Bill in Miniature;' 'tis a Compendium of Various Kinds of Oppressions practised on the English Subjects, by FellowSubjects in the Face of that Government, which being Establish't on the Neck of Tyranny, has openly declar'd against all sorts of Invasion of English Liberty. If any Man shall say this Matter is not Cognizable in Parliament, and that the People of Carolina are not represented here, having a Parliament of their own, by whom they are to be Determin'd, that they are therein entirely under the Government of themselves, and that these Oppressions are the Act and Deed of their own Representative, and therefore their own Act and Deed, I shall take leave to Answer. 'Tis true, by the Constitution of Carolina, they are under the Government of themselves, and perhaps if their Constitution were rightly Administred, it may be allow'd the best Settlement in America. But as the Wisdom of their Constitution is known, and unquestion'd, without doubt those able Heads that settl'd their Government, did not forget, that even those Representative Assemblies, especially in the Infancy of the Government, might be corrupt, or might by Bribery or other ill Practices, be Modell'd and Influenc'd in Matters of Parties, to Oppress and Injure the People they acted for. That especially in their Infancy and the Paucity of Electors, they might be Obtruded upon the People by Clandestine Methods, the Management and Artifices of Governors, and Men of Design, might have great Opportunities from the Power and Purse of the People to byass and awe the Elections; and having fill'd their Assembly with Men of their own Principles, all manner of Mischiefs might ensue to the Destruction of the Colony, Overthrow of the Settlement and Ruin of the Inhabitants. And if any Man ask me, why then did they not make Laws, to direct the People in such Cases what to do, I cannot, but Answer for them, as I verily believe they would have. Answered for themselves had they been alive. That when any Body of Men Representative, or other Acting by, or for a Constitution, from whom they receive their 1 The Occasional Bills of the period from 1702 to 1719 in English history were bills against occasional conformity to the Established Church, intended to prevent Dissenters from securing municipal office. Power, shall Act, or do, or make Laws and Statutes, to do anything destructive of the Constitution they Act from, that Power is Ipso facto dissolv'd, and revolves of Course into the Original Power, from whence it was deriv'd. From hence it must follow, that upon known Depredations of Common Liberty, Breach of the Capitulations of Government, between the Governors and the People of Carolina; the People without doubt, by Right of Nature as well as by the Constitution, revolves under the immediate Direction and Government of the English Empire, whose Subjects they were before, and from whom their Government was deriv'd. It remains here, to lay down what these Capitulations I speak of are, by which the people of Carolina ought to be govern'd, and in the Breach whereof they are Oppress't; and then to descend to the black Relation, how those Postulata are broken and unregarded, how these people are Injur'd and Tyranniz'd over, what Redress ought to be given them by their Governours the Proprietors, How that Redress has been legally sought for, and humbly petitioned for but in Vain. I shall then Examine, not only, how far the People have a Right to dispence the Engins of this Sub-Tyranny; but how far the Constitution it self is dissolved, and the People have a Right to Establish their being there so far as their Free-hold extends; Upon such Foundations of Justice and Liberty, as that it may no more be in the Power of Usurping Thieves and Oppressors, to injure and disturb them. In Order to the first, the Reader may please to take the following Abridgement of the Constitution of the Collony, as the Ground Plot by which, tho' it be short, he will plainly Discover, upon what Exact Basis of Right and Property this Government was Erected, and how, plainly, by the Encroachments of the present Gentlemen, the People are Injur'd, the Constitution in it self Destroy'd and Inverted, and the People left. Free . . . To Choose for their Own share, The Reins of Rule. . . . All Men are bound in Conscience to submit; But then that Lord must give his free assent, Which if he breaks, he Cuts off the Entail, An Abridgement of the Settlement of Carolina. To Understand the true Foundation and Establishment of the present Plantation of Carolina, it is necessary to Observe: That this Colony, tho' discovered, and in part possest, even before that part of America, call'd Virginia, to which it is contiguous; yet lay for several Ages of Time unimprov'd and neglected, till about the Year When a particular Account of its Fertility, the wonderful agreableness of the Climate, the Pleasantness and Health of its Scituation, Advantages of Produce, Fitness for Trade, and all Manner of Improvement, being brought to some Gentlemen of Quality and Estates in England, they resolv'd to encourage the planting this Country, and in particular, resolv'd to settle it upon some better Foundations of Government, than the rest of the English Colonies seem'd to stand upon; as the only Thing, which added to the rest of its Advantages, wou'd best encourage the speedy Planting it, and draw Inhabitants in great Numbers from other Plantations to this New Settlement; These Gentlemen being truly sensible of that known and undisputed Maxim of Government, That the Number of Inhabitants, is both the Wealth and Strength of a Nation. In Order to this, they first obtain a Grant of the Province from King Charles the Second, to them and their Heirs, as Absolute Lords and Proprietors of the Country. But the Reader is desir'd not to forget, that this Grant or Charter of King Charles the Second, had two Restrictions or Saving Articles in it, which, indeed, were not Proviso's of Capitulation, but Proviso's of Necessity. I'll explain my self presently, the Salvo's were these, 1. Saving always the Faith, Allegiance, and Soveraign Dominion due to us, our Heirs, and Successors for the same. And, 2. Saving also the Right, Title and Interest, of all, and every our Subjects of the English Nation, which are now planted within the Limits and Bounds aforesaid. See the Printed Charter, p. 3. |