You justly complain of my short letters, but the critical state of
things and the multiplicity of avocations must plead my excuse. You ask
where the fleet is? The inclosed papers will inform you. You ask what
sort of defense Virginia can make? I believe they will make an able
defense. Their militia and minute-men have been some time employed in
training themselves, and they have nine battalions of regulars, as they
call them, maintained among them, under good officers, at the
Continental expense. They have set up a number of manufactories of
firearms, which are busily employed. They are tolerably supplied with
powder, and are successful and assiduous in making saltpetre. Their
neighboring sister, or rather daughter colony of North Carolina, which
is a warlike colony, and has several battalions at the Continental
expense, as well as a pretty good militia, are ready to assist them, and
they are in very good spirits and seem determined to make a brave
resistance. The gentry are very rich, and the common people very poor.
This inequality of property gives an aristocratical turn to all their
proceedings, and occasions a strong aversion in their patricians to
"Common Sense."[135] But the spirit of these Barons is coming down, and
it must submit. It is very true, as you observe, they have been duped by
Dunmore. But this is a common case. All the colonies are duped, more or
less, at one time and another. A more egregious bubble was never blown
up than the story of Commissioners coming to treat with the Congress,
yet it has gained credit like a charm, not only with, but against the
clearest evidence. I never shall forget the delusion which seized our
best and most sagacious friends, the dear inhabitants of Boston, the
winter before last. Credulity and the want of foresight are
imperfections in the human character, that no politician can
sufficiently guard against.
You give me some pleasure by your account of a certain house in Queen
Street. I had burned it long ago in imagination. It rises now to my view
like a phoenix. What shall I say of the Solicitor General?[136] I pity
his pretty children. I pity his father and his sisters. I wish I could
be clear that it is no moral evil to pity him and his lady. Upon
repentance, they will certainly have a large share in the compassions
of many. But let us take warning, and give it to our children. Whenever
vanity and gayety, a love of pomp and dress, furniture, equipage,
buildings, great company, expensive diversions, and elegant
entertainments get the better of the principles and judgments of men or
women, there is no knowing where they will stop, nor into what evils,
natural, moral, or political, they will lead us.
Your description of your own _gaiete de coeur_ charms me. Thanks be to
God, you have just cause to rejoice, and may the bright prospect be
obscured by no cloud. As to declarations of independency, be patient.
Read our privateering laws and our commercial laws. What signifies a
word?
As to your extraordinary code of laws, I cannot but laugh. We have been
told that our struggle has loosened the bonds of government everywhere;
that children and apprentices were disobedient; that schools and
colleges were grown turbulent; that Indians slighted their guardians,
and negroes grew insolent to their masters. But your letter was the
first intimation that another tribe, more numerous and powerful than all
the rest, were grown discontented. This is rather too coarse a
compliment, but you are so saucy, I won't blot it out. Depend upon it,
we know better than to repeal our masculine systems. Although they are
in full force, you know they are little more than theory. We dare not
exert our power in its full latitude. We are obliged to go fair and
softly, and, in practice, you know we are the subjects. We have only the
name of masters, and rather than give up this, which would completely
subject us to the despotism of the petticoat, I hope General Washington
and all our brave heroes would fight; I am sure every good politician
would plot, as long as he would against despotism, empire, monarchy,
aristocracy, oligarchy, or ochlocracy. A fine story, indeed! I begin to
think the ministry as deep as they are wicked. After stirring up Tories,
land-jobbers, trimmers, bigots, Canadians, Indians, negroes,
Hanoverians, Hessians, Russians, Irish Roman Catholics, Scotch
renegadoes, at last they have stimulated the ---- to demand new
privileges and threaten to rebel.