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, to 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 has implanted in my bosom, and detest
submission to a people who 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, the grand council of the nation, and once the
faithful guardian of the State, and a terror to evil ministers, will
be degenerated into a 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, and 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
thicken on our plains; desolation 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.