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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Regulators' Advertisement No. 1 - Public notice concerning the actions of public officials
No Author
August 1766
Volume 07, Pages 249-250

[B. P. R. O. Am. & W. I. N. C. No 216.]

ADVERTISEMENT
August 1766.

No. 1. Whereas that great good may come of this great designed Evil the Stamp Law while the sons of Liberty withstood the Lords in Parliament in behalf of true Liberty let not Officers under them carry on unjust Oppression in our own Province in order thereunto as there is many Evils of that nature complained of in this County of Orange in private amongst the Inhabitants therefore let us remove them (or if there is no cause) let us remove the Jealousies out of our minds.

Honest rulers in power will be glad to see us examine this matter freely there is certainly more honest men among us than rogues & yet rogues is harbored among us sometimes almost publickly, every honest man is willing to give part of his substance to support rulers and Laws to save the other part from rogues and it is his Duty as well as right to see & examine whether such rulers abuse such trust,

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otherwise that part so given may do more hurt than good, even if all were rogues in that case we could not subsist but would be obliged to frame Laws to make ourselves honest and the same reasoning holds good against the notion of a Mason Club; this tho' it must be desired by all or the greatest number of men, yet when grievances of such public nature are not redressed the reason is everybody's business is no Bodys, therefore the following proposals is offered to the Publick

AN ADVERTIZEMENT

Let each Neighbourhood throughout the Country meet together and appoint one or more men to attend a general meeting on the Monday before the next November Court at a suitable place where there is no Liquor (at Maddocks Mill if no objection) at which meeting let it be judiciously enquired whether the free men of this Country labor under any abuses of power or not and let the same be notified in writing if any is found and the matter freely conversed upon and proper measures used for amendment; this method will certainly cause the wicked men in power to tremble and there is no damage can attend such a meeting nor nothing hinder it but a cowardly, dastardly Spirit which if it does in this time while Liberty prevails we must mutter and grumble under any abuses of power until such a noble spirit prevails in our posterity for take this as a maxim that while men are men though you should see all those Sons of Liberty (who has just now redeemed us from tyranny) set in Offices and vested with power they would soon corrupt again and oppress if they were not called upon to give an account of their Stewardship.