Speaker 1: Chapter four of Common Sense by Thomas Payne. This LibriVox
Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Thoughts on the present
Speaker 1: state of American affairs in the following pages. I offer
Speaker 1: nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense,
Speaker 1: and have no other preliminaries to settle with the reader
Speaker 1: than that he will divest himself of prejudice and prepossession,
Speaker 1: and suffer his reason and his feelings to determine for themselves,
Speaker 1: that he will put on, or rather that he will
Speaker 1: not put off, the true character of a man, and
Speaker 1: generously enlarge his views. Beyond the present day, volumes have
Speaker 1: been written on the subject of the struggle between England
Speaker 1: and America. Men of all ranks have embarked in the controversy,
Speaker 1: from different motives and with various designs, but all have
Speaker 1: been ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed. Arms
Speaker 1: as the last resource decide this contest. The appeal was
Speaker 1: the choice of the King and the continent. Hath accepted
Speaker 1: the challenge. It hath been reported of the late mister Pelham, who,
Speaker 1: though an able minister, was not without his faults, that
Speaker 1: on his being attacked in the House of Commons on
Speaker 1: the score that his measures were only of a temporary kind, replied,
Speaker 1: they will last my time. Should I thought so fatal
Speaker 1: and unmanly possess the colonies in the present contest, The
Speaker 1: name of ancestors will be remembered by future generations with detestation.
Speaker 1: The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.
Speaker 1: Tis not only the affair of a city, a county,
Speaker 1: a providence, or a kingdom, but of a continent of
Speaker 1: at least one eighth of the happy, pitable globe. Tis
Speaker 1: not the concern of a day, a year, or an age.
Speaker 1: Posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be
Speaker 1: more or less affected even to the end of time
Speaker 1: by the proceedings. Now. Now is the seed time of
Speaker 1: continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now will
Speaker 1: be like a name engraved with a point of a
Speaker 1: pin on the tender rhine of a young oak. The
Speaker 1: wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it
Speaker 1: in full growth characters. By referring the matter from argument
Speaker 1: to arms, a new era for politics is struck. A
Speaker 1: new method of thinking hath arisen. All plans, proposals, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Prior to the nineteenth of April, that is, to the
Speaker 1: commencement of hostilities, are like the almanacs of the last year, which,
Speaker 1: though proper then, are superseded and useless now. Whatever was
Speaker 1: advanced by the advocates on either side of the question
Speaker 1: then terminated in one and the same point viz. A
Speaker 1: union with Great Britain. The only difference between the parties
Speaker 1: was the method of effecting it, the one proposing force,
Speaker 1: the other friendship. But it hath so far happened that
Speaker 1: the first hath failed, and the second hath withdrawn her influence.
Speaker 1: As much hath been said of the advantages of reconciliation,
Speaker 1: which like an agreeable dream, hath passed away and left
Speaker 1: us as we were. It is but right that we
Speaker 1: should examine the contrary side of the argument and inquire
Speaker 1: into some of the many material injuries which these colonies
Speaker 1: sustain and always will sustain, by being connected with and
Speaker 1: dependent on Great Britain. To examine that connection, dependence on
Speaker 1: the principles of nature and common sense, to see what
Speaker 1: we have to trust to if separated, and what we
Speaker 1: are to expect if dependent. I have heard it asserted
Speaker 1: by some that as America hath flourished under her former
Speaker 1: connection with Great Britain, but the same connection is necessary
Speaker 1: towards her future happiness and will always have the same effect.
Speaker 1: Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument.
Speaker 1: We may as well assert that because a child has
Speaker 1: thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat,
Speaker 1: or that the first twenty years of our lives is
Speaker 1: to become a president for the next twenty. But even
Speaker 1: this as admitting more than is true. For I answer
Speaker 1: roundly that America would have flourished as much and probably
Speaker 1: much more, had no European power had anything to do
Speaker 1: with her. The commerce by which she hath enriched herself
Speaker 1: are the necessities of life, and will always have a market,
Speaker 1: while eating is the custom of Europe. But she has
Speaker 1: protected us. Say some that she has engrossed us is true,
Speaker 1: and defended the continent at our expense as well as
Speaker 1: her own, is admitted, and she would have defended Turkey
Speaker 1: from the same motive viz. The sake of trade and dominion.
Speaker 1: Alas we have been long led away by ancient prejudices
Speaker 1: and made large sacrifices to superstition, we have boasted the
Speaker 1: protection of Great Britain without considering that her motive was interest,
Speaker 1: not attachment. That she did not protect us from our
Speaker 1: enemies on our account, but from her enemies on her
Speaker 1: own account, from those who had no quarrel with us
Speaker 1: on any other account, and who will always be our
Speaker 1: enemies on the same account. Let Britain waive her pretensions
Speaker 1: to the continent or the continent, throw off the dependents,
Speaker 1: and we should be at peace with France and Spain.
Speaker 1: Were they at war with Britain. The miseries of hanover
Speaker 1: last war ought to warn us against connections. It has
Speaker 1: lately been asserted in Parliament that the colonies have no
Speaker 1: relation to each other but through the parent country. That
Speaker 1: is that Pennsylvania and the Jerseys and so on for
Speaker 1: the rest are sister colonies by the way of England.
Speaker 1: This is certainly a very roundabout way of proving relationship,
Speaker 1: but it is the nearest and only true way of
Speaker 1: proving enemyship, if I may so call it. France and
Speaker 1: Spain never were, nor perhaps ever will be, our enemies
Speaker 1: as Americans, but as our being the subjects of Great Britain.
Speaker 1: But Britain is the parent country. Some say, then, the
Speaker 1: more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour
Speaker 1: their young, nor savages make war upon their families. Wherefore
Speaker 1: the assertion, if true, turns to her reproach. But it
Speaker 1: happens not to be true, or only partly so. And
Speaker 1: the phrase parent or mother country hath been just wittically
Speaker 1: adopted by the King and his parasites, with a low
Speaker 1: papistical design of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous
Speaker 1: weakness of our minds. Europe, and not England, is the
Speaker 1: parent country of America. This new world hath been the
Speaker 1: asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty
Speaker 1: from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not
Speaker 1: from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the
Speaker 1: cruelty of the monster. And it is so far true
Speaker 1: of England that the same in tyranny which drove the
Speaker 1: first immigrants from home pursues their descendants still in this
Speaker 1: extensive quarter of the globe. We forget the narrow limits
Speaker 1: of three hundred and sixty miles the extent of England,
Speaker 1: and carry our friendship on a larger scale. We claim
Speaker 1: brotherhood with every European Christian, and triumph in the generosity
Speaker 1: of the sentiment. It is pleasant to observe by what
Speaker 1: regular gradations we surmount the force of local prejudice as
Speaker 1: we enlarge our acquaintance with the world. A man born
Speaker 1: in any town in England divided into parishes will naturally
Speaker 1: associate most with his fellow parishioners, because their interest in
Speaker 1: many cases will be common, and distinguish him by the
Speaker 1: name of neighbor. If he meet him but a few
Speaker 1: miles from home, he drops the narrow idea of a
Speaker 1: street and salutes him by the name of town ownsman.
Speaker 1: If he travel out of the country and meet him
Speaker 1: in any other he forgets the minor divisions of street
Speaker 1: in town and calls him countryman, that is, countrymen. But
Speaker 1: if in their foreign excursions they should associate in France
Speaker 1: or any other part of Europe, their local remembrance would
Speaker 1: be enlarged into that of Englishmen, and, by a just
Speaker 1: parity of reasoning, all Europeans meeting in America or any
Speaker 1: other quarter of the globe, or Countrymen or England, Holland,
Speaker 1: Germany or Sweden, when compared with the whole, stand in
Speaker 1: the same places. On the larger scale which the divisions
Speaker 1: of street, town and country do, the smaller ones, distinctions
Speaker 1: too limited for continental minds. Not one third of the inhabitants,
Speaker 1: even of this province are of English descent. Wherefore I
Speaker 1: reprobate the phrase of parent or mother country applied to
Speaker 1: England only as being false, selfish, narrow, and un generous.
Speaker 1: But admitting that we were all of English descent, what
Speaker 1: does it amount to nothing? Britain, being now an open enemy,
Speaker 1: extinguishes every other name and title, And to say that
Speaker 1: reconciliation is our duty is truly forcical. The first King
Speaker 1: of England of the present line, William the Conqueror, was
Speaker 1: a Frenchman, and half the peers of England are descendants
Speaker 1: from the same country. Therefore, by the same method of reasoning,
Speaker 1: England ought to be governed by France. Much hath been
Speaker 1: said of the united strength of Britain and the colonies,
Speaker 1: that in conjunction they might bid defiance to the world.
Speaker 1: But this is mere presumption. The fate of war is uncertain.
Speaker 1: Neither do the expressions mean anything, for this continent would
Speaker 1: never suffer itself to be drained of inhabitants to support
Speaker 1: the British arms in either Asia, Africa or Europe. Besides,
Speaker 1: what have we to do with setting the world at defiance.
Speaker 1: Our plan is commerce, and that well attended to, will
Speaker 1: secure us the peace and friendship of all Europe. Because
Speaker 1: it is the interest of all Europe to have America
Speaker 1: a free port, her trade will always be a protection,
Speaker 1: and her barrenness of gold and silver secure her from invaders.
Speaker 1: I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation to show a
Speaker 1: single advantage that this continent can reap by being connected
Speaker 1: with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge. Not a single
Speaker 1: advantage is derived. Our corn will fetch its price in
Speaker 1: any market in Europe, and our imported goods must be
Speaker 1: paid for by them where we will. But the injuries
Speaker 1: and disadvantages we sustain by that connection are without number,
Speaker 1: and our duty to mankind at large, as well as
Speaker 1: to ourselves, instruct us to renounce the alliance, because any
Speaker 1: submission to our dependence on Great Britain tends directly to
Speaker 1: involve this continent in European wars and quarrels, and sets
Speaker 1: us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek our friendship,
Speaker 1: and against whom we have neither anger nor complaint. As
Speaker 1: Europe is our market for trade, we are to form
Speaker 1: no partial connection with any part of it. It is
Speaker 1: the true interest of America to steer clear of European contentions,
Speaker 1: which she can never do, while by her dependence on
Speaker 1: Britain she is made the make weight in the scale
Speaker 1: of British politics. Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms
Speaker 1: to be long at peace, and whenever a war breaks
Speaker 1: out between England and any foreign power, the trade of
Speaker 1: America goes to ruin. Because of her connection with England,
Speaker 1: the next war may not turn out like the last,
Speaker 1: and should it not, the advocates for a reconciliation now
Speaker 1: will be wishing for separation then, because neutrality, in that
Speaker 1: case would be a safer convoy than a man of war.
Speaker 1: Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The
Speaker 1: blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries
Speaker 1: tis time to part. Even the distance at which the
Speaker 1: Almighty hath placed England at America is a strong and
Speaker 1: natural proof that the authority of the one over the
Speaker 1: other was never the design of Heaven. The time likewise
Speaker 1: at which the continent was discovered adds weight to the argument,
Speaker 1: and the manner in which it was peopled increases. The
Speaker 1: force of the Reformation was preceded by the discovery of America,
Speaker 1: as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary
Speaker 1: to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford
Speaker 1: neither friendship nor safety. The authority of Great Britain over
Speaker 1: this continent is a form of government which, sooner or
Speaker 1: later must have an end, And a serious mind can
Speaker 1: draw no true pleasure by looking forward under the painful
Speaker 1: and positive conviction that what he calls the present Constitution
Speaker 1: is merely temporary. As parents, we can have no joy
Speaker 1: knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure
Speaker 1: anything which we may bequeath to posterity. And by a
Speaker 1: plain method of argument, as we are running the next
Speaker 1: generation inter debt, we ought to do the work of it.
Speaker 1: Otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to
Speaker 1: discover the law of our duty rightly, we should take
Speaker 1: our children in our hand and fix our station. A
Speaker 1: few years farther into life, that eminence will present a
Speaker 1: prospect which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from
Speaker 1: our sight. Though I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offense,
Speaker 1: yet I am inclined to believe that all those who
Speaker 1: espouse the doctrine of reconciliation may be included within the
Speaker 1: following descriptions interested men who are not to be trusted,
Speaker 1: weak men who cannot see, prejudiced men who will not see.
Speaker 1: And a certain set of moderate men who think better
Speaker 1: of the European world than it deserves. And this last class,
Speaker 1: by an ill judged deliberation, will be the cause of
Speaker 1: more calamities to this continent than all the other three.
Speaker 1: It is the good fortune of many to live distant
Speaker 1: from the scene of sorrow. The evil is not sufficient
Speaker 1: brought to their doors to make them feel the precariousness
Speaker 1: with which all American property is possessed. But let our
Speaker 1: imaginations transport us for a few moments to Boston. That
Speaker 1: seat of wretchedness, will teach us wisdom and instruct us
Speaker 1: forever to renounce a power in whom we can have
Speaker 1: no trust. The inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who but
Speaker 1: a few months ago were in ease and affluence, have
Speaker 1: now no other alternative than to stay and starve, or
Speaker 1: turn and beg endangered by the fire of their friends.
Speaker 1: If they continue within the city and plundered by the soldiery.
Speaker 1: If they leave it in their present condition, they are
Speaker 1: prisoners without the hope of redemption, and in a general
Speaker 1: attack for their relief they would be exposed to the
Speaker 1: fury of both armies. Men of passive tempers, look somewhat
Speaker 1: lightly over the offenses of Britain, and still hoping for
Speaker 1: the best, are apt to call out, Calm, Calm, we
Speaker 1: shall be friends again for all this, But examine the
Speaker 1: passions and feelings of mankind, bring the doctrine of reconciliation
Speaker 1: to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me whether
Speaker 1: you can hereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power
Speaker 1: that hath carried fire and sword into your land. If
Speaker 1: you cannot do all these, then you are only deceiving yourselves,
Speaker 1: and by your delay, bringing ruin upon posterity. Your future
Speaker 1: connection with Britain, whom you can neither love nor honor,
Speaker 1: will be forced and unnatural, and, being formed only on
Speaker 1: the plan of present convenience, will in a little time
Speaker 1: fall into a relapse more wretched than the first. But
Speaker 1: if you say you can still pass the violations over,
Speaker 1: then I ask, hath your house been burnt? Hath your
Speaker 1: property been destroyed before your face, or your wife and
Speaker 1: children destitute of a bed to lie on? Are bread
Speaker 1: to live on? Have you lost a parent or a
Speaker 1: child by their hands? And yourself the ruined and wretched survivor?
Speaker 1: If you have not, then you are not a judge
Speaker 1: of those who have. But if you have and still
Speaker 1: can shake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy
Speaker 1: of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover? And
Speaker 1: whatever may be your rank or title in life? You
Speaker 1: have the heart of a coward and the spirit of
Speaker 1: a sycophant. This is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but
Speaker 1: trying them by those feelings and affections which nature justifies
Speaker 1: and without which we would be incapable of discharging the
Speaker 1: social deeds of life. Are enjoying the felicities of it.
Speaker 1: I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpose of
Speaker 1: provoking revenge, but to awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers,
Speaker 1: that we may pursue determinedly some fixed object. It is
Speaker 1: not in the power of Britain or of Europe to
Speaker 1: conquer America if she do not conquer herself by delay
Speaker 1: and timidity. The present winter is worth an age if
Speaker 1: rightly employed, but if lost are neglected, the whole continent
Speaker 1: will partake of the misfortune. And there is no punishment
Speaker 1: which that man will not deserve. Be he who are
Speaker 1: what aware he will that may be the means of
Speaker 1: sacrificing a season so precious and useful. It is repugnant
Speaker 1: to reason, to the universal order of things, to all
Speaker 1: examples from former ages, to suppose that this continent can
Speaker 1: longer remain subject to an external power. The most sanguine
Speaker 1: in Britain does not think so. The utmost stretch of
Speaker 1: human wisdom cannot at this time compass a plan short
Speaker 1: of separation which can promise the continent even a year's security.
Speaker 1: Reconciliation is now a fallacious dream. Nature hath deserted the connection,
Speaker 1: and art cannot supply her place. Far as Milton wisely expresses,
Speaker 1: never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate
Speaker 1: have pierced so deep. Every quiet method for peace hath
Speaker 1: been ineffectual. Our prayers have been rejected with disdain, and
Speaker 1: only tended to convince us that nothing flatters vanity or
Speaker 1: confirms obstinacy in kings more than repeated petitioning and noting
Speaker 1: hath contributed more than that very measure to make the
Speaker 1: kings of Europe absolute witness Denmark and Sweden. Wherefore, since
Speaker 1: nothing but blows will do for God's sake, let us
Speaker 1: come to a final separation and not leave the next
Speaker 1: generation to be cutting throats under the violated, unmeaning names
Speaker 1: of parent and child. To say they will never attempt
Speaker 1: it again is idle and visionary. We thought so at
Speaker 1: the repeal of the Stamp Act, Yet a year or
Speaker 1: two undeceived us as well. May we suppose that nations
Speaker 1: which have been once defeated will never renew the quarrel
Speaker 1: As to government matters. It is not in the power
Speaker 1: of Britain to do this continent justice. The business of
Speaker 1: it will soon be too weighty and intricate to be
Speaker 1: managed with any tolerable degree of convenience by a power
Speaker 1: so distant from us and so very ignorant of us.
Speaker 1: If they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us. To
Speaker 1: be always running three or four thousand miles with a
Speaker 1: tail or a petition, waiting four or five months for
Speaker 1: an answer, which, when obtained, requires five or six more
Speaker 1: to explain it. In will in a few years be
Speaker 1: looked upon as folly and childishness. There was a time
Speaker 1: when it was proper, and there is a proper time
Speaker 1: for it to cease. Small islands, not capable of protecting
Speaker 1: themselves are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under
Speaker 1: their care. But there is something very absurd in supposing
Speaker 1: a continent to be perpetually governed by an island. In
Speaker 1: no instance, hath nature made the satellite larger than its
Speaker 1: primary planet, and its England and America with respect to
Speaker 1: each other, reverses the common order of nature. It is
Speaker 1: evident they belong to different systems, England to Europe, America
Speaker 1: to itself. I am not induced by motives of pride, party,
Speaker 1: or resentment to espouse the doctrine of separation and independence.
Speaker 1: I am clearly, positively and conscientiously persuaded that it is
Speaker 1: the true interest of this continent to be so that
Speaker 1: everything short of that is mere patchwork, that it can
Speaker 1: afford no lasting felicity, that it is leaving the sword
Speaker 1: to our children, and shrinking back at a time when
Speaker 1: a little more, a little farther would have rendered this
Speaker 1: continent the glory of the Earth. As Britain hath not
Speaker 1: manifested the least inclination towards a compromise. We may be
Speaker 1: assured that no terms can be obtained worthy the acceptance
Speaker 1: of the continent are any ways equal to the expensive
Speaker 1: blood and treasure we have been already put two. The
Speaker 1: object contended for ought always to bear some just proportion
Speaker 1: to the expense. The removal of North, or the whole
Speaker 1: detestable Junto, is a matter unworthy the millions we have expended.
Speaker 1: A temporary stoppage of trade was an inconvenience which would
Speaker 1: have sufficiently balanced the repeal of all the acts complained of,
Speaker 1: had such repeals been obtained. But if the whole continent
Speaker 1: must take up arms, if every man must be a soldier,
Speaker 1: it is scarcely worth our while to fight against a
Speaker 1: contemptible ministry. Only dearly, dearly do we pay for the
Speaker 1: repeal of the ax if that is all we fight
Speaker 1: for for In a just estimation, it is as great
Speaker 1: a folly to pay a bunker hill price for law
Speaker 1: as for land. As I have always considered the independency
Speaker 1: of this continent as an event which sooner or later
Speaker 1: must arrive, so from the late rapid progress of the
Speaker 1: continent to maturity, the event could not be far off. Wherefore,
Speaker 1: on the breaking out of hostilities, it was not worth
Speaker 1: while to have disputed a matter which time would have
Speaker 1: finally redressed, unless we meant to be in earnest. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: it is like wasting an estate on a suited law
Speaker 1: to regulate the trespasses of a tenant whose lease is
Speaker 1: just expiring. No man was a warmer wisher for reconciliation
Speaker 1: than myself before the fatal nineteenth of April seventeen seventy five.
Speaker 1: But the moment the event of that day was made known,
Speaker 1: I rejected the hardened, sullen, tempered pharaoh of England forever,
Speaker 1: and disdained the wretch that, with the pretended title of
Speaker 1: father of his people can unfeelingly hear of their slaughter
Speaker 1: and composedly sleep with their blood upon his soul. By
Speaker 1: admitting that matters were now made up, what would be
Speaker 1: the event? I answer the ruin of the continent, and
Speaker 1: that for several reasons. First, the powers of governing still
Speaker 1: remaining in the hands of the king, he will have
Speaker 1: a negative over the whole legislation of this continent. And
Speaker 1: as he hath shown himself such an inveterate enemy to
Speaker 1: liberty and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power? Is
Speaker 1: he or is he not a proper man to say
Speaker 1: to these colonies, you shall make no laws but what
Speaker 1: I please? And is there any inhabitant in America so
Speaker 1: ignorant as not to know that, according to what is
Speaker 1: called the present Constitution, that this continent can make no
Speaker 1: laws but what the King gives leave to. And is
Speaker 1: there any man so unwise as not to see that,
Speaker 1: considering what has happened, he will suffer no law to
Speaker 1: be made here, but such as suit his purpose. We
Speaker 1: may be as effectually enslaved by the want of laws
Speaker 1: in America as by submitting two laws made for us
Speaker 1: in England. After matters are made up, as it is called,
Speaker 1: can there be any doubt but the whole power of
Speaker 1: the Crown will be exerted to keep this continent as
Speaker 1: low and humble as possible. Instead of going forward, we
Speaker 1: shall go backward, or be perpetually quarreling or ridiculously petitioning.
Speaker 1: We are already greater than the King wishes us to be.
Speaker 1: And will he not hereafter endeavor to make us less?
Speaker 1: To bring the matter to one point is the power
Speaker 1: who is jealous of our prosperity a proper power to
Speaker 1: govern us. Whoever says no to this question is an independent.
Speaker 1: For independency means no more than whether we shall make
Speaker 1: our own laws, or whether the King, the greatest enemy
Speaker 1: this continent hath or can have, shall tell us there
Speaker 1: shall be no laws but such as I like. But
Speaker 1: the King, you say, has a negative in England, the
Speaker 1: people there can make no laws without his consent. In
Speaker 1: point of right and good order, there is something very
Speaker 1: ridiculous that a youth of twenty one, which hath often happened,
Speaker 1: shall say to several millions of people older and wiser
Speaker 1: than himself, I forbid this or that act of yours
Speaker 1: to be law. But in this place I decline this
Speaker 1: sort of reply, though I will never cease to expose
Speaker 1: the absurdity of it, and only answer that England, being
Speaker 1: the King's residence, and America not so, makes quite another case.
Speaker 1: The King's negative here is ten times more dangerous and
Speaker 1: fatal than it can be in England, or there he
Speaker 1: will scarcely refuse his consent to a bill for putting
Speaker 1: England into as strong a state of defense as possible
Speaker 1: and in America, he would never suffer such a bill
Speaker 1: to be passed. America is only a secondary object in
Speaker 1: the system of British politics. England consults the good of
Speaker 1: this country no farther than it answers her own purpose. Wherefore,
Speaker 1: her own interest leads her to suppress the growth of
Speaker 1: ours in every case which doth not promote her advantage,
Speaker 1: or in the least interferes with it. A pretty state
Speaker 1: we should soon be in under such a second hand government,
Speaker 1: considering what has happened. Men do not change from enemies
Speaker 1: to friends by the alteration of a name. And in
Speaker 1: order to show that reconciliation now is a dangerous doctrine,
Speaker 1: I affirm that it would be policy in the King
Speaker 1: at this time to repeal the acts for the sake
Speaker 1: of reinstating himself in the government of the provinces, in
Speaker 1: order that he may accomplish by craft and subtlety in
Speaker 1: the long run what he cannot do by force and
Speaker 1: violence in the short one. Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related. Secondly,
Speaker 1: that as even the best terms which we can expect
Speaker 1: to obtain can amount to no more than a temporary
Speaker 1: expedient or a kind of government by guardianship, which can
Speaker 1: last no longer than till the colonies come of age.
Speaker 1: So the general face and stace of things in the
Speaker 1: interim will be unsettled and unpromising. Immigrants of property will
Speaker 1: not choose to come to a country whose form of
Speaker 1: government hangs but by a thread, and who is every
Speaker 1: day tottering on the brink of commotion and disturbance. And
Speaker 1: numbers of the present inhabitants would lay hold of the interval,
Speaker 1: to dispense of their effects, and quit the continent. But
Speaker 1: the most powerful of all arguments is that nothing but independence,
Speaker 1: that is a continental form of government, can keep the
Speaker 1: peace of the continent and preserve it inviolate from civil wars.
Speaker 1: I dread the event of a reconciliation with Britain now,
Speaker 1: as it is more than probable that it will be
Speaker 1: followed by a revolt somewhere or other, the consequences of
Speaker 1: which may be far more fatal than all the malice
Speaker 1: of Britain. Thousands are already ruined by British barbarity. Thousands
Speaker 1: more will probably suffer the same fate. Those men have
Speaker 1: other feelings than us, who have nothing suffered all they
Speaker 1: now possess is liberty. What they before enjoyed is sacrificed
Speaker 1: to its service, and having nothing more to lose, they
Speaker 1: disdain submission. Besides, the general temper of the colonies towards
Speaker 1: a British government will be like that of a youth
Speaker 1: who is nearly out of his time. They will care
Speaker 1: very little about her. And a government which cannot preserve
Speaker 1: the peace is no government at all. And in that
Speaker 1: case we pay our money for nothing, and pray, what
Speaker 1: is it that Britain can do? Whose power will be
Speaker 1: wholly on paper? Should a civil tumult to break out
Speaker 1: the very day after reconciliation. I've heard some men say,
Speaker 1: many of whom I believe, spoke without thinking, that they
Speaker 1: dreaded an independence, fearing that it would produce several wars.
Speaker 1: It is but seldom that our first thoughts are truly correct,
Speaker 1: and that is the case here, for there are ten
Speaker 1: times more to dread from a patched up connection than
Speaker 1: from independence. I make the sufferer's case my own, and
Speaker 1: I protest that were I driven from house and home,
Speaker 1: my property destroyed, and my circumstances ruined, that as a
Speaker 1: man sensible of injuries, I should never relish the doctrine
Speaker 1: of reconciliation, or consider myself bound thereby the colonies have
Speaker 1: manifested such a spirit of good order and obedience to
Speaker 1: continental government as is sufficient to make every reasonable person
Speaker 1: easy and happy. On that head, no man can sign
Speaker 1: the least pretense for his fears on any other grounds
Speaker 1: than such as are truly childish and ridiculous, viz. That
Speaker 1: one colony will be striving for superiority over another. Where
Speaker 1: there are no distinctions, there can be no superiority. Perfect
Speaker 1: equality affords no temptation. The republics of Europe are all,
Speaker 1: and we may say always in peace. Holland and Switzerland
Speaker 1: are without wars. Foreign or domestic monarchical governments, it is true,
Speaker 1: are never long at rest. The crown itself is a
Speaker 1: temptation to enterprising ruffians at home, and that degree of
Speaker 1: pride and insolence, ever attendant on regal authority, swells into
Speaker 1: a rupture with foreign powers in instances where a republican government,
Speaker 1: by being formed on more natural principles, would negotiate them mistake.
Speaker 1: If there is any true cause of fear respecting independence,
Speaker 1: it is because no plan is yet laid down. Men
Speaker 1: do not see their own way out. Wherefore, as an
Speaker 1: opening into that business, I offer the following hints, at
Speaker 1: the same time modestly affirming that I have no other
Speaker 1: opinion of them myself than that they may be the
Speaker 1: means of giving rise to something better. Should the straggling
Speaker 1: thoughts of such individuals be collected, they would frequently form
Speaker 1: materials for wise and able men to improve into useful matter.
Speaker 1: Let the assemblies be annual, with a president only the
Speaker 1: representation more equal, their business wholly domestic and subject to
Speaker 1: the authority of a continental Congress. Let each colony be
Speaker 1: divided into six, eight or ten convenient districts. Each district
Speaker 1: to send a proper number of delegates to Congress, so
Speaker 1: that each colony send at least thirty. The whole number
Speaker 1: in Congress will be at least three hundred ninety. Each
Speaker 1: Congress to sit and to choose a president by the
Speaker 1: following method. When the delegates are met, Let a colony
Speaker 1: be taken from the whole thirteen colonies by lot, after
Speaker 1: which let the whole Congress choose by ballot a president
Speaker 1: from out of the delegates of that province. In the
Speaker 1: next Congress, let a colony be taken by lot from twelve,
Speaker 1: only omitting that colony from which the president was taken
Speaker 1: in the former Congress, and so proceeding on till the
Speaker 1: whole thirteen shall have had their proper rotation, and in
Speaker 1: order that nothing may pass into a law. But what
Speaker 1: is satisfactorily just not less than three gifts of the
Speaker 1: Congress to be called a majority he that will promote
Speaker 1: discard under a government so equally formed as this would
Speaker 1: have joined Lucifer in his revolt. But as there is
Speaker 1: a peculiar delicacy from whom are in what manner this
Speaker 1: business must first arise, And as it seems most agreeable
Speaker 1: and consistent that it should come from some intermediate body
Speaker 1: between the governed and the governors, that is, between the
Speaker 1: Congress and the people, Let a continental conference be held
Speaker 1: in the following manner, and for the following purpose, a
Speaker 1: committee of twenty six members of Congress viz. Two for
Speaker 1: each colony, two members from each House of Assembly or
Speaker 1: provincial convention, and five representatives of the people at large,
Speaker 1: to be chosen in the capital city or town of
Speaker 1: evince far and in behalf of the whole province by
Speaker 1: as many qualified voters as shall think proper to attend
Speaker 1: from all parts of the province for that purpose, or,
Speaker 1: if more convenient, the representatives may be chosen in two
Speaker 1: or three of the most populous parts thereof. In this conference,
Speaker 1: thus assembled, will be united the two grand principles of business,
Speaker 1: knowledge and power. The members of Congress, assemblies or conventions,
Speaker 1: by having had experience in national concerns, will be able
Speaker 1: and useful counselors, and the whole, being empowered by the people,
Speaker 1: will have a truly legal authority. The conferring members being met,
Speaker 1: let their business be to frame a continental charter or
Speaker 1: Charter of the United Colonies, answering to what is called
Speaker 1: the Magna Carta of England, the number and manner of
Speaker 1: choosing members of Congress, members of Assembly, with their date
Speaker 1: of sitting, and drawing the line of business and jurisdiction
Speaker 1: between them, always remembering that our strength is continental, not provincial,
Speaker 1: securing freedom and property to all men, and above all things,
Speaker 1: the free exercise of religion according to the Dictates of Conscience,
Speaker 1: with such other matter as is necessary for a charter
Speaker 1: to contain, immediately after which the said conference to dissolve,
Speaker 1: and the bodies which shall be chosen conformable to the
Speaker 1: said Charter, to be the legislators and governors of this
Speaker 1: continent for the time being, Whose peace and happiness may
Speaker 1: God preserve a men, should any body of men be
Speaker 1: hereafter delegated for this or some similar purpose, I offer
Speaker 1: them the following extracts from that wise observer on government Dragonette. Quote.
Speaker 1: The science says he of the political consists in fixing
Speaker 1: the true point of happiness and freedom, those men who
Speaker 1: deserve the gratitude of ages, who should discover a mode
Speaker 1: of government that contains the greatest sum of individual happiness
Speaker 1: with the least national expense. Close quote. But where says
Speaker 1: some is the King of America, I tell you, friend,
Speaker 1: he reigns above and doth not make havoc of mankind
Speaker 1: like the royal brute of Britain. Yet that we may
Speaker 1: not appear to be defective even in earthly honors. Let
Speaker 1: a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the Charter.
Speaker 1: Let it be brought forth placed on the divine law
Speaker 1: the word of God. Let a crown be placed thereon
Speaker 1: by which the world may be. I know that so
Speaker 1: far as we approve of a monarchy that in America,
Speaker 1: the law is king. For as in absolute governments the
Speaker 1: king is law, so in free countries the law ought
Speaker 1: to be king, and there ought to be no other.
Speaker 1: But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown,
Speaker 1: at the conclusion of the ceremony, be demolished and scattered
Speaker 1: among the people, whose right it is. A government of
Speaker 1: our own is our natural right. And when a man
Speaker 1: seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will
Speaker 1: become convinced that it is infinitely wiser and safer to
Speaker 1: form a constitution of our own in a cool, deliberate manner,
Speaker 1: while we have it in our power, than to trust
Speaker 1: such an interesting event to time and chance. If we
Speaker 1: omit it now, some musanello may hereafter arise, who, laying
Speaker 1: hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the desperate and
Speaker 1: the discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government,
Speaker 1: may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge.
Speaker 1: Should the government of America return again into the hands
Speaker 1: of Britain, the tottering situation of things will be a
Speaker 1: temptation for some desperate adventurer to try his fortune, And
Speaker 1: in such a case, what relief can Britain give ere
Speaker 1: she could hear the news the fatal business might be done,
Speaker 1: and ourselves suffering like the wretched Britons under the oppression
Speaker 1: of the conqueror. Ye that oppose independence, now ye know
Speaker 1: not what ye do? Ye are opening a door to
Speaker 1: eternal tyranny by keeping vacant the seat of government. There
Speaker 1: are thousands and tens of thousands who would think it
Speaker 1: glorious to expel from the continent that barbarous and hellish
Speaker 1: power which hath stirred up the Indians and Negroes to
Speaker 1: destroy us. The cruelty hath a double guilt. It is
Speaker 1: dealing brutally by us and treacherously by them to talk
Speaker 1: of friendship with those in whom our reason forbids us
Speaker 1: to have faith, and our affections wounded through a thousand pores,
Speaker 1: instruct us to detest is madness and folly. Every day
Speaker 1: wears out the little remains of kindred between us and them.
Speaker 1: And can there be any reason to hope that as
Speaker 1: the relationship expires, the affection will increase, or that we
Speaker 1: shall agree better when we have ten times more and
Speaker 1: greater concerns to quarrel over than ever, Ye that tell
Speaker 1: us of harmony and reconciliation. Can ye ye restore to
Speaker 1: us the time that is pasted? Can ye give to
Speaker 1: prostitution its former innocence? Neither can ye reconcile Britain and America.
Speaker 1: The last chord now is broken. The people of England
Speaker 1: are presenting addresses against us. There are injuries which Nature
Speaker 1: cannot forgive. She would cease to be nature if she did.
Speaker 1: As well? Can the lover forgive the ravisher of his mistress,
Speaker 1: as the continent forgive the murders of Britain? The Almighty
Speaker 1: hath implanted in us these unextinguishable feelings for good and
Speaker 1: wise purposes. They are the guardians of His image in
Speaker 1: our hearts. They distinguish us from the herd of common animals.
Speaker 1: The social compact would dissolve, and justice be extirpated the earth,
Speaker 1: or have only a casual existence. Were we callous to
Speaker 1: the touches of affection, the robber and the murderer would
Speaker 1: often escape unpunished. Did not the injuries which our tippers
Speaker 1: sustain provoke us into justice? Oh ye that love mankind,
Speaker 1: Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny, but the tyrant.
Speaker 1: Stand forth. Every spot of the Old world is overrun
Speaker 1: with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia
Speaker 1: and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like
Speaker 1: a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. Oh,
Speaker 1: receive the fugitive and prepare in time an asylumn for mankind,
Speaker 1: and depart four