THE annual Election of your Re­presentatives drawing nigh, and the Importance of a good Electi­on, being greater than is gene­rally imagin'd, (nothing less than the civil Salvation of the People depending upon the same) has induced me, together with the Request of many of your Friends, to lay before you, the Necessity of using the greatest Care in your several Elections, not only from the great Danger of a bad One at all Times, but al­so from the present Circumstances of the Province.

In order to comply with this their Request, and to set before you the Danger you and your Posterity are brought into by a bad Election; I have publish'd this Letter, in which I have made use of some Helps from Cato's Letters, which were wrote upon the glorious Cause of Liberty, and have been justly re­garded by all wise Men of every Party; and there­fore, [Page 2] what is done here in Imitation of those valu­able Letters, cannot be judged to be factious, or against the Interest of the Publick.

But, however some may receive this, I am sure, every true Lover of his Country, (who has Honesty and Wisdom enough to refuse any Bribe offered him as an Equivalent for the least Priviledge of his Coun­try) will approve of it, and govern himself accor­dingly in voting.

Gentlemen,

You are born to Liberty, as you are English Men, and as you are Descendents of the first worthy Setlers of this Country, who purchased their and your Liber­ties, at the most invaluable Price of their Blood and Treasure; it is therefore your Interest, and your Duty to Posterity, to preserve them entire, without suffering the least Breach to be made on them.

The Constitution, which you live under, is an E­pitome of a mixed Monarchy, where your Gover­nors have every Right to protect and defend you; none to injure or oppress you. You have a large Share in the Legislature; you have the sole Power over your Purses: But it depends upon yourselves alone, to make these Rights of your's, these noble Priviledges of Use to you. And in order to make this plain to you, I shall recount some of the Privi­ledges you enjoy by your Charter, and shew what a Part you have in the Government; as the End of it is, and ought to be, wholly for your Advantage.

The Charter ordains, that you shall have a General Assembly, convened, held and kept, every last Wed­nesday in May, which shall consist of the Governor and Council for the Time being, and of such Free­holders, as shall be elected and deputed from time to time, by the major Part of the Freeholders, and other Inhabitants qualified to vote in that Choice, present at such Election. This General Assembly, at their first Meeting, proceed to elect twenty eight Coun­cellors; after which Election, they proceed to make [Page 3] what Laws may be necessary for the publick Good, to raise what Moneys may be necessary to support the Government, in defending and protecting you this is the sole Priviledge of your Representatives. To levy and assess reasonable Taxes and Assessments upon your Poles and Estates, is another Priviledge of your Representatives. The General Assembly have the Right of disposing of the waste Lands. The Consent of your Representatives is absolutely necessary in all Acts of Government, and many of them must originate in the House, especially those mate­rial Articles of supplying the Treasury and taxing the People.

By this you may see the great Share you have in the Government, having at least two Branches of the Ligislature (who have all the Moneys and other Advantages in their Power) which are appointed by your Election. Your Representatives (who are immediately of your Appointment) are the Trustees of your Liberties, who, if they give up, or are in­clined to give up any the least of them, you have it in your Power, the next Year, to choose more faith­ful Men in their Room; and such Representatives will choose such Councellors, and then all will be well. For not only good Care will be taken, that no Laws but such as are for your Good and Welfare shall be enacted; but also, that none be trusted with the Execution of them, except those who have Com­petent Understanding and Integrity. Such a Gene­ral Assembly (which depends upon your Election of Representatives) will be very tender of the least Priviledge, and will keep a proper Guard upon en­croaching Prerogative. They will be able properly to distinguish between the invaluable Priviledges granted by Charter, and the Instructions given to a Governour, and will know they have no Business with Instructions (except from the People) and that any Compliance with an Instruction which is contra­ry to the Charter, is a traiterous giving up the Li­berties [Page 4] of their Country, and an Abuse upon his Ma­jesty. For although it be one of the wise and pru­dent Maxims of the English Government, 'That no Blame or Wrong be imputed to the King'; it is also a­nother, 'That no Wrong be done to the People'. They will know, that the only Rule of their Government ought to be your Good, and that they are inviolably obliged to keep a watchful Eye upon your Charter, as their Directory, and to see that no Infraction be made on it. That being your Constitution, from such a Behaviour in your Legislature, you may naturally expect, his Majesty's Council (who constitute the middle Branch) will, in giving their Consent to the Appointment of civil Officers, be actuated by the same good Principles, they were, as a Branch of the Legislature; and consequently, they will not con­sent to the Appointment of an unqualified Person to an executive Office in the Government, nor to the Removal of any Judge, unless he has been guilty of Malefeazance in his Office. It was (Gentlemen,) one of the material Blessings obtained at the happy Revolution, that the Tenour of the Judges Com­missions in England, should be altered, from during Pleasure, to, so long as they behave well. The Crown having the Power of creating and removing Judges at Pleasure, was found by fatal Experience, to be one of the greatest Misfortunes the Nation laboured under; the Law being always expounded in Favour of the Crown, from whence arose the Doctrines of dispensing Power, the Forfeitures of Charters, and ma­ny other slavish ones, destructive of Liberty, which produced the Nation's Delivery from Slavery by King William of immortal Memory; who restored to our Forefathers their Priviledges, that they lost in the common Calamity of those Times, which so much endeared that glorious Deliverer to those Wor­thies, that there was not then, as there scare is now, a Jacobite to be found in the whole Province; so that we can vie with any of his Majesty's Subjects for Loyalty.

[Page 5]You have here seen some small Sketch of your happy Constitution by the Charter, which confirms to you all the Priviledges of English Men; and as a Reward for your Ancestors great Merit in setling this Country, adds many others, giving you a larger in the Government, than the People in England have. The Improvement of which depends upon you whol­ly; for to preserve your Liberties, they must be kept up in their whole Strength. And to this End▪ it lies upon you to choose for your Representatives, Men that will be really such; Men that you can't suppose will be ignorant or careless of your Interests; or what is much worse, that will act quite contra­ry to them.

For Names (Gentlemen,) will not defend you, when the Thing signified by them is gone. The Em­perors of Rome were as absolute with the Shew of a Senate, and the Appearance of the People's choosing their Praetors, Tribunes, and other Officers of the Common Wealth, as the Eastern Monarchs are now, without these seeming Checks, and this Shew of Liberty; and in some Respects, they were more se­cure; as the Infamy of their Tyranny was shared by those Assemblies, the Advantages were all their own, and the Condition of the People was rather worse for these mock Magistrates, and pretended Representatives; who, under the Colour and Title of the Protectors of the People, were, at the People's Expence, the real Helpers and Partakers of the Ini­quity of the Tyrant. The Kings of France have Parliaments, but Parliaments which dare not dispute their Royal Pleasure; and the poor People would not fare one Jot the better, if these Parliaments were bribed not to dispute it.

This wretched Case, Gentlemen, will be yours, and the wretched Case of your Posterity, if ever an ambiti­ous or designing Governour shall, hereafter be able to corrupt or awe your Representatives. And what­ever wicked Bargains are then made, will be made [Page 6] at your Expence, and you must pay the terrible Rec­koning at last. It requires therefore your best Tho'ts, and most vigorous Resolutions, to preserve your Con­stitution entire in all its Parts, without suffering any one Part to prevail so far over the other, as to re­duce it in Effect, tho' not in Name, to a simple Form of Government, which is always Tyranny. It will be immaterial to you, whether this is brought about by Confederacy, or by Force; by Knaves, or Fools; whatever be the villainous Means, Violence, Oppressi­on, and every Rank of Evil will be the End. Where­fore, with an honest and generous Design of saving your Country, you ought to choose Representatives, whose Interests are at present the same with your own, and likely to continue the same. Representa­tives, who are not already pre-engaged, nor, from their Circumstances, Profession, Offices, and Manner of Life, are likely to be engaged in a contrary Interest. He will prove but a sorry Advocate, who takes Fees from your Adversary; and as indifferent a Plenipo­tentiary, who receivs a Pension from the Prince, whom, he is commissioned to treat with▪ Nor can there be any Security in the Fidelity of One, who can find it more his Interest to betray you, than to serve you faithfully. Vertue and Vice will be but ill ballanced, when Profits and Honours are thrown into the wrong Scale. A great Protestant Peer of France, having changed his Religion, in Compliance with his Master Henry the 4th of France, who had changed too, was soon after asked by that Monarch publickly, which of the two Religions he thought the best? The Protestant, Sir, undoubtedly, said the Peer, by your own royal Confession, since in Exchange for it, your Majesty has given me Popery and a Mar­shal's Staff to Boot. Where Boot is given, there is al­ways a tacit Confession that the Exchange is unequal without it. Choose not therefore such, who are likely to truck away your Liberties, for an Equiva­lent to themselves.

[Page 7]It is the Right and Duty of the Electors, to exa­mine into the Conduct, and to know the Opinions and Intentions of those, who offer themselves to their Choice. And (if they have served before) the best Way to form a Judgment of their present Views and Designs, is to survey their past Behaviour, when in Office. How can any of you be truly represented, when you know not the Sentiments of those who represent you? It is still your happy Lott, that you have frequent Means and Opportunities to resent ef­fectually the Corruption of those, who have basely betray'd their sacred Trust, and slighted with an in­solent Scorn and Contempt, your prudent Instructions, given for the Preservation of your Liberties; admit no such Man to be so much as a Candidate again, nor indeed any Man to be a Candidate, until he has declared in the most explicit and solemn Manner, his most hearty Regard for your invaluable Liberties, and his fixt Resolution to preserve the same, and withstand any Attempts to destroy them.

This, Gentlemen, is your Time, — which if you suffer to be lost, may be forever lost. Choose not therefore those, who would bribe you, with getting you made distinct Parishes and Praecincts, or with ob­taining any other separate Advantage for you, because, you may depend upon it, the Purchase of this Favour for you, must cost you very dear, for they must give a Quid for your Quo. And if, in order to get this Favour for you, and to establish his Interest with you, your Representative should, by his Vote, (which is probable) gain a Compliance with an Instruction di­ametrically opposite to the Charter, or do any other Damage to the Publick; upon duly stating the Ac­compt, you'l find yourselves upon the Ballance great Losers, having suffered more in the publick Loss, than you have gained by your private Advantage. And History furnishes us with numberless Examples of the greatest and heaviest Misfortunes falling upon those and their Families, who have given up the [Page 8] Liberties of their Country, in order to gain a private Advantage, that being very insecure under an arbi­trary Administration.

Choose not those, who are in Confederacy with the Disposers of civil and military Honours, by which Means, some have been able to carry almost all their Points in the House, a few Years past. For you may depend upon it, they can't act as free Agents; and what the Consequence of that in a few Years will be, you may judge from what has already happen'd to you. By this, you find Laws enacted without this essential Clause in them, viz. Any Law, Usage, or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding; which is a repealing Clause: But this is left out, because, the Governour has an Instruction to consent to no re­pealing Act whatever; which is depriving you of one of your best Privileges, being nothing less, than taking from the General Assembly the whole legisla­tive Power granted them by the royal Charter; for it ever will be a fundamental Maxim in Politicks, —That the same Power which can enact, can either alter or abrogate: —According to which, If our Ge­neral Assembly have no Power to repeal, they never had a Power to enact; from whence it will necessa­rily follow, That our whole Body of Laws are ipso facto, null and void. This mean Compliance with Instructions, is the Root and Foundation of all your heavy Sufferings, and may yet produce worse and more heavy; whereas an honest Non-compliance with an Instruction, which infringes upon your Li­berties, will be a considerable Security to them, by being never troubled with it again, unless now and then by Way of Scarecrow, as you have been with the Instruction for fixing the Salary.

You are Freemen, and Men of Reason and Spirit; awaken your Spirit, exert your Reason, and assert your Freedom. You have a Right to Petition the Gene­ral Assembly, to propose your Thoughts and Grie­vances to them, to be heard and relieved when you suffer any.

[Page 9]Choose not the Gentlemen of the Militia; for al­tho' it may be objected, That they are not so depen­dant, as the Gentlemen of the Army in England, be­cause they receive no Pay; yet remember their Duty, together with those Darlings, their military Ho­nour and Power, depend upon obeying the Word of Command, as well as the Officers of the regular Troops. And it is well known, That Power and Honour have a greater Influence upon most Men than Money. Because, Coveteousness is a Vice, that even the Miser himself would have the World believe he despises; whereas, Power and Honour are allowed to be admired by all. Your military Officers have considerable Power lodged in their Hands, more in some Respects, than is proper and convenient for your Interest, to entrust many of them with. And this has been considerably augmented by the new Law passed by the last General Court, for raising the military Fines, threefold.

Choose not those Officers who depend upon Fees, because, as you now have two Sorts of Money pas­sing, and the Bills of the old Tenor, extant, are to be called in by the Year 1741, and no other Money is to be passing (unless the next General Assembly take Care of you) except that of the new Tenor: You may depend upon it, the Officers will endeavour that no new Regulation shall be made of their Fees to prevent your being oppressed, but that they shall remain upon the present Establishment. So that a Place now worth in Fees 500 l. per Annum, will then be worth more than 1500 l. per Annum. A very fine Advance upon your growing Poverty.

If a Motion should be made and obtained, in the Courts of this Province, That all Bills of Cost should be taxed, to be paid in Bills of the new Tenor, it must considerably encrease your Law Charges, espe­cially when you compute the Costs of the many small Actions brought before Justices, for Debts not excee­ding Forty Shillings, and for the unpardonable Crime [Page 10] of not Training, for which terrible Fault, I knew a Man pay Thirteen Shillings new Tenor, the Justices Fees, which added to two Fines sued for, made in the whole Twenty Three Shillings new Tenor, and so amounted to Three Pounds Nine Shillings, Bills of the old Tenor. By this you see what you are co­ming to, unless you prevent this growing Oppression by using proper Care in the ensuing Election of Re­presentatives. I am not insensible, That almost all the Officers, civil and military, will exert themselves in the ensuing Election, in favour of themselves and their Brethren; and will tell you, they are sensible how prejudicial the new Tenor Bills are, and that they carry a Sting in their Tail, but that, that shall be prevented by a new Regulation of Fees; yet re­gard them not in this Affair, because your All is at Stake; (altho' in their respective Offices, when they behave well, as many of them, to their Honour, do, treat them with all due Deference and Respect) but tell them plainly, you fear your good Nature and Credulity in sending them and their Friends, your Representatives, has brought all your Misfortunes upon you; and that therefore you think it high Time, for the sakes of their Families, as well as your own, to alter your Elections, and to choose some of those uncourtly People, who have always kept up that ex­cellent Preservative of Liberty-Jealousy; and that you have already suffered too much by gilded Pills, to take any more of them; and that you can have no Manner of Reliance upon this their Promise, least a Law for regulating Fees, should meet with the same Fate, which the Bill did, that, Anno 1734, pas­sed the House of Representatives, for restraining the Clerk of the Naval Office, taking exorbitant Fees. Tell them further, That this Instance convinces you, That you are to hope for no Relief from such Gentle­men; for if a Law would not pass to check the Ex­actions of such an obnoxious Officer, who obtained that very profitable Post in a disagreable Manner, [Page 11] and stands, us be ever has done, upon very ill Terms with many great Men here. It can't be reasonably thought, that they, when they get into Power, will do more against themselves, their Friends, and the Governour's Friends, than they did against a Man, whom they would have gladly curtailed in his Fees, but that they feared it would have been made use of as a Precedent, to have prevented their, & their Friends intended Oppression▪ This glaring Instance must al­ways stare them in the Face, and give them the Lie, when they pretend to say they are for any other new Regulation of Fees, than what shall be in fa­vour of the Officers. No! Gentlemen, Tell them In­terest will not lie, and you are not to be deceived; and that upon this Maxim you will act in your ensuing Election. Tell them you are not quite so blind, as not to see, That as your Trade decays, the Number of Candidates for every Vacancy will daily encrease, which must give Prerogative a considerable Advan­tage over Liberty. Tell them, all the additional Profit raised by this new Money must come from you, and so add double Weight in the Scale of Pre­rogative (which is heavy enough already) against Liberty; and that this ought to make you consider, what large Strides Prerogative will be daily making towards absolute and despotick Power, when it is so considerably augmented, and the Supports of Liber­ty so much enfeebled.

Gentlemen, It highly imports you to consider what you are about, and whether you will bring Life or Death upon us. Oh! Take Care of your­selves, and of us all: We are all in your Hands, and so at present are your Representatives. But very quickly the Scene will be shifted, both you and we shall be in their's.

Choose therefore honest Freemen, who when they have been your Representatives, have followed your Instructions, taken Care of your Privileges, and have showed themselves firmly attached to the best Inte­rests [Page 12] of their Country, and have been as tender of your Liberties, religious and civil, as of the Apple of their Eyes.

Choose Men of good moral Characters, who have always in their Dealings in Meum et Tuum acted honestly; for it is a great Hazard, whether he who would cheat his Neighbour of Twenty Pounds, will not fell his Country for Judas's Price.

Choose such as have always shewn themselves, and are likely to continue, your fast Friends; who have opposed every unjust Exaction of your civil Officers, and have almost stood alone for your Sakes, in the Prosecution of such Officers for that Offence.

Choose such as are most likely to relieve you from such Burthens, under which we all sadly groan, and under which we must certainly sink, never to rise again, if we are not relieved.