Men, Brethren, Fathers, and Fellow-Countrymen:
The attentive gravity; the venerable appearance of this crowded
audience; the dignity which I behold in the countenances of so many in
this great assembly; the solemnity of the occasion upon which we have
met together, joined to a consideration of the part I am to take in the
important business of this day, fill me with an awe hitherto unknown,
and heighten the sense which I have ever had of my unworthiness to fill
this sacred desk. But, allured by the call of some of my respected
fellow-citizens, with whose request it is always my greatest pleasure to
comply, I almost forgot my want of ability to perform what they
required. In this situation I find my only support in assuring myself
that a generous people will not severely censure what they know was well
intended, though its want of merit should prevent their being able to
applaud it. And I pray that my sincere attachment to the interest of my
country, and the hearty detestation of every design formed against her
liberties, may be admitted as some apology for my appearance in this
place.
I have always, from my earliest youth, rejoiced in the felicity of
my fellow-men; and have ever considered it as the indispensable able
duty of every member of society to promote, as far as in him lies, the
prosperity of every individual, but more especially of the community to
which he belongs; and also, as a faithful subject of the State, to use
his utmost endeavors to detect, and having detected, strenuously to
oppose every traitorous plot which its enemies may devise for its
destruction. Security to the persons and properties of the governed is
so obviously the design and end of civil government, that to attempt a
logical proof of it would be like burning tapers at noonday, to assist
the sun in enlightening the world; and it cannot be either virtuous or
honorable to attempt to support a government of which this is not the
great and principal basis; and it is to the last degree vicious and
infamous to attempt to support a government which manifestly tends to
render the persons and properties of the governed insecure. Some boast
of being friends to government; I am a friend to righteous government,
to a government founded upon the principles of reason and justice; but I
glory in publicly avowing my eternal enmity to tyranny. Is the present
system, which the British administration have adopted for the government
of the Colonies, a righteous government - or is it tyranny? Here suffer
me to ask (and would to heaven there could be an answer!) what
tenderness, what regard, respect, or consideration has Great Britain
shown, in their late transactions, for the security of the persons or
properties of the inhabitants of the Colonies? Or rather what have they
omitted doing to destroy that security? They have declared that they
have ever had, and of right ought ever to have, full power to make laws
of sufficient validity to bind the Colonies in all cases whatever. They
have exercised this pretended right by imposing a tax upon us without
our consent; and lest we should show some reluctance at parting with our
property, her fleets and armies are sent to enforce their mad
pretensions. The town of Boston, ever faithful to the British Crown, has
been invested by a British fleet; the troops of George III. have crossed
the wide Atlantic, not to engage an enemy, but to assist a band of
traitors in trampling on the rights and liberties of his most loyal
subjects in America - those rights and liberties which, as a father, he
ought ever to regard, and as a king, he is bound, in honor, to defend
from violation, even at the risk of his own life...
Let not the history of the illustrious house of Brunswick inform
posterity that a king, descended from that glorious monarch George II,
once sent his British subjects to conquer and enslave his subjects in
America. But be perpetual infamy entailed upon that villain who dared to
advise his master to such execrable measures; for it was easy to foresee
the consequences which so naturally followed upon sending troops into
America to enforce obedience to acts of the British Parliament, which
neither God nor man ever empowered them to make. It was reasonable to
expect that troops, who knew the errand they were sent upon, would treat
the people whom they were to subjugate, with a cruelty and haughtiness
which too often buries the honorable character of a soldier in the
disgraceful name of an unfeeling ruffian. The troops, upon their first
arrival, took possession of our Senate House, and pointed their cannon
against the judgment hall, and even continued them there whilst the
supreme court of judicature for this province was actually sitting to
decide upon the lives and fortunes of the King's subjects. Our streets
nightly resounded with the noise of riot and debauchery; our peaceful
citizens were hourly exposed to shameful insults, and often felt the
effects of their violence and outrage. But this was not all: as though
they thought it not enough to violate our civil rights, they endeavored
to deprive us of the enjoyment of our religious privileges, to vitiate
our morals, and thereby render us deserving of destruction. Hence, the
rude din of arms which broke in upon your solemn devotions in your
temples, on that day hallowed by heaven, and set apart by God himself
for his peculiar worship. Hence, impious oaths and blasphemies so often
tortured your unaccustomed ear. Hence, all the arts which idleness and
luxury could invent were used to betray our youth of one sex into
extravagance and effeminacy, and of the other to infamy and ruin; and
did they not succeed but too well? Did not a reverence for religion
sensibly decay? Did not our infants almost learn to lisp out curses
before they knew their horrid import? Did not our youth forget they were
Americans, and, regardless of the admonitions of the wise and aged,
servilely copy from their tyrants those vices which finally must
overthrow the empire of Great Britain? And must I be compelled to
acknowledge knowledge that even the noblest, fairest, part of all the
lower creation did not entirely escape the cursed snare? When virtue has
once erected her throne within the female breast, it is upon so solid a
basis that nothing is able to expel the heavenly inhabitant. But have
there not been some few, indeed, I hope, whose youth and inexperience
have rendered them a prey to wretches, whom, upon the least reflection,
they would have despised and hated as foes to God and their country? I
fear there have been some such unhappy instances, or why have I seen an
honest father clothed with shame; or why a virtuous mother drowned in
tears?
But I forbear, and come reluctantly to the transactions of that
dismal night, when in such quick succession we felt the extremes of
grief, astonishment, and rage; when heaven in anger, for a dreadful
moment, suffered hell to take the reins; when Satan, with his chosen
band, opened the sluices of New England's blood, and sacrilegiously
polluted our land with the dead bodies of her guiltless sons! Let this
sad tale of death never be told without a tear; let not the heaving
bosom cease to burn with a manly indignation at the barbarous story,
through the long tracts of future time; let every parent tell the
shameful story to his listening children until tears of pity glisten in
their eyes, and boiling passions shake their tender frames; and whilst
the anniversary of that ill-fated night is kept a jubilee in the grim
court of pandemonium, let all America join in one common prayer to
heaven that the inhuman, unprovoked murders of the fifth of March, 1770,
planned by Hillsborough, and a knot of treacherous knaves in Boston, and
executed by the cruel hand of Preston and his sanguinary coadjutors, may
ever stand in history without a parallel. But what, my countrymen,
withheld the ready arm of vengeance from executing instant justice on
the vile assassins? Perhaps you feared promiscuous carnage might ensue,
and that the innocent might share the fate of those who had performed
the infernal deed. But were not all guilty? Were you not too tender of
the lives of those who came to fix a yoke on your necks? But I must not
too severely blame a fault, which great souls only can commit. May that
magnificence of spirit which scorns the low pursuits of malice, may that
generous compassion which often preserves from ruin, even a guilty
villain, forever actuate the noble bosoms of Americans! But let not the
miscreant host vainly imagine that we feared their arms. No; them we
despised; we dread nothing but slavery. Death is the creature of a
poltroon's brains; 'tis immortality to sacrifice ourselves for the
salvation of our country. We fear not death. That gloomy night, the
pale-faced moon, and the affrighted stars that hurried through the sky,
can witness that we fear not death. Our hearts which, at the
recollection, glow with rage that four revolving years have scarcely
taught us to restrain, can witness that we fear not death; and happy it
is for those who dared to insult us, that their naked bones are not now
piled up an everlasting lasting monument of Massachusetts' bravery. But
they retired, they fled, and in that flight they found their only
safety. We then expected that the hand of public justice would soon
inflict that punishment upon the murderers, which, by the laws of God
and man, they had incurred. But let the unbiased pen of a Robertson, or
perhaps of some equally famed American, conduct this trial before the
great tribunal of succeeding generations. And though the murderers may
escape the just resentment of an enraged people; though drowsy justice,
intoxicated by the poisonous draught prepared for her cup, still nods
upon her rotten seat, yet be assured such complicated crimes will meet
their due reward. Tell me, ye bloody butchers! ye villains high and low!
ye wretches who contrived, as well as you who executed the inhuman deed!
do you not feel the goads and stings of conscious guilt pierce through
your savage bosoms? Though some of you may think yourselves exalted to a
height that bids defiance to human justice, and others shroud yourselves
beneath the mask of hypocrisy, and build your hopes of safety on the low
arts of cunning, chicanery, and falsehood, yet do you not sometimes feel
the gnawings of that worm which never dies? Do not the injured shades of
Maverick, Gray, Caldwell, Attucks, and Carr attend you in your solitary
walks, arrest you even in the midst of your debaucheries, and fill even
your dreams with terror?...
Ye dark designing knaves, ye murderers, parricides! how dare you
tread upon the earth which has drunk in the blood of slaughtered
innocents, shed by your wicked hands? How dare you breathe that air
which wafted to the ear of heaven the groans of those who fell a
sacrifice to your accursed ambition? But if the laboring earth cloth not
expand her jaws; if the air you breathe is not commissioned to be the
minister of death; yet, hear it and tremble! The eye of heaven
penetrates the darkest chambers of the soul, traces the leading clue
through all the labyrinths which your industrious folly has devised; and
you, however you may have screened yourselves from human eyes, must be
arraigned, must lift your hands, red with the blood of those whose death
you have procured, at the tremendous bar of God!
But I gladly quit the gloomy theme of death, and leave you to
improve the thought of that important day when our naked souls must
stand before that Being from whom nothing can be hid. I would not dwell
too long upon the horrid effects which have already followed from
quartering regular troops in this town. Let our misfortunes teach
posterity to guard against such evils for the future. Standing armies
are sometimes (I would by no means say generally, much less universally)
composed of persons who have rendered themselves unfit to live in civil
society; who have no other motives of conduct than those which a desire
of the present gratification of their passions suggests; who have no
property in any country; men who have given up their own liberties, and
envy those who enjoy liberty; who are equally indifferent to the glory
of a George or a Louis; who, for the addition of one penny a day to
their wages, would desert from the Christian cross and fight under the
crescent of the Turkish Sultan. From such men as these, what has not a
State to fear? With such as these, usurping Caesar passed the Rubicon;
with such as these, he humbled mighty Rome, and forced the mistress of
the world to own a master in a traitor. These are the men whom sceptred
robbers now employ to frustrate the designs of God, and render vain the
bounties which his gracious hand pours indiscriminately upon his
creatures. By these the miserable slaves in Turkey, Persia, and many
other extensive countries, are rendered truly wretched, though their air
is salubrious, and their soil luxuriously fertile. By these, France and
Spain, though blessed by nature with all that administers to the
convenience of life, have been reduced to that contemptible state in
which they now appear; and by these, Britain, - but if I were possessed
of the gift of prophesy, I dare not, except by divine command, unfold
the leaves on which the destiny of that once powerful kingdom is
inscribed.
But since standing armies are so hurtful to a State, perhaps my
countrymen may demand some substitute, some other means of rendering us
secure against the incursions of a foreign enemy. But can you be one
moment at a loss? Will not a well-disciplined militia afford you ample
security against foreign foes? We want not courage; it is discipline
alone in which we are exceeded by the most formidable troops that ever
trod the earth. Surely our hearts flutter no more at the sound of war
than did those of the immortal band of Persia, the Macedonian phalanx,
the invincible Roman legions, the Turkish janissaries, the gens d'armes
of France, or the well-known grenadiers of Britain. A well-disciplined
militia is a safe, an honorable guard to a community like this, whose
inhabitants are by nature brave, and are laudably tenacious of that
freedom in which they were born. From a well-regulated militia we have
nothing to fear; their interest is the same with that of the State. When
a country is invaded, the militia are ready to appear in its defense;
they march into the field with that fortitude which a consciousness of
the justice of their cause inspires; they do not jeopard their lives for
a master who considers them only as the instruments of his ambition, and
whom they regard only as the daily dispenser of the scanty pittance of
bread and water. No; they fight for their houses, their lands, for their
wives, their children; for all who claim the tenderest names, and are
held dearest in their hearts; they fight pro aris et focis, for their
liberty, and for themselves, and for their God. And let it not offend if
I say that no militia ever appeared in more flourishing condition than
that of this province now cloth; and pardon me if I say, of this town in
particular. I mean not to boast; I would not excite envy, but manly
emulation. We have all one common cause; let it, therefore, be our only
contest, who shall most contribute to the security of the liberties of
America. And may the same kind Providence which has watched over this
country from her infant state still enable us to defeat our enemies! I
cannot here forbear noticing the signal manner in which the designs of
those who wish not well to us have been discovered. The dark deeds of a
treacherous cabal have been brought to public view. You now know the
serpents who, whilst cherished in your bosoms, were darting the
envenomed stings into the vitals of the constitution. But the
representatives of the people have fixed a mark on these ungrateful
monsters, which, though it may not make them so secure as Cain of old,
yet renders them, at least, as infamous. Indeed, it would be effrontive
to the tutelar deity of this country even to despair of saving it from
all the snares which human policy can lay...
Surely you never will tamely suffer this country to be a den of
thieves. Remember, my friends, from whom you sprang. Let not a meanness
of spirit, unknown to those whom you boast of as your fathers, excite a
thought to the dishonor of your mothers I conjure you, by all that is
dear, by all that is honorable, by all that is sacred, not only that ye
pray, but that ye act; that, if necessary, ye fight, and even die, for
the prosperity of our Jerusalem. Break in sunder, with noble disdain,
the bonds with which the Philistines have bound you. Suffer not
yourselves to be betrayed, by the soft arts of luxury and effeminacy,
into the pit digged for your destruction. Despise the glare of wealth.
That people who pay greater respect to a wealthy villain than to an
honest, upright man in poverty, almost deserve to be enslaved; they
plainly show that wealth, however it may be acquired, is, in their
esteem, to be preferred to virtue.
But I thank God that America abounds in men who are superior to
all temptation, whom nothing can divert from a steady pursuit of the
interest of their country, who are at once its ornament and safeguard.
And sure I am, I should not incur your displeasure, if I paid a respect,
so justly due to their much-honored characters, in this place. But when
I name an Adams, such a numerous host of fellow-patriots rush upon my
mind, that I fear it would take up too much of your time, should I
attempt to call over the illustrious roll. But your grateful hearts will
point you to the men; and their revered names, in all succeeding times,
shall grace the annals of America. From them let us, my friends, take
example; from them let us catch the divine enthusiasm; and feel, each
for himself, the godlike pleasure of diffusing happiness on all around
us; of delivering the oppressed from the iron grasp of tyranny; of
changing the hoarse complaints and bitter moans of wretched slaves into
those cheerful songs, which freedom and contentment must inspire. There
is a heartfelt satisfaction in reflecting on our exertions for the
public weal, which all the sufferings an enraged tyrant can inflict will
never take away; which the ingratitude and reproaches of those whom we
have saved from ruin cannot rob us of. The virtuous asserter of the
rights of mankind merits a reward, which even a want of success in his
endeavors to save his country, the heaviest misfortune which can befall
a genuine patriot, cannot entirely prevent him from receiving.
I have the most animating confidence that the present noble
struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for America. And let us
play the man for our God, and for the cities of our God; while we are
using the means in our power, let us humbly commit our righteous cause
to the great Lord of the Universe, who loveth righteousness and hateth
iniquity. And having secured the approbation of our hearts, by a
faithful and unwearied discharge of our duty to our country, let us
joyfully leave our concerns in the hands of him who raiseth up and
pulleth down the empires and kingdoms of the world as he pleases; and
with cheerful submission to his sovereign will, devoutly say: "Although
the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the
labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat; the
flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the
stalls; yet we will rejoice in the Lord, we will joy in the God of our
salvation."
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