Part 66

A PROCLAMATION FOR A DAY OF PUBLIC FASTING, HUMILIATION, AND PRAYER.

IT having been the invariable practice from time to time when our pious and renowned ancestors took possession of this land, at the approaching season of the year, to set apart a day publickly to acknowledge an entire dependence on the Father of all Mercies for every needful blessing, and to express sorrow and repenntace for the manifold transgressions of His Holy Laws: And the Practice being highly becoming all people, especially those who profess the Christian Religion:

I HAVE thought fit, by, and with the advice of the Council to appoint THURSDAY, the Seventeenth day of APRIL next, to be observed throughout this Commonwealth, as a day of PUBLIC FASTING, HUMILIATION and PRAYER; earnestly exhorting the Ministers of Religion to assemble with their respective Congregations on the same day--that deeply lamenting our ingratitude to our Heavenly Father, to whom we are under all possible obligations, and our many deviations from those right and safe Paths, into which, as our Supreme Governor, HE hath plainly directed us, we may with one heart and voice humbly implore His gracious and free pardon, thro' JESUS CHRIST, supplicating His Divine aid that we may become a reformed and happy people. At the same time humbly beseeching HIM, mercifully to regard our lives and health, so that no infectious and mortal distemper may prevail amongst us: To favour our land with the alternate benefits of rain and warmth of the Sun; and that our hopes of a plentiful harvest may not be disappointed by devouring insects, or any other calamity:--To prosper our trade and fishery, and the labor of our hands:--To protect our navigation from the rapacious hands of invaders and robbers on the seas, and graciously to open a door of deliverance to our fellow-citizens in cruel captivity in a land of Barbarians:--To continue and confirm our civil and religious liberties; and for that great purpose to bless and direct our great University, and all Seminaries and Schools of education:-- To guide and succeed the Councils of our Federal Government, as well as those of the several States in the Union, that under their respective Constitutions they may be led to such decisions as will establish the liberty, peace, safety, and honor of our country:-- To inspire our friends and allies, the Republic of France, with a spirit of wisdom and true religion, that relying on the strength of HIS Almighty Arm, they may still go on prosperously till their arduous conflict for a government of their own, founded on the just and equal rights of men, shall be finally crowned with success:--And above all, to cause the Religion of JESUS CHRIST, in its true spirit, to spread far and wide, till the whole earth shall be filled with HIS glory.

And I do earnestly commend that all unnecessary labor and recreation be suspended on said day.

GIVEN at the Council-Chamber, in Boston, the Nineteenth day of February in the year of our LORD, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-Four, and in the Eighteenth Year of the Independence of the United States of America.

SAMUEL ADAMS.

By His Honor's command, with the advice and consent of the Council, JOHN AVERY, jun. Secry.

GOD save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

MAY 31, 1794.

FELLOW-CITIZENS!

While I attempt a short, but very respectful address to the two Branches of this new General Court, I cannot help expressing a great satisfaction in the continuance of the right which the citizens of the Commonwealth at large enjoy, of exercising their own sovereignty. In pursuance of the direction of our Constitution, which is expressive of their will, they have again in their anniversary meetings, made their free elections of such persons as they have judged meet to administer their public affairs. In this great transaction, they must surely have felt their own dignity; and however different their sentiments may have been with regard to the men of their choice, each elector having given his suffrage according to the dictates of his own conscience, must enjoy the consoling reflection of having honestly done his duty. Those in whom the people have placed their confidence, it is presumed will faithfully watch over, and guard their general interests, and take care that the liberties and the sovereignty of right belonging to this Commonwealth, shall suffer no diminution.

Fellow-Citizens!

We are met at a very critical period--The baneful influence of war in Europe, has already too far extended itself into this remote region. A war of Kings and Nobles, against the equal Rights of Men. Their first object was to controul the common right of all civil societies, by frustrating the attempt of a magnanimous nation, to establish a Constitution of government for themselves, according to their own mind: More lately the nefarious design has been to crush the new formed Republic in its infancy:--But the GOD of Armies, who favors the brave in a righteous cause, has hitherto appeared for its protection, and crowned the astonishing efforts of its defenders with astonishing victories.

Great Britain takes an active part with the mighty combination of Kings. Indeed it does not appear that she has yet made a demand on our confederate Republic to join the league. A demand which we are well informed she has made upon some of the neutral Republics of Europe. But, whilst we have preserved the most strict neutrality towards the belligerent powers of Europe, in observance of treaties made under the authority of the United States, which are the supreme law of the land, she, for the sake of aiding the cause in which she is so deeply engaged, has employed her naval force in committing depredations on our lawful and unprotected commerce. Thus in fact, she has commenced hostilities. The Federal Government, although very solicitous if possible, to prevent the calamities of war, have meditated measures preparatory for the event. The papers and communications which I have received on this subject, shall be laid before you.

It was a declared intention of the people of the United States, when they adopted our present constitution, "to form a more perfect union"--an important object indeed. The deliberate voice of the people is commonly the voice of reason--the voice of the people ought therefore to be attended to. Union, formed upon the genuine republican principles and views of our political institutions, by combining our strength, will have a powerful tendency in a time of war to reduce an unreasonable enemy to terms of Justice, and the re-establishment of tranquility; and in peace to secure the blessings of equal liberty to the present and future generations.

Fellow-Citizens!

It is my sincere and ardent wish, and I have a strong persuasion in my own mind, that wisdom and public spirit will guide you in all your deliberations and decisions. I will endeavor seasonably to dispatch such business as you shall lay before me during this session, and at all times, to support the true dignity of this Commonwealth in the station in which I have the honor of being placed, by a vigilant attention to its essential duties.

SAMUEL ADAMS.

TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

JUNE 4, 1794.

GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

By an Act of the Legislature passed on the fourteenth of March, 1785, intitled "An Act1 providing a place of confinement for thieves, and other convicts to hard labor;" it is provided "that the Island within the harbor of Boston, commonly called Castle-Island, shall be a place for the reception, and secure confinement of all such persons as shall be sentenced for confinement and hard labor, for the term of their natural lives, or for any shorter space pursuant to the laws of the Commonwealth."

According to this, and subsequent laws, a great number of persons have been sentenced to confinement and hard labor; there are a number of them at this time under sentences, some for the term of their lives, and others for a shorter space of time.--There are particular regulations provided by the Legislature of the Commonwealth, and particular modes of discipline instituted for the government of such convicts.

This mode of punishment has been found by experience to be of great utility in the preservation of good order, and the producing of safety in the Commonwealth, and has a manifest tendency to render unnecessary those sanguinary punishments which are too frequently inflicted in other Governments.

The situation of our country now calls for fortifications on our seacoasts; and the President of the United States has communicated the Act of Congress for erecting forts in the harbor of Boston, which now lies before you. The fortification on Castle Island is very ancient, and has always been supported by this Government. It is a prison for certain purposes, by an act of the legislature of the Commonwealth, which puts it out of my power, if I was disposed to do it, to deliver the controul over to any other hands. Should that place, by act of the General Court, be given over to the controul of the military department of the general Government, the convicts under sentence, must be discharged, or another place of confinement be provided for them. No government can assign the execution of sentences passed by it to the officers of another government, because such officers would be under no obligation to execute the laws of a government of which they are totally independent, nor can they be held amenable to it for any excesses, or oppressions in their conduct. That fortification being thus appropriated by the Legislature, and yet being convenient as a place of defence, I submit it to you, gentlemen, to determine, whether it will not be for the interest of the Commonwealth in particular, and the United States in general, to have it repaired at the ex-pence of this government. The expence will not be great, and the utility, if not the indispensible necessity of holding it under the controul of this state, in the same manner, and for the same purposes for which it has been held for several years last past, is very obvious.

SAMUEL ADAMS.