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PETITION OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE
WESTERN COUNTRY
THE
HONOURABLE, THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
NORTH CAROLINA NOW SITTING:
The Inhabitants of the Western
Country humbly sheweth:
That it is with sincere concern we
lament the unhappy disputes that have
long subsisted between us and our
Brethren on the Eastern side of the
Mountains, respecting the erecting a new
Government. We beg leave to represent to
your Honourable body, that from Acts
passed in June, 1784, ceding to Congress
your Western territory, with
reservations and conditions therein
contained; also from a clause in your
wise and mild Constitution, setting
forth that there might be a State, or
States, erected in the West whenever
your Legislature should give consent for
same; and from our local situation,
there are numberless advantages,
bountifully given to us by nature, to
propagate and promote a Government with
us. Being influenced by your Acts and
Constitution, and at the same time
considering that it is our undeniable
right to obtain for ourselves and
posterity a proportionable and adequate
share of the blessings, rights,
privileges, and immunities alloted with
the rest of mankind, have thought that
the erecting a new Government would
greatly contribute to our welfare and
convenience, and that the same could not
militate against your interest and
future welfare as a Government. Hoping
that mutual and reciprocal advantages
would attend each party, and that
cordiality and unanimity would
permanently subsist between us ever
after, we earnestly request that an
impartial view of our remoteness be
taken into consideration; that great
inconveniency attending your seat of
Government, and also the great
difficulty in ruling well and giving
protection to so remote a people, to say
nothing of the almost impassable
mountains Nature has placed between,
which renders it impracticable for us to
furnish ourselves with a bare load of
the necessaries of life, except we in
the first instance travel from one to
two hundred and more miles through
another State ere we can reach your
Government.
Every tax paid you from this country
would render us that sum the poorer, as
it is impossible, from the nature of our
situation, that any part could return
into circulation, having nothing that
could bear the carriage, or encourage
purchasers to come so great a distance;
for which reasons were we to continue
under your Government a few years, the
people here must pay a greater sum than
the whole of the medium now in
circulation for the exigencies and
support of your Government, which would
be a sum impossible for us to secure,
would we be willing to give you our all;
and of course we must be beholden to
other States for any part we could
raise; and by these means our property
would gradually diminish, and we at last
be reduced to mere poverty and want by
not being able equally to participate
with the benefits and advantages of your
Government. We hope that having settled
West of the Appalachian Mountains ought
not to deprive us of the natural
advantages designed by the bountiful
Providence for the convenience and
comfort of all those who have spirit and
sagacity enough to seek after them. When
we reflect on our past and indefatigable
struggles, both with savages and our
other enemies during our late war, and
the great difficulty we had to obtain
and with-hold this Country from those
enemies at the expense of the lives and
fortunes of many of our dearest friends
and relations; and the happy conclusion
of peace having arrived, North Carolina
has derived great advantages from our
alertness in taking and securing a
Country, from which she has been able to
draw into her Treasury, immense sums of
money, and thereby become enabled to pay
off, if not wholly, yet a great part,
and sink her national debt. We therefore
humbly conceive you will liberally think
that it will be nothing more than paying
a debt in full to us for only to grant
what God, Nature, and our locality
entitles us to receive. Trusting that
your magnanimity will not consider it a
crime in any people to pray their rights
and privileges, we call the world to
testify our conduct and exertion in
behalf of American Independence; and the
same to judge whether we ask more than
free people ought to claim, agreeable to
Republican principles, the great
foundation whereon our American fabric
now stands. Impressed with the hope of
your great goodness and benevolent
disposition that you will utterly abhor
and disclaim all ideas of involving into
innumerable, disagreeable and irksome
contentions, a people who have so
faithfully aided and supported in the
time of imminent and perilous dangers;
that you will be graciously pleased to
consent to a separation; that from your
paternal tenderness and greatness of
mind, you will let your stipulations and
conditions be consistent with honour,
equity and reason, all of which will be
cheerfully submitted to; and we, your
petitioners, shall always feel an
interest in whatsoever may concern your
honour and prosperity. Lastly, we hope
to be enabled by the concurrence of your
State to participate in the fruits of
the Revolution; and to enjoy the
essential benefits of Civil Society
under a form of Government which
ourselves alone can only calculate for
such a purpose. It will be a subject of
regret that so much blood and treasure
have been lavished away for no purpose
to us; that so many sufferings have been
encountered without compensation, and
that so many sacrifices have been made
in vain. Many other considerations might
be here adduced, but we hope what hath
been mentioned will be sufficient for
our purpose, adding only that Congress
hath, from time to time, explained their
ideas so fully and with so much dignity
and energy that if their arguments and
requisitions will not produce
conviction, we know of nothing that will
have a greater influence, especially
when we recollect that the system
referred to is the result of the
collected wisdom of the United States,
and, should it not be considered as
perfect, must be esteemed as the least
objectionable. |
