Countrymen and Brethren:
I would gladly have declined an honor to which I find myself
unequal. I have not the calmness and impartiality which the infinite
importance of this occasion demands. I will not deny the charge of my
enemies, that resentment for the accumulated injuries of our country,
and an ardor for her glory, rising to enthusiasm, may deprive me of that
accuracy of judgment and expression which men of cooler passions may
possess. Let me beseech you, then, to hear me with caution, to examine
your prejudice, and to correct the mistakes into which I may be hurried
by my zeal.
Truth loves an appeal to the common sense of mankind. Your
unperverted understandings can best determine on subjects of a practical
nature. The positions and plans which are said to be above the
comprehension of the multitude may be always suspected to be visionary
and fruitless. He who made all men hath made the truths necessary to
human happiness obvious to all.
Our forefathers threw off the yoke of Popery in religion; for you
is reserved the honor of leveling the popery of politics. They opened
the Bible to all, and maintained the capacity of every man to judge for
himself in religion. Are we sufficient for the comprehension of the
sublimest spiritual truths, and unequal to material and temporal ones?
Heaven hath trusted us with the management of things for eternity,
and man denies us ability to judge of the present, or to know from our
feelings the experience that will make us happy. "You can discern," they
say, "objects distant and remote, but cannot perceive those within your
grasp. Let us have the distribution of present goods, and cut out and
manage as you please the interests of futurity." This day, I trust, the
reign of political protestantism will commence. We have explored the
temple of royalty, and found that the idol we have bowed down to has
eyes which see not, ears that hear not our prayers, and a heart like the
nether millstone. We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom alone
men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and with a propitious eye
beholds his subjects assuming that freedom of thought and dignity of
self-direction which he bestowed on them. From the rising to the setting
sun, may his kingdom come!
Having been a slave to the influence of opinion early acquired,
and distinctions generally received, I am ever inclined not to despise
but pity those who are yet in darkness. But to the eye of reason what
can be more clear than that all men have an equal right to happiness?
Nature made no other distinction than that of higher and lower degrees
of power of mind and body. But what mysterious distribution of character
has the craft of statesmen, more fatal than priestcraft, introduced?
According to their doctrine, the offspring of perhaps the lewd
embraces of a successful invader shall, from generation to generation,
arrogate the right of lavishing on their pleasures a proportion of the
fruits of the earth, more than sufficient to supply the wants of
thousands of their fellow-creatures; claim authority to manage them like
beasts of burthen, and, without superior industry, capacity, or virtue,
nay, though disgraceful to humanity, by their ignorance, intemperance,
and brutality, shall be deemed best calculated to frame laws and to
consult for the welfare of society.
Were the talents and virtues which heaven has bestowed on men
given merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the
follies and ambition of a few? Or, were not the noble gifts so equally
dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as nearly as
possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of Providence be equally
enjoyed by all? Away, then, with those absurd systems which to gratify
the pride of a few debase the greater part of our species below the
order of men. What an affront to the King of the universe, to maintain
that the happiness of a monster, sunk in debauchery and spreading
desolation and murder among men, of a Caligula, a Nero, or a Charles, is
more precious in his sight than that of millions of his suppliant
creatures, who do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God!
No, in the judgment of heaven there is no other superiority among men
than a superiority in wisdom and virtue. And can we have a safer model
in forming ours? The Deity, then, has not given any order or family of
men authority over others; and if any men have given it, they only could
give it for themselves. Our forefathers, 'tis said, consented to be
subject to the laws of Great Britain. I will not, at present, dispute
it, nor mark out the limits and conditions of their submission; but will
it be denied that they contracted to pay obedience and to be under the
control of Great Britain because it appeared to them most beneficial in
their then present circumstances and situations? We, my countrymen, have
the same right to consult and provide for our happiness which they had
to promote theirs. If they had a view to posterity in their contracts,
it must have been to advance the felicity of their descendants. If they
erred in their expectations and prospects, we can never be condemned for
a conduct which they would have recommended had they foreseen our
present condition.
Ye darkeners of counsel, who would make the property, lives, and
religion of millions depend on the evasive interpretations of musty
parchments; who would send us to antiquated charters of uncertain and
contradictory meaning, prove that the present generation are not bound
to be victims to cruel and unforgiving despotism, tell us whether our
pious and generous ancestors bequeathed to us the miserable privilege of
having the rewards of our honesty, industry, the fruits of those fields
which they purchased and bled for, wrested from us at the will of men
over whom we have no check. Did they contract for us that, with folded
arms, we should expect that justice and mercy from brutal and inflamed
invaders which have been denied to our supplications at the foot of the
throne? Were we to hear our character as a people ridiculed with
indifference? Did they promise for us that our meekness and patience
should be insulted; our coasts harassed, our towns demolished and
plundered, and our wives and offspring exposed to nakedness, hunger, and
death, without our feeling the resentment of men, and exerting those
powers of self-preservation which God has given us? No man had once a
greater veneration for Englishmen than I entertained. They were dear to
me as branches of the same parental trunk, and partakers of the same
religion and laws; I still view with respect the remains of the
constitution as I would a lifeless body, which had once been animated by
a great and heroic soul. But when I am aroused by the din of arms; when
I behold legions of foreign assassins, paid by Englishmen to imbrue
their hands in our blood; when I tread over the uncoffined bodies of my
countrymen, neighbors, and friends; when I see the locks of a venerable
father torn by savage hands, and a feeble mother, clasping her infants
to her bosom, and on her knees imploring their lives from her own
slaves, whom Englishmen have allured to treachery and murder; when I
behold my country, once the seat of industry, peace, and plenty, changed
by Englishmen to a theatre of blood and misery, Heaven forgive me, if I
cannot root out those passions which it as implanted in my bosom, and
detest submission to a people ho have either ceased to be human, or have
not virtue enough to feel their own wretchedness and servitude!
Men who content themselves with the semblance of truth, and a
display of words, talk much of our obligations to Great Britain for
protection. Had she a single eye to our advantage? A nation of
shopkeepers are very seldom so disinterested. Let us not be so amused
with words; the extension of her commerce was her object. When she
defended our coasts, she fought for her customers, and convoyed our
ships loaded with wealth, which we had acquired for her by our industry.
She has treated us as beasts of burthen, whom the lordly masters cherish
that they may carry a greater load. Let us inquire also against whom she
has protected us? Against her own enemies with whom we had no quarrel,
or only on her account, and against whom we always readily exerted our
wealth and strength when they were required. Were these colonies
backward in giving assistance to Great Britain, when they were called
upon in 1739 to aid the expedition against Carthagena? They at that time
sent three thousand men to join the British army, although the war
commenced without their consent. But the last war, 'tis said, was purely
American. This is a vulgar error, which, like many others, has gained
credit by being confidently repeated. The dispute between the courts of
Great Britain and France related to the limits of Canada and Nova
Scotia. The controverted territory was not claimed by any in the
colonies, but by the crown of Great Britain. It was therefore their own
quarrel. The infringement of a right which England had, by the treaty of
Utrecht, of trading in the Indian country of Ohio, was another cause of
the war. The French seized large quantities of British manufacture and
took possession of a fort which a company of British merchants and
factors had erected for the security of their commerce. The war was
therefore waged in defense of lands claimed by the crown, and for the
protection of British property. The French at that time had no quarrel
with America, and, as appears by letters sent from their
commander-in-chief, to some of the colonies, wished to remain in peace
with us. The part, therefore, which we then took, and the miseries to
which we exposed ourselves, ought to be charged to our affection to
Britain. These colonies granted more than their proportion to the
support of the war. They raised, clothed, and maintained nearly
twenty-five thousand men, and so sensible were the people of England of
our great exertions, that a message was annually sent to the House of
Commons purporting, "that his Majesty, being highly satisfied with the
zeal and vigor with which his faithful subjects in North America had
exerted themselves in defense of his Majesty's just rights and
possessions, recommend it to the House to take the same into
consideration, and enable him to give them a proper compensation."
But what purpose can arguments of this kind answer? Did the
protection we received annul our rights as men, and lay us under an
obligation of being miserable? Who among you, my countrymen, that is a
father, would claim authority to make your child a slave because you had
nourished him in infancy?
'Tis a strange species of generosity which requires a return
infinitely more valuable than anything it could have bestowed; that
demands as a reward for a defense of our property a surrender of those
inestimable privileges, to the arbitrary will of vindictive tyrants,
which alone give value to that very property.
Political right and public happiness are different words for the
same idea. They who wander into metaphysical labyrinths, or have
recourse to original contracts, to determine the rights of men, either
impose on themselves or mean to delude others. Public utility is the
only certain criterion. It is a test which brings disputes to a speedy
decision, and makes its appeal to the feelings of mankind. The force of
truth has obliged men to use arguments drawn from this principle who
were combating it, in. practice and speculation. The advocates for a
despotic government and nonresistance to the magistrate employ reasons
in favor of their systems drawn from a consideration of their tendency
to promote public happiness.
The Author of Nature directs all his operations to the production
of the greatest good, and has made human virtue to consist in a
disposition and conduct which tends to the common felicity of his
creatures. An abridgement of the natural freedom of men, by the
institutions of political societies, is vindicable only on this foot.
How absurd, then, is it to draw arguments from the nature of civil
society for the annihilation of those very ends which society was
intended to procure! Men associate for their Mutual advantage. Hence,
the good and happiness of the members, that is, the majority of the
members, of any State, is the great standard by which everything
relating to that State must finally be determined; and though it may be
supposed that a body of people may be bound by a voluntary resignation
(which they have been so infatuated as to make) of all their interests
to a single person, or to a few, it can never be conceived that the
resignation is obligatory to their posterity; because it is manifestly
contrary to the good of the whole that it should be so.
These are the sentiments of the wisest and most virtuous champions
of freedom. Attend to a portion on this subject from a book in our own
defense, written, I had almost said, by the pen of inspiration. "I lay
no stress," says he, "on charters; they derive their rights from a
higher source. It is inconsistent with common sense to imagine that any
people would ever think of settling in a distant country on any such
condition, or that the people from whom they withdrew should forever be
masters of their property, and have power to subject them to any modes
of government they pleased. And had there been expressed stipulations to
this purpose in all the charters of the colonies, they would, in my
opinion, be no more bound by them, than if it had been stipulated with
them that they should go naked, or expose themselves to the incursions
of wolves and tigers."
Such are the opinions of every virtuous and enlightened patriot in
Great Britain. Their petition to heaven is, "That there may be one free
country left upon earth, to which they may fly, when venality, luxury,
and vice shall have completed the ruin of liberty there."
Courage, then, my countrymen, our contest is not only whether we
ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an
asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty. Dismissing, therefore,
the justice of our cause, as incontestable, the only question is, What
is best for us to pursue in our present circumstances?
The doctrine of dependence on Great Britain is, I believe,
generally exploded; but as I would attend to the honest weakness of the
simplest of men, you will pardon me if I offer a few words on that
subject.
We are now on this continent, to the astonishment of the world,
three millions of souls united in one cause. We have large armies, well
disciplined and appointed, with commanders inferior to none in military
skill, and superior in activity and zeal. We are furnished with arsenals
and stores beyond our most sanguine expectations, and foreign nations
are waiting to crown our success by their alliances. There are instances
of, I would say, an almost astonishing Providence in our favor; our
success has staggered our enemies, and almost given faith to infidels;
so we may truly say it is not our own arm which has saved us.
The hand of heaven appears to have led us on to be, perhaps,
humble instruments and means in the great Providential dispensation
which is completing. We have fled from the political Sodom; let us not
look back, lest we perish and become a monument of infamy and derision
to the world. For can we ever expect more unanimity and a better
preparation for defense; more infatuation of counsel among our enemies,
and more valor and zeal among ourselves? The same force and resistance
which are sufficient to procure us our liberties will secure us a
glorious independence and support us in the dignity of free, imperial
States. We cannot suppose that our opposition has made a corrupt and
dissipated nation more friendly to America, or created in them a greater
respect for the rights of mankind. We can therefore expect a restoration
and establishment of our privileges, and a compensation for the injuries
we have received from their want of power, from their fears, and not
from their virtues. The unanimity and valor which will effect an
honorable peace can render a future contest for our liberties
unnecessary. He who has strength to chain down the wolf is a madman if
he let him loose without drawing his teeth and paring his nails.
From the day on which an accommodation takes place between England
and America, on any other terms than as independent States, I shall date
the ruin of this country. A politic minister will study to lull us into
security, by granting us the full extent of our petitions. The warm
sunshine of influence would melt down the virtue, which the violence of
the storm rendered more firm and unyielding. In a state of tranquillity,
wealth, and luxury, our descendants would forget the arts of war and the
noble activity and zeal which made their ancestors invincible. Every art
of corruption would be employed to loosen the bond of union which
renders our resistance formidable. When the spirit of liberty which now
animates our hearts and gives success to our arms is extinct, our
numbers will accelerate our ruin and render us easier victims to
tyranny. Ye abandoned minions of an infatuated ministry, if peradventure
any should yet remain among us, remember that a Warren and Montgomery
are numbered among the dead. Contemplate the mangled bodies of your
countrymen, and then say, What should be the reward of such sacrifices?
Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, and
plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let
loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the
face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the
tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, - go
from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick
the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may
posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!
To unite the supremacy of Great Britain and the liberty of America
is utterly impossible. So vast a continent, and of such a distance from
the seat of empire, will every day grow more unmanageable. The motion of
so unwieldy a body cannot be directed with any dispatch and uniformity
without committing to the Parliament of Great Britain powers
inconsistent with our freedom. The authority and force which would be
absolutely necessary for the preservation of the peace and good order of
this continent would put all our valuable rights within the reach of
that nation.
As the administration of government requires firmer and more
numerous supports in proportion to its extent, the burdens imposed on us
would be excessive, and we should have the melancholy prospect of their
increasing on our posterity. The scale of officers, from the rapacious
and needy commissioner to the haughty governor, and from the governor,
with his hungry train, to perhaps a licentious and prodigal viceroy,
must be upheld by you and your children. The fleets and armies which
will be employed to silence your murmurs and complaints must be
supported by the fruits of your industry.
And yet with all this enlargement of the expense and powers of
government, the administration of it at such a distance, and over so
extensive a territory, must necessarily fail of putting the laws into
vigorous execution, removing private oppressions, and forming plans for
the advancement of agriculture and commerce, and preserving the vast
empire in any tolerable peace and security. If our posterity retain any
spark of patriotism, they can never tamely submit to such burthens. This
country will be made the field of bloody contention till it gain that
independence for which nature formed it. It is, therefore, injustice and
cruelty to our offspring, and would stamp us with the character of
baseness and cowardice, to leave the salvation of this country to be
worked out by them with accumulated difficulty and danger.
Prejudice, I confess, may warp our judgments. Let us hear the
decision of Englishmen on this subject, who cannot be suspected of
partiality. "The Americans," they say, "are but little short of half our
number. To this number they have grown from a small body of original
settlers by a very rapid increase. The probability is that they will go
on to increase, and that in fifty or sixty years they will be double our
number, and form a mighty empire, consisting of a variety of States, all
equal or superior to ourselves in all the arts and accomplishments which
give dignity and happiness to human life. In that period will they be
still bound to acknowledge that supremacy over them which we now claim?
Can there be any person who will assert this, or whose mind does not
revolt at the idea of a vast continent holding all that is valuable to
it at the discretion of a handful of people on the other side of the
Atlantic? But if at that period this would be unreasonable, what makes
it otherwise now? Draw the line if you can. But there is still a greater
difficulty."
Britain is now, I will suppose, the seat of liberty and virtue,
and its legislature consists of a body of able and independent men, who
govern with wisdom and justice. The time may come when all will be
reversed; when its excellent constitution of government will be
subverted; when, pressed by debts and taxes, it will be greedy to draw
to itself an increase of revenue from every distant province, in order
to ease its own burdens; when the influence of the crown, strengthened
by luxury and a universal profligacy of manners, will have tainted every
heart, broken down every fence of liberty, and rendered us a nation of
tame and contented vassals; when a general election will be nothing but
a general auction of boroughs, and when the Parliament, grand council of
the nation, and once the faithful guardian State, and a terror to evil
ministers, will be degenerated body of sycophants, dependent and venal,
always ready to confirm any measures, and little more than a public
court for registering royal edicts. Such, it is possible, may, some time
or other, be the state of Great Britain. What will, at that period, be
the duty of the colonies? Will they be still bound to unconditional
submission? Must they always continue an appendage to our government and
follow it implicitly through every change that can happen to it?
Wretched condition, indeed, of millions of freemen as good as ourselves!
Will you say that we now govern equitably, and that there is no danger
of such revolution? Would to God that this were true! But you will not
always say the same. Who shall judge whether we govern equitably or not?
Can you give the colonies any security that such a period will never
come? NO. THE PERIOD, COUNTRYMEN, IS ALREADY COME! The calamities were
at our door. The rod of oppression was raised over us. We were roused
from our slumbers, and may we never sink into repose until we can convey
a clear and undisputed inheritance to our posterity! This day we are
called upon to give a glorious example of what the wisest and best of
men were rejoiced to view, only in speculation. This day presents the
world with the most august spectacle that its annals ever unfolded, -
millions of freemen deliberately and voluntarily forming themselves into
a society for their common defense and common happiness. Immortal
spirits of Hampden, Locke, and Sidney, will it not add to your
benevolent joys to behold your posterity rising to the dignity of men,
and evincing to the world the reality and expediency of your systems,
and in the actual enjoyment of that equal liberty, which you were happy,
when on earth, in delineating and recommending to mankind?
Other nations have received their laws from conquerors; some are
indebted for a constitution to the suffering of their ancestors through
revolving centuries. The people of this country, alone, have formally
and deliberately chosen a government for themselves, and with open and
uninfluenced consent bound themselves into a social compact. Here no man
proclaims his birth or wealth as a title to honorable distinction, or to
sanctify ignorance and vice with the name of hereditary authority. He
who has most zeal and ability to promote public felicity, let him be the
servant of the public. This is the only line of distinction drawn by
nature. Leave the bird of night to the obscurity for which nature
intended him, and expect only from the eagle to brush the clouds with
his wings and look boldly in the face of the sun.
Some who would persuade us that they have tender feelings for
future generations, while they are insensible to the happiness of the
present, are perpetually foreboding a train of dissensions under our
popular system. Such men's reasoning amounts to this: Give up all that
is valuable to Great Britain and then you will have no inducements to
quarrel among yourselves; or, suffer yourselves to be chained down by
your enemies that you may not be able to fight with your friends.
This is an insult on your virtue as well as your common sense.
Your unanimity this day and through the course of the war is a decisive
refutation of such invidious predictions. Our enemies have already had
evidence that our present constitution contains in it the justice and
ardor of freedom and the wisdom and vigor of the most absolute system.
When the law is the will of the people, it will be uniform and coherent;
but fluctuation, contradiction, and inconsistency of councils must be
expected under those governments where every revolution in the ministry
of a court produces one in the State - such being the folly and pride of
all ministers, that they ever pursue measures directly opposite to those
of their predecessors.
We shall neither be exposed to the necessary convulsions of
elective monarchies, nor to the want of wisdom, fortitude, and virtue,
to which hereditary succession is liable. In your hands it will be to
perpetuate a prudent, active, and just legislature, and which will never
expire until you yourselves loose the virtues which give it existence.
And, brethren and fellow-countrymen, if it was ever granted to
mortals to trace the designs of Providence, and interpret its
manifestations in favor of their cause, we may, with humility of soul,
cry out, "Not unto us, not unto us, but to thy Name be the praise!" The
confusion of the devices among our enemies, and the rage of the elements
against them, have done almost as much towards our success as either our
councils or our arms.
The time at which this attempt on our liberty was made, when we
were ripened into maturity, had acquired a knowledge of war, and were
free from the incursions of enemies in this country; the gradual
advances of our oppressors enabling us to prepare for our defense; the
unusual fertility of our lands and clemency of the seasons; the success
which at first attended our feeble arms, producing unanimity among our
friends and reducing our internal foes to acquiescence - these are all
strong and palpable marks and assurances that Providence is yet gracious
unto Zion, that it will turn away the captivity of Jacob.
Our glorious reformers when they broke through the fetters of
superstition effected more than could be expected from an age so
darkened. But they left much to be done by their posterity. They lopped
off, indeed, some of the branches of Popery, but they left the root and
stock when they left us under the domination of human systems and
decisions, usurping the infallibility which can be attributed to
Revelation alone. They dethroned one usurper only to raise up another;
they refused allegiance to the Pope only to place the civil magistrate
in the throne of Christ, vested with authority to enact laws and inflict
penalties in his kingdom. And if we now cast our eyes over the nations
of the earth, we shall find that, instead of possessing the pure
religion of the Gospel, they may be divided either into infidels, who
deny the truth; or politicians who make religion a stalking horse for
their ambition; or professors, who walk in the trammels of orthodoxy,
and are more attentive to traditions and ordinances of men than to the
oracles of truth.
The civil magistrate has everywhere contaminated religion by
making it an engine of policy; and freedom of thought and the right of
private judgment, in matters of conscience, driven from every other
corner of the earth, direct their course to this happy country as their
last asylum. Let us cherish the noble guests, and shelter them under the
wings of a universal toleration! Be this the seat of unbounded religious
freedom. She will bring with her in her train, industry, wisdom, and
commerce. She thrives most when left to shoot forth in her natural
luxuriance, and asks from human policy only not to be checked in her
growth by artificial encouragements.
Thus, by the beneficence of Providence, we shall behold our empire
arising, founded on justice and the voluntary consent of the people, and
giving full scope to the exercise of those faculties and rights which
most ennoble our species. Besides the advantages of liberty and the most
equal constitution, Heaven has given us a country with every variety of
climate and soil, pouring forth in abundance whatever is necessary for
the support, comfort, and strength of a nation. Within our own borders
we possess all the means of sustenance, defense, and commerce; at the
same time, these advantages are so distributed among the different
States of this continent, as if nature had in view to proclaim to us: Be
united among yourselves and you will want nothing from the rest of the
world.
The more northern States most amply supply us with every
necessary, and many of the luxuries of life; with iron, timber and masts
for ships of commerce or of war; with flax for the manufacture of linen,
and seed either for oil or exportation.
So abundant are our harvests, that almost every part raises more
than double the quantity of grain requisite for the support of the
inhabitants. From Georgia and the Carolinas we have, as well for our own
wants as for the purpose of supplying the wants of other powers, indigo,
rice, hemp, naval stores, and lumber.
Virginia and Maryland teem with wheat, Indian corn, tobacco. Every
nation whose harvest is precarious, or whose lands yield not those
commodities which we cultivate, will gladly exchange their superfluities
and manufactures for ours.
We have already received many and large cargoes of clothing,
military stores, etc., from our commerce with foreign powers, and, in
spite of the efforts of the boasted navy of England, we shall continue
to profit by this connection.
The want of our naval stores has already increased the price of
these articles to a great height, especially in Britain. Without our
lumber, it will be impossible for those haughty islanders to convey the
products of the West Indies to their own ports; for a while they may
with difficulty effect it, but, without our assistance, their resources
soon must fail. Indeed, the West India Islands appear as the necessary
appendages to this our empire. They must owe their support to it, and
ere long, I doubt not, some of them will, from necessity, wish to enjoy
the benefit of our protection.
These natural advantages will enable us to remain independent of
the world, or make it the interest of European powers to court our
alliance, and aid in protecting us against the invasion of others. What
argument, therefore, do we want to show the equity of our conduct; or
motive of interest to recommend it to our prudence? Nature points out
the path, and our enemies have obliged us to pursue it.
If there is any man so base or so weak as to prefer a dependence
on Great Britain to the dignity and happiness of living a member of a
free and independent nation, let me tell him that necessity now demands
what the generous principle of patriotism should have dictated.
We have no other alternative than independence, or the most
ignominious and galling servitude. The legions of our enemies and death
mark their bloody career; whilst the mangled corpses of our countrymen
seem to cry out to us as a voice from heaven:
"Will you permit our posterity to groan under the galling chains
of our murderers? Has our blood been expended in vain? Is the only
benefit which our constancy till death has obtained for our country,
that it should be sunk into a deeper and more ignominious vassalage?
Recollect who are the men that demand your submission, to whose decrees
you are invited to pay obedience. Men who, unmindful of their relation
to you as brethren; of your long implicit submission to their laws; of
the sacrifice which you and your forefathers made of your natural
advantages for commerce to their avarice; formed a deliberate plan to
wrest from you the small pittance of property which they had permitted
you to acquire. Remember that the men who wish to rule over you are they
who, in pursuit of this plan of despotism, annulled the sacred contracts
which they had made with your ancestors; conveyed into your cities a
mercenary soldiery to compel you to submission by insult and murder; who
called your patience cowardice, your piety hypocrisy."
Countrymen, the men who now invite you to surrender your rights
into their hands are the men who have let loose the merciless savages to
riot in the blood of their brethren; who have dared to establish Popery
triumphant in our land; who have taught treachery to your slaves, and
courted them to assassinate your wives and children.
These are the men to whom we are exhorted to sacrifice the
blessings which Providence holds out to us; the happiness, the dignity,
of uncontrolled freedom and independence.
Let not your generous indignation be directed against any among us
who may advise so absurd and maddening a measure. Their number is but
few, and daily decreases; and the spirit which can render them patient
of slavery will render them contemptible enemies.
Our Union is now complete; our constitution composed, established,
and approved. You are now the guardians of your own liberties. We may
justly address you, as the decemviri did the Romans, and say, "Nothing
that we propose can pass into a law without your consent. Be yourselves,
O Americans, the authors of those laws on which your happiness depends."
You have now in the field armies sufficient to repel the whole
force of your enemies and their base and mercenary auxiliaries. The
hearts of your soldiers beat high with the spirit of freedom; they are
animated with the justice of their cause, and while they grasp their
swords can look up to Heaven for assistance. Your adversaries are
composed of wretches who laugh at the rights of humanity, who turn
religion into derision, and would, for higher wages, direct their swords
against their leaders or their country. Go on, then, in your generous
enterprise with gratitude to Heaven for past success, and confidence of
it in the future. For my own part, I ask no greater blessing than to
share with you the common danger and common glory. If I have a wish
dearer to my soul than that my ashes may be mingled with those of a
Warren and Montgomery, it is that these American States may never cease
to be free and independent.
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