from the border of our State adjacent to Harper's Ferry, was in my opinion entirely proper, under the circumstances as detailed.

I trust the very summary manner in which those madmen have been met and repulsed and are being exterminated, may teach Northern Fanatics a lesson, not to be forgotten, and give us peace and quiet.

Very respectfully yr obt Servt.,

Col. Jos. P. Warner,

THOS. H. HICKS.

Annapolis, Nov. 28th, 1859.

Yours with Copy, to hand-motive and action on your part appreciated and with my thanks allow me to say, that I desire you with your command to be in readiness for emergency, shall it arise.

I have a police or scouting force in border Counties, viz. Frederick, Washington and Allegany Counties, who will give notice at earliest occasion for alarm-when, shall it occur, I desire all shall be ready and quickly in motion.

I cannot suppose there are many more mad Browns, and yet I think it prudent to prepare for the worst, avoiding at same time, creating unnecessary excitement.

I have received the communication which you were good enough to send me under date of the 25th instant, enclosing a copy of the letter addressed by you, on the same day, to the President of the United States, in relation to information which has reached you of the designs and threats of invading Virginia, and of rescuing Brown and his confederates from the custody of the law.

4

The confidence you have expressed that I will faithfully cooperate with the authorities of Virginia, in preserving the peace of our coterminous borders, is justified by the measures I have already adopted, and by the means I will use to that end, as well as by the plain interests and well known dispositions of the people of this State.

While I regard the threats which have been reported, as the exaggerated or idle boastings of fanatics whose courage is only sufficient to urge others to desperate and treasonable enterprises, I have deemed it prudent to make such provisions, by my orders to the Civil and Military authorities of this State, and especially to those in the counties adjoining the scene of the late outrage, as will prevent the occupation of any place within our borders. for a depot or rendezvous for lawless desperadoes who may seek to make war upon the people of Virginia.

In these, as well as in the character and disposition of the citizens of this State, I have complete confidence; and to these I will add at once such other measures as will, I trust, remove even the fear that the borders of this State may be made the points whence to assail the rights or the property of our brethren. With the highest respect I am Sir,

Yours truly

THOMAS H. HICKS.

Annapolis, November 29th, 1859.

To the Sheriff of Washington County,

Sir :

In a communication addressed to you on the 27th of October, I advised and directed you to summon a sufficient number of deputies who might assist in the preservation of order and the public peace against any attempted outbreak in favor of the criminals now at Charlestown in Virginia, condemned to death for the treasonable outbreak at Harper's Ferry: and arrest all improper and lawless persons whose conduct or bearing might justify their being detained for examination. Since then I have received several communications from the Governor of Virginia

in which he assures me that reliable information has reached him of the intended invasion of that State, on the day appointed for the execution of Brown (December 2d) and of the threatened or intended assemblage of lawless persons who design to attempt the rescue of Brown and his confederates.

I am still of the opinion that these reports are exaggerated or magnified by the fears of the population among whom such outrage could be attempted, and I hope that the steps you have already taken may be sufficient to preserve public order; but in view of the repeated instances of the Governor of Virginia, of the respectability of the sources whence, as he assures me, he derives his information of the importance to us that our authorities with the assistance of our citizens, should maintain the supremacy of the law, and guard the rights of our brethren in matters which interest us so nearly, I think it advisable again to call your attention, and through you the attention of your deputies, to my former communication; and to direct you to exert a renewed vigilance along the borders of your county, and to cause the arrest and detention of all lawless and dangerous persons who by their behavior or sudden appearance in armed bodies, or in companies, whose number or mode of travelling may justify the suspicion that they are engaged in unlawful proceedings.

And it is my wish and direction that upon receipt of this, you will in addition to your former dispositions make such provision by calling to your aid the good and lawful men of your county in that part opposite to Harper's Ferry, in number sufficient to resist and put down any riotous or unlawful assemblage there, especially upon the days immediately preceding and following, as on the day appointed for the execution of the Criminal Brown. In the event of any actual outbreak, or the appearance of such numbers as may render it necessary, you will of course call to your aid the Military who may be within reach, and the commanding officers of which are already aware of my wishes and orders.

I am sir, your obedient Servant,

THOMAS H. HICKS,

Governor of Maryland.

STAMP ACT PAPERS.

(From the Society's Collections.)

Instructions from the Honourable the Lower House of Assembly, of the Province of Maryland, to William Murdock, Edward Tilghman and Thomas Ringgold, Esquires, a Committee appointed to join the several Committees, from the several Colonies in America, at New York.

Gentlemen. You are to repair immediately to the City of New York, in the Province of New York, and there join with the Committees from the Houses of Representatives of the other Colonies, in a general and united, dutiful, loyal, and humble Representation to his Majesty, and the British Parliament, of the Circumstances and Condition of the British Colonies and Plantations, and to pray Relief from the Burthens and Restraints lately laid on their Trade and Commerce, and especially from the Taxes imposed by an Act of the last Sessions of Parliament, granting and applying certain Stamp Duties, and other Duties, in the British Colonies and Plantations in America, whereby they are deprived, in some Instances, of that invaluable Privilege of Englishmen, and British Subjects Trials by Juries. That you take Care that such Representation shall, humbly and decently, but expressly contain an Assertion of the Rights of the Colonists, to be exempt from all and every Taxations and Impositions upon their Persons and Properties, to which they do not consent in a Legislative Way, either by themselves or their Representatives, by them freely chosen and appointed. Signed by order of the House. Robert Lloyd, Speaker.

Proceedings of the Congress at New York. [Colophon] Annapolis. Printed by Jonas Green, Printer to the Province.

Gentlemen,

MDCCLXVI.

London 26th of Febry 1766

Your Favour of the 26th of Octor past with the Petitions1 and Bill upon Messrs Hanbury enclosed did not come to Hand

"In order to prosecute the Appeal to His Majesty in Council respecting the Allowance of the Clerk the Members of the Lower House have I understand opened a Subscription & at the Conclusion of the Session contributed themselves about £150 which will probably by this Opportunity be remitted to Mr. Garth whom they are to employ as their Agent & through whose hands their Address to the King upon the Repeal of the Stamp Act is to be transmitted." Sharpe to Hamersley, Md. Archives, v, 14, 356; and other references to Garth may be found in same volume at 385, 391, 395, 419, 431.

"Paid for Bill of Exchange, to remit to Charles Garth, Esq., with the Address and Petitions £150 Sterling, at 65 per Cent. Exchange, £247 10′′.—Proceedings of the Congress at New York. Annapolis, 1766.

until the 28th of Janry; I am particularly oblig'd by the Civility, and for the high Opinion you have been pleased to entertain of me from the Information wch has come to yr Knowledge. As far as a faithful Discharge of my Duty gives a Title to Merit, I possibly may be thought to have some Pretensions, having made that the great Object of my Life; It was a particular Duty incumbent upon me to promote the Interests and Prosperity of So. Carolina, for which I have had the Honour & Satisfaction of receiving the highest Marks of their Approbation; in opposing as I have done to the utmost of my Power this late Attack upon the general Liberty and Happiness of the Subject in America, at the same Time that I was thereby discharging the general Duty of every Subject under this excellent Constitution, I was pursuing the Dictates of my own Conscience, and putting in Practice Principles I had early imbibed, without expecting any other Approbation, than that of a Heart conscious to itself of having done what it ought.

But as by that Means I am become recommended to yr Consideration, on the part of the Province of Maryland, I must beg you will be assured of my most zealous Endeavour in the Execution of yr Commands. I have already mentioned the Day on which I was favour'd with your Packet, which was the first I had receiv'd from America follow'd a few Days after by a Request of the same Nature from the Assemblys of So. Carolina and Georgia.

I am now to inform you that upon the 27th Janry a Petition from the Congress on the Part of the Massachusets Bay had been offer'd to the House of Commons, wch brought on a long Debate, Objections being taken to its Admission, the first to the Form, as contrary to an express Order of the House touching Petitions, Vizt. "1689 Ordered that all Petitions to be presented to this House, shall be signed by the Petitioners themselves by their own Names or Marks" that this was the Petition of the Freeholders & other Inhabitants &c but signed by a few particular Persons as Committees from