A Proclamation
Whereas a most unprovoked and wicked Rebellion hath for some Time past prevailed and doth now exist, within his Majesty's Province of South-Carolina; and the Inhabitants thereof, forgetting their Allegiance to their Sovereign, and denying the Authority of the Laws and Statutes of the Realm, have, in a Succession of Crimes, proceeded to the total Subversion of all legal Authority; usurping the Powers of Government, and erecting a Tyranny in the Hands of Congresses and Committees of various Denominations, utterly unknown and repugnant to the Spirit of the British Constitution; and divers People, in avowed Defiance to all legal Authority, are now actually in Arms, waging an unnatural War against the King. And whereas all. the Attempts to reclaim the infatuated and misguided Multitude to a Sense of their Errour have hitherto unhappily proved Ineffectual, I have it in Command to proceed forthwith against all such Men or Bodies of Men in Arms, and against all such Congresses and Committees thus unlawfully established, as against open Enemies to the State. But, considering it as a Duty inseparable from the Principles of Humanity, first of all to forewarn the deluded People of the Miseries ever attendant upon Civil War, I domost earnestly intreat and exhort them, as they tender their own Happiness and that of their Posterity, to return to their Duty to our common Sovereign, and to the Blessings of a free Government, as established by Law, hereby offering, in his Majesty's Name, free Pardon to all such as shall lay down their Arms and submit to the Laws: And I do hereby require, that the Provincial Congress and all Committees of Safety and other unlawful Associations, be dissolved, and the Judges allowed to hold their Courts, according to the Laws and Constitution of this Province: of which all Persons are required to take Notice, as they will answer the contrary at their Peril.
Given on board the Sovereign Transport, off Charlestown,
this Sixth Day of June, 1776, and in the Sixteenth Year of His Majesty's Reign.
By Command of Gen. Clinton
Richard Reeve, Sec.
