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THOMAS JOHNSON, Esq; Governor.
oath of fidelity and support to this state, shall take, repeat and subscribe,
the same
oath, or if a quaker, menonist or dunker, shall solemnly, sincerely and
truly, declare
and affirm thereto in the words thereof. |
1777.
CHAP.
XX. |
XVI. And be
it enacted, That if any person shall travel into or pass through
or from this state to any other, without a pass of safe conduct, signed
by some
member of congress, or by the governor, or some judge or justice of this
state, or
of the state of which he is a subject or resident, he shall be liable to
be apprehended
and carried before some judge or justice for examination, who may commit
him to the public gaol, if an offender against the laws, or dangerous person
to this
state, or to the United States, or any of them, there to remain till discharged
by
due course of law, and if not an offender or dangerous as aforesaid, the
said judge
or justice may discharge him and give him a pass. |
Persons not to
travel without
a pass. |
XVII. WHEREAS several persons, late inhabitants
of this state, have, since
the fourteenth day of August, seventeen hundred and seventy-five, deserted
the defence
of this country in the present just and necessary war, Be
it enacted, That
no person whatsoever, who hath deserted as aforesaid, or any person who
since the
said time hath left this state without leave, shall at any time hereafter
(unless he
returns to this state within twelve months, and during the present war,
and takes
and subscribes the oath of fidelity aforesaid within ten days after his
return) be
capable of holding any office of trust or profit within this state; nor
shall any
person, now a resident of this state, who hath refused or neglected to
subscribe
the association, and shall not take the said oath of fidelity on or before
the first
day of August next, be capable of holding any office as aforesaid. |
Penalty on
persons who
have deserted
this state, &c. |
XVIII. Provided
always, That nothing herein contained shall extend to such
persons who from religious principles have not subscribed or shall not
subscribe
the association. |
Proviso. |
XIX. And be
it enacted, That this act shall be publicly read by the clerk of
the general court, and by the clerk of every county court in this state,
at their
next court respectively, immediately after empannelling the grand jury,
and also by
every minister, teacher or preacher of the gospel, immediately after divine
service,
at every church, chapel or meeting-house, where they officiate, on some
Sunday
in the month of May next; and every clerk, minister, teacher or preacher,
failing
so to do, shall forfeit and pay the sum of five pounds, to be recovered
with costs by
the informer before any justice of the peace of the county where the offence
shall
be committed. |
This act to be
publicly read,
&c. |
XX. And be it
enacted, That the general and county courts within this state
shall, at all and every of their courts, give this act in charge to the
grand juries
of their respective courts.
At a convention which begun on the
21st of June, 1776, was entered into on the 4th of July, 1776,
the following resolutions, which have never been repealed.
RESOLVED, That if any inhabitant of
this colony shall, after the fifth day of August next, within or without
this colony, or any person whatever, being an inhabitant of any other of
the United Colonies, shall, within
this colony, after the said fifth day of August next, levy war against
the United Colonies, or any of them,
or shall adhere to any person or persons bearing arms
or employed in the service of Great-Britain against
the United Colonies, or any of them; or shall afford such persons, or any
of them, any aid or comfort,
or shall give them, or any of them, or any subject of Great-Britain, any
intelligence of the warlike preparations
or designs of the United Colonies, or any of them; such person, on conviction
thereof by a
petit jury, after a presentment by a grand jury, in a court to be erected
in this colony by the next convention
for the trial of such offender, shall suffer death without benefit of clergy,
and forfeit all the estate
which he had at the time of the commission of the crime, to be applied
to the use of this colony, unless
such convicted person shall be pardoned by the person or persons invested
with the power of granting
pardons for such offences.
RESOLVED, That the several offences aforesaid shall
receive the same constructions that have been
given by the judges in England to such of the said offences as are enumerated
in the statute of Edward
the 3d, commonly called the statute of treasons.
RESOLVED, That if any inhabitant of
this colony shall, after the fifth day of August next, within or
without this colony, or any person whatsoever shall, within this colony,
after the said fifth day of August
next, forge or counterfeit any of the bills of credit issued by the congress,
by the assembly, or convention
of any of the United colonies, or by any of the conventions of this colony,
or alter the sum expressed in
any of the said bills of credit, or shall offer, or cause to be offered,
in payment, any such counterfeit,
forged, or altered bill of credit, knowing the same to be counterfeit,
forged or altered, and shall be thereof |
And given in
charge to
grand juries. |
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