Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	court_n	majesty_n	sir_n	6,797	5	7.3094	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30053	The people's right to election, or, Alteration of goverment [sic] in Connecticut argued in a letter / by Gershom Bulkeley ...; together with a letter to the said Bulkeley from a friend of his in the Bay ; to which is added, The writing delivered to James Russell of Charlestown Esq. warning him and others concerned not to meet to hold a court at Cambridge within the county of Middlesex by Thomas Greaves ... ; and also his answer to Mr. Broadstreete and the gentlemen mett at the Town-house in Boston concerning the same.	Bulkeley, Gershom, 1636-1713.; Friends of his in the Bay.; Greaves, Thomas.	1689 (1689)	Wing B5401; ESTC R3337	14,979	18

The PEOPLEs RIGHT TO ELECTION Or ALTERATION of GOVERMENT in Connecticutt ARGUED In a LETTER By Gershom Bulkeley Esq one of their Majesties Justices of the peace In the County of Hartford Together with a Letter to the said Bulkeley from a Friend of his in the BAY To which is added The Writing delivered to Iames Russell of Charlestown Esq warning him and others concerned not to meet to Hold a Court at Cambridge within the county of Middlesex By Thomas Greaves Esq Judge of their Majesties Inferior Court of Pleas and one of their Majesties Justices of the peace within the said County And also his ANSWER to Mr. Broadstreete and the Gentlemen mett at the Town-house in Boston concerning the same Published for the Informati0n Satisfaction of their Majesties loyall but 〈◊〉 Subjects in NEW ENGLAND Philadelphia Printed by Assignes of William Bradford Anno 1689. TO the honourable Robert Treat Esq and to the Worshipfull James Bishop William Jones James Fitch and other the Worshipful Iustices of the severall Coun●●●●● and any other whom it may concern assembling at Hartford To advise concerning Holding of a Court of Election by Virtue and according to the late Patent Sirs I am at this time by reason of bodily Infirmity unable to wait upon you in a suitable manner or to maintain discourse as this Occasion may require or indeed to write much yet considering the Exigency of the case I will do what I can apply my selfe to you as followeth And to prevent all prejudice against what I have to say I shall premise th●s much Viz. That tho' I was no free-man of the Colony yet I never was nor am an Enemy to our ancient Charter-priviledges and could they now be regularly Recovered I should rejoice in it and if I knew any thing whereby to justify the present proceeding I should not conceal it but we must not do evill that good may come of it I am not at all ambitious of keeping my place it is a Burthen and no Benefit to me an orderly discharge will be very welcome and the sooner the better if I could absolve my self from my oath it had not been to do now so that I am under no Temptation on these accounts T is onely the Trust reposed in me and my reall desire of the Common good which puts me on very well knowing that nothing but ill Will is like to be my reward Further I am sensible of mine inability to wade in those great Affaires and would not abound in my own sence nor in any sort take upon nor go about to teach those of whom I had need to learne yet Plus v●dent oculi quam oculus Many eyes see more than one and a weak eye may chance to see that which a better over-looks And I having with others tho much against my own Inclination received his Majesties Commission as a Justice of the Peace for the County of Hartfora and having at that time taken the Oaths of Supremacy and Obedience as also that of a justice for keeping of the Law the Conservation of the Peace and the quiet and good Government of the people it did concern me to Consider the Duty by these meanes so strongly bound upon me and accordingly I have since that time done my poor endeavour to inform my self in the Laws that I might discern between Right and Wrong for the good of the people Therefore in sence of my duty to God the King your selves and all his Majesties good people here for I am debtor to you all and am embarqued in the same Bottom with you and do account it my Duty to seek the peace of the place where I live therefore I say I shall not and I think I ought not be wholly silent at this time but according to that little which I have learned and observed I shall me destly and yet freely plainly offer a few Considerations to you which respect the present Affaire desireing you neither to accept nor reject what I say because it comes from me but according to its own merit for the matter in hand seems to me to be of very great Weight and I beseech you to consider and ponder it throughly before you engage in it forasmuch as an Irregularity in this Proceeding may be the beginning of great Calamity and Woe to this people The present Motion seems to me to be not only illegall needless unprofitable but indeed very criminal dangerous and hurtful to us and that upon these Considerations First Before you can Regularly or by Virtue of and according to your late Patent hold a Court of Election you must be first Restored to your former politick Capacity whereby you were under the Name of His Majesties Governour and Company of the English Colony of Connecticott Persons able capable in the Law to plead and be impleaded and to Have Take Require and possesse Lands and other Hereditaments c. of which that Priviledge of Government was a principall one given by your Patent For I reason thus If you do now assume the Government and proceed to Election you do it either in a private and personal Capacity or in a publick and politik Capacity I suppose you do not pretend to the First for that is not to do it according to your patent and besides it is criminall For Subjects in private Capacity to take upon them to set up exercise Government as they see cause is direct Rebellion Treason Therefore you must do it in a publick and politick Capacity but this you cannot do till you are restored to such a Capacity in which indeed you once were but now are not which I thus prove from the Patent it self Our late Soveraign King Charles the Second did in the year 1662 by his Letters Patents for himself his Heires and Successours Ordaine Consti●ue the therein named Patentees the then present future Freemen c. One Body politick and Corporate in fact and Name by the name of His Governour and Company of the English Colony of Connecticut in New-England in America and that by the same Name they and their Successours shall and may have perpetuall Succession and shall may be persons able capable in the law to plead be impleaded to Answer be Answered unto to defend be defended in all Suits Causes Quarrels Matters Actions and things of what kind and nature soever And also to Have Take Possesse Acquire and Purchase Lands Tenements and Hereditaments c. This is the expresse Letter of that Clause of the Patent whereby you were constituted one body politick and Corporate able and capable in the Law as aforesaid and whereby also you were by the name of Governour and Company to have perpetuall Succession or to be perpetuated by annuall Election at least as the Patent afterwards shews and upon this Clause do all the priviledges afterwards granted depend But now you are not such a Body politick and Corporate capable in

are so far quitt of the fright and hurry of the late and present confusion in these parts with that the men of Sechem had hearkened unto Iotham that God might have hearkened unto them and fear lest the proceeding here as well as with you being plainly represented at home should alarm a just and wise Prince to take some severe method to keep the people of these Colonies in a more strict Obedience to the Crowne of England than will agree with our present licentious ungovern'd frame there being amongst us men not of the least interest that daily say they will not be shuffled out of their Allegiance When it shall be seen and understood that the Noise of a French PLOT and a Maqua's PLOT A Plot to BURN the TOWN of BOSTON and to MASSACRE the PEOPLE neither have nor ever had the least shadow of truth but a pure Malicious Invention onley to perswade the Common-people into an ill Opinion of those appointed to rule Govern them and whom in Duty Conscience they ought to obey and being in that manner amused were pushed and hurried into such a Rising and Convulsion of the Government without ever considering the effect And when it shall be told as now too truly it may that the Effect of these changes are the totall Subversion of their Majesties Government the ●osse of the Garrison at Pemaquid the Country of Conawall the Province of A●ain and other parts Severall hundreds of their Majesties subjects the Fishery and Lumber trade the Running away of many of our people who turn Pirates and do their Countrymen and neighbours the same Mischiefs that the Algorines do upon the Coasts of the Christians whilst their Majesties Ship of Worre is dismantled and made uselesse the most injust long cruell Confinement and imprisonment of the Governour who was both capable and active on all occasions for the publick good and safety of the Countrey severall of the Councill and other persons imploy'd in publick Office in the Government an Act for which the American world can shew no Example or Parallel and the Committing of the greatest Routs and Riots even on the Sabbath day and many other inconveniencies that daily grow upon us surely all sober and thinking men cannot but see the Folly and Errour of these things and wish that day had never been which hath occasion'd so great mischiefs and miseryes of which we all see the Beginning but none can tell the end I have alwaies considered the Ministry of this Countrey as that which the people came into this Wilderness to see and I hope it shall never be a Reed shaken with the wind and their present influence in all parts of the Countrey to move the people to bethink themselves of their Causelesse unaccountable Prejudices Wrath and Rage their ungodly deeds and hard Speeches one against another and to dispose them to their Dutyes and Obedience to their Majesties Government as established and appointed over them from the Crown of England and that they would prove themselves to be Children that will not lye that God may become their Saviour is humbly offered as a great part of their Province I am ignorant whether from any in these parts you have been written unto since your letter was made publick here but I am sure your Reasons will be found true agreeable to Religion and Law and what you have said against an Election is as true against an Assumption and what is true of the Avoidance of the Charter of Connecticut is much more true of that of the Massachusetts and how a dependant part of the English Nation can legally come at Government at least the coercive part of it without a Grant from the Crowne being not to be found in the ordinary Readings of the Law may be enquired for at Delphos We often say that every man has a pope in his belly but I hope nobody pretends to have a King there whatever Soveraignty men take to themselves of opinions in Religion the Government expects by private persons to be treated with more Distance Difference and will certainly be obeyed Sr. I have known you long a true Lover of your Countrey of Integrity and service in your place station and account your Plainness to your Countrymen in this great Affaire as the best Service you could offer them and am deeply sorry if any other opinion be taken thereof amongst the people however I perceive you have what you expected and the Rewards of Vertue and publique Service are not soon nor easily gotten That all these things may have a happy Composure and their Majesties Subjects in this their Dominion a due true sence of their Duty Allegiance which can onely make these Plantations happy flourish I am very sure is your desire as well as of Sir your Friend Servant c. The Writeing delivered to James Russell of Charlestowne Esq by Thomas Greaves Esq Iudge of their Majesties inferiour Court of Pleas and one of their Majesties Iustices of the Peace within the County of Middlesex T0 Iames Russell of Charlestowne Esq to be communicated to any others that are in like manner with your self concerned herein Sir Forasmuch as I am credibly informed that your self with some other pretended Magistrates do intend on the first Tuesday in October next to meet together at Cambridge to keep a pretended Court of Iudicature not having any lawful authority from our Soveraigne Lord and Lady King William Queen Mary enableing you so to do I therefore considering the obligation lyeing upon me by the Commission of the Peace for this County of Middlesex as also by a Commission to be Iudge of the inferiour Court of Pleas in said County both from the Crowne of England neither of which altho I have by the late Tumults not yet stilled been hindred from executing the power therein to me committed is yet legally vacated or superseded I can do no lesse to shew my Loyalty to the Crowne of England than to signify unto you that any such Meeting can be look'd upon no otherwise than as contrary to the peace of our Soveraigne Lord Lady King William Queen Mary their Crowne Dignity and therefore I must on their Majesties behalfe warne you that you presume not to assemble at Cambridge or any other place within this County for any such unlawfull purpose aforesaid but that you do at all times bear good Faith Allegiance to their sacred Majesties as you will answer the contrary at your perill Dated in Charlestowne this 21st day of September in the first yeare of the Reigne of our Soveraign Lord Lady King William Queen Mary Annoque Dom 1689. The Answer of Thomas Greaves Esq to Mr. Broadstreete the Gentlemen met at the Town-house in Boston concerning the aforesaid Writing Mr. Thomas Greaves being summoned to make his appearance at Boston on the 24 of Septemb. 1689. at which time Mr. Broadstreete produced a paper which was shewed Mr. Greaves demanding if he knew it who answered he did it was proposed for a reading but Mr. Greaves made answer they need not give themselves that trouble for he fully knew the contents owned it to be his act but it was read after Reading Mr. Broadstreete made a speech to Mr. Greaves in fine saying he would say no more till Mr. Greaves made answer which he had ready prepared in Writing as followeth Viz. As to the paper delivered to Mr. Iames Russell I judge I did but my duty in it and therefore cannot in conscience recede from it I shall be ready to answer King William Queen Mary whensoever they or any authorized from them shall call me to account for the same I am sworne to the Crown of England youreselves have proclaimed King William Queen Mary to be the rightfull Soveraigns of the Realmes Territories belonging thereunto therefore I cannot own any lawfull authority in any until I be legally informed that they have Commission from their Sacred Majestyes Thomas Greaves FINIS

some Jesuit that has foisted in this Project amongst them in the Bay and us here as the most probale way to ruin us at this time for it is the old trade of that Diabolical sort of men by their plausible crafty Counsells to make protestants destroy themselves by stirring up and somenting divisions among them and promoteing any thing which tends thereto the which how naturally necessarily they will slow from this proceeding is easy to shew but it is better to be silent than by speaking to shew men the way which they are too ready to run into Ninethly More might be said but the last Consideration that I shall offer and which I think may satisfy any reasonable man is That it is known the Countrey is in daily Expectation of Orders from the Crowne of England for the Settleing and Regulating of the Government those Orders will either contradict or overthrow your Election or else countenance and Encourage it If they overthrow it to what end is it to hold a Court if we could hold a Court to make Election to change and turn things up-side down and hereby put the Countrey which is poor enough allready to unnessary Charge and know not how to defray it when we have done and to run the hazzard of displeasure from the supreame power abroad and of making Division and Mischief at home and all for an imaginary Government which may possibly last for a week or a moneth Sapiens incipit a Fine If the Orders that shall come do countenance and encourage to an Election they will be such as will enable us to it and so we shall preserve a good Aspect abroad and Unity and Peace at home what need then of such Haste These things cannot be spoken against And the Town-Clerke of Ephesus could say that these things being so you ought to be quiet do nothing rashly But some say We shall loose our day if we do not proceed now I Answer There is nothing in that for if you have sufficient Warrant from the Crowne of England to enable you to the thing you will be enabled as to a Day and Persons and what else is needfull which now you are not as before was said But say others If we have an Election before these Orders come we shall be in a Capacity to capitulate and so obtain the better termes c. I answer this is a great mistake It will be a mighty Disadvantage for it will be a wonderfull thing if you be not look'd upon and dealt with as Criminalls Again Whome do you mean to Capitulate with Surely it will be good manners for us to Aske and not to Command to Follow our Leaders and not to go before them But some think These are small matters that will be over-look'd and easily pardoned we need not stand upon such nicetyes But I Answer how small they are will be best seen afterwards and it is better not to need a pardon than to presume upon getting one From all these Considerations I conclude that our strength is to sit still and therefore do advise That instead of moving towards an Election the Judges and Justices in the severall Counties considering their Commissions which they have received and the Oathes which they have taken for the faithfull Execution of them and Remembring that the Judgement is not man 's but God's who is with them in the Judgement they take Courage and do it and in Order thereto Unanimously Declare that they will Maintain and Exercise the Government in their Degree according to their Commissions in Conformity to the Lawes which are the Rules of their Commissions the true and propper Bulwarks of the Subject's just Libertyes being carefull to do nothing contrary thereto to the best of their understanding that the good People here do willingly cheerfully submit yield obedience to the severall Officers in their Respective places as their Duty is untill such time as sufficient Warrant shall come from the Crown of England for other Orders And in the meane time we all with one consent Lift up our hearts with our hands to God in the Heavens for a happy Composure of these Commotions in England and those other Kingdomes for the Restitution Security and propagation of the Gospell true Religion and Worship of God and for the preserving and establishing of the peace and liberty of his people there and here and else where throughout the world to the glory of God. This Course is regular innocent offensive to none and most safe for our selves and ours but if the people will not be advised I very much fear that the Issue will not be like a Tree of Life or the desire satisfied Use truly I should not at this time have given you or my selfe this trouble The Opinion and Resolution of the other Justices I know not but for my part I am plaine and I must declare protest against an Election at the present as that which is justly offensive to the supreame Power in whose hands soever it is or shall be and pernicious to our selves and if the people should willfully proceed to it it will remaine for the Justices to consider whether the Law and their Oathes don't require them to make a Record of it and Certifie it into the Chancery c. But I hope there will none enforce to such things and I pray that you may all Act under the Influence of the God of peace and order And in Testimony that this is my Opinion and Advice I have hereunto set my hand on the eighth day of May 1689. Gershom Bulkeley Pacem te poscimus omnes Peace is the Tranquillity of Order therefore Order is the onely right Way to Peace A Letter to Gershom Bulkeley Esq one of their Majesties Iustices of the Peace in the County of Hartford from a friend in the Bay Sir I Have seen your Letter-referring to the Government of Connecticut Colony Directed unto Col ' Treate and other Gentlemen there and being very well acquainted with the papers and passages you refer to and the Truth of them severally I earnestly expected the Answer 〈◊〉 extreamely necessary for the Vindication of the assumed Government in your parts if at least they mean to continue their Allegiance and Dependance upon the Crowne of England or to hold their Majesties Subjects in those parts in Obedience to them But for that I heare nothing in their Defence I must be allowed to guesse that either those Gentlemen have Orders from their Majesties unknowne to any thus to advance themselves or that they mean to cast off their Dependance Obedience to the Crown of England The first of these is dishonourable to suppose the latter will end in the utter Ruin of the English interest here and leave us a prey to all Nations when the wild beast shall passe by and tread down the Thiste But whatsoever be the Opinion or Resentment of your Gentlemen I will assure you Sir the good people here that