5 8 The HAZARD FAMILY

allegiance which we have severally taken, upon our admission into the respective Oﬂices we now hold in the Colony. JOSEPH WANTON, THOMAS WICKES, DARIUS SESSIONS, WILLIAM POTTER. In the Upper House, Providence, April 25, 1775.”1 This protest was the beginning of the end of Governor Wanton’s public life. It cost him his position as Governor; but Judge Potter, ﬁnding the measure so Ob~ noxious to his friends and the public in general, presented a second memorial

to the Assembly at the June session, as follows: ——

TO the Honourable General Assembly, of the Colony Of Rhode Island, at the session to be holden in East Greenwich, on the second Monday in June, A.D. I 7 .

1,7Vl57illiam Potter, of South Kingstown, in the county of Kings County, in the Colony aforesaid, humbly show:—

That at a session Of the General Assembly, held at Providence, on the 22d day of April last, an act was passed for raising, with all expedition and dispatch, ﬁf- teen hundred men, as an army of observation to repel any insult or violence that might be offered to the inhabitants.

And also if necessary for the safety and preservation of the colonies, to march out of this Colony, and join and co—Operate with the forces of the neighbouring Colonies, against which aét, I, as one Of the upper house of Assembly, together with Joseph Wanton, Esq’., then Governor, Darius Sessions, Esq’., the then Deputy Governor, and Thomas Wicks, Esq’., then also one of the Upper House, did enter my protest, which hath given much uneasiness to the good people Of this Colony. To remove which, so far as respects myself, and as far as in me lieth, I beg leave to observe—

That a rough draught was drawn up, and delivered to a person to be corrected, which protest, as the same now stands, appears to me to be Ofa different import from my meaning at the time, and which, through the hurry attending the busi- ness before the House, was not so properly attended to as it might have been, and in that haste signed.

It IS true, I was against the passing of the said act at the time, as I conceived the trade, and particularly the town of Newport, would be greatly distressed, which a little longer time might prevent, and because it was known that the very respectable Assembly of the Colony Of Connecticut would soon sit, of whose Wise deliberations we might avail ourselves. These were the true reasons of my conduct, however the contrary may appear from the protest signed.

NO man hath ever been more deeply impressed with the calamities to which America 13 reduced, by a most corrupt administration, than myself. No man hath more exerted himself In private and public life to relieve ourselves from our op- pression; and no man hath held himself more ready to sacriﬁce his life and for— tune in the arduous struggle now making throughout America, for the preserva-

1 Col. Rec., vol. vii. p. 31 1. tion