolation throughout our land; when we consider the damnable plot that has been laid against us, of stirring up the Canadians and Indians to attack us on our frontiers, and our slaves and tories within the body of our country, whilst their fleets were to lay waste our coasts; and when we have seen this plan recommended in a pamphlet written by an accursed pensioner, Doctor [Samuel] Johnson, by the order of the minister, and under the particular patronage of the king; when we consider these things, who can hesitate a moment to declare that we ought to do all in our power to be revenged on such an administration, and to hurl down destruction on all the infernal tools? Let not our countrymen think that captain Macartney deserves more indulgence than captain Squire, or lord Dunmore: He, like captain Montague, has taken upon himself to interfere with the civil power, has impudently supposed that his presence could awe a committet; 1 and protect a culprit, and has wickedly threatened to fire on a defenceless town. But let captain Macartney know, that whenever he lands in Virginia he is amenable to the laws of Virginia, which may punish him as a trespasser, rioter, or murderer, or as a rebel, if he should, like l——d D—————e and Squire, attempt to raise an insurrection; and we would have all those tools of government to know, that, whenever they return to England, we shall try the full force of the English laws against all such offences as they have or shall commit here. The American governors shall severely answer for their conduct in the King's Bench, and judges shall remember the fate of Epsom and Dudley. ³