to Rise it is only Surmised The same we say of what was said of some of the Members of the Court being thought unfit for their places and the traducing of some as Rogues and abuses offered His Excellency these things we have answered afore that t is the particulars if any such be that are blameable not the whole or body of the People As to the not taking Commissions it will occur afterwards to be spoken unto Pam. In Page 7 8. Several things are said of a Proclamation left with Coll. Allyn imparted to the Governour and fault is found that it was not published and so of a second Proclamation sent from York Ans 1. Let our General Courts Answer be considered and that will shew how improper it was for our Governour to Publish those Proclamations 2. Was it not enough that no hindrance was given His Excellency when here and that he yet did not do it Pam. In Page 8 he takes it for granted that all former Military Commissions are Expressly determined by the Publication of this and therefore finds fault with Trainings and adds 't is said we have made a Major too Ans 1. His Opinion differs from the General Courts in the first point but that being Controversal it is before Their Majesties 2. As to Trainings in the interim it was it seems thought meet by some Officers not to desist and thereby let the Souldiers grow unfitted for Service but attend what the Law requires in a time of War as this is here being none in Commission neither but what had Commissions from the General Court and a Vacancy at this junture seems not safe 3. As to a Major the Major Winthrop being gone for England the General Care of New-London County which is most exposed to danger from the Sea required somewhat of a Special Order in that respect Our duty to Their Majesties in our present Circumstances do admit and require that we omit nothing wherein we may best Serve them But these Trainings c. in his usual heat he ill resents and declares against Pam. Thus we make all the defiance to Their Majesties and Their Commission trample them into the very dirt and offend with as high an hand as is well possible for us to do Ans It is time now to say somewhat more to take of these heavy Imputations and we will promise to do it that there are several important things that are not convenient on the Provocations of this Pamphlet to be made Publick Nor may a few undertake to give the whole sence of the General Court and Country We shall content our selves and we hope satisfy the Reader with what answers this Pamphlet 1. Then we say the Militia is the Kings So says he in Page 25. and onwards 2. This is so declared by two Acts of Parliament 13 13th and 14th of Charles II. So saith he Page 26. 3. The Militia that is the Kings and so declared in those Acts is the Militia intended in the Commission to Sir William Phipps and now to His Excellency of York So he Argues Page 26. saying It is declared by two several Acts of Parliament of 13. 13. and 14. of Charles II. and of this His Maiesty was pleased to put us in mind by express mention of the first of these Statutes in the Commission to Sir William Phipps And in Page 3. he calls the Commission to His Excellency of York a like Commission and argues in Page 26. and onward our duty to obey this Commission by Vertue of those Acts. 4. The latter of those Acts do to determine the whole Regulation of the Kings Militia in 36 Articles according to which His Majesties Leiutenants we conceive must Execute their Office this we think is indisputable unless that Act be void or vainly urged on us by our Antagonist We desire that a special notice may be taken that this Act of 13. 14. of Charles II. is the Limit and Boundary of the Kings Militia as it is Committed to and is to be Commanded by the Kings Lieutenants as such and that if this be plucked up 1. The very Leiutenancy is taken away being as to Law founded only hereon And 2. That if the Kings Leiutenants as such can claime and Command a Militia as the Kings beyond the measure of this Act what shall stop them from Commanding who when and in what manner so ever they please 3. The word Militia as it relates to the King and His Leiutenants is restrained to this Act and does not take in all that strictly may be denominated Militia for in a large sence Corporations Towns Families yea single Persons have and may have that Furniture for War offending and defending as their respective Capacities do require and admit that may be called truly and properly their Militia and yet neither the things so called nor that name shall incorporate them into the Kings Militia and put them under His Lieutenant 4. That when the King makes His Leiutenant that Leiutenancy is necessarily refered to this Law and stands in Connexion to it and all words and clauses in the Leiutenants Commission must be accomodated to the tenor and true intent of this Act and not otherwise for as it is Leiutenancy so t is but Leiutenancy and what Leiutenancy shall be and how far extend this Act provides these things we refer to the Readers notice in this whole contest 5. In the third Article or Paragraph as Wingate renders it is said that the Leiutenants c. May charge any where their Estates be with Horss Horsman and Arms that have 500 Pound Per. Annum in Posession or 6000 Pounds in Goods or Money besides furnitue of their Houses and so Proportionably And any with a Foot Souldier and Arms that have 50 Pounds Per. Annum in Posession or 600 Pounds in Goods or Money other than Stock on the ground and so Proportionably they shall charge none to find both Horss and Foot in the same County We need recite no more here only in the close of the foregoing Paragraph it is said And the said Leiutenants and in their absence or otherwise by their directions the deputy Leiutenants or any two or more of them may Exercise and Conduct the Persons so to be Armed c. as is here after expressed And in the 25. Article or Paragraph we find to the same Effect Viz. The Leiutenant c. May from time to time Lead Train c. all Persons Raised and Arrayed according to the Act of 13 and 14. of Charles II. Chap. 3. Here it seems very plain 1. What the Kings Militia is viz. Persons of such Estates as are mentioned 2. That the Kings Leiutenants as such and by Law have only those Persons of those Estates under their charge and power As yet nothing is offered us to prove it otherwise 6. There is no such Militia so constituted yet formed in Connecticut therefore no Subject or Object of such a Leiutenancy yet formally Existing here this is
well enough known 7. His Excellency nor Sir William ever went about forming such a Militia here by and according to the 3d. 4th 5th and 10th Articles or Paragraphs of the said Acts of Parliament therefore were not opposed in Executing their respective Leiutenancies according to the Acts referred to in their Commissions and Consequently not opposed in their Commissions rightly understood and applyed and as the Pamphlet argues for them 8. The Militia of Connecticut as now constituted by the General Court by vertue of the Charter and as our need requires consists of all Males from 16 to 60 years of Age some few as Majestrates Ministers c. only excepted be their Estates what they will These things being thus the Question is whether the Kings Militia constituted and to be Governed as by said Acts or the Corporation Militia of another constitution and Government and therefore so constituted because so to be Governed be the Object of the Leiutenantcy the disputes of the Pamphlet run for the latter but still wholly on grounds taken only from the former but that will not hold for what Their Majesties claime by Law that is by those Acts they furely Execute upon according to the same Law or Acts of Parliament 'T is an happy truth that all the People are Their Majesties yet are not all by Act of Parliament from 16 to 60 years of Age that is Males His standing Militia If this had come to practice here and His Excellency had called all from 16 to 60 to the duty of Souldiers and they had refused as not having Estates to Oblige them by the Laws his Commission is dependant on and must be exercised by and the Corporation Militia strictly so called had been severed there from what a poor posture had that been in when it may be the Colony would not have yielded an Hundred Souldiers to that part it may be not half an hundred But it may be said doth not the Commission say the Militia of Connecticut all the Forces c. And this answers all We say no For we know His Majesty Governs by the Laws of the Realm and this our Adversary not only yields us but makes it the Basis of all his Arguing in Page 23. where he saith In this case Rex praecipit Lex praecipit the Kings Commands and the Laws Commauds is all one So that by his own account the Laws Command and the Kings Command in the case are Mutual and Reciprocal and do expound each other that is the Statute of 13 13 and 14 of Charles II. do expound this Commission of Leiutenancy and all others of that kind and in the sence and under the Limitations of those Acts it is to be taken and no otherwise And this alone with the Consideration of the Constitution of Connecticut Militia at once over throws utterly his whole Hypothesis in the Pamphlet And he might have spared the labour of all his Sophistications in arguing and concluding as he doth from the one to the other when as not the same thing or a thing of the same Constitution is in both And here we must note his misrepresentation of those Statutes as intending a Militia which they do not by applying them directly to another kind of Militia as he doth evidently all along It is like he knew that they are but few Comparatively that Read those Laws and yet fewer of his Readers that know or will be informed what a different Militia from that Connecticut Militia is and so the Ambiguity of the word Militia would not be dicovered and so it must and would be concluded that if we hold any Militia it was the same in the Statutes this is no fair dealing in him His Majesty claimes His right according to those Laws and what is by Patent Granted to His Subjects and is of another Constitution we may be bold to hold that till we can enquire His Majesties right and pleasure to be otherwise and in this we claim not His Majesties Militia as it is distinguished from our Corporation Militia it is all His Majesties in Service In a word what is the Kings Militia so settled by the Laws of His Realm we never gave the least hindrance unto His Leiutenants in if they had clamed the Command of that and that only and had been refused some such Charges as now we are laden with might have had a colour whereas now they have none To a full management hereof many other things should and might be added but this may suffice to show that the Pamphlet by not distinguishing between Militia and Militia runs into all manner of confusion and chargeth us with claiming the Kings right when we claim it not but a distinct thing and not that neither but in Subjection to Their Majesties what of the Kings Militia is involved in the Corporations we know not till it be distinguished as the Law requires if these things be not clear to others they are so to us and will bear at least an enquiry in England before we be put on to what we are not clear in and this may be the better born with since as he said in Page 5th His Excellency offered to continue the Militia in the hands it was then in which shewed a good Satisfaction in the Military Commission Officers the odds of being under the Corporation or His Excellency till we could here from England needed not the Sharpness of this Pamphlet which hath nothing helped save to render us as bad as possible and beyond truth or peace And here we might end our answer but because of the long and bitter Harrangue that continues in that Book and some things that must be cleared we must attend it And at once we will insert the Courts Answer to Coll. Fletcher that all may see what it was and not take it in the disguises that are put on it and it shall be as it was Printed at York Viz. To His Excellency Benjamin Fletcher Captain General and Governour in Chief of Their Majesties Province of New-York c. IN Return to your Excellencies demands of the Millitia of us Their Majesties General Court of Their Colony of Connecticut we say That finding in your Excellencies Commission no Express Superseding of the Commission of the Millitia in our Charter nor Order to us from Their Majesties to Surender the same And being sensible of the great importance of this matter and finding it in several main things which do need a particular Explication and Settlement as we shall God willing manifest to Their Majesties cannot but conceive it our duty both with respect to Their Majesties Service and our own peace and preservation in this time of War to continue the Militia as formerly till by our Agent now sent for England we shall receive further Orders from Their Majesties And in obedience to Their Majesties Gracious Letter of March 3d. 1692. We shall be ready upon all just Occasions to yield Assistance to His Excellency Coll. Benjamin
of our Acting from the time in which we are Addressing Their Majesties and with his usual Severity Ans If we should for once gratifie his humor and say we mist it therein yet what is he better than Esops Doctor to the Dead man the case was sent away to England and that before he wrote and he is too late to help it Pam. In Page 36 he grows Jocous and t is all that he is pleasant in in the whole Book and but sour there too he Masquerades tells us that our Great Champion our Goliah leaves us in the Lurch the Stone is Sunk in his forhead c. And shall we yet harden our selves c. Ans He uses a great Liberty we know none that have so Lurched us though the Stone of a Slander that one took a great Bribe at York has been cast at one of us but it s most like to be found in another forehead Pam. In Page 37 he propounds the Event to Consideration and this he Predicts will be 1. That Friends will be ashamed of us Enemies will Insult Ans We think his Friends if he have any wise ones will be ashamed of him for his Trifling and abusive use of Sacred and Serious things and that his and our Enemies will insult upon us with this weapon he hath so unadvisedly or maliciously put into their hands Pam. His Second Prognostick is That the King and Councel expects better things of us Ans He is all along too bold to give the Kings sence it has been said of a Chancelour in some cases that he that knew the Chancelours mind knew the Kings mind but we have no assurance that this mans Perception is so deep Pam. His Third Presage is that That we Prejudice Their Majesties Interests frustrate Their Intentions defeat Their Counsels c. Ans 1. As we justly dislike his fore Staling Their Majesties Judgment so we do but a little fear it though that be evidently designed by his Book and he may move in his own Orb and not Soar with his Icarian Wings so near the Sun alass little thing why thus Cheek by Jole with the Soveraign power will he perform the thing through thee we know a divine Sentence is in the Lips of the King and that our Judgement cometh forth from the Lord. 2. Let it be remembred that we do take care of our duty in respect of the War and are out great charge as hath been said We will pass over his fond Conceits in Page 39 of the French Concluding that they have Connecticut to Friend at least in a posture of Neutrality and that of the Maquaes being put to go to the French as Instances only of one that wants to Sleep and that of the Commission as what we had before with this Intimation that Connecticut hath also the Kings Broad Seal for their Corporation Militia Pam. In Page 40 he falls afresh to rating at us Do we not know That to Levy War against the King is High Treason c. That an Actual Rebellion or Insurrection is a levying War against the King That a gathering Forces for the Removal of Councellors Altering of Laws c. is levying of War against the King That the holding a Fort or Castle by force of Arms against the King and His Power is a levying War against the King c. Ans 1. We must refer to what hath be said chiefly for answer to these things to avoid vain and tedious Repetitions but as these things are applyed unto us we may say as Nehemiah to Sanbalat Chap. 6. v. 8. There are no such things as though sayest but thou feignest them out of thine own heart 2. Hath not Connecticut an uncondemned right to somewhat of a Militia Why may we not in the reverss charge as hard those that interupt us especially considering that the General Government is under Their Majesties yet in the Corporations hand to which particular Officers though by Patent one would think should stand in some Subordination But it may be said that we mistake him he doth not charge us with Treason levying War against the King he layes it only as a ground to argue from as he doth Pam. What Construction then do we think it will have If we shall be found to Rise in Arms against the Kings Lieutenant Publishing His Commission and Commanding Obedience unto it and by Force and Arms to with-hold the Militia and all Forces by Sea and Land and all Forts and places of strength in a whole Colony or Province from the King against His plain Commission Published under the great Seal Ans 1. The if that all this is propounded with makes it like a wet Eale hard to take any hold on or how to use it but he intends not to beat Air but to strike us in these things and because here he seems to clench most of his Coblery we say 2. If he argue from the former of Treason c. to this of our holding which he will call with-holding the Militia that the latter is as great as bad as the former or worse then we did not mistake him and indeed his sence Suites best his Scope in the whole Book But 3. If he argue from the greater to the lesser there is no great force in it for though it be Fellony to kill a Man yet it is not so to kill a Fly though a man may not Rob yet he may stand a Tryal in Law for what he hath held quietly a long time on a good tenure ere he Surrender and if finally he should be Ejected yet a Tryal is due to him ere a delivery is due from him 4. All a long the Pamphlet beggs and not proves the main question for he still runs away with this that our Charter now gives us no use of any Militia at all and on that Supposition he builds in a manner all his discourse but this we differ from him in and take it our right to have Their Majesties and the Laws descission in 5. What if after all this his Scuffle to bring our heads within his halter the Charter and his Excellencies Commission should be found to refer to divers Militia's the one to a Corporation Militia as formed by the General Court to our necessity and without which we are undone and the other to the Kings Militia according to the 13 and 14 of Charles II. Or which is almost the same that they should refer to the same Militia in divers respects Namely the one to what of our Militia falls not within the verges of that Act forementioned and the other to what of it that Act will on tryal be found to Comprehend will not this reconcile the Charter and Commission Or what if the Law or Their Majesties Grace will firm our former and present Station in these things these things are not only possible but hopeful and he might have staid his hand and not have run out upon us as Traitors as worse than Turks as dispisers of
will be spoken to afterwards Pam. In Page 25 he moves us an Objection as made by us about the Lawfulness of Coll. Fletchers Commission and this he returns over into an Asserting the Kings Right in the Militia Ans 1. As to Their Majesties right in the Militia it hath been owned and that he may grant Commissions accordingly is not to be doubted But this is not the difficulty but whether this Commission do reach any other Militia than what the Laws of the Realm do constitute and this the Pamphlet in words at least yields in our sence for in Page 29. thus he saith This Commission is therefore a Lawful Commission being founded upon the Antient and standing Laws of the Realm If then there be an Inseperable Connection between this Commission and the standing Laws of the Realm and it be founded on them and that Act of 13 14 of Charles II. be such a standing Law then this Commission is measured and limited by that Law which extent of it was never denyed that we know of But 2. If they will extend it to a Militia of another Constitution Viz. The Corporation Constitution then there is matter of Law in it not only to be disputed but to be tryed or at least to be inquired of Their Majesties whether it be Lawful or no in that Extent 3. Their Majesties pleasure may be sought even as to that which the said Act if applyed would take out of our Constitution of the Militia wherein many things may be and we hope are said before them 4. If men that have neither 50 Pound Starling Per. Annum nor 600 Starl in Money or Goods as most with us are such shall refuse the duty of a Souldier in the standing Militia what Law that this Commission is dependant on will condemn them for so doing and this as has been hinted will be our case if the Colony Militia so to call it which is the Kings too in a sence be disolved but of this we gave an account before yet could not well omit this further notice of it Pam. In Page 31. he reflects on the Government as Severe and Sharp Upon any disacknowledgment of our disputable Authority How Bragg and Peremptory should we have been if this Commission in terminis had been given to us Certainly Fire and Faggot or the Noose of an Halter had been good enough for any one that should have offered to oppose it c. Ans 1. Himself sayes that Male contents never want Complaints and Commends a throughness in Government Page 54. p. 58. 2. It is the general complaint that Connecticut Government is too Mild and possible those that know it best will laugh most at this Imagination of Fire and Faggot and the noose of an Halter What error is in Connecticut in these things lies on the other hand Pam. In 31 and 32 Page he speakes of Greedy catching at the Kings Letter of 3. of March last Ans This Their Majesties Letter was very Graciously sent and we hope thankfully and dutifully received and obeyed by us and he needed not speak so of it as Greedily catching but we know to whom that Letter hath been an Eye sore Pam. In Pag. 32 33 34. he charges Ingratitude to Their Majesties on so hard that it is intolerable It was an old Saying Say I am Ingrateful and say any thing but the best of it is he is no fit Judge of any thing concerning Connecticut who is thus Fire hot against us with Rage and we have Their Majesties and moderate Persons to judge herein we acknowledg and wish we could do it better Their Majesties kindness to us and were it not transcendent as the Sky is above the Earth to this mans Spirit we were very Miserable But whether he be within bounds of truth Sobriety or Charity let any one Judge when he saith Shall we requite Love with Hatred Tender Bowels with Malignanty for what else can our behaviour signify but a Malignant Spirit and Inveterat Hatred against the King as King and who ever comes from him as such We have sufficiently declared our Affections to the King and what we should have done if we had Him in our Hands we should soon Rid the World of Kings if we had them in our Power Remember Hazael Is thy Servant a Dog sayes he that he should do this great i. e. this abominable thing Yea but when Temptation and Oppertunity met together he did it notwithstanding and verily so should we Ans This is such a Charge as shows the Pamphleters Spirit in Lively and yet Blackest Colours To take the Altitude of this Promontory this Charge or Surmise Let it be considered 1. That to Imagine the Death of the King is by Law High Treason 2. To Imagine the Death of Kings in General is yet higher or highest Treason 3. That such Imaginings are Sins of the most heinous nature before God 4. That such a People so Spirited are justly to be abhorred of all man-kind Wherefore to Tax a Colony with such Treasons and Impiety to render them an abhorance to all men is so abhorredly Injurious to them That if Cerberus had been brought to Bark at us it is not imaginable he could more Hellishly have performed this task Let Leviticus 19.16 Be here again remembred Thou shalt not walk about with Tales among thy People Thou shalt not stand against the Blood of thy Neighbour I am the Lord. We will set against it the mind of Excellent Owen in his Book of the Dispenssing of the Holy Spirit Fol 517. Where Truth is not universally Observed according to the utmost watchfulness of Sincerity and Love there all other Marks and Tokens of the Image of God in any Persons are not only Sulied but defaced and the Representation of Satan is most prevalent Pam. In Page 34 he demands an Example of us who so ingratful who so disobedient as we c. Ans Supposing us to be such as he just afore affirms us to be we think none are like us or should be so nor do we know any like him for misusing the Kings Subjects in such an horrid degree 2. But if the meaning be who ever did Address a King before they obeyed an Order they had to inquire further on which only is pertinent here as we have done Examples in a greater Latitude then that abound every where For one let Dan. 2.24 25. Compared with the 13 14 15 16. Verses be seen Scores might easily be produced that have acceptably done this as well as we Pam. In Page 35 he thus Interogates us What do we indeed intend to fall off to the French c. Ans When men are thus forming and feeding Chymeraes it is endless and in vain to follow them we are not falling to the French nor from the King and yet for diversion we will tell him that his Counsel If we intend so to do let us speak out is very weak Pam. In Page 36 he urges us with the unseasonableness