opposition to the claims of administration and parliament. The junto
in Boston, with their little flocks of adherents in the country, are
not worth taking into the account; and the army and navy, though
these are divided among themselves, are no part of America; in
order to judge of this union, they begin at the commencement of the
dispute, and run through the whole course of it. At the time of the
Stamp Act, every Colony expressed its sentiments by resolves of their
assemblies, and every one agreed that parliament had no right to
tax the Colonies. The house of representatives of the Massachusetts
Bay, then consisted of many persons, who have since figured as
friends to government; yet every member of that house concurred most
cheerfully in the resolves then passed. The congress which met that
year at New York, expressed the same opinion in their resolves, after
the paint, paper and tea act was passed. The several assemblies
expressed the same sentiments, and when your Colony wrote the famous
circular letter, notwithstanding all the mandates and threats, and
cajoling of the minister and the several governors, and all the crown
officers through the continent, the assemblies with one voice echoed
their entire approbation of that letter, and their applause to your
Colony for sending it. In the year 1768, when a non importation was
suggested and planned by a few gentlemen at a private club, in one
of our large towns, as soon as it was proposed to the public, did it
not spread through the whole continent? Was it not regarded, like the
laws of the Medes and Persians, in almost all the Colonies? When the
paint and paper act was repealed, the southern Colonies agreed to
depart from the association in all things but the dutied articles,
but they have kept strictly to their agreement against importing
them, so that no tea worth the mentioning, has been imported into
any of them from Great Britain to this day. In the year 1770, when
a number of persons were slaughtered in King Street, such was the
brotherly sympathy of all the Colonies, such their resentment against
an hostile administration; that the innocent blood then spilt, has
never been forgotten, nor the murderous minister and governors, who
brought the troops here, forgiven, by any part of the continent,
and never will be. When a certain masterly statesman, invented a
committee of correspondence in Boston, which has provoked so much of
the spleen of Massachusettensis, of which much more hereafter; did
not every Colony, nay every county, city, hundred and town upon the
whole continent, adopt the measure? I had almost said, as if it had
been a revelation from above, as the happiest means of cementing the
union and acting in concert? What proofs of union have been given
since the last March? Look over the resolves of the several Colonies,
and you will see that one understanding governs, one heart animates
the whole body. Assemblies, conventions, congresses, towns, cities,
and private clubs and circles, have been actuated by one great, wise,
active and noble spirit, one masterly soul, animating one vigorous
body.
The congress at Philadelphia, have expressed the same sentiments
with the people of New England, approved of the opposition to the
late innovations, unanimously advised us to persevere in it, and
assured us that if force is attempted to carry these measures
against us, all America ought to support us. Maryland and the lower
counties on Delaware, have, already, to shew to all the world their
approbation of the measures of New England, and their determination
to join in them, with a generosity, a wisdom and magnanimity, which
ought to make the tories consider, taken the power of the militia
into the hands of the people, without the governor, or minister,
and established it, by their own authority, for the defence of the
Massachusetts, as well as of themselves. Other Colonies are only
waiting to see if the necessity of it will become more obvious.
Virginia, and the Carolinas, are preparing for military defence, and
have been for some time. When we consider the variety of climates,
soils, religious, civil governments, commercial interests, &c. which
were represented at the congress, and the various occupations,
educations, and characters of the gentlemen who composed it, the
harmony and unanimity which prevailed in it, can scarcely be
paralleled in any assembly that ever met. When we consider, that
at the revolution, such mighty questions, as whether the throne
was vacant or not, and whether the Prince of Orange should be
king or not, were determined in the convention of parliament by
small majorities of two or three; and four or five only; the great
majorities, the almost unanimity with which all great questions have
been decided in your house of representatives, and other assemblies,
and especially in the continental congress, cannot be considered in
any other light than as the happiest omens indeed, as providential
dispensations in our favour, as well as the clearest demonstrations
of the cordial, firm, radical and indissoluble union of the Colonies.
The grand aphorism of the policy of the whigs has been to unite the
people of America, and divide those of Great Britain: The reverse
of this has been the maxim of the tories, viz:--To unite the people
of Great Britain, and divide those of America: All the movements,
marches and countermarches of both parties, on both sides of the
Atlantic, may be reduced to one or the other of these rules. I have
shewn, in opposition to Massachusettensis, that the people of
America are united more perfectly than the most sanguine whig could
ever have hoped, or than the most timid tory could have feared. Let
us now examine whether the people of Great Britain are equally united
against us. For if the contending countries were equally united, the
prospect of success in the quarrel would depend upon the comparative
wisdom, firmness, strength and other advantages of each. And if such
a comparison was made, it would not appear to a demonstration that
Great Britain could so easily subdue and conquer. It is not so easy
a thing for the most powerful State to conquer a country a thousand
leagues off. How many years time, how many millions of money, did it
take, with five and thirty thousand men, to conquer the poor province
of Canada? And after all the battles and victories, it never would
have submitted without a capitulation, which secured to them their
religion and properties.
But we know that the people of Great Britain are not united against
us. We distinguish between the ministry, the house of commons, the
officers of the army, navy, excise, customs, &c. who are dependent on
the ministry and tempted, if not obliged, to echo their voices; and
the body of the people. We are assured by thousands of letters from
persons of good intelligence, by the general strain of publications
in public papers, pamphlets, and magazines, and by some larger works
written for posterity, that the body of the people are friends to
America, and wish us success in our struggles against the claims of
parliament and administration. We know that millions in England and
Scotland, will think it unrighteous, impolitic and ruinous, to make
war upon us, and a minister, though he may have a marble heart, will
proceed with a diffident, desponding spirit. We know that London
and Bristol the two greatest commercial cities in the empire, have
declared themselves in the most decisive manner, in favor of our
cause. So explicitly that the former has bound her members under
their hands to assist us, and the latter has chosen two known friends
of America, one attached to us by principle, birth, and the most
ardent affection, the other an able advocate for us on several great
occasions. We know that many of the most virtuous and independent of
the nobility and gentry, are for us, and among them the best bishop
that adorns the bench, as great a judge as the nation can boast, and
the greatest statesman it ever saw. We know that the nation is loaded
with debts and taxes by the folly and iniquity of its ministers, and
that without the trade of America, it can neither long support its
fleet and army, nor pay the interest of its debt.
But we are told that the nation is now united against us, that they
hold they have a right to tax us and legislate for us as firmly as
we deny it. That we are a part of the British empire, that every
State must have an uncontroulable power co-extensive with the
empire, that there is little probability of serving ourselves by
ingenious distinctions between external and internal taxes. If we
are not a part of the state, and subject to the supreme authority of
parliament, Great Britain will make us so; that if this opportunity
of reclaiming the Colonies is lost, they will be dismembered from the
empire; and although they may continue their allegiance to the king
they will own none to the imperial crown.
To all this I answer, that the nation is not so united; that they do
not so universally hold they have such a right, and my reasons I have
given before. That the terms "British Empire" are not the language
of the common law, but the language of newspapers and political
pamphlets. That the dominions of the king of Great Britain has no
uncontroulable power co-extensive with them. I would ask by what law
the Parliament has authority over America? By the law of GOD
in the Old and New Testament, it has none: By the law of nature and
nations, it has none. By the common law of England is has none.
For the common law, and the authority of parliament founded on it,
never extended beyond the four seas. By statute law it has none, for
no statute was made before the settlement of the Colonies for this
purpose; and the declaratory act made in 1766, was made without our
consent, by a parliament which had no authority beyond the four seas.
What religious, moral or political obligations then are we under,
to submit to parliament as a supreme legislative? None at all. When
it is said, that if we are not subject to the supreme authority
of parliament, Great Britain will make us so, all other laws and
obligations are given up, and recourse is had to the _ratio ultima_
of Louis the 14th, and the _suprema lex_ of the king of Sardinia, to
the law of brickbats and cannon balls, which can be answered only by
brickbats and balls.
This language "the imperial crown of Great Britain," is not the
style of the common law but of court sycophants. It was introduced
in allusion to the Roman empire, and intended to insinuate that
the prerogative of the imperial crown of England, was like that of
the Roman emperor, after the maxim was established, _quod principi
placuit legis habet vigorem_, and so far from including the two
houses of parliament in the idea of this imperial crown, it was
intended to insinuate that the crown was absolute, and had no need of
lords or commons to make or dispense with laws. Yet even these court
sycophants when driven to an explanation, never dared to put any
other sense upon the words imperial crown than this, that the crown
of England was independent of France, Spain, and all other kings and
states in the world.
When he says that the king's dominions must have an uncontroulable
power, co-extensive with them. I ask whether they have such a power
or not? And utterly deny that they have by any law but that of Louis
the 14th, and the king of Sardinia. If they have not, and it is
necessary that they should have, it then follows that there is a
defect in what he calls the British empire; and how shall this defect
be supplied? It cannot be supplied consistently with reason, justice,
policy, morality, or humanity, without the consent of the Colonies
and some new plan of connection. But if Great Britain will set all
these at defiance, and resort to the _ratio ultima_, all Europe will
pronounce her a tyrant, and America never will submit to her, be the
danger of disobedience as great as it will.
But there is no need of any other power than that of regulating
trade, and this the Colonies ever have been and will be ready and
willing to concede to her. But she will never obtain from America any
further concession while she exists. We are then asked, "for what
she protected and defended the Colonies against the maritime power
of Europe from their first settlement to this day?" I answer for her
own interest, because all the profits of our trade centered in her
lap. But it ought to be remembered, that her name, not her purse, nor
her fleets and armies, ever protected us, until the last war, and
then the minister who conducted that war, informs us, that the annual
millions from America enabled her to do it.
We are then asked for what she purchased New York of the Dutch? I
answer she never did. The Dutch never owned it, were never more
than trespassers and intruders there, and were finally expelled by
conquest. It was ceded it is true by the treaty of Breda, and it is
said in some authors, that some other territory in India was ceded to
the Dutch in lieu of it. But this was the transaction of the king,
not of parliament, and therefore makes nothing to the argument. But
admitting for argument sake, (since the cautious Massachusettensis
will urge us into the discussion of such questions) what is not a
supposable case, that the nation should be so sunk in sloth, luxury,
and corruption, as to suffer their minister to persevere in his mad
blunders and send fire and sword against us, how shall we defend
ourselves? The Colonies south of Pennsylvania have no men to spare we
are told. But we know better--we know that all those Colonies have a
back country which is inhabited by an hardy, robust people, many of
whom are emigrants from New England, and habituated like multitudes
of New England men, to carry their fuzees or rifles upon one shoulder
to defend themselves against the Indians, while they carried their
axes, scythes and hoes upon the other to till the ground. Did not
those Colonies furnish men the last war excepting Maryland? Did
not Virginia furnish men, one regiment particularly equal to any
regular regiment in the service? Does the soft Massachusettensis
imagine that in the unnatural horrid war, he is now supposing their
exertions would be less? If he does he is very ill informed of their
principles, their present sentiments and temper. But "have you arms
and ammunition?" I answer we have; but if we had not, we could make
a sufficient quantity for both. What should hinder? We have many
manufacturers of fire arms now, whose arms are as good as any in
the world. Powder has been made here, and may be again, and so may
salt-petre. What should hinder? We have all the materials in great
abundance, and the process is very simple. But if we neither had
them nor could make them, we could import them. But "the British
navy" aye there's the rub. But let us consider, since the prudent
Massachusettensis will have these questions debated. How many ships
are taken to blockade Boston harbour? How many ships can Britain
spare to carry on this humane and political war, the object of which
is a pepper corn! let her send all the ships she has round her
island. What if her ill natured neighbours, France and Spain should
strike a blow in their absence? In order to judge what they could
all do when they arrived here we should consider what they are all
able to do round the island of Great Britain. We know that the utmost
vigilance and exertions of them added to all the terms [Errata:
terrors] of sanguinary laws, are not sufficient to prevent continual
smuggling, into their own island. Are there not fifty bays, harbours,
creeks and inlets upon the whole coast of North America, where there
is one round the island of Great Britain. Is it to be supposed then,
that the whole British navy could prevent the importation of arms
and ammunition into America, if she should have occasion for them to
defend herself against the hellish warfare that is here supposed.
But what will you do for discipline and subordination? I answer we
will have them in as great perfection as the regular troops. If the
provincials were not brought in the last war to a proper discipline,
what was the reason? Because regular generals would not let them
fight, which they ardently wished, but employed them in cutting
roads. If they had been allowed to fight they would have brought the
war to a conclusion too soon. The provincials did submit to martial
law, and to the mutiny and desertion act the last war, and such an
act may be made here by a legislature which they will obey with much
[Errata: missing 'more'] alacrity than an act of parliament.
The new fangled militia as the specious Massachusettensis calls
it, is such a militia as he never saw. They are commanded through
the province, not by men who procured their commissions from a
governor as a reward for making themselves pimps to his tools, and by
discovering a hatred of the people but by gentlemen whose estates,
abilities and benevolence have rendered them the delight of the
soldiers, and there is an esteem and respect for them visible through
the province, which has not been used in the militia. Nor is there
that unsteadiness that is charged upon them. In some places, where
companies have been split into two or three, it has only served by
exciting an emulation between the companies to increase the martial
spirit and skill.
The plausible Massachusettensis may write as he will, but in a land
war, this continent might defend itself against all the world. We
have men enough, and those men have as good natural understandings,
and as much natural courage as any other men. If they were wholly
ignorant now, they might learn the art of war. But at sea we are
defenceless. A navy might burn our seaport towns. What then? If
the insinuating Massachusettensis has ever read any speculations,
concerning an Agrarian law, and I know he has, he will be satisfied
that 350,000 landholders will not give up their rights and the
constitution, by which they hold them, to save fifty thousand
inhabitants of maritime towns. Will the minister be nearer his mark,
after he has burnt a beautiful town and murdered 30,000 innocent
people? So far from it, that one such event, would occasion the loss
of all the Colonies to Great Britain forever. It is not so clear
that our trade, fishery and navigation, could be taken from us. Some
persons, who understand this subject better than Massachusettensis,
with all his sprightly imaginations, are of a different opinion.
They think that our trade would be increased. But I will not enlarge
upon this subject, because I wish the trade of this continent may be
confined to Great Britain, at least as much of it, as it can do her
any good to restrain.
The Canadians and Savages are brought in to thicken the horrors of
a picture, with which the lively fancy of this writer has terrified
him. But although we are sensible that the Quebec act has laid a
foundation for a fabric, which if not seasonably demolished, may be
formidable, if not ruinous to the Colonies, in future times, yet we
know that these times are yet at a distance; at present we hold the
power of the Canadians as nothing. But we know their dispositions are
not unfriendly to us.
The Savages will be more likely to be our friends than enemies; but
if they should not, we know well enough how to defend ourselves
against them.
I ought to apologize for the immoderate length of this paper. But
general assertions are only to be confuted by an examination of
particulars, which necessarily fills up much space. I will trespass
on the reader's patience only while I make one observation more upon
the art, I had almost said chicanery of this writer.
He affirms that we are not united in this province, and that
associations are forming in several parts of the province. The
association he means has been laid before the public, and a
very curious piece of legerdemain it is. Is there any article
acknowledging the authority of parliament, the unlimited authority
of parliament? Brigadier Ruggles himself, Massachusettensis himself,
could not have signed it if there had, consistent with their known
declared opinions. They associate to stand by the king's laws, and
this every whig will subscribe. But after all, what a wretched
fortune has this association made in the world! the numbers who
have signed it, would appear so inconsiderable, that I dare say the
Brigadier will never publish to the world their numbers or names. But
"has not Great Britain been a nursing mother to us?" Yes, and we have
behaved as nurse children commonly do, been very fond of her, and
rewarded her all along ten fold for all her care and expense in our
nurture.
But "is not our distraction owing to parliament's taking off a
shilling duty on tea and imposing three pence, and is not this a more
unaccountable phrensy, more disgraceful to the annals of America,
than the witchcraft?"
Is the three pence upon tea our only grievance? Are we not in this
province deprived of the priviledge of paying our governors, judges,
&c.? Are not trials by jury taken from us? Are we not sent to England
for trial? Is not a military government put over us? Is not our
constitution demolished to the foundation? Have not the ministry
shewn by the Quebec bill, that we have no security against them for
our religion any more than our property, if we once submit to the
unlimited claims of parliament? This is so gross an attempt to impose
on the most ignorant of the people, that it is a shame to answer it.
_Obsta principiis_--Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is
the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.
When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers and destroyers
press upon them so fast that there is no resisting afterwards. The
nature of the encroachment upon American constitution is such, as
to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer, it
eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners
and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less
steady, spirited and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more
corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependants and
expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity and
frugality, become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity,
luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality
swallow up the whole society.
NOVANGLUS.
ADDRESSED
_To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay_,
February 13, 1775.
MY FRIENDS,
Massachusettensis, whose pen can wheedle with the tonge of king
Richard the third, in his first paper, threatens you with the
vengeance of Great Britain, and assures you that if she had no
authority over you, yet she would support her claims by her fleets
and armies, Canadians and Indians. In his next he alters his tone,
and soothes you with the generosity, justice and humanity of the
nation.
I shall leave him to show how a nation can claim an authority which
they have not by right, and support it by fire and sword, and yet
be generous and just. The nation I believe is not vindictive, but
the minister has discovered himself to be so, in a degree that would
disgrace a warrior of a savage tribe.
The wily Massachusettensis thinks our present calamity is to be
attributed to the bad policy of a popular party, whose measures,
whatever their intentions were, have been opposite to their
profession, the public good. The present calamity seems to be nothing
more nor less, than reviving the plans of Mr. Bernard and the junto,
and Mr. Grenville and his friends in 1764. Surely this party, are and
have been rather unpopular. The popular party did not write Bernard's
letters, who so long ago pressed for the demolition of all the
charters upon the continent, and a parliamentary taxation to support
government, and the administration of justice in America.
The popular party did not write Oliver's letters, who enforces
Bernard's plans, nor Hutchinson's, who pleads with all his eloquence
and pathos for parliamentary penalties, ministerial vengeance and an
abridgement of English liberties.
There is not in human nature a more wonderful phenomenon; nor in
the whole theory of it, a more intricate speculation; than the
_shiftings_, _turnings_, _windings_ and _evasions_ of a guilty
conscience. Such is our unalterable moral constitution, that an
internal inclination to do wrong, is criminal; and a wicked thought,
stains the mind with guilt, and makes it tingle with pain. Hence it
comes to pass that the guilty mind, can never bear to think that its
guilt is known to God or man, no, nor to itself.
----Cur tamen hos tu
Evasisse putes, quos diri conscia facti
Mens habet attonitos, et surdo verbere cædit
Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum?
Poena autem vehemens ac multo sævior illis,
Quas et Cædicius gravis invenit et Rhadamanthus,
Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem.
JUV. SAT. 13. 192.
Massachusettensis and his friends the tories, are startled at the
calamities they have brought upon their country, and their conscious
guilt, their smarting, wounded mind, will not suffer them to confess,
even to themselves, what they have done. Their silly denials of their
own share in it before a people, who they know have abundant evidence
against them, never fail to remind me of an ancient _fugitive_, whose
conscience could not bear the recollection of what he had done.
"I know not, am I my brother's keeper?" He replies, with all the
apparent simplicity of truth and innocence, to one from whom he was
very sensible his guilt could not be hid. The still more absurd and
ridiculous attempts of the tories, to throw off the blame of these
calamities from themselves to the whigs, remind me of another story,
which I have read in the Old Testament. When Joseph's brethren had
sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, in order to
conceal their own avarice, malice and envy, they dip the coat of many
colours in the blood of a kid, and say that an evil beast had rent
him in pieces and devoured him.
However, what the sons of Israel intended for ruin to Joseph, proved
the salvation of the family; and I hope and believe that the whigs,
will have the magnanimity, like him, to suppress their resentment,
and the felicity of saving their ungrateful brothers.