Hempstead (New-York) Resolutions

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Mr˙ RIVINGTON: You are requested to publish the following Resolutions, unanimously entered into at the most numerous Town Meeting that has been held here for many years past: —

Hempstead, April 4, 1775.

At this critical time of publick danger and distraction, when it is the duty of every honest man and friend to his Country to declare his sentiments openly, and use every endeavour to ward off the impending calamities which threaten this once happy and peaceful land, we, the Freeholders and Inhabitants of Hempstead, in Queen' s County, in the Province of New-York, being legally assembled on the first Tuesday in April, 1775, have voluntarily entered into the following Resolutions:

1st. That as we have already borne true and faithful allegiance to His Majesty King George the Third, our gracious and lawful Sovereign, so we are firmly resolved to persist in the same line of duty to him and his lawful successors.

2d. That we esteem our civil and religious liberties above any other blessings, and those only can be secured to us by our happy Constitution; we shall inviolably adhere to it, since deviating from it and introducing innovations, would have a direct tendency to subvert it, from which the most ruinous consequences might be justly apprehended.

3d. That it is our ardent desire to have the present unnatural contest between the Parent State and her Colonies amicably and speedily accommodated on principles of constitutional liberty, and that the union of the Colonies with the Parent State may subsist till time shall be no more.

4th. That as the worthy Members of our General Assembly, who are our only legal and constitutional Representatives, have lately taken the most rational and effectual measures to bring about this much wished for accommodation, by petitioning his most gracious Majesty, a Memorial to the House of Lords, and a Remonstrance to the House of Commons; we are determined, therefore, patiently to wait for the issue of these measures, and carefully avoid every thing that might frustrate those laudable endeavours of our Representatives.

5th. That as choosing Deputies to form a Provincial Congress, or Convention, must have this tendency, be highly disrespectful to our legal Representatives, and also be attended, in all probability, with the most pernicious effects in other instances, as is now actually the case in some Provinces — such as shutting up the Courts of Justice, levying money on the subjects to enlist men for the purpose of fighting against our Sovereign, diffusing a spirit of sedition among the people, destroying the authority of constitutional assemblies, and otherwise introducing many heavy and oppressive grievances — we therefore are determined not

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6th. That we are utterly averse to all mobs, riots, and illegal proceedings, by which the lives, peace, and property of our fellow-subjects are endangered; and that we will, to the utmost of our power, support our Legal Magistrates in suppressing all riots, and preserving the peace of our liege Sovereign.

HULET PETERS, Town Clerk,