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The Plain Dealer, Numb. I - 4

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have involv’d this province into almost all the contentions, and all the miseries under which we have so long struggled.

There can never be a greater cause, perhaps no other cause of tumults and complaints in any government, than the people conceiving that unjust laws are imposed on them, and that measures are pursued to which they did not consent. This is the very case with the majority of the province. They are depriv’d of their share in legislation; laws are made and impos’d on them, and measures are taken which they do not approve, and yet cannot prevent, because they are not fairly represented in Assembly. This would be in any view, an intolerable grievance, as it deprives us of liberty; but that grievance is doubled, when we consider that it is contrary to an express stipulation in Charter, for which we left our native country, and came to this howling wilderness.---This grievance is the foundation of all our trouble, and has its origin from Quakers. You, Gentlemen, soon perceiv’d that the majority of your people were come over at first, and that all future increase of this province would be of other denominations. The government was in your hands, and that you might never loose it, you resolv’d to deprive all new Counties of their rights as Englishmen, and their rights by the Proprietor’s charter: And you have to contrived it, that three Quaker counties may give laws to all the province, altho’ it should

Contents of this annotation:

  1. The Plain Dealer, Numb. I - 4