Our
forefathers, 'tis said, consented to be subject to the laws of Great
Britain. I will not at the present time 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 theater of blood and misery, Heaven
forgive me if I can not 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 interested. 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
ourships loaded with wealth, which we had acquired for her by our
industry. She has treated us as beasts of burden, 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 Cartagena? They at that time sent three thousand men to join
the British army, altho 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 manufactures 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, recommends 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.
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 can not 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 plow, 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 can not be directed with any despatch
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.
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 if 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.
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, while the mangled corpses of our countrymen seem to cry out
to us as a voice from heaven.
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. |