May it please your Excellency
I was not here when the Gentlemen of the Councill addrest Your Excellency, and am glad
Providence has given Me the Opportunity of appearing Alone on this Occasion to congratulate
the Arrival of a Person New-Jersey has So much with impatience expected, to put a
Period to an Administration, The Representative Body of this Country justly Stiles the worst it
ever knew.
And I doubt not your Conduct will be Serviceable to Her Majtie, and pleasing to Her
Subjects, wherein those rash Methods, which caused the Infelicity of past times, will be
avoided, and a just distinction made between those Persons who endeavoured to make the
World believe, the most Arbitrary Acts were an asserting of the Queen's Prerogative
Royall and those who are equally tender of Her Majesties Honour and the Safety of their
Country, and are for preserving to both their undoubted rights.
I promise to my Self the whole course of Yor. Administration will be like this
Temperate beginning which will imbalm Your Memory, and procure You a Solid and lasting
Fame when the Strained Encomiums of Mercenary Pens will only prove Satyrs on their
Authors, whose hate and praise is equally contemptible.
My Poor endeavours shall never be wanting to contribute to Your Real Service, And I ask
your favour and esteem no longer than while I approve my Self to be what I really am
Her Majities. Loyall Subject and Yor Excellcies. humble & most faithfull Servt:
Lewis Morris
The Papers of Lewis Morris, Volume I, 1698-1730, Collections of the New Jersey
Historical Society, Volume 24, Eugene R. Sheridan, Editor, Newark NJ, 1991, p.92.