"That placed at the head of the government of a very populous city, in which the lower class of the people begin already to feel that indigence, which results from a want of business, they are obliged to show in effect, and in the best manner possible, that they desire not to let any opportunity escape of encouraging and promoting the well-being of the country, and of its good citizens, unless they would run the risk of entirely destroying the proper authority, and the good order, which in a popular government are founded only upon the confidence of the people, and of the Burgesses in its Regents, and of seeing in a little time a total anarchy, that they had thought that affairs had, for a long time, and particularly since the rupture with England, appeared in the eyes of the whole nation, and not without reason, to be administered in a strange and inconceivable manner, seeing, that notwithstanding the extreme condescendence to the wishes of England, we had only experienced from that kingdom, each year contempt, affronts, and insults, which have been lately crowned by an open war, commenced by the capture of a considerable number of our vessels, and the invasion of our foreign possessions, and that, nevertheless, we had remained in a defenceless state, and taken no sufficient steps to place the Republic in a situation to protect its liberty, its well acquired rights, its extensive navigation, and its lawful commerce. "That, nevertheless, it is an incontestible truth, that the members of government have for a long time been of opinion, that it is principally by sea, that it is necessary to place themselves upon a respectable footing, as it evidently appears by the different resolutions taken in the year 1778, and following, by different reports, petitions, and assents to augment and reinforce the equipages of vessels of war, and particularly by the report of the 30th of March, 1779, that notwithstanding the said opinions and resolutions of the confederates, to equip all the vessels of war of the State, and to construct new ones, yet at this moment, after so much time has elapsed, and some things have taken so disadvantageous a turn, there hath not been put to sea the thirtytwo vessels stipulated in the month of April, 1779, much less still the fiftytwo, whose armament had been resolved upon the last year, so that to this moment none of the precautions proposed in the month of March, 1779, to the generality for the defence of our coasts, and the mouths of our rivers, have been taken.