At a Council held at the Palace [Williamsburg] May 2, 1775. Present His Excellency the Governor, Thomas Nelson, Richard Corbin, William Byrd,Ralph Wormeley, junior, Esquires, John Camm, Clerk, and John Page, Esquire.
The Governor was pleased to address himself to the Board in the following manner:
Gentlemen, Commotions and insurrections have suddenly been excited amongthe people, which threaten the very existence of his Majesty's government in this colony; and no other cause is assigned for such dangerous measures than that the gunpowder which had, some time past, been brought from on board one of the King's ships to which it belonged and was deposited in the magazine of this city, hath been removed, which, it is known, was done hy my order, to whom, under the constitutional right of the crown which I represent, the custody and disposalof all public tores of arms and ammunition alone belong; and, whether I acted in this manner (as my indispensable duty required) to anticipate the malevolent designs of the enemies to order and government, or to prevent the attempts of anyenterprising Negroes; the powder being still as ready and convenient for beingdistributed for the defence of the country upon any emergency as it was before, which I have publicly engaged to do, the expediency of the step I have taken is equally manifest, and therefore it must be evident that the same head-strong and designing people, who have already but too successfully employed their artifices in deluding his Majesty's faithful subjects, and in seducing them from their dutyand allegiance, have seized this entirely groundless subject of complaint, only to enflame afresh, and to precipitate as many as possible of the unwary into acts. which involving them in the same guilt, their corruptors think may bind them to the same plans and schemes which are unquestionably meditated in this colony, for subverting the present and erecting a new form of government.
Induced by an unaffected regard for the general welfare of the people, whom I have had the honour of governing, as well as actuated by duty and zeal in the service of his Majesty, I call upon you, his council in this colony, for your advice upon this pressing occasion, and I submit to you, whether a proclamation should not issue conformable to what I have now suggested; and, before our fellow subjects abandon themselves totally to extremities, which must inevitably draw down an accumulation of every human misery upon their unhappy country, to warn them of their danger, to remind them of the sacred oaths of allegiance which they have taken, and to call up in their hearts that loyalty and affection, which upon so many occasions have been professed by them to their King, their lawful Sovereign; and further, to urge and exhort, in particular, those whose criminal proceedings on this occasion have been, <;tnd are still, so alarming, to return to their duty, and a due obedience to the law; and, in general, all persons whatsoever to rely upon the conduct and tenderness of our most gracious Sovereign to all his subjects, equally, and upon the wisdom of his councils, for a redress of all their real grievances, which redress can only be obtained by constitutional applications; and, lastly, to enjoin all orders of people to submit, as becomes good subjects, to the legal authority of their government, in the protection of which their own happiness is most interested.
The council thereupon acquainted his Excellency, that as the matters he had been pleased to communicate to them were of the greatest consequence, they desire time to deliberate thereon till the next day.
