[Cruizer Sloop of War off Wilmington, February 28, 1776]
N[o] 5
I have been much surprised to receive an answer to my requisition directed to the Magistrates & Inhabitants of Wilmington from a Member of the lawfull Magistracy in the Name & under the Traiterous Guize of a Combination unknown to the laws & Constitution of this Country ー as if the Magistrates and Inhabitants of Wilmington chose rather to appear in the Garb of Rebellion than in the Character of his Majesties loyal & faithfull Subjects
The quantity of flour that I required for his Majesties Service I concluded from the information I had received, that the Town of Wilmington might have well supplied within the Time I appointed by my Note and I should have been contented with the quantity that was obtainable: The requisition was not made as the answer to it imports for a prelude to the destruction of that Town which has not been in contemplation, but was intended as a Test of the disposition of its Inhabitants whose sence I am unwilling to believe is known to the little arbitrary Junto (stiling itself a Committee) which has presumed to answer. for the People in this and other Instances
The revilings of Rebellion & the Gasconadings of Rebels are below the Contempt of the loyal & faithfull People whom I have most justly stiled Freinds of Government and the forbearance of menaces I have little reason to consider as a mark of Respect from the Chairman 2 of a Combination founded in Usurpation & Rebellion
Jo Martin 3
1. Secretary of State Papers (Committees of Safety 1774-1776) , NCDAH.
2. John Ancrum, chairman of the Wilmington Committee of Safety, who signed by order of the committee.
3. Ibid., the Wilmington Committee responded that the Governor had been "deceived" about the ability of the town to supply a large quantity of flour on short notice. Martin was reminded that while the inhabitants had "Zeal for his Majesties Service on the one hand," they also had "a firm attachment to their Liberties on the other."
