An ACT
For confiscating the Property of all such Persons, as are inimical to the United States, and of such Persons as shall not in a certain Time therein mentioned, appear and submit to this State, whether they shall be received as Citizens thereof, and of such Persons as shall so appear, and shall not be admitted as Citizens; and for other Purposes therein mentioned.
WHEREAS divers persons, who have heretofore owned and possessed Lands, Tenements, Hereditaments themselves, from the same, and attached themselves to the Enemies of the United States of America, and also divers Persons, who have withdrawn to Places beyond the Bounds of any of the United States, in order to avoid bearing their proper and equal Part in Defence of the Freedom and Independence of the same; and also divers Persons, who having been beyond the Bounds of the United States, at the Beginning of the present War, have failed to return, and unite their Efforts for the common Defence of American Liberty; and it is expedient and just, that every Person for whom Property is protected in any State, should be and appear within the same, or join in Defence thereof, whenever the same is threatened or invaded: And it is also just, that a reasonable Time be given for all such as have it in their Power to alledge favourable or mitigating Circumstances, to induce this State (ever attentive to the Rights of natural Justice, and ever ready and willing to receive, to give, and favour all who are sincerely attached to Liberty) to receive them as Citizens, and restore them to the Possessions, which once belonged to them.
Be it therefore Enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North-Carolina, and it is hereby enacted by the Authority of the same, That all the Lands, Tenements, Hereditaments, and moveable Property within this State, and all and every Right, Title and Interest therein, of which any Person was seized or possessed, or to which any Person had Title, on the Fourth Day of July, in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred Seventy-six, who on the said Day was absent from this State, and every Part of the United States, and who still is absent from the same, or who hath at any Time during the present War, attached himself to, or aided or abetted the Enemies of the United States, or who has withdrawn himself from this or any of the United States, after the Day aforesaid, and still resides beyond the Limits of the United States, shall, and are hereby declared to be confiscated to the Use of this State, unless such Person shall at the next General Assembly, which shall be held after the First Day of October, in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-eight, appear and be by the said Assembly admitted to the Priviledge of a Citizen of this State, and restored to the Possession and Property which to him once belonged, within the same.
Provided, That this shall not extend to such Persons as are, or have been actually employed in the Service of the United States, or any of them, and have not deserted to the Enemy, or traiterously violated their Trust, or to such as are imprisoned, of unfound Mind, or under the Age of Twenty-one Years.
And Provided, That nothing herein contained, shall be construed to give Permission to such Persons as have removed themselves, or have been removed under the compulsive Authority of any Law of this State, or who have removed themselves to avoid taking the Oath of Allegiance to this State, to return thereto, or to avoid any Sales of Lands, Tenements, Hereditaments, or moveable Property, by such Persons, bona fide made before their Departure, or pursuant to an Act of Assembly, passed at the last Session of this Assembly, entitled, "An "Act for declaring what Crimes and Practices against the State, shall be Treason, and what "shall be Misprision of Treason, and providing Punishments adequate to Crimes of both "Classes, and for preventing the Dangers which may arise from Persons disaffected to the "State."
A true Copy from the Original.
December 28, 1777.
J. SITGREAVES, Assist. C. H. C.
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