Governor Burnet of Massachusetts on the governor's salary,
17 september 1728

*** Quote * Context ***

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,

I Thought it proper to delay answering your Message of the 12th Instant, in which you desired to Rise that you might advise with your Towns, till I had seen the Draught which you had accepted as what might be necessasary to advise the Towns how far the Court had proceeded in the matter of a Salary to the Governour; for by your Vote of the 7th appointing a Committee to draw it up, you seemed to allow that your own going home would be needless since you resolved to transmit to them what might be necessary, and since upon that they might if they pleased send you Directions how to act for them.

But you have now carried the thing much further, for you conclude, that you dare neither come into an Act for fixing a Salary on the Governour for ever, nor for a limited time, what then can it signify to know the minds of your Principals and advise with your Towns since youdare not take their Advice, if it should differ from your own Opinion, all your meaning therefore can only be that you would go home to give Advice to your Towns, but that you are fully resolved to take none from them, which is not a very respectful Treatment of those who have Chosen you to represent them: You say, That the House to prevent any Misrepresentations that may be made to the several Towns in this Province have concluded upon this Account of the Proceedings in this Affair, and of the Grounds and Reasons thereof; It were to be wished you had pursued this Design impartially, instead of which you have set forth the Strength of the Argument on one side and concealed it on the other, so that your Account can only serve to misinform those who rely upon it, and this the generality of People in the Country will naturally do, if they are not warned of their Danger of being misled, for it cannot be supposed that they will have the time or take the pains to compare it with the pages of the Votes as they are cited, but will of course expect that you have taken all that is material out of them. Now as this has not been done, I thought my self obliged in Justice to the publick, to point out the defects and mistakes of this Account, and to set the matter once more in a true Light, that as you have found your selves at a loss to give any Reply to my long Message of the 3d Instant, you may have as little success in your design of filling the minds of the People with the same wrong Notions, which have already been and are so easy to be confuted. In the very beginning you omit taking any notice at all of my Speech in which I observed, That Parliaments had made it a Custom to grant the Civil List to the King for Life, and that the same Maxims that made Great Britain shine would make you flourish.

You begin with His Majesties 23d Instruction (p. 2) where you omit mentioning, That His Majesty had de clared your Compliance necessary to preserve his favour and your not shewing an immediate regard to his Pleasure therein an undutiful Behaviour, which would oblige Him to lay the Affair before the Legislature at home, but when you come to your own first Resolve (p. 6) to grant 1700 l., you insert it at length and almost word for word; then again when you come to my Message (p. 11) you only say that I informed you that I was utterly disabled from consenting to the Resolve of that Grant, it being contrary to His Majesties Instruction, but you should have men tioned my Reason,because it was the very thing against which this Instruction was levelled as done in order to keep the Governour the more dependent on the Council and Representatives; just after you give a very particular Account of your Proceedings with the Council and your second Grant, and your Message with it (p. 18, 22, 23) and then you give a short account of the Allegations of my Message (p. 28) omitting what I insisted on to support and prove them, viz.,That Gentlemen knew in their Consciences that the Allowances for the Governour's Salary had been kept back till other Bills of moment had been consented to; you had once put off this Charge with a turn as if Salarys always looked forward, but as I have smce shewn this to be plainly contrary to the proceedings of last Winter. you now very prudently say nothing at all about it, nor what gave occasion to it.

The next thing you mention is a draught of your own (p. 31, 32, 33) which was never offered to me, and consequently not answered, and therefore you find it convenient to give some account of it in this place; whereas you say but a word or two of a like Paper delivered to me, after wards (p. 52, 53) which contains much the same matter with this draught, and not one word of the Contents of my Reply to it (p. 55, 56, 57) except something of the Conclusion, which Reply was so full that you have thought fit to drop the Dispute upon it; and so that you might mention your own Arguments without being discovered to conceal my Answers, you bring them in only on this former Occasion, but I will restore them to their proper place, and go on in order to observe, that you give all the particulars of a Dispute you had with the Council at full length (p. 35, 33, 39, 41, 42, 43) and then at once grow very short again when you come to mention any thing that came from me; you just say of my Answer to your Message (p. 47) that I signified Icould not agree to a Recess 'till His Majesties 23d Instruction was complied with, without mentioning a very short and strong reason which I had given for it,because I should thereby make your immediate Regard to His Majesties Pleasure impossible; then you run over your Reply (p. 49) and my Message (p. 50) and your Message with Reasons (p. 52, 53) and my Reply (p. 55, 56, 57) with such precipitation (tho' the last were the two longest Papers that had passed between us) that one would think you were unwilling to have them read and considered, which, as it has a quite different effect with me I am willing to stop a little where you are so much in a hurry, and shew in this place that all that you mentioned before out of your draught (p. 31, 32, 33) is sufficiently answered in a few words of my Reply (p. 55, 56, 57) as follows, I cannot see why you apprehend that passing Acts pursuant to the Instruction has a direct tendency to weaken your happy Constitution especially since you now acknowledge what I had formerly observed, that each Branch of the Legislature (and consequently the Governour) ought to be enabled to support his own Dignity and Freedom, which is all that is intended by the Instruction.

After that you are got beyond this long Reply of mine, which you make so much haste to pass by, then you are at leisure to give an ample Account of your own proceed ings (p. 58) and afterwards of the latter part of my Answer (p. 59) which you insert at length, but think proper to say nothing 6f the beginning of it, where I informed you that I thought my Duty would not permit me to agree to a Recess, and where I make a kind of Appeal to you by saying that I had given you my Reasons and answered all your Objections; to which you never replied, and yet you seem not to desire that the Country should know that the Dispute remains in such a state as will incline every impartial person to believe that I have Truth and Justice on my side. You finish your Narrative with mentioning your last difference with the Council (p. 62) and then although you had already brought together every Circumstance that you thought made for you, and omitted what seemed to make most strongly against you: You seem still apprehensive that People may not be enough prejudiced in your Favour, and therefore you conclude all with four Reasons at length, which contain the substance of your former Allegations, as if they were unanswerable, or at least had never been answered, whereas in Fact I have given a sufficient Reply to every thing contained in them, and there fore it would have been no more than a piece of Justice to me to have set down the substance of my Answers as fully as the Reasons themselves, but since that is not done as I might have expected, I think it necessary to do it my self in the fairest manner, by first repeating your Grounds and Reasons word for word, from whence you say it may plainly appear, that you dare neither come into an Act for fixing a Salary on the Governour for ever, nor for a limited time.

• 1st. Because it is an untrodden path which neither you nor your Predecessors have gone in, and you cannot certainly foresee the many dangers there may be in it, and you must depart from that way which has been found safe and comfortable. In answer to this I have already shewn (p. 50) that the same methods which are found no ways to prejudice the Rights and Liberties of the People of Great Britain nor of other Colonys cannot prejudice those of this Province; and again upon your replying,That the British Constitution differed from yours in many respects, I said (p. 56) That I took the chief difference to have been in the use made of the Constitution, which has been no ways to your advantage for by Great Britain's keeping up to the Constitution publick Credit still continues at the height, notwithstanding the vast Charges and Debts of the Nation; but with you Credit has fallen lower and lower in an amazing manner and this has proceeded plainly from the want of a sufficient Check in the other Branches of the Legislature to the sudden and unadvised Measures of former Assemblies. By this you might have seen how safe and comfortable your way of Granting Allowances so as to keep the Governour dependent has been, since it produced nothing less than the Fall of publick Credit. But since you seem not to be satisfied with what has been already observed against your first Reason, I must remind you that your lessening Governour Shute's Salary in pursuance of this Way of making Allowances as you please from time to time, was no slender motive of his going home, and complaining of the divers Incroachments on the King's Prerogative committed by the House of Representatives, and that upon a Hearing of Seven Articles of his Charge, the Council for the House of Representatives expressly declared,that they did not insist upon, or claim on the behalf of the House of Representatives any Right or Authority in the Matters charged upon them by the 1st, 3d, 5th, 6th, and 7th. And that His late Majesty in Council ordered an Explanatory Charter to be granted upon the 2d and 4th Articles, with this Conclusion, That if such Explanatory Charter shall not be accepted, and a just regard shewed to His Majesties Royal Prerogative by the House of Representatives for the future in all the particulars aforesaid, it may be proper for the Con sideration of the Legislature what further Provision may be necessary to support and preserve His Majesties just Authority in this Province, and prevent such presumptuous Invasions for the future: So safe was your Way that it helped in a great measure to bring this Complaint upon the House, which ended in obliging those who appeared for you to a Confession to many of your illegal Proceedings, and in putting you under a necessity of accepting an Explanatory Charter, that your former One might not be brought into Parliament, where Mr. Agent. Dummer's Letter, which I sent to you on the 12th Instant shews plainly enough, what Fate it was like'4o have undergone. What Comfort this Way may have given to those then employed by the Country I shall not determine, but all the Comfort the People had from it was an immense Charge without succeeding in any one particular. I hope by this time I have sufficiently shewn, how safe and com fortable your usual Way has been.

  I come now to your 2d Reason,

• 2dly. Because it is the undoubted Right of all English men by Magna Charta to raise and dispose of Moneys for the publick Service of their own free accord without Compulsion. To this it has been answered (p. 28) that the Right of Englishmen can never entitle them to act in a wrong manner, and therefore the Priviledge in your CHARTER to raise Money for the Support of the Government is therein expressed to be by wholesome and reasonable Laws and Directions, and consequently not by such as are hurtful to the British Constitution, and that by your usual Way the Governour must either be deprived of the undoubted Right of an Englishman, which is to act according to his Judgment, or the Government must remain without Support; and again (p. 56) I produced to you an undeniable Instance of the House's making use of this Way last Winter in order to compel the Lieut. Governour to a Compliance, so that I have proved that you have done the very thing you here complain of. But I may again call upon you to shew where the Compulsion lies: Is waiting with patience `till you shew a due Regard to His Majesties Pleasure any Compulsion? is not His Majesties Favour free to be continued or withdrawn as well as you are free to raise or not to raise Money? And is not the Governour as free to keep the Court setting or not as he judges proper? But I must repeat to you what I observed to you before (p. 57) That you seem to allow the Governour's Powers only so far as he uses them according to your Pleasure, but in using your own Powers you take it very ill to be directed by any Body.

  Your 3d Reason is,

• 3dly. Because this must necessarily lessen the Dignity and Freedom of the House of Representatives in making Acts and raising and applying Taxes etc., and consequently cannot be thought a proper Method to preserve that Ballance in the three Branches of the Legislature which seems necessary to form maintain and uphold your Constitution. In answer to this I have already observed (p. 56) That the fall of Credit here has proceeded from the want of a sufficient Check in the other Branches of the Legislature to the sudden and unadvised Measures of former Assemblies, so that if ever you hope to come near the Happiness of Great Britain it must be by supporting those parts of the Legislature which of late have been too much depressed, but are in themselves necessary to guard the Liberties and Properties of the Inhabitants as well as the House of Representatives. I have shewn (p. 57) that you cannot be in earnest when you say, that other things which depend on a Governour are vastly more than a Counterballance to his Support or Subsistence, and just after you cast an odious Aspersion on an undoubted Branch of the Power lodged with the Governour, which is to keep the Court together as long as he thinks the publick Affairs require it. I will only add now that all the World will think it very odd in you to talk of the Danger of not preserving the Ballance in the three Branches of the Legislature while you have a majority of three to one in the Choice of the Council, and while you leave but Five Hundred Pounds to be disposed of by the Governour and Council during a Recess.

  Your 4th Reason is,

• 4thly. Because the CHARTER fully impowers the General Assembly to make such Laws and Orders as they shall judge for the good and welfare of the Inhabitants, and if they or any part of them judge this not to be for their good they neither ought nor can come into it, for as to act be yond or without the Powers granted in the CHARTER might justly incur the Kings Displeasure, so not to act up and agreable to those Powers might justly be deemed a betraying the Rights and Priviledges therein granted: More over, if you should now give up this Right you should open a Door to many other Inconveniences. In answer to this I must remind you, that I observed (p. 57) That as I was still of Opinion that as you have acted upon mistaken Notions, I could not give over hopes of your coming to see things in that true Light in which I flattered my self I had stated the Point in Question. I may again renew my Appeal, whether I have not answered all your Objections, and if so, then how can I think that you have reason to judge the fixing a Salary not to be for your good; a bare assertion of that kind without proof can go for nothing with the publick, and it must always be supposed that any stiffness that has no real foundation will go off in time. But to cut off all pretence as if the Granting what is now proposed were against the Powers of your CHARTER, I will set down the words of the Statute of the 25th of Edward the first, King of England, Chap. 6, Entitled a Confirmation of the Great Charter, That for no Business from henceforth we shall take such manner of Aids, Tasks nor Prices, but by the common assent of the Realm, and for the common Profit thereof, saving the ancient Aids and Prices due and accustomed. I will likewise set down the words of the Statute of the 34th of the same King Chap. 1, which was Enacted to make the former more full and certain-No Talliage or Aids shall be taken or levied by Us or Our Heirs in Our Realm without the good will and assent of ArchBishops, Bishops, Earles, Barons, Knights, Burgesses, and other Freemen of the Land. These Clauses of Acts of Parliament are as strong at least as any words in your Charter, which gives no power of raising and disposing of Money greater than those of all Englishmen, and yet I defy you to shew that these Acts of Parliament or any other were ever pretended to be an Objection against granting to the King a Revenue for Life, which appears to have been done, and much more time out of mind by the Preamble of the first of James the first, Chap. 33, which is too long to be inserted in this place, but where you will find that the same Dutys of Tunnage and Poundage that had been granted to Henry the 7th, Henry 8th, Edward the 6th, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and other the Kings Progenitors, Kings of England, were given to King James the first, To have, take, enjoy and perceive the Subsidies aforesaid and every of them, and every part and percel of them to the Kings Majesty during his Life natural. So that it is a mere Invention without any ground to say, that a Charter to grant Moneys is any reason against granting them either for a limited or an unlimited time. And since this is now so fully proved I hope you will no longer be amused with so wrong a notion.

  Your last Observation of the many other Inconveniencies to which a Door will be opened, cannot be answered `till it is explained what those Inconveniencies are, and it looks as if at the very end of your Paper you felt the Imperfections of it, since you are reduced to call for Help from what you have not mentioned, and which I may justly believe to be of no more force than what you have.

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