Augusta County (Virginia) Meeting

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After due notice given to the Freeholders of Augusta County, to meet in Staunton, for the purpose of electing

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Instructions were then ordered to be drawn up by the Reverend Alexander Balmain, Mr˙ Sampson Matthews, Captain Alexander M' Clenachan, Mr˙ Michael Bowyer, Mr˙ William Lewis, and Captain George Matthews, or any three of them, and delivered to the Delegates thus chosen; which are as follows:

The Committee of Augusta County, pursuant to the trust reposed in them by the Freeholders of the same, have chosen you to represent them in a Colony Convention, proposed to be held in Richmond, on the 20th of March, instant. They desire that you may consider the people of Augusta County as impressed with just sentiments of loyalty and allegiance to his Majesty King George, whose title to the Imperial Crown of Great Britain rests on no other foundation than the liberty, and whose glory is inseparable from the happiness of all his subjects. We have also a respect for the parent state, which respect is founded on religion, on law, and the genuine principles of the Constitution. On these principles do we earnestly desire to see harmony and a good understanding restored between Great Britain and America. Many of us and our forefathers left their native land, and explored this once savage wilderness, to enjoy the free exercise of the rights of conscience and of human nature. These rights we are fully resolved, with our lives and fortunes, inviolably to preserve; nor will we surrender such inestimable blessings, the purchase of toil and danger, to any Ministry, to any Parliament, or any body of men upon earth, by whom we are not represented, and in whose decisions, therefore, we have no voice.

We desire you to tender, in the most respectful terms, our grateful acknowledgments to the late worthy Delegates of this Colony, for their wise, spirited, and patriotick exertions in the General Congress, and to assure them that we will uniformly and religiously adhere to their Resolutions, prudently and generously formed for their country' s good.

Fully convinced that the safety and happiness of America depend, next to the blessing of Almighty God, on the unanimity and wisdom of her Councils, we doubt not you will, on your parts, comply with the recommendation of the late Continental Congress, appointing Delegates from this Colony to meet in Philadelphia on the 10th of May next, unless American Grievances be redressed before that time; and as we are determined to maintain unimpaired that liberty which is the gift of Heaven to the subjects of Britain' s Empire, we will most cordially join our countrymen in such measures as may be deemed wise and necessary to secure and perpetuate the ancient, just, and legal rights of this Colony and all British America.

As the state of this Colony greatly demands that Manufactures should be encouraged by every possible means, we desire you to use your endeavours that Bounties may be proposed by the Convention for the making of Salt, Steel, Wool Cards, Paper, and Gunpowder; and that, in the mean time, a supply of Ammunition be provided for the Militia of this Colony. We entirely agree in opinion with the gentlemen of Fairfax County, that a well regulated Militia is the natural strength and stable security of a free Government, and therefore wish it might be recommended by the Convention to the officers and men of each County in Virginia, to make themselves masters of the military exercise, published by order of his Majesty, in the year 1764.

Placing our ultimate trust on the Supreme Disposer of every event, without whose gracious interposition the wisest schemes may fail of success, we desire you to move the Convention that some day, which may appear to them most convenient, be set apart for imploring the blessing of Almighty God, on such plans as human wisdom and integrity

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