Kings County Declaration

Wednesday, July 12, 1780

New-York, July 12.

To His EXCELLENCY

JAMES ROBERTSON, Esq;

Captain General and Governor in Chief of the Province of New-York, Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the sa<m>e, and Major General of his Majesty’s Forces &c.  &c. &c.

Th<e> Address of the Gentleman, Freeholders, and <i>nhabitants of King’s County, Nassau Island.

May it please your Excellency,

Impressed by sentiments of duty and gratitude to our most gracious Sovereign for his paternal attention to the intere<s>t and happiness of his subjects in America, [America,] it is with cordial satisfaction we co<n>gratulate your Excellency on your d<e>signation to the care of a province in which from your long residence you have such an intimate knowledge as must inspire a general confidence in the wisdom of your administrati<illegible>n.

We concur with you Excellency in ascribing to the ambition and self-interested views of a few, and their concealment from the multitude of of the repeated [repeated] offers of Great Britain, that our countrymen once so happy are brought to feel the miseries held up to their fears to seduce them from the felicity they enjoyed.

Subjected as they are to usurpation that has annihilated their commerce, shed their blood and wa<s>ted their property, and is now dragging even the laborious husbandman from the plough to the field of battle to support their unauthorised and perilous combinations with designing, Popith, and arbitrary powers, we cannot sufficiently applaud the benevolence which dictated the proclamations lately issued by his Excellency Sir Henry Clinton and you Excellency for amply affording the means of extricating themselves from the di<s>tress into which they are plunged.

In the sympathy we feel for our suffering country, nothing can be more grateful to us, and as we conceive to the majority of the continent than the grace which appears to restore to the colonies all the benefits of local legislation with their former constitutions, a participation in the in the extensive commerce of Great Britain, and a total exemption from all taxations not imposed by themselves.

It is with real pleasure we also receive the intimation of his Majesty’s wish for the revival of the civil authority, and we persuade ourselves so much benevolence wi<l>l draw forth every exertion to enable your Excellency to restore to the people of this colony the tranquility they lately enjoyed under the faithful and honorable direction of you immediate predecessor, Major General TRYON, [TRYON,] who in our days of ease was not more distinguished for his impartial justice an<d> noble generosity, than in the storm of adversity for zeal aud activity in supporting the rights of our most gracious Sovereign, and the constitutional law of the realm.

Be assured, Sir, of our loyal and most strenuous endeavours on all occasions for his Majesty’s service, ch<er>ishing every possible means of shewing your Excellency the sincerity of our affection, and the regard we owe as fellow- commoners to the prosperity of his Majesty’s subjects.

In Behalf of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of King’s County, and at their request.

William Axtell.

Richard Stilwell

Jeromus Lott.

1. Cowenhoven

Rem Covenhoven

Adrian Van Brunt

Rutger Van Brunt.

L<E>FF. Lefferts.

Abraham Liquere.

Johannis Berger.

Major Jeromus Vanderbelt.

His Excellency’s Answer.

To the Gentlemen, Freeholders, and Inhabitants of King’s County,

I AM much obliged to you for this Address. Having experienced that the inhabitants of King’s County were a happy people, it is my wish to see them restored to the state I enjoyed with them.

It is likewise my duty to follow my Sovereign’s gracious intentions in favour of his good subjects in America; you may therefore be assured of all the security, advantages, and good offices my situation may enable me to procure you.

JAMES ROBERTSON.