the savages; relaxes the execution of the laws, delays justice, and tends. to loosen and dissever the bonds of government.

2nd. It suspends the operation of the benign influence of mercy, by subjecting condemned persons, who may be deemed worthy of pardon, to tedious, languishing and destructive imprisonment.

3rd. It renders difficult and precarious the exercise of the first and dearest right of freemen-adequate representation-as no person properly qualified, can be expected, at the hazard of his life, to undergo the fatigue of long journeys, and to incur burthensome expenses, by devoting himself to the public service.

4th. It subjects us to penalties, and inflictions which arise from ignorance of the laws, many of which have their operation and expire before they reach the district.

5th. It renders a compliance with many of the duties required of sheriffs and clerks, impracticable; and exposes those officers, under the present revenue law, to inevitable destruction.

6th. It subjects the inhabitants to expensive and ruinous suits in the High Court of Appeals, and places the unfortunate poor, and men of mediocrity, compleatly in the power of the opulent.

Other grievances result from partial and retrospective laws, which are contrary to the fundamental principles of free government, and subversive of the inherent rights of freemen: such are, Ist. the laws for the establishment and support of the district court, which, at the same time that we are subject to a general tax for the support of the civil list, and the erection of public buildings, oblige us to build our own court-house, jail and other buildings, by a special poll-tax imposed upon the inhabitants of the district, and leaves several officers of the court without any certain provision.

2nd. The law imposing a tax of five shillings per hundred acres, on lands previously sold, and directing the payment thereof into the register's office at Richmond, before the patent shall issue: the same principles which sanctify this law, would authorise the legislature to impose five pounds per acre on lands previously sold by government on stipulated conditions, and for which an equivalent hath been paid; and is equally subversive of justice as any of the statutes of the British parliament, that impelled the good people of America to arms. 3d. General laws, partial and injurious in their operation: such are the laws, Ist.-concerning entries and surveys on the western 2. Concerning the appointment of sheriffs. 3d. For

waters.

punishing certain offences injurious to the tranquillity of this commonwealth, which last law prohibits, while we experience all the calamities which flow from the predatory incursions of hostile savages, from attempting any offensive operation: a savage, unrestrained by any law, human or divine, despoils our property, murders our fellowcitizens, then makes his escape to the north-west side of the Ohio, is protected by this law.

Whereas all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent and unalienable rights; among which are the enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

Resolved therefore, That it is the indispensible duty of this convention, as they regard the prosperity and happiness of their constituents, themselves and posterity, to make application to the general assembly, at the ensuing session, for an act to separate this district from the present government forever, on terms honourable to both and injurious to neither; in order that it may enjoy all the advantages, privileges and immunities of a free, sovereign and independent republic.

Unanimously agreed to by all the members present, whose names are hereto annexed: Mr. Saml. M'Dowell, President, Mr. George Muter, Mr. Christopher Irvin, Mr. William Kennedy, Mr. Benjamin Logan, Mr. Caleb Wallace, Mr. Harry Innes, Mr. John Edwards, Mr. James Speed, Mr. James Wilkinson, Mr. James Garrard, Mr. Levi Todd, Mr. John Coburn, Mr. James Trotter, Mr. John Craig, Mr. Robert Patterson, Mr. Richard Terrell, Mr. George Wilson, Mr. Benjamin Sebastian, Mr. Philip Barbour, Mr. Isaac Cox, Mr. Isaac Morrison, Mr. Andrew Hynes, Mr. Mathew Walton, Mr. James Morrison, and Mr. James Rogers.

No. IV.

To the Honorable General Assembly of Virginia.

GENTLEMEN,

The subscribers resident in the county of Jefferson, Fayette, Lincoln, and Nelson, composing the district of Kentucky, being chosen at free elections held in these counties respectively by the free men of the same, for the purpose of constituting a convention, to take

into consideration, the general state of the district, and expressly to decide on the expediency of making application to your honorable body, for an act of separation-deeply impressed with the importance of the measure, and breathing the purest filial affection, beg leave to address you on the momentous occasion.

The settlers of this district region, taught by the arrangements of Providence, and encouraged by the conditions of that solemn compact for which they paid the price of blood, to look forward to a separation from the eastern parts of the commonwealth; have viewed the subject leisurely at a distance, and examined it with caution on its near approach:-irreconcileable as has been their situation to a connexion with any community beyond the Appalachian mountains, other than the federal union; manifold as have been the grievances flowing therefrom, which have grown with their growth and increased with their population; they have patiently waited the hour of redress, nor even ventured to raise their voices in their own cause until youth quickening into manhood, hath given them vigour and stability.

To recite minutely the causes and reasoning which have directed and will justify this address, would, we conceive, be a matter of impropriety at this juncture. It would be preposterous for us to enter upon the support of facts and consequences, which we presume are incontestable; our sequestered situation from the seat of government, with the intervention of a mountainous desert of two hundred miles, always dangerous, and passable only at particular seasons, precludes every idea of a connexion on republican principles. The patriots who formed our constitution, sensible of the impracticability of connecting permanently in a free government, the extensive limits of the commonwealth, most wisely made provision for the act which we now solicit.

To that sacred record we appeal.-'Tis not the ill-directed or inconsiderate zeal of a few, 'tis not that impatience of power to which ambitious minds are prone; nor yet the baser considerations of personal interest, which influences the people of Kentucky; directed by superior motives, they are incapable of cherishing a wish unfounded in justice; and are now impelled by expanding evils, and irremediable grievances, universally seen, felt and acknowledged, to obey the irresistible dictates of self-preservation, and seek for happiness by means honorable to themselves, honorable to you, and injurious to neither.

We therefore, with the consent, and by the authority of our constituents, after the most solemn deliberation, being warned of every consequence which can ensue, for them, for ourselves, and for posterity unborn-do pray that an act may pass at the ensuing session of assembly, declaring and acknowledging the sovereignty and independence of this district.

Having no object in view but the acquisition of that security and happiness which may be attained by scrupulous adherence to principles of private justice, and public honor; we should most willingly at this time enter into the adjustment of the concessions which are to be the condition of our separation, did not our relative situation forbid such negociation, the separation we request being suggested by necessity and being consonant to every principle of reason and justice, we are persuaded will be cheerfully granted, and that we shall be as cheerfully received into the continental union on the recommendation of our parent state.

Our application may excite a new spectacle in the history and politics of mankind. A sovereign power solely intent to bless its people, agreeing to a dismemberment of its parts, in order to secure the happiness of the whole; and we fondly flatter ourselves, from motives not purely local, it is to give birth to that catalogue of great events which we persuade ourselves are to diffuse throughout the world, the inestimable blessings, which mankind may derive from the American revolution.

We firmly rely that the undiminished lustre of that spark which kindled the flame of liberty, and guided the United States of America to peace and independence, will direct the honorable body to whom we appeal for redress of manifest grievances, to embrace the singular occasion reserved for them by divine providence, to originate a precedent which may liberalize the policy of nations, and lead to the emancipation of enslaved millions.

In this address we have discarded the complimentary style of adulation and insincerity. It becomes freemen, when speaking to freemen, to employ the plain, manly, unadorned language of independence, supported by conscious rectitude.

No. V.

Resolved, That two commissioners be appointed to have the address now agreed on preferred to the next general assembly, and to use their endeavors to give it success.

George Muter and Harry Innes, esquires, were unanimously appointed commissioners to have the address now agreed on preferred to the next general assembly.

To the inhabitants of the District of Kentucky.

FRIENDS AND COUNTRYMEN,

Your representatives in convention having completed the important business for which they were specially elected, feel it their duty before they rise, to call your attention to the calamities with which our country appears to be threatened-blood has been spilt from the eastern to the western extremity of the district, accounts have been given to the convention from Post St. Vincennes, which indicate a disposition in the savages for general war; in the mean time if we look nearer home, we shall find our borders infested, and constant depredations committed on our property. Whatever may be the remote designs of the savages, these are causes sufficient to rouse our attention, that we may be prepared not only to defend but punish those who unprovoked offend us. God and nature have given us the power, and we shall stand condemned in the eyes of Heaven and mankind, if we do not employ it, to redress our wrongs and assert our rights.

The Indians are now reconnoitering our settlements in order that they may hereafter direct their attacks with more certain effect, and we seem patiently to await the stroke of the tomahawk; strange indeed it is, that although we can hardly pass a spot, which does not remind us of the murder of a father, a brother or deceased friend, we should take no single step for own preservation: Have we forgot the surprise of Bryan's or the shocking destruction of Kinchelo's station, let us ask you? Ask yourselves, what there is to prevent a repetition of such barbarous scenes? five hundred Indians might be conducted undiscovered, to our very thresholds, and the knife