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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from Henry Eustace McCulloh to the Committee of Correspondence of the North Carolina General Assembly
McCulloh, Henry Eustace, d. ca. 1810
July 14, 1769
Volume 08, Pages 55-57

[From MS. Records in Office of Secretary of State.]
Letter from Henry E. McCulloh Provincial Agent to the Honble the
Committee of Correspondence.

London 14th July 1769.

Gentlemen,

I did not meet the honor of your letter dated 10th of December last, till the 26th of May. It came accompanied with a Resolve of the Honble the House of Assembly, appointing me their Agent for the Term therein mentd, and a Petition to His Majesty.

I entreat the favor of you, Gentlemen, to lay before Your Honble House, my very respectful and warm expression of thanks for the great Honor they have done me. I have a very high opinion of the nature of the Trust they have been pleased to repose in me, & beg to pledge myself for a faithful and firm discharge of the duties of it to the utmost of my Powers.

I immediately waited on Lord Hillsborough with the Resolve and the Petition.—In all Petitions of business to the Throne, the official, constant and regular mode is, that they are presented to His Majesty by the Principal Secretary of State for the department: the only exception is in cases of refusal, when the extraordinary mode of private presentation becomes necessary. His Lordship was pleased to undertake to lay your Petition before the Throne; which has been accordingly done.—In all such cases, His Majesty's answer is given thro' his Governor abroad,—and which I presume His Excellency Mr Tryon will receive in time to deliver to Your Honble House at your next Meeting.—I beg leave to mention, that if the mode of particular presentation had been made necessary, it should assuredly have been made use of by me.

You will please to observe, that the Sessions was broke up before I received the dispatches; and consequently, that no parliamentary Application can be made before the Winter.—I very carefully attend

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to the Contents of your letter, & shall exert myself to the uttermost to obtain the Province leave to issue Notes of Currency.—I am sorry to acquaint you, I have reason to fear that Lord Hillsborough is at present of opinion, that giving the American Assemblies a power to make their Notes a Tender is repugnant to the Idea of a Paper Circulation and highly improper.—It shall be my best endeavor to impress his Lordship with the reasons that make this circumstance necessary in your Paper Emissions; and further to shew that no injustice to any, but great good to all, would result from granting the liberty requested. I shall apply to the Merchants concerned for their assistance, on which I believe I may heartily depend.

A general Repeal of the restrictive Act is not what I have at present in view, but rather the obtaining an Act of Parliament for the particular purposes required by you: Many & great objections which would lay to the first mode, will not to the other. I shall as soon as the plan is fixed upon, immediately, and at large, communicate it to you, with my proceedings. I am extremely sensible that the public Credit, Peace, and Prosperity of the Province, in a great measure, depend on the event of this Application.—The greatness of the object will justly demand my best exertions, which I beg leave to say shall not be wanting.

I have it from authority to assure Your Honble House, that It is Intended to Repeal the Duties on Paper & Glass complained of by America, but at the same, [time] in all things, to support the Dignity of Government.

It has been, and shall be, upon all occasions, my duty and inclination, to place the public conduct of the Province in proper point of view; and I have the pleasure to inform you, that I believe the Loyalty and Attachment of its Inhabitants, and the Moderation adopted by your governing powers, are conceived of by His Majesty's Ministers & others your Fellow-subjects here, in a very happy and favorable light.—The internal disturbances which have unhappily prevailed in the frontier Counties, I have been ever careful to distinguish as such; and I trust that Ministry has the kindest Intentions to grant every reasonable Indulgence to your Interests.

I conceive it my duty to lay before your Honble House, what past between my Lord Hillsboro' & me on the subject of my appointment by Resolve. He was pleased to declare that tho' the mode in question had formerly in some cases been admitted of here, yet that stricter regulations had for sometime taken place in American

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Affairs, and that it was determined that the Assent of the Governor, Council and Assembly, formally expressed by an Act of the whole legislature, was necessary to Invest a person with the Character of a provincial Agent; & that being only appointed by your Resolve, I could only be considered as Agent for the Assembly, and for such matters as they might as a House of Assembly, be particularly interested in.—I observed to His Lordship, that if the American Assemblies could be prevented in their choice of an Agent, by a negative in either of the other branches of the legislature, it in fact destroyed their right of appointment;—that I must ever beg leave to consider myself, under your Resolve, as Attorney or Agent for the province, and to act accordingly.—His Lordship assured me of his readiness upon all occasions to promote the Interests of the Province, and that he would give the kindest Attention to what I might have to propose to him.—If your Honble House think proper to continue me in the Trust they have honored me with, I would recommend the mode which Government here has declared necessary.—It is not for me to enlarge on this subject.

It is proposed next winter to review the Acts relative to the Naval Store trade, and to make sundry alterations therein. I inclose for your consideration Copies of the several papers which have past on the subject, (which I am favored with by Mr Hyndley,) these papers will lay the subject before you in the fullest manner, and I intreat I may receive directions for my conduct therein, in which I beg there may be no delay.

I shall very faithfully, and with great pleasure, cooperate with the Agents of the other Colonies, in the matters recommended by you.—The general ground of Complaint is the same, and I am sensible a spirited & vigorous Cooperation of the several Colony Agents is a very probable and efficacious means to procure success.

I shall from time to time acquaint you fully of my proceedings, and will expect to be favored fully with your commands.

I will conclude by observing that I shall conceive myself very happy in a continuance of the Honor the Assembly has done me.

I have the Honor to be, most respectfully, Gentlemen,
Your most obedient & most humble servt,
HENRY E. McCULLOH.