In it the
soldiers required an ordinance of indemnity to screen them from actions
in the civil courts for their past conduct, the payment of their arrears,
which amounted to forty-three weeks for the horse, and to eighteen for the
infantry; exemption from impressment for foreign service; compensation for
the maimed; pensions for the widows and families of those who had fallen
during the war, and a weekly provision of money, that they might no longer
be compelled to live at free quarters on the inhabitants. This remonstrance
was presented to Fairfax to be forwarded by him to the two houses. The
ruling party became alarmed: they dreaded to oppose petitioners with swords
in their hands; and, that the project might be suppressed in its birth,
both houses sent instructions to the general, ordered all members
of parliament holding commands to repair to the army, and issued a
declaration,[a] in which, after a promise to take no notice of what was
past, they admonished the subscribers that to persist in their illegal
course would subject them to punishment "as enemies to the state and
disturbers of the public peace."[1]
The framers of this declaration knew little of the temper of the military.
They sought to prevail by intimidation, and they only inflamed the general
discontent.
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