"Neither are the Inhabitants to be stopped or impeded . . . unless they are armed"

ORDERS

To be observed during the Time of Fires by the Inhabints.

UPON the Discovery of a Fire, Notice is to be given as usual, by the Ringing of Bells, and the Cry of Fire in the Streets, at which Time the Regiments will immediately get under Arms on their regimental Parades, and wait there for further Orders, unless when a Fire may break out in the Quarters of a Regiment; and in that Case the Corps is to quit the Place, to make Room for the Inhabitants who are to repair to the Fire with all the Buckets in their Possession, to give their Assistance, every House-holder putting up a Light in a Front Window; a Caution to be observed upon all Alarms whatever.

All Persons failing so to do will be punished in a most examplary Manner.

The Bells are not to ring for the Alarm more than one Quarter of an Hour.

The Fire Wards, the Engine Masters, and Men acting under them, are not to be interrupted by any Officer, or Soldier in the Execution of their Duty--The Firewards, known by red painted Staffs with Heads of Brass, are to have the whole Management and Conduct of the Engines and People assembled to extinguish a Fire.

Neither are the Inhabitants to be stopped or impeded in Time of Fires by the Military unless they are armed, in which Case they are to be taken into Custody.

All the Associated Companies, from the essential Service they may be of, are to attend the Fires without Arms: the Royal North British Volunteers excepted, who have been already appointed to a particular Duty with Arms.

Women belonging to the Army will not be allowed to be present at any Fires that may happen.
A Premium of twenty Shillings Sterling will be given to the Men who bring the first Engine, and work it at the Fire.

The Firewards are to take into their Possession all Buckets found in vacated Houses, and to distribute them among the residing Inhabitants.

GIVEN at Head-Quarters in Boston, this eighteenth Day of November, 1775.

WILLIAM HOWE.

"...to supplying the Army with Fire-Arms..."

THE Committee of both Houses on the Letter this Morning received by this Court from His Excellency General WASHINGTON to supplying the Army with Fire-Arms, beg Leave to Report, by Way of Resolve, viz.

RESOLVED, That a Committee be appointed in this several Counties of Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex, Hampshire, Worcester, Plymouth, Bristol, and York, to purchase as early as possible, in the Recess of this Court, all the good and effective Fire-Arms, which are to be obtained in the several Towns in the Counties aforesaid, on the best Terms they may be had, and forward them, without Delay, to his Excellency General Washington, or his Order.

Resolved, That it be recommended to His Excellency, to deliver to the Chairman of each Committee, for the several Counties aforesaid, such Sum or Sums of Money, as may be sufficient to enable them to execute their Commission, with Ease and Dispatch; they to be accountable to his Excellency for the same.

In Council, February 12, 1776...........Read and sent down.

PEREZ MORTON, Dep. Sec'ry.

In the House of Representatives, February 13, 1776.

Read, and accepted; and the following Gentlemen are appointed for the Purpose within expressed, viz.

For the County of Suffolk. Capt. Ellis, Mr. Witherton, Col. Thayer, and Esq; Metcalf.
For the County of Essex. Mr. Jewel, Capt. Epes, Mr. Ingals, and Mr. Johnson, of Lynn.
For the County of Middlesex. Col. Barrett, Mr. Stickney, Col. Perry, and Mr. Bryant.
For the County of Hampshire. Capt. Goodmen, Mr. Cranson, Col. Field, Major Ely, and Major Bliss.
For the County of Worcester, Mr. Singletary, Capt. Parker, Capt. Moore, Mr. Stone, and Col. Grout.
For the County of Plymouth. Col. Mitchel, Major Cushing, Major White, and Mr. Partridge.
For the County of Bristol, Col. Williams, Mr. Hathaway, Capt. Toby, and Mr. Starkweather.
For the County of York, Mr. Hovey, Capt. Bragdon, and Major Goodwin.

Sent up for Concurrence.
J. WARREN, Speaker,

In Council, February 13, 1776...........Read and concurr'd,
PEREZ MORTON, Dep. Sec'ry.

Consented to,

BENJAMIN GREENLEAF,
WALTER SPOONER,
CALEB CUSHING,
THOMAS CUSHING,
JOHN WHETCOMB,
JEDEDIAH FOSTER,
BENJAMIN LINCOLN,
MOSES GILL,
JABEZ FISHER,
JOHN TAYLOR,
MICHAEL FARLEY,
SAMUEL HOLTEN,
BENJAMIN WHITE,
ELDAD TAYLOR.
JOSEPH PALMER,

A true Copy,..........Attest...........PEREZ MORTON, Dep. Sec'ry.

Also See:

Journals of the Continental Congress, "to purchase what powder and arms arrive belonging to private persons", Feb. 12, 1776

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Circular. Norwich, "an immediate examination should be made of the arms and equipments belonging to the men", June 28, 1813

CIRCULAR

Norwich, June 28, 1813.

Sir,

His Excellency the commander in chief requires that an immediate examination should be made of the arms and equipments belonging to the men under your command. And as it is desirable to have it done effectually and with the least inconvenience to the men; each commandant is permitted to inspect them by calling out the company under his command, or by taking to his assistance his subalterns, and inspecting the men individually at their respective homes. They must be completely furnished with twenty-four rounds of {Begin inserted text} Ball {End handwritten} cartridges as required by law; that in case an alarm should happen, or a detachment be required, no delay should prevent their marching completely furnished at the shortest notice.

By Order,

EBEN. HUNTINGTON, Adjutant-General.

An American Time Capsule: Printed Ephemera

Also see:

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After The Fact

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"...with our weapons of defence girt about us..."

...Thus encountering all the troubles and dangers which waylaid us on every side, we sustained innumerable disasters from the then numerous and blood thirsty savages, having our nearest friends torn from our bosoms and murdered before our eyes; children taken from their mothers breasts, and dashed to pieces, and we who escaped the sword of those devourers, like unto the children of Israel at the rebuilding the temple, sweat and toiled with our weapons of defence girt about us; labouring to raise supplies necessary for the support of life: But gracious Heaven benignly smil'd and the Almighty had compassion, and far exceeding the widow's barrel of meal, which, according to the prophecy of Elijah, wasted not, though in constant use; we were mangled, torn and wasted by our enemies, and not only sustained our numbers, but increased and became numerous: thus with views of making you our offspring happy people, we surmounted all difficulties, and endured all hardships with pleasure, hoping to have left you always in possession of those sacred rights which nature has given to all men, without the abridgment of any earthly prince or state; By this time our mother country feeing the flourishing state to which America would likely advance, and conscious of the advantages which might accrue to them from such a settlement, in addition to those rights derived to us from nature; entered into the most sacred engagements to give, secure, and preserve to us inviolably, all the rights and immunities of the inhabitants of Britain, agreeable to Magna Charta, with certain other privileges granted by particular charters, from time to time, made and recognized by the King and people of Britain, the confideration for which have been always paid and made good according to compact and agreement, by us and our successors, down to your day; in which time many innovations have been made on the liberties of our beloved offspring; and now at last the great legislature of the nation have been so far misled, as to strike at once at all those rights which are so justly deemed sacred; reducing you our offspring, and the generations which will follow you, to the most abject slavery, involving our numerous progeny, for whose sakes we so incessantly toyled in inevitable ruin. Shocking thought! amazing stupidity! ...

- A Manifesto and Address from HEAVEN, By the Guardian Angel of AMERICA [1766]

1. Constitutional Law. All laws of the usurped State Government, void. The 5th section of the Schedule to the amended Constitution, declares all laws, ordinances and resolutions, or acts done in pursuance thereof, under the usurped State Government, after the 6th of May, 1861, unconstitutional, null and void, from the beginning.

2. Same. Case in judgment. The plaintiff in error was commissioned, under an Act of the 18th of November, 1861, by Governor Harris, to take from the citizens of the county, their guns. He, under this authority, seized the gun of defendant in error, and carried it off. Held, that the Act of the 18th of November, 1861, was no protection to the plaintiff in error; but in taking the gun, he committed a trespass for which he was personally liable, and that the Act violates the 26th section of the Bill of Rights, which allows "the free white citizens of this State have a right to keep and bear arms for the common defense." ...

The case presents, for our consideration, the validity of the Act passed by the Legislature of the State, after the attempt to throw off the allegiance of the citizens to the United States, on the 6th day of May, 1861, and the effect of the adoption of the Constitutional Amendments and Schedule, on the 22d of February, 1865. It is insisted for the plaintiff in error, that if, by force or otherwise, the power of the Government of the United States to protect the citizens was withdrawn, the allegiance of the citizens was suspended, annulled, or in abeyance, and he was left to the absolute control and demand of the State; that the State, as a sovereign under the Constitution, has a right to take the property of a citizen, by and with the consent of his representatives, and having that consent, the Governor, as the executive, was bound to execute the law, and of right to issue the commission, and it is the act of the State for which the (p.216)plaintiff in error is not individually liable. These questions have been decided by tribunals from which there is no appeal.

The right of a State to withdraw from the Federal Union, and of her citizens to throw off their allegiance to the General Government, is a question unnecessary for us to discuss at length in the determination of the questions presented in this record.
The Constitution of the United States was adopted by the whole people; and upon its adoption became the paramount law. The framers of that instrument were the patriots and statesmen who lived under the old Confederation, saw the evils of that system of government, and in the formation of the Constitution, carefully endeavored to guard against them.

It was submitted to the whole people, and ratified by them, and no citizen can voluntarily throw off the allegiance cast upon him...

- Smith v. Ishenhour, 43 Tenn. 214 (1866).

Well, well, would you take a look at THIS,(and RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CIVIL WAR TOO):

...The right to take life in the defense of property, as well as of person and habitation, is a natural right, but the law limits its exercise to the prevention of forcible and atrocious crimes, of which burglary is one....

...Those rules recognize a right in every man to defend his property, as well as person and habitation, by taking the life of the aggressor, as a natural right; but they also limit and restrain the exercise of that right to the prevention of a certain class of forcible and atrocious crimes, of which breaking a shop in the night season is not one at common law....

...The class of crimes in prevention of which a man may, if necessary, exercise his natural right to repel force by force to the taking of the life of the aggressor, are felonies which are committed by violence and surprise; such as murder, robbery, burglary, arson, breaking a house in the day time with intent to rob, sodomy and rape. Blackstone says: "Such homicide as is committed for the prevention of any forcible and atrocious crime is justifiable by the law of nature; and also by the law of England, as it stood as early as the time of Bracton;" and he specifies, as of that character, those which we have enumerated. No others were specified by Hale or Hawkins, who wrote before him on the Pleas of the Crown, or have been specified by any writer since. Mr. East, in his Pleas of the Crown, and Mr. Foster, from whom Judge Swift quotes the law on this subject in his Digest, (vol. 2, page 283,) state the rule thus: "A man may repel force by force in defense of his person, habitation or property against one who manifestly intends or endeavors by violence and surprise to commit a known felony, such as murder, rape, robbery, arson, burglary and the like, upon either. In these cases he is not obliged to retreat, but may pursue his adversary until he has secured himself from all danger, and if he kill him in so doing it will be justifiable self defense." 1 East P. C., 271; Foster C. L., 259....

- State v. Moore, 31 Conn. 479 (1863).

"...Parker C[hief]. J[ustice]. delivered the opinion of the Court..."

"...Besides, it is well understood, and received as a commentary on this provision for the liberty of the press, that it was intended to prevent all such previous restraints upon publications as had been practised by other governments, and in early times here, to stifle the efforts of patriots towards enlightening their fellow subjects upon their rights and the duties of rulers. The liberty of the press was to be unrestrained, but he who used it was to be responsible in case of its abuse; like the right to keep fire arms, which does not protect him who uses them for annoyance or destruction..."

- Commonwealth v. Blanding, 3 Pick. 304 Mass. , 1825