4th March, 1775.
At a Meeting of the Committee for the County of Craven and Town of Newbern on the 4th day of March, 1775,
Resolved, that at this critical juncture it becomes the duty of this Committee to remind their constituents that several important Rules and Regulations established by the General Congress have now lately taken place and they hereby beg leave earnestly to exhort them as they regard the future Welfare of themselves and their Posterity, to remain firm and steady in the common cause of Liberty and that they testify the same by paying a sacred Regard to those Rules as the only means left under Divine Providence of delivering America from the cruel hand of arbitrary Power: We of the Committee, at the same time observe with inexpressible joy that the People of New York remain firm in the good cause of Liberty, notwithstanding every Act that a corrupt Ministry and a set of despicable
Scribblers under them could invent and put in practice to create a division of political sentiments in that Province; and that they have lately obliged Two Ships richly laden with British Goods, to leave their Port and return to the place from whence they came, agreeable to the Articles of Association recommended by the General Congress which all are equally bound by every Tie of honour, mutual Faith and personal Security to observe and support, for the arbitrary Designs of Parliament appear no longer under Disguise; the standard of its Tyranny is now erected in this once happy land, and a melancholy sample have they afforded us of what we may expect in future from their Justice and Equity if we submit to their Edicts already past, for she not only assumes the Right of taxing us at Pleasure and in short of making Laws to bind us in all cases whatsoever; but to crown the whole she has past a Law for transporting us like Felons occasionally over Sea to be tried, condemned and punished in case we should at any time murmur at our Hardships or prove otherwise obnoxious to Men in Power; and to carry this most cruel scheme of Tyranny into execution we find the Towns of our fellow Countrymen to the Northward infested with Armies and their Ports and Harbours with Fleets. Be sensible, O Americans! of your danger; let that unite you together as one Man and cease not to implore the great Disposer of all things to assist and crown with success the Councils of the General Congress.