1958 lines
121 KiB
Plaintext
1958 lines
121 KiB
Plaintext
1776
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COMMON SENSE
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by Thomas Paine
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February 14, 1776
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INTRODUCTION
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INTRODUCTION
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PERHAPS the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet
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sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit
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of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of
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being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of
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custom. But tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than
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reason.
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As a long and violent abuse of power is generally the means of
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calling the right of it in question, (and in matters too which might
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never have been thought of, had not the sufferers been aggravated into
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the inquiry,) and as the king of England hath undertaken in his own
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right, to support the parliament in what he calls theirs, and as the
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good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the
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combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the
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pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpations of either.
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In the following sheets, the author hath studiously avoided every
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thing which is personal among ourselves. Compliments as well as
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censure to individuals make no part thereof. The wise and the worthy
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need not the triumph of a pamphlet; and those whose sentiments are
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injudicious or unfriendly, will cease of themselves, unless too much
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pains is bestowed upon their conversion.
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The cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all
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mankind. Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local,
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but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of
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mankind are affected, and in the event of which, their affections
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are interested. The laying a country desolate with fire and sword,
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declaring war against the natural rights of all mankind, and
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extirpating the defenders thereof from the face of the earth, is the
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concern of every man to whom nature hath given the power of feeling;
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of which class, regardless of party censure, is
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THE AUTHOR.
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Philadelphia, Feb. 14, 1776.
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OF THE ORIGIN AND DESIGN OF GOVERNMENT IN GENERAL. WITH CONCISE
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REMARKS ON THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION
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SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave
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little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only
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different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our
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wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our
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happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter
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negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse,
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the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a
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punisher.
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Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its
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best state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable
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one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a
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government, which we might expect in a country without government, our
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calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by
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which we suffer! Government, like dress, is the badge of lost
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innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers
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of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and
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irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not
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being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his
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property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he
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is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case
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advises him out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security
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being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows
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that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us,
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with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all
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others.
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In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of
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government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some
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sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest, they will
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then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world.
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In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought.
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A thousand motives will excite them thereto, the strength of one man
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is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual
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solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of
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another, who in his turn requires the same. Four or five united
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would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a
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wilderness, but one man might labor out the common period of life
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without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber he
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could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in
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the mean time would urge him from his work, and every different want
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call him a different way. Disease, nay even misfortune would be death,
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for though neither might be mortal, yet either would disable him
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from living, and reduce him to a state in which he might rather be
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said to perish than to die.
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Thus necessity, like a gravitating power, would soon form our
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newly arrived emigrants into society, the reciprocal blessings of
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which, would supersede, and render the obligations of law and
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government unnecessary while they remained perfectly just to each
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other; but as nothing but heaven is impregnable to vice, it will
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unavoidably happen, that in proportion as they surmount the first
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difficulties of emigration, which bound them together in a common
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cause, they will begin to relax in their duty and attachment to each
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other; and this remissness, will point out the necessity, of
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establishing some form of government to supply the defect of moral
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virtue.
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Some convenient tree will afford them a State-House, under the
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branches of which, the whole colony may assemble to deliberate on
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public matters. It is more than probable that their first laws will
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have the title only of Regulations, and be enforced by no other
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penalty than public disesteem. In this first parliament every man,
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by natural right will have a seat.
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But as the colony increases, the public concerns will increase
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likewise, and the distance at which the members may be separated, will
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render it too inconvenient for all of them to meet on every occasion
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as at first, when their number was small, their habitations near,
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and the public concerns few and trifling. This will point out the
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convenience of their consenting to leave the legislative part to be
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managed by a select number chosen from the whole body, who are
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supposed to have the same concerns at stake which those have who
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appointed them, and who will act in the same manner as the whole
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body would act were they present. If the colony continue increasing,
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it will become necessary to augment the number of the representatives,
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and that the interest of every part of the colony may be attended
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to, it will be found best to divide the whole into convenient parts,
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each part sending its proper number; and that the elected might
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never form to themselves an interest separate from the electors,
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prudence will point out the propriety of having elections often;
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because as the elected might by that means return and mix again with
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the general body of the electors in a few months, their fidelity to
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the public will be secured by the prudent reflection of not making a
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rod for themselves. And as this frequent interchange will establish
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a common interest with every part of the community, they will mutually
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and naturally support each other, and on this (not on the unmeaning
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name of king) depends the strength of government, and the happiness of
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the governed.
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Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode
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rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the
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world; here too is the design and end of government, viz., freedom
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and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with snow, or our
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ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or
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interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of
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reason will say, it is right.
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I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature,
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which no art can overturn, viz., that the more simple any thing is,
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the less liable it is to be disordered, and the easier repaired when
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disordered; and with this maxim in view, I offer a few remarks on
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the so much boasted constitution of England. That it was noble for the
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dark and slavish times in which it was erected is granted. When the
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world was overrun with tyranny the least therefrom was a glorious
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rescue. But that it is imperfect, subject to convulsions, and
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incapable of producing what it seems to promise, is easily
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demonstrated.
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Absolute governments (though the disgrace of human nature) have this
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advantage with them, that they are simple; if the people suffer,
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they know the head from which their suffering springs, know likewise
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the remedy, and are not bewildered by a variety of causes and cures.
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But the constitution of England is so exceedingly complex, that the
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nation may suffer for years together without being able to discover in
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which part the fault lies, some will say in one and some in another,
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and every political physician will advise a different medicine.
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I know it is difficult to get over local or long standing
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prejudices, yet if we will suffer ourselves to examine the component
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parts of the English constitution, we shall find them to be the base
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remains of two ancient tyrannies, compounded with some new
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republican materials.
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First.- The remains of monarchical tyranny in the person of the
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king.
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Secondly.- The remains of aristocratical tyranny in the persons of
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the peers.
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Thirdly.- The new republican materials, in the persons of the
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commons, on whose virtue depends the freedom of England.
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The two first, by being hereditary, are independent of the people;
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wherefore in a constitutional sense they contribute nothing towards
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the freedom of the state.
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To say that the constitution of England is a union of three powers
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reciprocally checking each other, is farcical, either the words have
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no meaning, or they are flat contradictions.
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To say that the commons is a check upon the king, presupposes two
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things.
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First.- That the king is not to be trusted without being looked
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after, or in other words, that a thirst for absolute power is the
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natural disease of monarchy.
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Secondly.- That the commons, by being appointed for that purpose,
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are either wiser or more worthy of confidence than the crown.
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But as the same constitution which gives the commons a power to
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check the king by withholding the supplies, gives afterwards the
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king a power to check the commons, by empowering him to reject their
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other bills; it again supposes that the king is wiser than those
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whom it has already supposed to be wiser than him. A mere absurdity!
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There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of
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monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet
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empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required.
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The state of a king shuts him from the world, yet the business of a
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king requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the different
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parts, unnaturally opposing and destroying each other, prove the whole
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character to be absurd and useless.
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Some writers have explained the English constitution thus; the king,
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say they, is one, the people another; the peers are an house in behalf
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of the king; the commons in behalf of the people; but this hath all
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the distinctions of an house divided against itself; and though the
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expressions be pleasantly arranged, yet when examined they appear idle
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and ambiguous; and it will always happen, that the nicest construction
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that words are capable of, when applied to the description of
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something which either cannot exist, or is too incomprehensible to
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be within the compass of description, will be words of sound only, and
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though they may amuse the ear, they cannot inform the mind, for this
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explanation includes a previous question, viz. How came the king by
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a power which the people are afraid to trust, and always obliged to
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check? Such a power could not be the gift of a wise people, neither
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can any power, which needs checking, be from God; yet the provision,
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which the constitution makes, supposes such a power to exist.
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But the provision is unequal to the task; the means either cannot or
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will not accomplish the end, and the whole affair is a felo de se; for
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as the greater weight will always carry up the less, and as all the
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wheels of a machine are put in motion by one, it only remains to
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know which power in the constitution has the most weight, for that
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will govern; and though the others, or a part of them, may clog, or,
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as the phrase is, check the rapidity of its motion, yet so long as
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they cannot stop it, their endeavors will be ineffectual; the first
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moving power will at last have its way, and what it wants in speed
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is supplied by time.
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That the crown is this overbearing part in the English
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constitution needs not be mentioned, and that it derives its whole
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consequence merely from being the giver of places pensions is self
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evident, wherefore, though we have and wise enough to shut and lock
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a door against absolute monarchy, we at the same time have been
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foolish enough to put the crown in possession of the key.
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The prejudice of Englishmen, in favor of their own government by
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king, lords, and commons, arises as much or more from national pride
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than reason. Individuals are undoubtedly safer in England than in some
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other countries, but the will of the king is as much the law of the
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land in Britain as in France, with this difference, that instead of
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proceeding directly from his mouth, it is handed to the people under
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the most formidable shape of an act of parliament. For the fate of
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Charles the First, hath only made kings more subtle not- more just.
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Wherefore, laying aside all national pride and prejudice in favor of
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modes and forms, the plain truth is, that it is wholly owing to the
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constitution of the people, and not to the constitution of the
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government that the crown is not as oppressive in England as in
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Turkey.
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An inquiry into the constitutional errors in the English form of
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government is at this time highly necessary; for as we are never in
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a proper condition of doing justice to others, while we continue under
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the influence of some leading partiality, so neither are we capable of
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doing it to ourselves while we remain fettered by any obstinate
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prejudice. And as a man, who is attached to a prostitute, is
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unfitted to choose or judge of a wife, so any prepossession in favor
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of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from discerning
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a good one.
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OF MONARCHY AND HEREDITARY SUCCESSION
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MANKIND being originally equals in the order of creation, the
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equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent circumstance;
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the distinctions of rich, and poor, may in a great measure be
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accounted for, and that without having recourse to the harsh,
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ill-sounding names of oppression and avarice. Oppression is often
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the consequence, but seldom or never the means of riches; and though
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avarice will preserve a man from being necessitously poor, it
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generally makes him too timorous to be wealthy.
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But there is another and greater distinction for which no truly
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natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is, the
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distinction of men into KINGS and SUBJECTS. Male and female are the
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distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of heaven; but
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how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and
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distinguished like some new species, is worth enquiring into, and
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whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind.
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In the early ages of the world, according to the scripture
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chronology, there were no kings; the consequence of which was there
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were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throw mankind into
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confusion. Holland without a king hath enjoyed more peace for this
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last century than any of the monarchial governments in Europe.
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Antiquity favors the same remark; for the quiet and rural lives of the
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first patriarchs hath a happy something in them, which vanishes away
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when we come to the history of Jewish royalty.
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Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the
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Heathens, from whom the children of Israel copied the custom. It was
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the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the
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promotion of idolatry. The Heathens paid divine honors to their
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deceased kings, and the Christian world hath improved on the plan by
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doing the same to their living ones. How impious is the title of
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sacred majesty applied to a worm, who in the midst of his splendor
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is crumbling into dust!
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As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot be
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justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be defended
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on the authority of scripture; for the will of the Almighty, as
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declared by Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of
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government by kings. All anti-monarchial parts of scripture have
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been very smoothly glossed over in monarchial governments, but they
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undoubtedly merit the attention of countries which have their
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governments yet to form. Render unto Caesar the things which are
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Caesar's is the scriptural doctrine of courts, yet it is no support of
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monarchial government, for the Jews at that time were without a
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king, and in a state of vassalage to the Romans.
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Near three thousand years passed away from the Mosaic account of the
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creation, till the Jews under a national delusion requested a king.
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Till then their form of government (except in extraordinary cases,
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where the Almighty interposed) was a kind of republic administered
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by a judge and the elders of the tribes. Kings they had none, and it
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was held sinful to acknowledge any being under that title but the
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Lords of Hosts. And when a man seriously reflects on the idolatrous
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homage which is paid to the persons of kings he need not wonder, that
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the Almighty, ever jealous of his honor, should disapprove of a form
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of government which so impiously invades the prerogative of heaven.
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Monarchy is ranked in scripture as one of the sins of the Jews,
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for which a curse in reserve is denounced against them. The history of
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that transaction is worth attending to.
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The children of Israel being oppressed by the Midianites, Gideon
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marched against them with a small army, and victory, through the
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divine interposition, decided in his favor. The Jews elate with
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success, and attributing it to the generalship of Gideon, proposed
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making him a king, saying, Rule thou over us, thou and thy son and thy
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son's son. Here was temptation in its fullest extent; not a kingdom
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only, but an hereditary one, but Gideon in the piety of his soul
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replied, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you,
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THE LORD SHALL RULE OVER YOU. Words need not be more explicit;
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Gideon doth not decline the honor but denieth their right to give
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it; neither doth be compliment them with invented declarations of
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his thanks, but in the positive stile of a prophet charges them with
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disaffection to their proper sovereign, the King of Heaven.
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About one hundred and thirty years after this, they fell again
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into the same error. The hankering which the Jews had for the
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idolatrous customs of the Heathens, is something exceedingly
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unaccountable; but so it was, that laying hold of the misconduct of
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Samuel's two sons, who were entrusted with some secular concerns, they
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came in an abrupt and clamorous manner to Samuel, saying, Behold
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thou art old and thy sons walk not in thy ways, now make us a king
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to judge us like all the other nations. And here we cannot but observe
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that their motives were bad, viz., that they might be like unto
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other nations, i.e., the Heathen, whereas their true glory laid in
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being as much unlike them as possible. But the thing displeased Samuel
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when they said, give us a king to judge us; and Samuel prayed unto the
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Lord, and the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the
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people in all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected
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thee, but they have rejected me, THEN I SHOULD NOT REIGN OVER THEM.
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According to all the works which have done since the day; wherewith
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they brought them up out of Egypt, even unto this day; wherewith
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they have forsaken me and served other Gods; so do they also unto
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thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice, howbeit, protest
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solemnly unto them and show them the manner of the king that shall
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reign over them, i.e., not of any particular king, but the general
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manner of the kings of the earth, whom Israel was so eagerly copying
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after. And notwithstanding the great distance of time and difference
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of manners, the character is still in fashion. And Samuel told all the
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words of the Lord unto the people, that asked of him a king. And he
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said, This shall be the manner of the king that shall reign over
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you; he will take your sons and appoint them for himself for his
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chariots, and to be his horsemen, and some shall run before his
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chariots (this description agrees with the present mode of
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impressing men) and he will appoint him captains over thousands and
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captains over fifties, and will set them to ear his ground and to read
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his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of
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his chariots; and he will take your daughters to be confectionaries
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and to be cooks and to be bakers (this describes the expense and
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luxury as well as the oppression of kings) and he will take your
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fields and your olive yards, even the best of them, and give them to
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his servants; and he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your
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vineyards, and give them to his officers and to his servants (by which
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we see that bribery, corruption, and favoritism are the standing vices
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of kings) and he will take the tenth of your men servants, and your
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maid servants, and your goodliest young men and your asses, and put
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them to his work; and he will take the tenth of your sheep, and ye
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shall be his servants, and ye shall cry out in that day because of
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your king which ye shall have chosen, AND THE LORD WILL NOT HEAR YOU
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IN THAT DAY. This accounts for the continuation of monarchy; neither
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do the characters of the few good kings which have lived since, either
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sanctify the title, or blot out the sinfulness of the origin; the high
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encomium given of David takes no notice of him officially as a king,
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but only as a man after God's own heart. Nevertheless the People
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refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, Nay, but we will
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have a king over us, that we may be like all the nations, and that our
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king may judge us, and go out before us and fight our battles.
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Samuel continued to reason with them, but to no purpose; he set before
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them their ingratitude, but all would not avail; and seeing them fully
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bent on their folly, he cried out, I will call unto the Lord, and he
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shall sent thunder and rain (which then was a punishment, being the
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time of wheat harvest) that ye may perceive and see that your
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wickedness is great which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, IN
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ASKING YOU A KING. So Samuel called unto the Lord, and the Lord sent
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thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the
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Lord and Samuel And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy
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servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not, for WE HAVE ADDED UNTO
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OUR SINS THIS EVIL, TO ASK A KING. These portions of scripture are
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direct and positive. They admit of no equivocal construction. That the
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Almighty hath here entered his protest against monarchial government
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is true, or the scripture is false. And a man hath good reason to
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believe that there is as much of kingcraft, as priestcraft in
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withholding the scripture from the public in Popish countries. For
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monarchy in every instance is the Popery of government.
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To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession;
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and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the
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second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and an imposition
|
|
on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth
|
|
could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to
|
|
all others for ever, and though himself might deserve some decent
|
|
degree of honors of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be
|
|
far too unworthy to inherit them. One of the strongest natural
|
|
proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature
|
|
disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into
|
|
ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.
|
|
Secondly, as no man at first could possess any other public honors
|
|
than were bestowed upon him, so the givers of those honors could
|
|
have no power to give away the right of posterity, and though they
|
|
might say, "We choose you for our head," they could not, without
|
|
manifest injustice to their children, say, "that your children and
|
|
your children's children shall reign over ours for ever." Because such
|
|
an unwise, unjust, unnatural compact might (perhaps) in the next
|
|
succession put them under the government of a rogue or a fool. Most
|
|
wise men, in their private sentiments, have ever treated hereditary
|
|
right with contempt; yet it is one of those evils, which when once
|
|
established is not easily removed; many submit from fear, others
|
|
from superstition, and the more powerful part shares with the king the
|
|
plunder of the rest.
|
|
This is supposing the present race of kings in the world to have had
|
|
an honorable origin; whereas it is more than probable, that could we
|
|
take off the dark covering of antiquity, and trace them to their first
|
|
rise, that we should find the first of them nothing better than the
|
|
principal ruffian of some restless gang, whose savage manners of
|
|
preeminence in subtlety obtained him the title of chief among
|
|
plunderers; and who by increasing in power, and extending his
|
|
depredations, overawed the quiet and defenseless to purchase their
|
|
safety by frequent contributions. Yet his electors could have no
|
|
idea of giving hereditary right to his descendants, because such a
|
|
perpetual exclusion of themselves was incompatible with the free and
|
|
unrestrained principles they professed to live by. Wherefore,
|
|
hereditary succession in the early ages of monarchy could not take
|
|
place as a matter of claim, but as something casual or complemental;
|
|
but as few or no records were extant in those days, and traditionary
|
|
history stuffed with fables, it was very easy, after the lapse of a
|
|
few generations, to trump up some superstitious tale, conveniently
|
|
timed, Mahomet like, to cram hereditary right down the throats of
|
|
the vulgar. Perhaps the disorders which threatened, or seemed to
|
|
threaten on the decease of a leader and the choice of a new one (for
|
|
elections among ruffians could not be very orderly) induced many at
|
|
first to favor hereditary pretensions; by which means it happened,
|
|
as it hath happened since, that what at first was submitted to as a
|
|
convenience, was afterwards claimed as a right.
|
|
England, since the conquest, hath known some few good monarchs,
|
|
but groaned beneath a much larger number of bad ones, yet no man in
|
|
his senses can say that their claim under William the Conqueror is a
|
|
very honorable one. A French bastard landing with an armed banditti,
|
|
and establishing himself king of England against the consent of the
|
|
natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original. It
|
|
certainly hath no divinity in it. However, it is needless to spend
|
|
much time in exposing the folly of hereditary right, if there are
|
|
any so weak as to believe it, let them promiscuously worship the ass
|
|
and lion, and welcome. I shall neither copy their humility, nor
|
|
disturb their devotion.
|
|
Yet I should be glad to ask how they suppose kings came at first?
|
|
The question admits but of three answers, viz., either by lot, by
|
|
election, or by usurpation. If the first king was taken by lot, it
|
|
establishes a precedent for the next, which excludes hereditary
|
|
succession. Saul was by lot, yet the succession was not hereditary,
|
|
neither does it appear from that transaction there was any intention
|
|
it ever should. If the first king of any country was by election, that
|
|
likewise establishes a precedent for the next; for to say, that the
|
|
right of all future generations is taken away, by the act of the first
|
|
electors, in their choice not only of a king, but of a family of kings
|
|
for ever, hath no parallel in or out of scripture but the doctrine
|
|
of original sin, which supposes the free will of all men lost in Adam;
|
|
and from such comparison, and it will admit of no other, hereditary
|
|
succession can derive no glory. For as in Adam all sinned, and as in
|
|
the first electors all men obeyed; as in the one all mankind were
|
|
subjected to Satan, and in the other to Sovereignty; as our
|
|
innocence was lost in the first, and our authority in the last; and as
|
|
both disable us from reassuming some former state and privilege, it
|
|
unanswerably follows that original sin and hereditary succession are
|
|
parallels. Dishonorable rank! Inglorious connection! Yet the most
|
|
subtle sophist cannot produce a juster simile.
|
|
As to usurpation, no man will be so hardy as to defend it; and
|
|
that William the Conqueror was an usurper is a fact not to be
|
|
contradicted. The plain truth is, that the antiquity of English
|
|
monarchy will not bear looking into.
|
|
But it is not so much the absurdity as the evil of hereditary
|
|
succession which concerns mankind. Did it ensure a race of good and
|
|
wise men it would have the seal of divine authority, but as it opens a
|
|
door to the foolish, the wicked; and the improper, it hath in it the
|
|
nature of oppression. Men who look upon themselves born to reign,
|
|
and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of
|
|
mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world
|
|
they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they
|
|
have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when
|
|
they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and
|
|
unfit of any throughout the dominions.
|
|
Another evil which attends hereditary succession is, that the throne
|
|
is subject to be possessed by a minor at any age; all which time the
|
|
regency, acting under the cover of a king, have every opportunity
|
|
and inducement to betray their trust. The same national misfortune
|
|
happens, when a king worn out with age and infirmity, enters the
|
|
last stage of human weakness. In both these cases the public becomes a
|
|
prey to every miscreant, who can tamper successfully with the
|
|
follies either of age or infancy.
|
|
The most plausible plea, which hath ever been offered in favor of
|
|
hereditary succession, is, that it preserves a nation from civil wars;
|
|
and were this true, it would be weighty; whereas, it is the most
|
|
barefaced falsity ever imposed upon mankind. The whole history of
|
|
England disowns the fact. Thirty kings and two minors have reigned
|
|
in that distracted kingdom since the conquest, in which time there
|
|
have been (including the Revolution) no less than eight civil wars and
|
|
nineteen rebellions. Wherefore instead of making for peace, it makes
|
|
against it, and destroys the very foundation it seems to stand on.
|
|
The contest for monarchy and succession, between the houses of
|
|
York and Lancaster, laid England in a scene of blood for many years.
|
|
Twelve pitched battles, besides skirmishes and sieges, were fought
|
|
between Henry and Edward. Twice was Henry prisoner to Edward, who in
|
|
his turn was prisoner to Henry. And so uncertain is the fate of war
|
|
and the temper of a nation, when nothing but personal matters are
|
|
the ground of a quarrel, that Henry was taken in triumph from a prison
|
|
to a palace, and Edward obliged to fly from a palace to a foreign
|
|
land; yet, as sudden transitions of temper are seldom lasting, Henry
|
|
in his turn was driven from the throne, and Edward recalled to succeed
|
|
him. The parliament always following the strongest side.
|
|
This contest began in the reign of Henry the Sixth, and was not
|
|
entirely extinguished till Henry the Seventh, in whom the families
|
|
were united. Including a period of 67 years, viz., from 1422 to 1489.
|
|
In short, monarchy and succession have laid (not this or that
|
|
kingdom only) but the world in blood and ashes. 'Tis a form of
|
|
government which the word of God bears testimony against, and blood
|
|
will attend it.
|
|
If we inquire into the business of a king, we shall find that (in
|
|
some countries they have none) and after sauntering away their lives
|
|
without pleasure to themselves or advantage to the nation, withdraw
|
|
from the scene, and leave their successors to tread the same idle
|
|
round. In absolute monarchies the whole weight of business civil and
|
|
military, lies on the king; the children of Israel in their request
|
|
for a king, urged this plea "that he may judge us, and go out before
|
|
us and fight our battles." But in countries where he is neither a
|
|
judge nor a general, as in England, a man would be puzzled to know
|
|
what is his business.
|
|
The nearer any government approaches to a republic, the less
|
|
business there is for a king. It is somewhat difficult to find a
|
|
proper name for the government of England. Sir William Meredith
|
|
calls it a republic; but in its present state it is unworthy of the
|
|
name, because the corrupt influence If the crown, by having all the
|
|
places in its disposal, hath so effectually swallowed up the power,
|
|
and eaten out the virtue of the house of commons (the republican
|
|
part in the constitution) that the government of England is nearly
|
|
as monarchical as that of France or Spain. Men fall out with names
|
|
without understanding them. For it is the republican and not the
|
|
monarchical part of the constitution of England which Englishmen glory
|
|
in, viz., the liberty of choosing a house of commons from out of their
|
|
own body- and it is easy to see that when the republican virtue fails,
|
|
slavery ensues. My is the constitution of England sickly, but
|
|
because monarchy hath poisoned the republic, the crown hath
|
|
engrossed the commons?
|
|
In England a king hath little more to do than to make war and give
|
|
away places; which in plain terms, is to impoverish the nation and set
|
|
it together by the ears. A pretty business indeed for a man to be
|
|
allowed eight hundred thousand sterling a year for, and worshipped
|
|
into the bargain! Of more worth is one honest man to society, and in
|
|
the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.
|
|
THOUGHTS OF THE PRESENT STATE OF AMERICAN AFFAIRS
|
|
|
|
IN the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts,
|
|
plain arguments, and common sense; and have no other preliminaries
|
|
to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of
|
|
prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his feelings to
|
|
determine for themselves; that he will put on, or rather that he
|
|
will not put off the true character of a man, and generously enlarge
|
|
his views beyond the present day.
|
|
Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between
|
|
England and America. Men of all ranks have embarked in the
|
|
controversy, from different motives, and with various designs; but all
|
|
have been ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed. Arms, as
|
|
the last resource, decide the contest; the appeal was the choice of
|
|
the king, and the continent hath accepted the challenge.
|
|
It hath been reported of the late Mr. Pelham (who tho' an able
|
|
minister was not without his faults) that on his being attacked in the
|
|
house of commons, on the score, that his measures were only of a
|
|
temporary kind, replied, "they will fast my time." Should a thought so
|
|
fatal and unmanly possess the colonies in the present contest, the
|
|
name of ancestors will be remembered by future generations with
|
|
detestation.
|
|
The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the
|
|
affair of a city, a country, a province, or a kingdom, but of a
|
|
continent- of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. 'Tis
|
|
not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually
|
|
involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to
|
|
the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed time of
|
|
continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now will be
|
|
like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a
|
|
young oak; The wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it
|
|
in full grown characters.
|
|
By referring the matter from argument to arms, a new area for
|
|
politics is struck; a new method of thinking hath arisen. All plans,
|
|
proposals, &c. prior to the nineteenth of April, i.e., to the
|
|
commencement of hostilities, are like the almanacs of the last year;
|
|
which, though proper then, are superseded and useless now. Whatever
|
|
was advanced by the advocates on either side of the question then,
|
|
terminated in one and the same point, viz., a union with Great
|
|
Britain; the only difference between the parties was the method of
|
|
effecting it; the one proposing force, the other friendship; but it
|
|
hath so far happened that the first hath failed, and the second hath
|
|
withdrawn her influence.
|
|
As much hath been said of the advantages of reconciliation, which,
|
|
like an agreeable dream, hath passed away and left us as we were, it
|
|
is but right, that we should examine the contrary side of the
|
|
argument, and inquire into some of the many material injuries which
|
|
these colonies sustain, and always will sustain, by being connected
|
|
with, and dependant on Great Britain. To examine that connection and
|
|
dependance, on the principles of nature and common sense, to see
|
|
what we have to trust to, if separated, and what we are to expect,
|
|
if dependant.
|
|
I have heard it asserted by some, that as America hath flourished
|
|
under her former connection with Great Britain, that the same
|
|
connection is necessary towards her future happiness, and will
|
|
always have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than
|
|
this kind of argument. We may as well assert, that because a child has
|
|
thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat; or that the first
|
|
twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next
|
|
twenty. But even this is admitting more than is true, for I answer
|
|
roundly, that America would have flourished as much, and probably much
|
|
more, had no European power had any thing to do with her. The commerce
|
|
by which she hath enriched herself are the necessaries of life, and
|
|
will always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe.
|
|
But she has protected us, say some. That she hath engrossed us is
|
|
true, and defended the continent at our expense as well as her own
|
|
is admitted, and she would have defended Turkey from the same
|
|
motive, viz., the sake of trade and dominion.
|
|
Alas! we have been long led away by ancient prejudices and made
|
|
large sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted the protection of
|
|
Great Britain, without considering, that her motive was interest not
|
|
attachment; that she did not protect us from our enemies on our
|
|
account, but from her enemies on her own account, from those who had
|
|
no quarrel with us on any other account, and who will always be our
|
|
enemies on the same account. Let Britain wave her pretensions to the
|
|
continent, or the continent throw off the dependance, and we should be
|
|
at peace with France and Spain were they at war with Britain. The
|
|
miseries of Hanover last war, ought to warn us against connections.
|
|
It hath lately been asserted in parliament, that the colonies have
|
|
no relation to each other but through the parent country, i.e., that
|
|
Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, and so on for the rest, are sister
|
|
colonies by the way of England; this is certainly a very roundabout
|
|
way of proving relation ship, but it is the nearest and only true
|
|
way of proving enemyship, if I may so call it. France and Spain
|
|
never were, nor perhaps ever will be our enemies as Americans, but
|
|
as our being the subjects of Great Britain.
|
|
But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame
|
|
upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young; nor savages
|
|
make war upon their families; wherefore the assertion, if true,
|
|
turns to her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only partly
|
|
so, and the phrase parent or mother country hath been jesuitically
|
|
adopted by the king and his parasites, with a low papistical design of
|
|
gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds. Europe,
|
|
and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath
|
|
been the asylum for the persecuted lovers off civil and religious
|
|
liberty from every Part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the
|
|
tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster;
|
|
and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove
|
|
the first emigrants from home pursues their descendants still.
|
|
In this extensive quarter of the globe, we forget the narrow
|
|
limits of three hundred and sixty miles (the extent of England) and
|
|
carry our friendship on a larger scale; we claim brotherhood with
|
|
every European Christian, and triumph in the generosity of the
|
|
sentiment.
|
|
It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradations we surmount the
|
|
force of local prejudice, as we enlarge our acquaintance with the
|
|
world. A man born in any town in England divided into parishes, will
|
|
naturally associate most with his fellow parishioners (because their
|
|
interests in many cases will be common) and distinguish him by the
|
|
name of neighbor; if he meet him but a few miles from home, he drops
|
|
the narrow idea of a street, and salutes him by the name of
|
|
townsman; if he travels out of the county, and meet him in any
|
|
other, he forgets the minor divisions of street and town, and calls
|
|
him countryman; i.e., countyman; but if in their foreign excursions
|
|
they should associate in France or any other part of Europe, their
|
|
local remembrance would be enlarged into that of Englishmen. And by
|
|
a just parity of reasoning, all Europeans meeting in America, or any
|
|
other quarter of the globe, are countrymen; for England, Holland,
|
|
Germany, or Sweden, when compared with the whole, stand in the same
|
|
places on the larger scale, which the divisions of street, town, and
|
|
county do on the smaller ones; distinctions too limited for
|
|
continental minds. Not one third of the inhabitants, even of this
|
|
province, are of English descent. Wherefore, I reprobate the phrase of
|
|
parent or mother country applied to England only, as being false,
|
|
selfish, narrow and ungenerous.
|
|
But admitting that we were all of English descent, what does it
|
|
amount to? Nothing. Britain, being now an open enemy, extinguishes
|
|
every other name and title: And to say that reconciliation is our
|
|
duty, is truly farcical. The first king of England, of the present
|
|
line (William the Conqueror) was a Frenchman, and half the peers of
|
|
England are descendants from the same country; wherefore by the same
|
|
method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by France.
|
|
Much hath been said of the united strength of Britain and the
|
|
colonies, that in conjunction they might bid defiance to the world.
|
|
But this is mere presumption; the fate of war is uncertain, neither do
|
|
the expressions mean anything; for this continent would never suffer
|
|
itself to be drained of inhabitants to support the British arms in
|
|
either Asia, Africa, or Europe.
|
|
Besides, what have we to do with setting the world at defiance?
|
|
Our plan is commerce, and that, well attended to,will secure us the
|
|
peace and friendship of all Europe; because it is the interest of
|
|
all Europe to have America a free port. Her trade will always be a
|
|
protection, and her barrenness of gold and silver secure her from
|
|
invaders.
|
|
I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation, to show, a
|
|
single advantage that this continent can reap, by being connected with
|
|
Great Britain. I repeat the challenge, not a single advantage is
|
|
derived. Our corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe, and
|
|
our imported goods must be paid for buy them where we will.
|
|
But the injuries and disadvantages we sustain by that connection,
|
|
are without number; and our duty to mankind I at large, as well as
|
|
to ourselves, instruct us to renounce the alliance: Because, any
|
|
submission to, or dependance on Great Britain, tends directly to
|
|
involve this continent in European wars and quarrels; and sets us at
|
|
variance with nations, who would otherwise seek our friendship, and
|
|
against whom, we have neither anger nor complaint. As Europe is our
|
|
market for trade, we ought to form no partial connection with any part
|
|
of it. It is the true interest of America to steer clear of European
|
|
contentions, which she never can do, while by her dependance on
|
|
Britain, she is made the make-weight in the scale of British politics.
|
|
Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms to be long at peace, and
|
|
whenever a war breaks out between England and any foreign power, the
|
|
trade of America goes to ruin, because of her connection with Britain.
|
|
The next war may not turn out like the Past, and should it not, the
|
|
advocates for reconciliation now will be wishing for separation
|
|
then, because, neutrality in that case, would be a safer convoy than a
|
|
man of war. Every thing that is right or natural pleads for
|
|
separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries,
|
|
'tis time to part. Even the distance at which the Almighty hath placed
|
|
England and America, is a strong and natural proof, that the authority
|
|
of the one, over the other, was never the design of Heaven. The time
|
|
likewise at which the continent was discovered, adds weight to the
|
|
argument, and the manner in which it was peopled increases the force
|
|
of it. The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if
|
|
the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in
|
|
future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety.
|
|
The authority of Great Britain over this continent, is a form of
|
|
government, which sooner or later must have an end: And a serious mind
|
|
can draw no true pleasure by looking forward, under the painful and
|
|
positive conviction, that what he calls "the present constitution"
|
|
is merely temporary. As parents, we can have no joy, knowing that this
|
|
government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure any thing which we
|
|
may bequeath to posterity: And by a plain method of argument, as we
|
|
are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work
|
|
of it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to
|
|
discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children
|
|
in our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life; that
|
|
eminence will present a prospect, which a few present fears and
|
|
prejudices conceal from our sight.
|
|
Though I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offence, yet I
|
|
am inclined to believe, that all those who espouse the doctrine of
|
|
reconciliation, may be included within the following descriptions:
|
|
Interested men, who are not to be trusted; weak men who cannot
|
|
see; prejudiced men who will not see; and a certain set of moderate
|
|
men, who think better of the European world than it deserves; and this
|
|
last class by an ill-judged deliberation, will be the cause of more
|
|
calamities to this continent than all the other three.
|
|
It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scene of
|
|
sorrow; the evil is not sufficiently brought to their doors to make
|
|
them feel the precariousness with which all American property is
|
|
possessed. But let our imaginations transport us for a few moments
|
|
to Boston, that seat of wretchedness will teach us wisdom, and
|
|
instruct us for ever to renounce a power in whom we can have no trust.
|
|
The inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who but a few months ago
|
|
were in ease and affluence, have now no other alternative than to stay
|
|
and starve, or turn out to beg. Endangered by the fire of their
|
|
friends if they continue within the city, and plundered by the
|
|
soldiery if they leave it. In their present condition they are
|
|
prisoners without the hope of redemption, and in a general attack
|
|
for their relief, they would be exposed to the fury of both armies.
|
|
Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of
|
|
Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out, Come
|
|
we shall be friends again for all this. But examine the passions and
|
|
feelings of mankind. Bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the
|
|
touchstone of nature, and then tell me, whether you can hereafter
|
|
love, honor, and faithfully serve the power that hath carried fire and
|
|
sword into your land? If you cannot do all these, then are you only
|
|
deceiving yourselves, and by your delay bringing ruin upon
|
|
posterity. Your future connection with Britain, whom you can neither
|
|
love nor honor, will be forced and unnatural, and being formed only on
|
|
the plan of present convenience, will in a little time fall into a
|
|
relapse more wretched than the first. But if you say, you can still
|
|
pass the violations over, then I ask, Hath your house been burnt? Hath
|
|
you property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and
|
|
children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you
|
|
lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and
|
|
wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a judge of
|
|
those who have. But if you have, and can still shake hands with the
|
|
murderers, then are you unworthy the name of husband, father,
|
|
friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life,
|
|
you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant.
|
|
This is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but trying them by
|
|
those feelings and affections which nature justifies, and without
|
|
which, we should be incapable of discharging the social duties of
|
|
life, or enjoying the felicities of it. I mean not to exhibit horror
|
|
for the purpose of provoking revenge, but to awaken us from fatal
|
|
and unmanly slumbers, that we may pursue determinately some fixed
|
|
object. It is not in the power of Britain or of Europe to conquer
|
|
America, if she do not conquer herself by delay and timidity. The
|
|
present winter is worth an age if rightly employed, but if lost or
|
|
neglected, the whole continent will partake of the misfortune; and
|
|
there is no punishment which that man will not deserve, be he who,
|
|
or what, or where he will, that may be the means of sacrificing a
|
|
season so precious and useful.
|
|
It is repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things, to
|
|
all examples from the former ages, to suppose, that this continent can
|
|
longer remain subject to any external power. The most sanguine in
|
|
Britain does not think so. The utmost stretch of human wisdom
|
|
cannot, at this time compass a plan short of separation, which can
|
|
promise the continent even a year's security. Reconciliation is was
|
|
a fallacious dream. Nature hath deserted the connection, and Art
|
|
cannot supply her place. For, as Milton wisely expresses, "never can
|
|
true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so
|
|
deep."
|
|
Every quiet method for peace hath been ineffectual. Our prayers have
|
|
been rejected with disdain; and only tended to convince us, that
|
|
nothing flatters vanity, or confirms obstinacy in kings more than
|
|
repeated petitioning- and nothing hath contributed more than that very
|
|
measure to make the kings of Europe absolute: Witness Denmark and
|
|
Sweden. Wherefore since nothing but blows will do, for God's sake, let
|
|
us come to a final separation, and not leave the next generation to be
|
|
cutting throats, under the violated unmeaning names of parent and
|
|
child.
|
|
To say, they will never attempt it again is idle and visionary, we
|
|
thought so at the repeal of the stamp act, yet a year or two
|
|
undeceived us; as well me we may suppose that nations, which have been
|
|
once defeated, will never renew the quarrel.
|
|
As to government matters, it is not in the powers of Britain to do
|
|
this continent justice: The business of it will soon be too weighty,
|
|
and intricate, to be managed with any tolerable degree of convenience,
|
|
by a power, so distant from us, and so very ignorant of us; for if
|
|
they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us. To be always running
|
|
three or four thousand miles with a tale or a petition, waiting four
|
|
or five months for an answer, which when obtained requires five or six
|
|
more to explain it in, will in a few years be looked upon as folly and
|
|
childishness- there was a time when it was proper, and there is a
|
|
proper time for it to cease.
|
|
Small islands not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper
|
|
objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is
|
|
something very absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually
|
|
governed by an island. In no instance hath nature made the satellite
|
|
larger than its primary planet, and as England and America, with
|
|
respect to each Other, reverses the common order of nature, it is
|
|
evident they belong to different systems: England to Europe- America
|
|
to itself.
|
|
I am not induced by motives of pride, party, or resentment to
|
|
espouse the doctrine of separation and independence; I am clearly,
|
|
positively, and conscientiously persuaded that it is the true interest
|
|
of this continent to be so; that every thing short of that is mere
|
|
patchwork, that it can afford no lasting felicity,- that it is leaving
|
|
the sword to our children, and shrinking back at a time, when, a
|
|
little more, a little farther, would have rendered this continent
|
|
the glory of the earth.
|
|
As Britain hath not manifested the least inclination towards a
|
|
compromise, we may be assured that no terms can be obtained worthy the
|
|
acceptance of the continent, or any ways equal to the expense of blood
|
|
and treasure we have been already put to.
|
|
The object contended for, ought always to bear some just
|
|
proportion to the expense. The removal of the North, or the whole
|
|
detestable junto, is a matter unworthy the millions we have
|
|
expended. A temporary stoppage of trade, was an inconvenience, which
|
|
would have sufficiently balanced the repeal of all the acts complained
|
|
of, had such repeals been obtained; but if the whole continent must
|
|
take up arms, if every man must be a soldier, it is scarcely worth our
|
|
while to fight against a contemptible ministry only. Dearly, dearly,
|
|
do we pay for the repeal of the acts, if that is all we fight for; for
|
|
in a just estimation, it is as great a folly to pay a Bunker Hill
|
|
price for law, as for land. As I have always considered the
|
|
independency of this continent, as an event, which sooner or later
|
|
must arrive, so from the late rapid progress of the continent to
|
|
maturity, the event could not be far off. Wherefore, on the breaking
|
|
out of hostilities, it was not worth the while to have disputed a
|
|
matter, which time would have finally redressed, unless we meant to be
|
|
in earnest; otherwise, it is like wasting an estate of a suit at
|
|
law, to regulate the trespasses of a tenant, whose lease is just
|
|
expiring. No man was a warmer wisher for reconciliation than myself,
|
|
before the fatal nineteenth of April, 1775 (Massacre at Lexington),
|
|
but the moment the event of that day was made known, I rejected the
|
|
hardened, sullen tempered Pharaoh of England for ever; and disdain the
|
|
wretch, that with the pretended title of Father of his people, can
|
|
unfeelingly hear of their slaughter, and composedly sleep with their
|
|
blood upon his soul.
|
|
But admitting that matters were now made up, what would be the
|
|
event? I answer, the ruin of the continent. And that for several
|
|
reasons:
|
|
First. The powers of governing still remaining in the hands of the
|
|
king, he will have a negative over the whole legislation of this
|
|
continent. And as he hath shown himself such an inveterate enemy to
|
|
liberty, and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power, is he, or
|
|
is he not, a proper man to say to these colonies, "You shall make no
|
|
laws but what I please?" And is there any inhabitants in America so
|
|
ignorant, as not to know, that according to what is called the present
|
|
constitution, that this continent can make no laws but what the king
|
|
gives leave to? and is there any man so unwise, as not to see, that
|
|
(considering what has happened) he will suffer no Law to be made here,
|
|
but such as suit his purpose? We may be as effectually enslaved by the
|
|
want of laws in America, as by submitting to laws made for us in
|
|
England. After matters are make up (as it is called) can there be
|
|
any doubt but the whole power of the crown will be exerted, to keep
|
|
this continent as low and humble as possible? Instead of going forward
|
|
we shall go backward, or be perpetually quarrelling or ridiculously
|
|
petitioning. We are already greater than the king wishes us to be, and
|
|
will he not hereafter endeavor to make us less? To bring the matter to
|
|
one point. Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper
|
|
power to govern us? Whoever says No to this question is an
|
|
independent, for independency means no more, than, whether we shall
|
|
make our own laws, or whether the king, the greatest enemy this
|
|
continent hath, or can have, shall tell us, "there shall be now laws
|
|
but such as I like."
|
|
But the king you will say has a negative in England; the people
|
|
there can make no laws without his consent. in point of right and good
|
|
order, there is something very ridiculous, that a youth of
|
|
twenty-one (which hath often happened) shall say to several millions
|
|
of people, older and wiser than himself, I forbid this or that act
|
|
of yours to be law. But in this place I decline this sort of reply,
|
|
though I will never cease to expose the absurdity of it, and only
|
|
answer, that England being the king's residence, and America not so,
|
|
make quite another case. The king's negative here is ten times more
|
|
dangerous and fatal than it can be in England, for there he will
|
|
scarcely refuse his consent to a bill for putting England into as
|
|
strong a state of defence as possible, and in America he would never
|
|
suffer such a bill to be passed.
|
|
America is only a secondary object in the system of British
|
|
politics- England consults the good of this country, no farther than
|
|
it answers her own purpose. Wherefore, her own interest leads her to
|
|
suppress the growth of ours in every case which doth not promote her
|
|
advantage, or in the least interfere with it. A pretty state we should
|
|
soon be in under such a second-hand government, considering what has
|
|
happened! Men do not change from enemies to friends by the
|
|
alteration of a name; and in order to show that reconciliation now
|
|
is a dangerous doctrine, I affirm, that it would be policy in the
|
|
kingdom at this time, to repeal the acts for the sake of reinstating
|
|
himself in the government of the provinces; in order, that he may
|
|
accomplish by craft and subtlety, in the long run, wha he cannot do by
|
|
force ans violence in the short one. Reconciliation and ruin are
|
|
nearly related.
|
|
Secondly. That as even the best terms, which we can expect to
|
|
obtain, can amount to no more than a temporary expedient, or a kind of
|
|
government by guardianship, which can last no longer than till the
|
|
colonies come of age, so the general face and state of things, in
|
|
the interim, will be unsettled and unpromising. Emigrants of
|
|
property will not choose to come to a country whose form of government
|
|
hangs but by a thread, and who is every day tottering on the brink
|
|
of commotion and disturbance; and numbers of the present inhabitants
|
|
would lay hold of the interval, to dispose of their effects, and
|
|
quit the continent.
|
|
But the most powerful of all arguments, is, that nothing but
|
|
independence, i.e., a continental form of government, can keep the
|
|
peace of the continent and preserve it inviolate from civil wars. I
|
|
dread the event of a reconciliation with Britain now, as it is more
|
|
than probable, that it will be followed by a revolt somewhere or
|
|
other, the consequences of which may be far more fatal than all the
|
|
malice of Britain.
|
|
Thousands are already ruined by British barbarity; (thousands more
|
|
will probably suffer the same fate.) Those men have other feelings
|
|
than us who have nothing suffered. All they now possess is liberty,
|
|
what they before enjoyed is sacrificed to its service, and having
|
|
nothing more to lose, they disdain submission. Besides, the general
|
|
temper of the colonies, towards a British government, will be like
|
|
that of a youth, who is nearly out of his time, they will care very
|
|
little about her. And a government which cannot preserve the peace, is
|
|
no government at all, and in that case we pay our money for nothing;
|
|
and pray what is it that Britain can do, whose power will be wholly on
|
|
paper, should a civil tumult break out the very day after
|
|
reconciliation? I have heard some men say, many of whom I believe
|
|
spoke without thinking, that they dreaded independence, fearing that
|
|
it would produce civil wars. It is but seldom that our first
|
|
thoughts are truly correct, and that is the case here; for there are
|
|
ten times more to dread from a patched up connection than from
|
|
independence. I make the sufferers case my own, and I protest, that
|
|
were I driven from house and home, my property destroyed, and my
|
|
circumstances ruined, that as man, sensible of injuries, I could never
|
|
relish the doctrine of reconciliation, or consider myself bound
|
|
thereby.
|
|
The colonies have manifested such a spirit of good order and
|
|
obedience to continental government, as is sufficient to make every
|
|
reasonable person easy and happy on that head. No man can assign the
|
|
least pretence for his fears, on any other grounds, that such as are
|
|
truly childish and ridiculous, viz., that one colony will be
|
|
striving for superiority over another.
|
|
Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority, perfect
|
|
equality affords no temptation. The republics of Europe are all (and
|
|
we may say always) in peace. Holland and Switzerland are without wars,
|
|
foreign or domestic; monarchical governments, it is true, are never
|
|
long at rest: the crown itself is a temptation to enterprising
|
|
ruffians at home; and that degree of pride and insolence ever
|
|
attendant on regal authority swells into a rupture with foreign
|
|
powers, in instances where a republican government, by being formed on
|
|
more natural principles, would negotiate the mistake.
|
|
If there is any true cause of fear respecting independence it is
|
|
because no plan is yet laid down. Men do not see their way out;
|
|
wherefore, as an opening into that business I offer the following
|
|
hints; at the same time modestly affirming, that I have no other
|
|
opinion of them myself, than that they may be the means of giving rise
|
|
to something better. Could the straggling thoughts of individuals be
|
|
collected, they would frequently form materials for wise and able
|
|
men to improve to useful matter.
|
|
Let the assemblies be annual, with a President only. The
|
|
representation more equal. Their business wholly domestic, and subject
|
|
to the authority of a continental congress.
|
|
Let each colony be divided into six, eight, or ten, convenient
|
|
districts, each district to send a proper number of delegates to
|
|
congress, so that each colony send at least thirty. The whole number
|
|
in congress will be at least three hundred ninety. Each congress to
|
|
sit..... and to choose a president by the following method. When the
|
|
delegates are met, let a colony be taken from the whole thirteen
|
|
colonies by lot, after which let the whole congress choose (by ballot)
|
|
a president from out of the delegates of that province. I the next
|
|
Congress, let a colony be taken by lot from twelve only, omitting that
|
|
colony from which the president was taken in the former congress,
|
|
and so proceeding on till the whole thirteen shall have had their
|
|
proper rotation. And in order that nothing may pass into a law but
|
|
what is satisfactorily just, not less than three fifths of the
|
|
congress to be called a majority. He that will promote discord,
|
|
under a government so equally formed as this, would join Lucifer in
|
|
his revolt.
|
|
But as there is a peculiar delicacy, from whom, or in what manner,
|
|
this business must first arise, and as it seems most agreeable and
|
|
consistent, that it should come from some intermediate body between
|
|
the governed and the governors, that is between the Congress and the
|
|
people, let a Continental Conference be held, in the following manner,
|
|
and for the following purpose:
|
|
A committee of twenty-six members of Congress, viz., two for each
|
|
colony. Two members for each house of assembly, or provincial
|
|
convention; and five representatives of the people at large, to be
|
|
chosen in the capital city or town of each province, for, and in
|
|
behalf of the whole province, by as many qualified voters as shall
|
|
think proper to attend from all parts of the province for that
|
|
purpose; or, if more convenient, the representatives may be chosen
|
|
in two or three of the most populous parts thereof. In this
|
|
conference, thus assembled, will be united, the two grand principles
|
|
of business, knowledge and power. The members of Congress, Assemblies,
|
|
or Conventions, by having had experience in national concerns, will be
|
|
able and useful counsellors, and the whole, being empowered by the
|
|
people will have a truly legal authority.
|
|
The conferring members being met, let their business be to frame a
|
|
Continental Charter, or Charter of the United Colonies; (answering
|
|
to what is called the Magna Charta of England) fixing the number and
|
|
manner of choosing members of Congress, members of Assembly, with
|
|
their date of sitting, and drawing the line of business and
|
|
jurisdiction between them: always remembering, that our strength is
|
|
continental, not provincial: Securing freedom and property to all men,
|
|
and above all things the free exercise of religion, according to the
|
|
dictates of conscience; with such other matter as is necessary for a
|
|
charter to contain. Immediately after which, the said conference to
|
|
dissolve, and the bodies which shall be chosen conformable to the said
|
|
charter, to be the legislators and governors of this continent for the
|
|
time being: Whose peace and happiness, may God preserve, Amen.
|
|
Should any body of men be hereafter delegated for this or some
|
|
similar purpose, I offer them the following extracts from that wise
|
|
observer on governments Dragonetti. "The science" says he, "of the
|
|
politician consists in fixing the true point of happiness and freedom.
|
|
Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who should discover a
|
|
mode of government that contained the greatest sum of individual
|
|
happiness, with the least national expense."- Dragonetti on Virtue and
|
|
Rewards.
|
|
But where says some is the king of America? I'll tell you Friend, he
|
|
reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal of
|
|
Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly
|
|
honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter;
|
|
let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let
|
|
a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as
|
|
we approve of monarchy, that in America the law is king. For as in
|
|
absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law
|
|
ought to be king; and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use
|
|
should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the
|
|
ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right
|
|
it is.
|
|
A government of our own is our natural right: And when a man
|
|
seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will
|
|
become convinced, that it is in finitely wiser and safer, to form a
|
|
constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have
|
|
it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time and
|
|
chance. If we omit it now, some Massenello* may hereafter arise, who
|
|
laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the
|
|
desperate and the discontented, and by assuming to themselves the
|
|
powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent
|
|
like a deluge. Should the government of America return again into
|
|
the hands of Britain, the tottering situation of things, will be a
|
|
temptation for some desperate adventurer to try his fortune; and in
|
|
such a case, what relief can Britain give? Ere she could hear the news
|
|
the fatal business might be done, and ourselves suffering like the
|
|
wretched Britons under the oppression of the Conqueror. Ye that oppose
|
|
independence now, ye know not what ye do; ye are opening a door to
|
|
eternal tyranny, by keeping vacant the seat of government.
|
|
|
|
*Thomas Anello, otherwise Massenello, a fisherman of Naples, who after
|
|
spiriting up his countrymen in the public market place, against the
|
|
oppression of the Spaniards, to whom the place was then subject,
|
|
prompted them to revolt, and in the space of a day became king.
|
|
|
|
There are thousands and tens of thousands; who would think it
|
|
glorious to expel from the continent, that barbarous and hellish
|
|
power, which hath stirred up the Indians and Negroes to destroy us;
|
|
the cruelty hath a double guilt, it is dealing brutally by us, and
|
|
treacherously by them. To talk of friendship with those in whom our
|
|
reason forbids us to have faith, and our affections, (wounded
|
|
through a thousand pores) instruct us to detest, is madness and folly.
|
|
Every day wears out the little remains of kindred between us and them,
|
|
and can there be any reason to hope, that as the relationship expires,
|
|
the affection will increase, or that we shall agree better, when we
|
|
have ten times more and greater concerns to quarrel over than ever?
|
|
Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation, can ye restore to
|
|
us the time that is past? Can ye give to prostitution its former
|
|
innocence? Neither can ye reconcile Britain and America. The last cord
|
|
now is broken, the people of England are presenting addresses
|
|
against us. There are injuries which nature cannot forgive; she
|
|
would cease to be nature if she did. As well can the lover forgive the
|
|
ravisher of his mistress, as the continent forgive the murders of
|
|
Britain. The Almighty hath implanted in us these inextinguishable
|
|
feelings for good and wise purposes. They are the guardians of his
|
|
image in our hearts. They distinguish us from the herd of common
|
|
animals. The social compact would dissolve, and justice be
|
|
extirpated the earth, of have only a casual existence were we
|
|
callous to the touches of affection. The robber and the murderer,
|
|
would often escape unpunished, did not the injuries which our
|
|
tempers sustain, provoke us into justice.
|
|
O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny,
|
|
but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun
|
|
with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and
|
|
Africa, have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger,
|
|
and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive,
|
|
and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.
|
|
OF THE PRESENT ABILITY OF AMERICA, WITH SOME MISCELLANEOUS
|
|
REFLECTIONS
|
|
|
|
I HAVE never met with a man, either in England or America, who
|
|
hath not confessed his opinion, that a separation between the
|
|
countries, would take place one time or other. And there is no
|
|
instance in which we have shown less judgment, than in endeavoring
|
|
to describe, what we call, the ripeness or fitness of the Continent
|
|
for independence.
|
|
As all men allow the measure, and vary only in their opinion of
|
|
the time, let us, in order to remove mistakes, take a general survey
|
|
of things and endeavor if possible, to find out the very time. But
|
|
we need not go far, the inquiry ceases at once, for the time hath
|
|
found us. The general concurrence, the glorious union of all things
|
|
prove the fact.
|
|
It is not in numbers but in unity, that our great strength lies; yet
|
|
our present numbers are sufficient to repel the force of all the
|
|
world. The Continent hath, at this time, the largest body of armed and
|
|
disciplined men of any power under Heaven; and is just arrived at that
|
|
pitch of strength, in which no single colony is able to support
|
|
itself, and the whole, who united can accomplish the matter, and
|
|
either more, or, less than this, might be fatal in its effects. Our
|
|
land force is already sufficient, and as to naval affairs, we cannot
|
|
be insensible, that Britain would never suffer an American man of
|
|
war to be built while the continent remained in her hands. Wherefore
|
|
we should be no forwarder an hundred years hence in that branch,
|
|
than we are now; but the truth is, we should be less so, because the
|
|
timber of the country is every day diminishing, and that which will
|
|
remain at last, will be far off and difficult to procure.
|
|
Were the continent crowded with inhabitants, her sufferings under
|
|
the present circumstances would be intolerable. The more sea port
|
|
towns we had, the more should we have both to defend and to loose. Our
|
|
present numbers are so happily proportioned to our wants, that no
|
|
man need be idle. The diminution of trade affords an army, and the
|
|
necessities of an army create a new trade. Debts we have none; and
|
|
whatever we may contract on this account will serve as a glorious
|
|
memento of our virtue. Can we but leave posterity with a settled
|
|
form of government, an independent constitution of its own, the
|
|
purchase at any price will be cheap. But to expend millions for the
|
|
sake of getting a few we acts repealed, and routing the present
|
|
ministry only, is unworthy the charge, and is using posterity with the
|
|
utmost cruelty; because it is leaving them the great work to do, and a
|
|
debt upon their backs, from which they derive no advantage. Such a
|
|
thought is unworthy a man of honor, and is the true characteristic
|
|
of a narrow heart and a peddling politician.
|
|
The debt we may contract doth not deserve our regard if the work
|
|
be but accomplished. No nation ought to be without a debt. A
|
|
national debt is a national bond; and when it bears no interest, is in
|
|
no case a grievance. Britain is oppressed with a debt of upwards of
|
|
one hundred and forty millions sterling, for which she pays upwards of
|
|
four millions interest. And as a compensation for her debt, she has
|
|
a large navy; America is without a debt, and without a navy; yet for
|
|
the twentieth part of the English national debt, could have a navy
|
|
as large again. The navy of England is not worth, at this time, more
|
|
than three millions and a half sterling.
|
|
The first and second editions of this pamphlet were published
|
|
without the following calculations, which are now given as a proof
|
|
that the above estimation of the navy is a just one. (See Entick's
|
|
naval history, intro. page 56.)
|
|
The charge of building a ship of each rate, and furnishing her
|
|
with masts, yards, sails and rigging, together with a proportion of
|
|
eight months boatswain's and carpenter's sea-stores, as calculated
|
|
by Mr. Burchett, Secretary to the navy, is as follows:
|
|
|
|
For a ship of 100 guns L35,553
|
|
90 29,886
|
|
80 23,638
|
|
70 17,785
|
|
60 14,197
|
|
50 10,606
|
|
40 7,558
|
|
30 5,846
|
|
20 3,710
|
|
|
|
And from hence it is easy to sum up the value, or cost rather, of
|
|
the whole British navy, which in the year 1757, when it was as its
|
|
greatest glory consisted of the following ships and guns:
|
|
|
|
Ships Guns Cost of one Cost of all
|
|
6 100 L35,533 L213,318
|
|
12 90 29,886 358,632
|
|
12 80 23,638 283,656
|
|
43 70 17,785 746,755
|
|
35 60 14,197 496,895
|
|
40 50 10,606 424,240
|
|
45 40 7,758 344,110
|
|
58 20 3,710 215,180
|
|
85 Sloops, bombs, and
|
|
and fireships, one
|
|
another, 2,000 170,000
|
|
---------
|
|
Cost 3,266,786
|
|
Remains for guns 229,214
|
|
---------
|
|
Total 3,500,000
|
|
|
|
|
|
No country on the globe is so happily situated, so internally
|
|
capable of raising a fleet as America. Tar, timber, iron, and
|
|
cordage are her natural produce. We need go abroad for nothing.
|
|
Whereas the Dutch, who make large profits by hiring out their ships of
|
|
war to the Spaniards and Portuguese, are obliged to import most of the
|
|
materials they use. We ought to view the building a fleet as an
|
|
article of commerce, it being the natural manufactory of this country.
|
|
It is the best money we can lay out. A navy when finished is worth
|
|
more than it cost. And is that nice point in national policy, in which
|
|
commerce and protection are united. Let us build; if we want them not,
|
|
we can sell; and by that means replace our paper currency with ready
|
|
gold and silver.
|
|
In point of manning a fleet, people in general run into great
|
|
errors; it is not necessary that one-fourth part should be sailors.
|
|
The privateer Terrible, Captain Death, stood the hottest engagement of
|
|
any ship last war, yet had not twenty sailors on board, though her
|
|
complement of men was upwards of two hundred. A few able and social
|
|
sailors will soon instruct a sufficient number of active landsmen in
|
|
the common work of a ship. Wherefore, we never can be more capable
|
|
to begin on maritime matters than now, while our timber is standing,
|
|
our fisheries blocked up, and our sailors and shipwrights out of
|
|
employ. Men of war of seventy and eighty guns were built forty years
|
|
ago in New England, and why not the same now? Ship building is
|
|
America's greatest pride, and in which, she will in time excel the
|
|
whole world. The great empires of the east are mostly inland, and
|
|
consequently excluded from the possibility of rivalling her. Africa is
|
|
in a state of barbarism; and no power in Europe, hath either such an
|
|
extent or coast, or such an internal supply of materials. Where nature
|
|
hath given the one, she has withheld the other; to America only hath
|
|
she been liberal of both. The vast empire of Russia is almost shut out
|
|
from the sea; wherefore, her boundless forests, her tar, iron, and
|
|
cordage are only articles of commerce.
|
|
In point of safety, ought we to be without a fleet? We are not the
|
|
little people now, which we were sixty years ago; at that time we
|
|
might have trusted our property in the streets, or fields rather;
|
|
and slept securely without locks or bolts to our doors or windows. The
|
|
case now is altered, and our methods of defence ought to improve
|
|
with our increase of property. A common pirate, twelve months ago,
|
|
might have come up the Delaware, and laid the city of Philadelphia
|
|
under instant contribution, for what sum he pleased; and the same
|
|
might have happened to other places. Nay, any daring fellow, in a brig
|
|
of fourteen or sixteen guns, might have robbed the whole Continent,
|
|
and carried off half a million of money. These are circumstances which
|
|
demand our attention, and point out the necessity of naval protection.
|
|
Some, perhaps, will say, that after we have made it up with Britain,
|
|
she will protect us. Can we be so unwise as to mean, that she shall
|
|
keep a navy in our harbors for that purpose? Common sense will tell
|
|
us, that the power which hath endeavored to subdue us, is of all
|
|
others the most improper to defend us. Conquest may be effected
|
|
under the pretence of friendship; and ourselves, after a long and
|
|
brave resistance, be at last cheated into slavery. And if her ships
|
|
are not to be admitted into our harbors, I would ask, how is she to
|
|
protect us? A navy three or four thousand miles off can be of little
|
|
use, and on sudden emergencies, none at all. Wherefore, if we must
|
|
hereafter protect ourselves, why not do it for ourselves? Why do it
|
|
for another?
|
|
The English list of ships of war is long and formidable, but not a
|
|
tenth part of them are at any one time fit for service, numbers of
|
|
them not in being; yet their names are pompously continued in the
|
|
list, if only a plank be left of the ship: and not a fifth part, of
|
|
such as are fit for service, can be spared on any one station at one
|
|
time. The East, and West Indies, Mediterranean, Africa, and other
|
|
parts over which Britain extends her claim, make large demands upon
|
|
her navy. From a mixture of prejudice and inattention, we have
|
|
contracted a false notion respecting the navy of England, and have
|
|
talked as if we should have the whole of it to encounter at once,
|
|
and for that reason, supposed that we must have one as large; which
|
|
not being instantly practicable, have been made use of by a set of
|
|
disguised tories to discourage our beginning thereon. Nothing can be
|
|
farther from truth than this; for if America had only a twentieth part
|
|
of the naval force of Britain, she would be by far an over match for
|
|
her; because, as we neither have, nor claim any foreign dominion,
|
|
our whole force would be employed on our own coast, where we should,
|
|
in the long run, have two to one the advantage of those who had
|
|
three or four thousand miles to sail over, before they could attack
|
|
us, and the same distance to return in order to refit and recruit. And
|
|
although Britain by her fleet, hath a check over our trade to
|
|
Europe, we have as large a one over her trade to the West Indies,
|
|
which, by laying in the neighborhood of the Continent, is entirely
|
|
at its mercy.
|
|
Some method might be fallen on to keep up a naval force in time of
|
|
peace, if we should not judge it necessary to support a constant navy.
|
|
If premiums were to be given to merchants, to build and employ in
|
|
their service, ships mounted with twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty
|
|
guns, (the premiums to be in proportion to the loss of bulk to the
|
|
merchants) fifty or sixty of those ships, with a few guard ships on
|
|
constant duty, would keep up a sufficient navy, and that without
|
|
burdening ourselves with the evil so loudly complained of in
|
|
England, of suffering their fleet, in time of peace to lie rotting
|
|
in the docks. To unite the sinews of commerce and defence is sound
|
|
policy; for when our strength and our riches, play into each other's
|
|
hand, we need fear no external enemy.
|
|
In almost every article of defence we abound. Hemp flourishes even
|
|
to rankness, so that we need not want cordage. Our iron is superior to
|
|
that of other countries. Our small arms equal to any in the world.
|
|
Cannon we can cast at pleasure. Saltpetre and gunpowder we are every
|
|
day producing. Our knowledge is hourly improving. Resolution is our
|
|
inherent character, and courage hath never yet forsaken us. Wherefore,
|
|
what is it that we want? Why is it that we hesitate? From Britain we
|
|
can expect nothing but ruin. If she is once admitted to the government
|
|
of America again, this Continent will not be worth living in.
|
|
Jealousies will be always arising; insurrections will be constantly
|
|
happening; and who will go forth to quell them? Who will venture his
|
|
life to reduce his own countrymen to a foreign obedience? The
|
|
difference between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, respecting some
|
|
unlocated lands, shows the insignificance of a British government, and
|
|
fully proves, that nothing but Continental authority can regulate
|
|
Continental matters.
|
|
Another reason why the present time is preferable to all others, is,
|
|
that the fewer our numbers are, the more land there is yet unoccupied,
|
|
which instead of being lavished by the king on his worthless
|
|
dependents, may be hereafter applied, not only to the discharge of the
|
|
present debt, but to the constant support of government. No nation
|
|
under heaven hath such an advantage as this.
|
|
The infant state of the Colonies, as it is called, so far from being
|
|
against, is an argument in favor of independence. We are
|
|
sufficiently numerous, and were we more so, we might be less united.
|
|
It is a matter worthy of observation, that the more a country is
|
|
peopled, the smaller their armies are. In military numbers, the
|
|
ancients far exceeded the moderns: and the reason is evident, for
|
|
trade being the consequence of population, men become too much
|
|
absorbed thereby to attend to anything else. Commerce diminishes the
|
|
spirit, both of patriotism and military defence. And history
|
|
sufficiently informs us, that the bravest achievements were always
|
|
accomplished in the non-age of a nation. With the increase of commerce
|
|
England hath lost its spirit. The city of London, notwithstanding
|
|
its numbers, submits to continued insults with the patience of a
|
|
coward. The more men have to lose, the less willing are they to
|
|
venture. The rich are in general slaves to fear, and submit to courtly
|
|
power with the trembling duplicity of a spaniel.
|
|
Youth is the seed-time of good habits, as well in nations as in
|
|
individuals. It might be difficult, if not impossible, to form the
|
|
Continent into one government half a century hence. The vast variety
|
|
of interests, occasioned by an increase of trade and population, would
|
|
create confusion. Colony would be against colony. Each being able
|
|
might scorn each other's assistance: and while the proud and foolish
|
|
gloried in their little distinctions, the wise would lament that the
|
|
union had not been formed before. Wherefore, the present time is the
|
|
true time for establishing it. The intimacy which is contracted in
|
|
infancy, and the friendship which is formed in misfortune, are, of all
|
|
others, the most lasting and unalterable. Our present union is
|
|
marked with both these characters: we are young, and we have been
|
|
distressed; but our concord hath withstood our troubles, and fixes a
|
|
memorable area for posterity to glory in.
|
|
The present time, likewise, is that peculiar time, which never
|
|
happens to a nation but once, viz., the time of forming itself into a
|
|
government. Most nations have let slip the opportunity, and by that
|
|
means have been compelled to receive laws from their conquerors,
|
|
instead of making laws for themselves. First, they had a king, and
|
|
then a form of government; whereas, the articles or charter of
|
|
government, should be formed first, and men delegated to execute
|
|
them afterwards: but from the errors of other nations, let us learn
|
|
wisdom, and lay hold of the present opportunity- to begin government
|
|
at the right end.
|
|
When William the Conqueror subdued England he gave them law at the
|
|
point of the sword; and until we consent that the seat of government
|
|
in America, be legally and authoritatively occupied, we shall be in
|
|
danger of having it filled by some fortunate ruffian, who may treat us
|
|
in the same manner, and then, where will be our freedom? where our
|
|
property?
|
|
As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of all
|
|
government, to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I
|
|
know of no other business which government hath to do therewith. Let a
|
|
man throw aside that narrowness of soul, that selfishness of
|
|
principle, which the niggards of all professions are so unwilling to
|
|
part with, and he will be at once delivered of his fears on that head.
|
|
Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good
|
|
society. For myself I fully and conscientiously believe, that it is
|
|
the will of the Almighty, that there should be diversity of
|
|
religious opinions among us: It affords a larger field for our
|
|
Christian kindness. Were we all of one way of thinking, our
|
|
religious dispositions would want matter for probation; and on this
|
|
liberal principle, I look on the various denominations among us, to be
|
|
like children of the same family, differing only, in what is called
|
|
their Christian names.
|
|
Earlier in this work, I threw out a few thoughts on the propriety
|
|
of a Continental Charter, (for I only presume to offer hints, not
|
|
plans) and in this place, I take the liberty of rementioning the
|
|
subject, by observing, that a charter is to be understood as a bond of
|
|
solemn obligation, which the whole enters into, to support the right
|
|
of every separate part, whether of religion, personal freedom, or
|
|
property, A firm bargain and a right reckoning make long friends.
|
|
In a former page I likewise mentioned the necessity of a large and
|
|
equal representation; and there is no political matter which more
|
|
deserves our attention. A small number of electors, or a small
|
|
number of representatives, are equally dangerous. But if the number of
|
|
the representatives be not only small, but unequal, the danger is
|
|
increased. As an instance of this, I mention the following; when the
|
|
Associators petition was before the House of Assembly of Pennsylvania;
|
|
twenty-eight members only were present, all the Bucks County
|
|
members, being eight, voted against it, and had seven of the Chester
|
|
members done the same, this whole province had been governed by two
|
|
counties only, and this danger it is always exposed to. The
|
|
unwarrantable stretch likewise, which that house made in their last
|
|
sitting, to gain an undue authority over the delegates of that
|
|
province, ought to warn the people at large, how they trust power
|
|
out of their own hands. A set of instructions for the Delegates were
|
|
put together, which in point of sense and business would have
|
|
dishonored a school-boy, and after being approved by a few, a very few
|
|
without doors, were carried into the house, and there passed in behalf
|
|
of the whole colony; whereas, did the whole colony know, with what
|
|
ill-will that House hath entered on some necessary public measures,
|
|
they would not hesitate a moment to think them unworthy of such a
|
|
trust.
|
|
Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which if continued
|
|
would grow into oppressions. Expedience and right are different
|
|
things. When the calamities of America required a consultation,
|
|
there was no method so ready, or at that time so proper, as to appoint
|
|
persons from the several Houses of Assembly for that purpose and the
|
|
wisdom with which they have proceeded hath preserved this continent
|
|
from ruin. But as it is more than probable that we shall never be
|
|
without a Congress, every well-wisher to good order, must own, that
|
|
the mode for choosing members of that body, deserves consideration.
|
|
And I put it as a question to those, who make a study of mankind,
|
|
whether representation and election is not too great a power for one
|
|
and the same body of men to possess? When we are planning for
|
|
posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
|
|
It is from our enemies that we often gain excellent maxims, and
|
|
are frequently surprised into reason by their mistakes. Mr. Cornwall
|
|
(one of the Lords of the Treasury) treated the petition of the New
|
|
York Assembly with contempt, because that House, he said, consisted
|
|
but of twenty-six members, which trifling number, he argued, could not
|
|
with decency be put for the whole. We thank him for his involuntary
|
|
honesty.*
|
|
|
|
*Those who would fully understand of what great consequence a large
|
|
and equal representation is to a state, should read Burgh's
|
|
political Disquisitions.
|
|
|
|
To conclude: However strange it may appear to some, or however
|
|
unwilling they may be to think so, matters not, but many strong and
|
|
striking reasons may be given, to show, that nothing can settle our
|
|
affairs so expeditiously as an open and determined declaration for
|
|
independence. Some of which are:
|
|
First. It is the custom of nations, when any two are at war, for
|
|
some other powers, not engaged in the quarrel, to step in as
|
|
mediators, and bring about the preliminaries of a peace: but while
|
|
America calls herself the subject of Great Britain, no power,
|
|
however well disposed she may be, can offer her mediation.
|
|
Wherefore, in our present state we may quarrel on for ever.
|
|
Secondly. It is unreasonable to suppose, that France or Spain will
|
|
give us any kind of assistance, if we mean only to make use of that
|
|
assistance for the purpose of repairing the breach, and
|
|
strengthening the connection between Britain and America; because,
|
|
those powers would be sufferers by the consequences.
|
|
Thirdly. While we profess ourselves the subjects of Britain, we
|
|
must, in the eye of foreign nations, be considered as rebels. The
|
|
precedent is somewhat dangerous to their peace, for men to be in
|
|
arms under the name of subjects; we on the spot, can solve the
|
|
paradox: but to unite resistance and subjection, requires an idea much
|
|
too refined for common understanding.
|
|
Fourthly. Were a manifesto to be published, and despatched to
|
|
foreign courts, setting forth the miseries we have endured, and the
|
|
peaceable methods we have ineffectually used for redress; declaring,
|
|
at the same time, that not being able, any longer to live happily or
|
|
safely under the cruel disposition of the British court, we had been
|
|
driven to the necessity of breaking off all connection with her; at
|
|
the same time assuring all such courts of our peaceable disposition
|
|
towards them, and of our desire of entering into trade with them. Such
|
|
a memorial would produce more good effects to this Continent, than
|
|
if a ship were freighted with petitions to Britain.
|
|
Under our present denomination of British subjects we can neither be
|
|
received nor heard abroad: The custom of all courts is against us, and
|
|
will be so, until, by an independence, we take rank with other
|
|
nations.
|
|
These proceedings may at first appear strange and difficult; but,
|
|
like all other steps which we have already passed over, will in a
|
|
little time become familiar and agreeable; and, until an
|
|
independence is declared, the continent will feel itself like a man
|
|
who continues putting off some unpleasant business from day to day,
|
|
yet knows it must be done, hates to set about it, wishes it over,
|
|
and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its necessity.
|
|
APPENDIX
|
|
APPENDIX
|
|
|
|
SINCE the publication of the first edition of this pamphlet, or
|
|
rather, on the same day on which it came out, the king's speech made
|
|
its appearance in this city. Had the spirit of prophecy directed the
|
|
birth of this production, it could not have brought it forth, at a
|
|
more seasonable juncture, or a more necessary time. The
|
|
bloody-mindedness of the one, show the necessity of pursuing the
|
|
doctrine of the other. Men read by way of revenge. And the speech
|
|
instead of terrifying, prepared a way for the manly principles of
|
|
independence.
|
|
Ceremony, and even, silence, from whatever motive they may arise,
|
|
have a hurtful tendency, when they give the least degree of
|
|
countenance to base and wicked performances; wherefore, if this
|
|
maxim be admitted, it naturally follows, that the king's speech, as
|
|
being a piece of finished villainy, deserved, and still deserves, a
|
|
general execration both by the congress and the people. Yet as the
|
|
domestic tranquility of a nation, depends greatly on the chastity of
|
|
what may properly be called national manners, it is often better, to
|
|
pass some things over in silent disdain, than to make use of such
|
|
new methods of dislike, as might introduce the least innovation, on
|
|
that guardian of our peace and safety. And perhaps, it is chiefly
|
|
owing to this prudent delicacy, that the king's speech, hath not
|
|
before now, suffered a public execution. The speech if it may be
|
|
called one, is nothing better than a wilful audacious libel against
|
|
the truth, the common good, and the existence of mankind; and is a
|
|
formal and pompous method of offering up human sacrifices to the pride
|
|
of tyrants. But this general massacre of mankind, is one of the
|
|
privileges, and the certain consequences of kings; for as nature knows
|
|
them not, they know not her, and although they are beings of our own
|
|
creating, they know not us, and are become the gods of their creators.
|
|
The speech hath one good quality, which is, that it is not
|
|
calculated to deceive, neither can we, even if we would, be deceived
|
|
by it. Brutality and tyranny appear on the face of it. It leaves us at
|
|
no loss: And every line convinces, even in the moment of reading, that
|
|
He, who hunts the woods for prey, the naked and untutored Indian, is
|
|
less a savage than the king of Britain.
|
|
Sir John Dalrymple, the putative father of a whining jesuitical
|
|
piece, fallaciously called, The address of the people of ENGLAND to
|
|
the inhabitants of America, hath, perhaps from a vain supposition,
|
|
that the people here were to be frightened at the pomp and description
|
|
of a king, given, (though very unwisely on his part) the real
|
|
character of the present one: "But," says this writer, "if you are
|
|
inclined to pay compliments to an administration, which we do not
|
|
complain of," (meaning the Marquis of Rockingham's at the repeal of
|
|
the Stamp Act) "it is very unfair in you to withhold them from that
|
|
prince, by whose NOD ALONE they were permitted to do anything." This
|
|
is toryism with a witness! Here is idolatry even without a mask: And
|
|
he who can calmly hear, and digest such doctrine, hath forfeited his
|
|
claim to rationality an apostate from the order of manhood; and
|
|
ought to be considered- as one, who hath, not only given up the proper
|
|
dignity of a man, but sunk himself beneath the rank of animals, and
|
|
contemptibly crawl through the world like a worm.
|
|
However, it matters very little now, what the king of England either
|
|
says or does; he hath wickedly broken through every moral and human
|
|
obligation, trampled nature and conscience beneath his feet; and by
|
|
a steady and constitutional spirit of insolence and cruelty,
|
|
procured for himself an universal hatred. It is now the interest of
|
|
America to provide for herself. She hath already a large and young
|
|
family, whom it is more her duty to take care of, than to be
|
|
granting away her property, to support a power who is become a
|
|
reproach to the names of men and Christians. Ye, whose office it is to
|
|
watch over the morals of a nation, of whatsoever sect or
|
|
denomination ye are of, as well as ye, who are more immediately the
|
|
guardians of the public liberty, if ye wish to preserve your native
|
|
country uncontaminated by European corruption, ye must in secret
|
|
wish a separation But leaving the moral part to private reflection,
|
|
I shall chiefly confine my farther remarks to the following heads:
|
|
First. That it is the interest of America to be separated from
|
|
Britain.
|
|
Secondly. Which is the easiest and most practicable plan,
|
|
reconciliation or independence? with some occasional remarks.
|
|
In support of the first, I could, if I judged it proper, produce the
|
|
opinion of some of the ablest and most experienced men on this
|
|
continent; and whose sentiments, on that head, are not yet publicly
|
|
known. It is in reality a self-evident position: For no nation in a
|
|
state of foreign dependance, limited in its commerce, and cramped
|
|
and fettered in its legislative powers, can ever arrive at any
|
|
material eminence. America doth not yet know what opulence is; and
|
|
although the progress which she hath made stands unparalleled in the
|
|
history of other nations, it is but childhood, compared with what
|
|
she would be capable of arriving at, had she, as she ought to have,
|
|
the legislative powers in her own hands. England is, at this time,
|
|
proudly coveting what would do her no good, were she to accomplish it;
|
|
and the Continent hesitating on a matter, which will be her final ruin
|
|
if neglected. It is the commerce and not the conquest of America, by
|
|
which England is to be benefited, and that would in a great measure
|
|
continue, were the countries as independent of each other as France
|
|
and Spain; because in many articles, neither can go to a better
|
|
market. But it is the independence of this country on Britain or any
|
|
other which is now the main and only object worthy of contention,
|
|
and which, like all other truths discovered by necessity, will
|
|
appear clearer and stronger every day.
|
|
First. Because it will come to that one time or other.
|
|
Secondly. Because the longer it is delayed the harder it will be
|
|
to accomplish.
|
|
I have frequently amused myself both in public and private
|
|
companies, with silently remarking the spacious errors of those who
|
|
speak without reflecting. And among the many which I have heard, the
|
|
following seems the most general, viz., that had this rupture happened
|
|
forty or fifty years hence, instead of now, the Continent would have
|
|
been more able to have shaken off the dependance. To which I reply,
|
|
that our military ability at this time, arises from the experience
|
|
gained in the last war, and which in forty or fifty years time,
|
|
would have been totally extinct. The Continent, would not, by that
|
|
time, have had a General, or even a military officer left; and we,
|
|
or those who may succeed us, would have been as ignorant of martial
|
|
matters as the ancient Indians: And this single position, closely
|
|
attended to, will unanswerably prove, that the present time is
|
|
preferable to all others: The argument turns thus- at the conclusion
|
|
of the last war, we had experience, but wanted numbers; and forty or
|
|
fifty years hence, we should have numbers, without experience;
|
|
wherefore, the proper point of time, must be some particular point
|
|
between the two extremes, in which a sufficiency of the former
|
|
remains, and a proper increase of the latter is obtained: And that
|
|
point of time is the present time.
|
|
The reader will pardon this digression, as it does not properly come
|
|
under the head I first set out with, and to which I again return by
|
|
the following position, viz.:
|
|
Should affairs be patched up with Britain, and she to remain the
|
|
governing and sovereign power of America, (which as matters are now
|
|
circumstanced, is giving up the point entirely) we shall deprive
|
|
ourselves of the very means of sinking the debt we have or may
|
|
contract. The value of the back lands which some of the provinces
|
|
are clandestinely deprived of, by the unjust extension of the limits
|
|
of Canada, valued only at five pounds sterling per hundred acres,
|
|
amount to upwards of twenty-five millions, Pennsylvania currency;
|
|
and the quit-rents at one penny sterling per acre, to two millions
|
|
yearly.
|
|
It is by the sale of those lands that the debt may be sunk,
|
|
without burden to any, and the quit-rent reserved thereon, will always
|
|
lessen, and in time, will wholly support the yearly expense of
|
|
government. It matters not how long the debt is in paying, so that the
|
|
lands when sold be applied to the discharge of it, and for the
|
|
execution of which, the Congress for the time being, will be the
|
|
continental trustees.
|
|
I proceed now to the second head, viz. Which is the earliest and
|
|
most practicable plan, reconciliation or independence? with some
|
|
occasional remarks.
|
|
He who takes nature for his guide is not easily beaten out of his
|
|
argument, and on that ground, I answer generally- That INDEPENDENCE
|
|
being a SINGLE SIMPLE LINE, contained within ourselves; and
|
|
reconciliation, a matter exceedingly perplexed and complicated, and in
|
|
which, a treacherous capricious court is to interfere, gives the
|
|
answer without a doubt.
|
|
The present state of America is truly alarming to every man who is
|
|
capable of reflection. Without law, without government, without any
|
|
other mode of power than what is founded on, and granted by
|
|
courtesy. Held together by an unexampled concurrence of sentiment,
|
|
which is nevertheless subject to change, and which every secret
|
|
enemy is endeavoring to dissolve. Our present condition, is,
|
|
legislation without law; wisdom without a plan; a constitution without
|
|
a name; and, what is strangely astonishing, perfect Independence
|
|
contending for dependance. The instance is without a precedent; the
|
|
case never existed before; and who can tell what may be the event? The
|
|
property of no man is secure in the present unbraced system of things.
|
|
The mind of the multitude is left at random, and feeling no fixed
|
|
object before them, they pursue such as fancy or opinion starts.
|
|
Nothing is criminal; there is no such thing as treason; wherefore,
|
|
every one thinks himself at liberty to act as he pleases. The tories
|
|
dared not to have assembled offensively, had they known that their
|
|
lives, by that act were forfeited to the laws of the state. A line
|
|
of distinction should be drawn, between English soldiers taken in
|
|
battle, and inhabitants of America taken in arms. The first are
|
|
prisoners, but the latter traitors. The one forfeits his liberty the
|
|
other his head.
|
|
Notwithstanding our wisdom, there is a visible feebleness in some of
|
|
our proceedings which gives encouragement to dissensions. The
|
|
Continental Belt is too loosely buckled. And if something is not
|
|
done in time, it will be too late to do any thing, and we shall fall
|
|
into a state, in which, neither reconciliation nor independence will
|
|
be practicable. The king and his worthless adherents are got at
|
|
their old game of dividing the continent, and there are not wanting
|
|
among us printers, who will be busy spreading specious falsehoods. The
|
|
artful and hypocritical letter which appeared a few months ago in
|
|
two of the New York papers, and likewise in two others, is an evidence
|
|
that there are men who want either judgment or honesty.
|
|
It is easy getting into holes and corners and talking of
|
|
reconciliation: But do such men seriously consider, how difficult
|
|
the task is, and how dangerous it may prove, should the Continent
|
|
divide thereon. Do they take within their view, all the various orders
|
|
of men whose situation and circumstances, as well as their own, are to
|
|
be considered therein. Do they put themselves in the place of the
|
|
sufferer whose all is already gone, and of the soldier, who hath
|
|
quitted all for the defence of his country. If their ill judged
|
|
moderation be suited to their own private situations only,
|
|
regardless of others, the event will convince them, that "they are
|
|
reckoning without their Host."
|
|
Put us, says some, on the footing we were in the year 1763: To which
|
|
I answer, the request is not now in the power of Britain to comply
|
|
with, neither will she propose it; but if it were, and even should
|
|
be granted, I ask, as a reasonable question, By what means is such a
|
|
corrupt and faithless court to be kept to its engagements? Another
|
|
parliament, nay, even the present, may hereafter repeal the
|
|
obligation, on the pretence of its being violently obtained, or
|
|
unwisely granted; and in that case, Where is our redress? No going
|
|
to law with nations; cannon are the barristers of crowns; and the
|
|
sword, not of justice, but of war, decides the suit. To be on the
|
|
footing of 1763, it is not sufficient, that the laws only be put on
|
|
the same state, but, that our circumstances, likewise, be put on the
|
|
same state; our burnt and destroyed towns repaired or built up, our
|
|
private losses made good, our public debts (contracted for defence)
|
|
discharged; otherwise, we shall be millions worse than we were at that
|
|
enviable period. Such a request had it been complied with a year
|
|
ago, would have won the heart and soul of the continent- but now it is
|
|
too late, "the Rubicon is passed."
|
|
Besides the taking up arms, merely to enforce the repeal of a
|
|
pecuniary law, seems as unwarrantable by the divine law, and as
|
|
repugnant to human feelings, as the taking up arms to enforce
|
|
obedience thereto. The object, on either side, doth not justify the
|
|
ways and means; for the lives of men are too valuable to be cast
|
|
away on such trifles. It is the violence which is done and
|
|
threatened to our persons; the destruction of our property by an armed
|
|
force; the invasion of our country by fire and sword, which
|
|
conscientiously qualifies the use of arms: And the instant, in which
|
|
such a mode of defence became necessary, all subjection to Britain
|
|
ought to have ceased; and the independency of America should have been
|
|
considered, as dating its area from, and published by, the first
|
|
musket that was fired against her. This line is a line of consistency;
|
|
neither drawn by caprice, nor extended by ambition; but produced by
|
|
a chain of events, of which the colonies were not the authors.
|
|
I shall conclude these remarks, with the following timely and well
|
|
intended hints, We ought to reflect, that there are three different
|
|
ways by which an independency may hereafter be effected; and that
|
|
one of those three, will one day or other, be the fate of America,
|
|
viz. By the legal voice of the people in congress; by a military
|
|
power; or by a mob: It may not always happen that our soldiers are
|
|
citizens, and the multitude a body of reasonable men; virtue, as I
|
|
have already remarked, is not hereditary, neither is it perpetual.
|
|
Should an independency be brought about by the first of those means,
|
|
we have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form
|
|
the noblest, purest constitution on the face of the earth. We have
|
|
it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to
|
|
the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The
|
|
birthday of a new world is at hand, and a race of men perhaps as
|
|
numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of
|
|
freedom from the event of a few months. The reflection is awful- and
|
|
in this point of view, how trifling, how ridiculous, do the little,
|
|
paltry cavillings, of a few weak or interested men appear, when
|
|
weighed against the business of a world.
|
|
Should we neglect the present favorable and inviting period, and
|
|
an independence be hereafter effected by any other means, we must
|
|
charge the consequence to ourselves, or to those rather, whose
|
|
narrow and prejudiced souls, are habitually opposing the measure,
|
|
without either inquiring or reflecting. There are reasons to be
|
|
given in support of Independence, which men should rather privately
|
|
think of, than be publicly told of. We ought not now to be debating
|
|
whether we shall be independent or not, but, anxious to accomplish
|
|
it on a firm, secure, and honorable basis, and uneasy rather that it
|
|
is not yet began upon. Every day convinces us of its necessity. Even
|
|
the tories (if such beings yet remain among us) should, of all men, be
|
|
the most solicitous to promote it; for, as the appointment of
|
|
committees at first, protected them from popular rage, so, a wise
|
|
and well established form of government, will be the only certain
|
|
means of continuing it securely to them. Wherefore, if they have not
|
|
virtue enough to be Whigs, they ought to have prudence enough to
|
|
wish for independence.
|
|
In short, independence is the only bond that can tie and keep us
|
|
together. We shall then see our object, and our ears will be legally
|
|
shut against the schemes of an intriguing, as well as a cruel enemy.
|
|
We shall then too, be on a proper footing, to treat with Britain;
|
|
for there is reason to conclude, that the pride of that court, will be
|
|
less hurt by treating with the American states for terms of peace,
|
|
than with those, whom she denominates, "rebellious subjects," for
|
|
terms of accommodation. It is our delaying it that encourages her to
|
|
hope for conquest, and our backwardness tends only to prolong the war.
|
|
As we have, without any good effect therefrom, withheld our trade to
|
|
obtain a redress of our grievances, let us now try the alternative, by
|
|
independently redressing them ourselves, and then offering to open the
|
|
trade. The mercantile and reasonable part of England will be still
|
|
with us; because, peace with trade, is preferable to war without it.
|
|
And if this offer be not accepted, other courts may be applied to.
|
|
On these grounds I rest the matter. And as no offer hath yet been
|
|
made to refute the doctrine contained in the former editions of this
|
|
pamphlet, it is a negative proof, that either the doctrine cannot be
|
|
refuted, or, that the party in favor of it are too numerous to be
|
|
opposed. Wherefore, instead of gazing at each other with suspicious or
|
|
doubtful curiosity, let each of us, hold out to his neighbor the
|
|
hearty hand of friendship, and unite in drawing a line, which, like an
|
|
act of oblivion, shall bury in forgetfulness every former
|
|
dissention. Let the names of Whig and Tory be extinct; and let none
|
|
other be heard among us, than those of a good citizen, an open and
|
|
resolute friend, and a virtuous supporter of the RIGHTS of MANKIND and
|
|
of the FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES OF AMERICA.
|
|
EPISTLE TO QUAKERS
|
|
|
|
To the Representatives of the Religious Society of the People called
|
|
Quakers, or to so many of them as were concerned in publishing a
|
|
late piece, entitled "THE ANCIENT TESTIMONY and PRINCIPLES of the
|
|
people called QUAKERS renewed with respect to the KING and GOVERNMENT,
|
|
and Touching the COMMOTIONS now prevailing in these and other parts of
|
|
AMERICA, addressed to the PEOPLE IN GENERAL."
|
|
|
|
THE writer of this is one of those few, who never dishonors religion
|
|
either by ridiculing, or cavilling at any denomination whatsoever.
|
|
To God, and not to man, are all men accountable on the score of
|
|
religion. Wherefore, this epistle is not so properly addressed to
|
|
you as a religious, but as a political body, dabbling in matters,
|
|
which the professed quietude of your Principles instruct you not to
|
|
meddle with.
|
|
As you have, without a proper authority for so doing, put yourselves
|
|
in the place of the whole body of the Quakers, so, the writer of this,
|
|
in order to be on an equal rank with yourselves, is under the
|
|
necessity, of putting himself in the place of all those who approve
|
|
the very writings and principles, against which your testimony is
|
|
directed: And he hath chosen their singular situation, in order that
|
|
you might discover in him, that presumption of character which you
|
|
cannot see in yourselves. For neither he nor you have any claim or
|
|
title to Political Representation.
|
|
When men have departed from the right way, it is no wonder that they
|
|
stumble and fall. And it is evident from the manner in which ye have
|
|
managed your testimony, that politics, (as a religious body of men) is
|
|
not your proper walk; for however well adapted it might appear to you,
|
|
it is, nevertheless, a jumble of good and bad put unwisely together,
|
|
and the conclusion drawn therefrom, both unnatural and unjust.
|
|
The two first pages, (and the whole doth not make four) we give
|
|
you credit for, and expect the same civility from you, because the
|
|
love and desire of peace is not confined to Quakerism, it is the
|
|
natural, as well as the religious wish of all denominations of men.
|
|
And on this ground, as men laboring to establish an Independent
|
|
Constitution of our own, do we exceed all others in our hope, end, and
|
|
aim. Our plan is peace for ever. We are tired of contention with
|
|
Britain, and can see no real end to it but in a final separation. We
|
|
act consistently, because for the sake of introducing an endless and
|
|
uninterrupted peace, do we bear the evils and burdens of the present
|
|
day. We are endeavoring, and will steadily continue to endeavor, to
|
|
separate and dissolve a connection which hath already filled our
|
|
land with blood; and which, while the name of it remains, will be
|
|
the fatal cause of future mischiefs to both countries.
|
|
We fight neither for revenge nor conquest; neither from pride nor
|
|
passion; we are not insulting the world with our fleets and armies,
|
|
nor ravaging the globe for plunder. Beneath the shade of our own vines
|
|
are we attacked; in our own houses, and on our own lands, is the
|
|
violence committed against us. We view our enemies in the characters
|
|
of highwaymen and housebreakers, and having no defence for ourselves
|
|
in the civil law; are obliged to punish them by the military one,
|
|
and apply the sword, in the very case, where you have before now,
|
|
applied the halter. Perhaps we feel for the ruined and insulted
|
|
sufferers in all and every part of the continent, and with a degree of
|
|
tenderness which hath not yet made its way into some of your bosoms.
|
|
But be ye sure that ye mistake not the cause and ground of your
|
|
Testimony. Call not coldness of soul, religion; nor put the bigot in
|
|
the place of the Christian.
|
|
O ye partial ministers of your own acknowledged principles! If the
|
|
bearing arms be sinful, the first going to war must be more so, by all
|
|
the difference between wilful attack and unavoidable defence.
|
|
Wherefore, if ye really preach from conscience, and mean not to make
|
|
a political hobby-horse of your religion, convince the world
|
|
thereof, by proclaiming your doctrine to our enemies, for they
|
|
likewise bear ARMS. Give us proof of your sincerity by publishing it
|
|
at St. James's, to the commanders in chief at Boston, to the
|
|
admirals and captains who are practically ravaging our coasts, and
|
|
to all the murdering miscreants who are acting in authority under
|
|
HIM whom ye profess to serve. Had ye the honest soul of Barclay* ye
|
|
would preach repentance to your king; Ye would tell the royal tyrant
|
|
of his sins, and warn him of eternal ruin. Ye would not spend your
|
|
partial invectives against the injured and the insulted only, but like
|
|
faithful ministers, would cry aloud and spare none. Say not that ye
|
|
are persecuted, neither endeavor to make us the authors of that
|
|
reproach, which, ye are bringing upon yourselves; for we testify
|
|
unto all men, that we do not complain against you because ye are
|
|
Quakers, but because ye pretend to be and are NOT Quakers.
|
|
|
|
*"Thou hast tasted of prosperity and adversity; thou knowest what it
|
|
is to be banished thy native country, to be overruled as well as to
|
|
rule, and set upon the throne; and being oppressed thou hast reason to
|
|
know now hateful the oppressor is both to God and man. If after all
|
|
these warnings and advertisements, thou dost not turn unto the Lord
|
|
with all thy heart, but forget him who remembered thee in thy
|
|
distress, and give up thyself to follow lust and vanity, surely
|
|
great will be thy condemnation. Against which snare, as well as the
|
|
temptation of those who may or do feed thee, and prompt thee to
|
|
evil, the most excellent and prevalent remedy will be, to apply
|
|
thyself to that light of Christ which shineth in thy conscience and
|
|
which neither can, nor will flatter thee, nor suffer thee to be at
|
|
ease in thy sins."- Barclay's Address to Charles II.
|
|
|
|
Alas! it seems by the particular tendency of some part of your
|
|
Testimony, and other parts of your conduct, as if all sin was
|
|
reduced to, and comprehended in the act of bearing arms, and that by
|
|
the people only. Ye appear to us, to have mistaken party for
|
|
conscience, because the general tenor of your actions wants
|
|
uniformity: And it is exceedingly difficult to us to give credit to
|
|
many of your pretended scruples; because we see them made by the
|
|
same men, who, in the very instant that they are exclaiming against
|
|
the mammon of this world, are nevertheless, hunting after it with a
|
|
step as steady as Time, and an appetite as keen as Death.
|
|
The quotation which ye have made from Proverbs, in the third page of
|
|
your testimony, that, "when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh
|
|
even his enemies to be at peace with him;" is very unwisely chosen
|
|
on your part; because it amounts to a proof, that the king's ways
|
|
(whom ye are so desirous of supporting) do not please the Lord,
|
|
otherwise, his reign would be in peace.
|
|
I now proceed to the latter part of your testimony, and that, for
|
|
which all the foregoing seems only an introduction, viz:
|
|
"It hath ever been our judgment and principle, since we were
|
|
called to profess the light of Christ Jesus, manifested in our
|
|
consciences unto this day, that the setting up and putting down
|
|
kings and governments, is God's peculiar prerogative; for causes
|
|
best known to himself: And that it is not our business to have any
|
|
hand or contrivance therein; nor to be busy-bodies above our
|
|
station, much less to plot and contrive the ruin, or overturn any of
|
|
them, but to pray for the king, and safety of our nation, and good
|
|
of all men: that we may live a peaceable and quiet life, in all
|
|
goodliness and honesty; under the government which God is pleased to
|
|
set over us." If these are really your principles why do ye not
|
|
abide by them? Why do ye not leave that, which ye call God's work,
|
|
to be managed by himself? These very principles instruct you to wait
|
|
with patience and humility, for the event of all public measures,
|
|
and to receive that event as the divine will towards you. Wherefore,
|
|
what occasion is there for your political Testimony if you fully
|
|
believe what it contains? And the very publishing it proves, that
|
|
either, ye do not believe what ye profess, or have not virtue enough
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to practice what ye believe.
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The principles of Quakerism have a direct tendency to make a man the
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quiet and inoffensive subject of any, and every government which is
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set over him. And if the setting up and putting down of kings and
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governments is God's peculiar prerogative, he most certainly will
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not be robbed thereof by us; wherefore, the principle itself leads you
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to approve of every thing, which ever happened, or may happen to kings
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as being his work. Oliver Cromwell thanks you. Charles, then, died not
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by the hands of man; and should the present proud imitator of him,
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come to the same untimely end, the writers and publishers of the
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Testimony, are bound by the doctrine it contains, to applaud the fact.
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Kings are not taken away by miracles, neither are changes in
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governments brought about by any other means than such as are common
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and human; and such as we are now using. Even the dispersing of the
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Jews, though foretold by our Savior, was effected by arms.
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Wherefore, as ye refuse to be the means on one side, ye ought not to
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be meddlers on the other; but to wait the issue in silence; and unless
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you can produce divine authority, to prove, that the Almighty who hath
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created and placed this new world, at the greatest distance it could
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possibly stand, east and west, from every part of the old, doth,
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nevertheless, disapprove of its being independent of the corrupt and
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abandoned court of Britain; unless I say, ye can show this, how can
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ye, on the ground of your principles, justify the exciting and
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stirring up of the people "firmly to unite in the abhorrence of all
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such writings, and measures, as evidence a desire and design to
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break off the happy connection we have hitherto enjoyed, with the
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kingdom of Great Britain, and our just and necessary subordination
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to the king, and those who are lawfully placed in authority under
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him." What a slap in the face is here! the men, who, in the very
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paragraph before, have quietly and passively resigned up the ordering,
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altering, and disposal of kings and governments, into the hands of
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God, are now recalling their principles, and putting in for a share of
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the business. Is it possible, that the conclusion, which is here
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justly quoted, can any ways follow from the doctrine laid down? The
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inconsistency is too glaring not to be seen; the absurdity too great
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not to be laughed at; and such as could only have been made by
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those, whose understandings were darkened by the narrow and crabby
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|
spirit of a despairing political party; for ye are not to be
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considered as the whole body of the Quakers but only as a factional
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and fractional part thereof.
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Here ends the examination of your testimony; (which I call upon no
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man to abhor, as ye have done, but only to read and judge of
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fairly;) to which I subjoin the following remark; "That the setting up
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and putting down of kings," most certainly mean, the making him a
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king, who is yet not so, and the making him no king who is already
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one. And pray what hath this to do in the present case? We neither
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mean to set up nor to put down, neither to make nor to unmake, but
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to have nothing to do with them. Wherefore your testimony in
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whatever light it is viewed serves only to dishonor your judgment, and
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for many other reasons had better have been let alone than published.
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First. Because it tends to the decrease and reproach of religion
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whatever, and is of the utmost danger to society, to make it a party
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in political disputes.
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Secondly. Because it exhibits a body of men, numbers of whom disavow
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the publishing political testimonies, as being concerned therein and
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approvers thereof.
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Thirdly. Because it hath a tendency to undo that continental harmony
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and friendship which yourselves by your late liberal and charitable
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donations hath lent a hand to establish; and the preservation of
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which, is of the utmost consequence to us all.
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And here, without anger or resentment I bid you farewell.
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Sincerely wishing, that as men and Christians, ye may always fully and
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uninterruptedly enjoy every civil and religious right; and be, in your
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turn, the means of securing it to others; but that the example which
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ye have unwisely set, of mingling religion with politics, may be
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disavowed and reprobated by every inhabitant of America.
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-THE END-
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