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of the clock in the afternoon, in order to elect some Person to fill the vacancy occasioned by the said resignation. The senior Officer present will preside at the Election, and make report to the Major General as soon as may be thereafter.

H: Sewall Deputy Adjutant General 8. Division

General Orders, Headquarters, Boston, March 1. 1794. --

The chief command of the Militia of the sovereign and independent Commonwealth of Massachusetts, by the decease of the late Governor, has devolved on the Lieutenant-Governor -- and he feels it equally consonant with his wishes, as it with his duty, to encourage and strengthen it, by contributing towards the preservation of good regulation, and the advancement of discipline therein.

A well regulated Militia, composed of the great body of the citizens, is always the chief dependence of a free people for their defence. Americans have ever esteemed the right of keeping and bearing arms, as an honorable mark of their freedom; and the citizens of Massachusetts, have ever demonstrated how highly they prize that right, by the Constitution they have adopted, and the laws they have enacted, for the establishment of a permanent Militia -- by the readiness and alacrity with which they equip themselves & march to the field -- and by the honest pride they feel whenever they put on the exalted character of citizen-soldiers.