Norfolk Gazette And Publick Ledger

TRANSLATED
From the Gazette of Carraccas, April 27, 1810.

Conclusion of the Proclamation issued by the Constituted Authority of the Province of Caraccas.

Inhabitants of Venezuela! this is the vote of the city of Caraccas. All its first and highest authorities, have solemnly acknowledged it, by accepting and swearing to observe, with due obedience, the decisions of the people by their representatives; and we, in obedience to the sacred duties imposed upon us, make it known to you, and we invite you to join in that union and fraternity which calls us to the same duty and interest. If the sovereignty has been provisionally established with a few individuals, it is not for the purpose of establishing, over you, an insulting or oppressive usurpation, nor yet a disgraceful or shameful slavery; but that the urgency and necessity of the moment, as well as the novelty and importance of the objects, imperiously require it for the common security. This itself puts it out of our power to make manifest to you on this hasty occasion, the extension of our generous ideas: but you must reflect, that if we acknowledge and loudly claim the sacred rights of nature, to protect our civil subjection, in defence of the central and legitimate common authority, which united us, we do not the less respect in you those inviolable rights, and therefore we shall opportunely call you to the exercise of the supreme authority, in proportion to the greater or lesser number of individuals which shall fall to the lot of each province.--This is, more or less, the result of the deliberations, which, on the space of the moment, we have to propose to the department of Venezuela. Confide therefore friends, in the sincerity of our intentions, and haste to re-unite your sentiments and affections to those of the citizens of this capitol. That the Holy Religion which we have inherited from our ancestors, may always be for us and for our descendants, the first object of our admiration and the strongest bond to unite our will--That the European Spaniards may be treated and caressed throughout the country, with the same affection and consideration as ourselves, they being our Brothers, and being cordially and most sincerely united in our cause, and in this way, resting the basis of our social edifice, upon the indissoluble foundation of fraternity and union, we shall transmit to our most distant generations, the pleasing recollection of our happy efforts, and perhaps, we may obtain the satisfaction of beholding our beloved sovereign, Ferdinand VII. presiding over the glorious destiny of the people of this country.

MARTIN TOVAR PONTE.

(Signed)
JOSE DE LAS LLAMASO.

Caraccas, April 20, 1810.