Latest / Classic Non-Fiction Book Collection / Common Sense - Thomas Paine

Transcript

Common Sense - Thomas Paine · Classic Non-Fiction Book Collection

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Introduction and preface introduction. Perhaps
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the sentiments contained in the following pages are not yet
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor. A long habit
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: outcry in defensive custom. But the tumult soon subsides time
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: makes more converts than reason. As a long and violent
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: abuse of power is generally the means of calling the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: right of it in question, and in matters to which
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: might never have been thought of had not the sufferers
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: been aggravated into the inquiry. And as the King of
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: England hath undertaken in his own right to support the
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Parliament in what he calls theirs, and as the good
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: of both, and equally to reject the usurpations of either.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: In the following sheets, the author has studiously avoided everything
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: which is personal among ourselves. Compliments, as well as censure
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: to individuals, make no part thereof The wise and the
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: worthy need not the triumph of a pamphlet, and those
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: whose sentiments are injudicious or unfriendly will cease of themselves
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: unless too much pains are bestowed upon their conversion. The
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: cause of America is in a great measure the cause
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: of all mankind. Many circumstances have and will arise which
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: are not local but universal, and through which the principles
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: event of which their affections are interested. The laying of
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: a country desolate with fire and sword, declaring war against
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: thereof from the face of the earth is the concern
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: of every man, to whom nature hath given the power
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: of feeling, of which class, regardless of party censure is
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: the author PostScript to the preface in the third edition, p. S.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: The publication of this new edition hath been delayed with
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: a view of taking notice had it been necessary of
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: any attempt to refute the doctrine of independence. As no
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: answer hath yet appeared. It is now presumed that none
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: will the time needful for getting such a performance ready,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: for the public being considerably passed. Who the author of
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: this presentation is is wholly unnecessary to the public, as
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: the object for attention is the doctrine itself, not the man.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Yet it may not be unnecessary to say that he
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: is unconnected with any party, and under no sort of influence,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: public or private, but the influence of reason and principle. Philadelphia,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: February fourteenth, seventeen seventy six, end of introduction and preface,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Chapter one of the Origin and Design of Government in General,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: with concise remarks on the English Constitution. Some writers have
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: so confounded society with government as to leave little or
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: no distinction between them, whereas they are not only different,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: and government by wickedness. The former promotes our happiness positively
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: is a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: state is a blessing. But government, even in its best state,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: is but a necessary evil. In its worst state and
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: intolerable one. We suffer or are exposed to the same
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: miseries by a government which we might expect in a
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government like
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: dress is the badge of lost innocence. The palaces of
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: But where the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: man would need no other lawgiver. But that not being
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: part of his property to furnish means for the protection
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: of the rest. And this he is induced to do
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: by the same prudence which in every other case advises him,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: out of two evils, to choose the least. Wherefore, security
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: it to us with the least expense and greatest benefit,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: is preferable to all others. In order to gain a
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: clear and just idea of the design and end of government,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: let us suppose a small number of persons settled in
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: They will then represent the first peopling of any country
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: or of the world. In this state of natural liberty,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: society will be their first thought. A thousand motives will
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: excite them hitherto the strength of one man is so
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: and relief of another, who, in his turn requires the same.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Four or five united would be able to raise a
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness. But one
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: man might labor out of the common period of his
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: life without accomplishing anything. When he had felled his timber,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: he could not remove it, nor erect it after it
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: was removed. Hunger in the meantime would urge him from
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: his work, and every different want call him a different way. Disease, nay,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: even misfortune, would be death, for though neither might be mortal,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: yet either would disable him from living and reduce him
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: to a state in which he might rather be said
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: to perish than to die. This necessity, like a gravitating power,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: would soon form our newly arrived emigrants into society, the
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: reciprocal blessing of which would supersede and render the obligations
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: of law and government unnecessary while they remained perfectly just
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: to each other. But as nothing but heaven is impregnable
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: to vice, it will unavoidably happen that, in proportion, as
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: they surmount the first difficulties of emigration, which bound them
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: together in a common cause, they will begin to relax
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: in their duty and attachment to each other. And this
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: remissness will point out the necessity of establishing some form
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: of government to supply the defect of moral virtue. Some
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: convenient tree will afford them a state house, under the
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: branches of which the whole colony may assemble to deliberate
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: on public matters. It is more than probable that their
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: first laws will have the title only of regulations, and
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: be enforced by no other penalty than public disesteem. In
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: this first parliament, every man, by natural right will have
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: a seat. But as the colony increases, the public concerns
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: will increase likewise, and a distance at which the members
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: may be separated will render it too inconvenient for all
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: of them to meet on every occasion. As at first,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: when their number was small, their habituations near, and the
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: public concerns few and trifling, this will point out their
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: convenience of their consenting to leave the legislative part to
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: be managed by a select number chosen from the whole body,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: who are supposed to have the same concerns at stake
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: which those have who appointed them, and who will act
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: in the same manner as the whole body would act
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: were they present. If the colony continues increasing, it will
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: become necessary to augment the number of the representatives, and
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: that the interest of every part of the colony may
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: be attended to. It will be found best to divide
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: the whole into convenient parts, each part sending its proper number,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: and that the elected might never form to themselves an
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: interest separate from the electors. Prudence will point out the
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: propriety of having elections often, because as the elected might,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: by that means return and mix again with the general
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: body of the electors in a few months, their fidelity
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: to the public will be secured by the prudent reflections
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: of not making a rod for themselves. And as this
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: frequent interchange will establish a common interest with every part
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: of the community, they will mutually and naturally support each other.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: And on this not on the unmeaning name of king,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: depends the strength of government and the happiness of the governed. Here, then,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: is the origin and rise of government, namely a mode
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: the world. Here too is the design and end of government, viz.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Freedom and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: with snow, or our ears deceived by sound. However prejudice
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding. The
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: simple voice of nature and of reason will say it
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: is right. I draw my idea to the form of
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: government from a principle in nature which no art can overturn, viz.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: That the more simple anything is, the less liable it
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: is to be disordered, and the easier rep paired wind disordered.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: And with this maximum view I offer a few remarks
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: on the so much boasted Constitution of England. That it
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: was noble for the mark and slavish times in which
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: it was erected is granted, when the world was overrun
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: with tyranny, the least removed therefrom was a glorious rescue.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: But that it is imperfect, subject to convulsions, and incapable
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: of producing what it seems to promise, is easily demonstrated.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Absolute governments, through the disgrace of human nature, have this
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: advantage with them, that they are simple. If the people suffer,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: they know the head from which their suffering springs know
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: likewise the remedy, and are not bewildered by a variety
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: of causes and cures. But the Constitution of England is
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: so exceedingly complex that the nation may suffer for years
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: together without being able to discover in which part the
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: fault lies. Some will say in one and some in another.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Political physician will advise a different medicine. I know it
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: is difficult to get over local or long standing prejudices.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Yet if we will suffer ourselves to examine the component
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: parts of the English Constitution, we shall find them to
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: be the base remains of two ancient tyrannies, compounded with
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: some new republican materials. First the remains of monarchical tyranny
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: in the person of the king. Secondly the remains of
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: aristocratical tyranny in the persons of the peers. Thirdly, the
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: new republican materials in the persons of the commons, on
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: whose virtue depends the freedom of England. The two first,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: by being hereditary are independent of the people, and therefore,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: in a constitutional sense, they contribute nothing towards the freedom
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: of the state. To say that the Constitution of England
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: is a union of three powers reciprocally checking each other
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: is farcical. Either the words have no meaning or they
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: are flat contradictions. To say that the commons is a
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: check upon the king presupposes two things. First, that the
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: king is not to be trusted without being looked after,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: or in other words, that a thirst for absolute power
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: is the natural disease of monarchy. Secondly, that the commons,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: by being appointed for that purpose, are either wiser or
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: more worthy of confidence than the Crown. But as the
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: same constitution which gives the commons a power to check
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: the king by withholding the supplies, gives afterwards the King
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: a power to check the commons by empowering him to
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: reject their other bills, it again supposes that the king
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: is wiser than those whom it has already supposed to
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: be wiser than him. A mere absurdity. There is something
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy. It first excludes
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: a man from the means of information, yet empowers him
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: to act in cases where the highest judgment is required.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: The state of a king shuts him from the world.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: The bi business of a king requires him to know
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: it thoroughly. Wherefore the different parts, by unnaturally opposing and
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: destroying each other, prove the whole character to be absurd
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: and useless. Some writers have explained the English constitution. Thus
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: the king, they say, is one, the people another. The
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: peers are a house in behalf of the king, the
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: commons in behalf of the people. But this hath all
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the distinctions of a house divided against itself. And though
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: the expressions be pleasantly arranged, yet when examined they appear
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: idle and ambiguous. And it will always happen that the
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: nicest construction that words are capable of, when applied to
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the description of something which either cannot exist or is
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: too incomprehensible to be within the compass of description, will
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: be words of sound only. And though they may amuse
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the ear, they cannot inform the mind. For this explanation
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: includes a previous question, viz. How came the king by
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: a power which the people are afraid to trust and
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: always obliged to check. Such a power could not be
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the gift of a wise people. Neither can any power
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: which needs checking be from God. Yet the provision which
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the Constitution makes supposes such a power to exist. But
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the provision is unequal to the task. The means either
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: cannot or will not accomplish the end, and the whole
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: affair is a philo. D say, the wheels of a
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: machine are put in motion by one. It only remains
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: to know which power in the Constitution has the most weight,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: for that will govern. And though the others or a
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: part of them may clog, or, as the phrase is,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: check the rapidity of its motion. Yet so long as
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: they cannot stop it, their endeavors will be ineffectual. The
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: first moving power will at last have its way, and
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: what it wants in speed is supplied by time. That
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: the Crown is this overbearing part in the English com
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Institution needs not be mentioned. And that it derives its
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: whole consequence merely from being the giver of places and
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: pensions is self evident. Wherefore, though we have been wise
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: enough to shut and lock a door against absolute monarchy,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: we at the same time have been foolish enough to
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: put the crown in possession of the key. The prejudice
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: of Englishmen in favor of their own government by king,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: lords and commons arises as much or more from national
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: pride than reason. Individuals are undoubtedly safer in England than
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: in some other countries. But the will of the king
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: is as much the law of the land in Britain
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: as in France, with this difference that instead of proceeding
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: directly from his mouth, it is handed to the people
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: under the more formidable shape of an Act of Parliament.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: For the fate of Charles, the first hath only made
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: kings more subtle, not more just. Wherefore, lying aside all
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: national pride and prejudice in faith favor of modes and forms,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the plain truth is that it is wholly owing to
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the constitution of the people and not to the constitution
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: of the government, that the crown is not as oppressive
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: in England as it is in Turkey. An inquiry into
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: the constitutional errors in the English form of government is
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: at this time highly necessary, for as we are never
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: in a proper condition of doing justice to others while
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: we continue under the influence of some leading partiality, so
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: neither are we capable of doing it to ourselves. While
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: we remain fettered by any obstinate prejudice. And as a
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: man who is attached to a prostitute is unfitted to
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: choose or judge of a wife, so any prepossession in
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: favor of a rotten constitution of government will disable us
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: from discerning a good one end of Chapter one two
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: of monarchy and hereditary succession being originally equals in the
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: some subsequent circumstance. The distinction of rich and poor may
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: in a great measure be accounted for, and without having
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: recourse to the harsh, ill sounding names of oppression and avariance.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or never the
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: means of riches. And though avus will preserve a man
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: from being necessitously poor, it generally makes him too timorous
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: to be wealthy. But there is another and greater distinction
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: and that is the distinction of men into kings and subjects.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Male and female are the distinction of nature good and bad,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: the distinction of heaven. But how a race of men
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: came into the world so exalted above the rest and
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: distinguished like some new species, is worth inquiring into and
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: whether they are the means of happiness or of misery
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: to mankind. In the early ages of the world, according
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: to the Scripture chronology, there were no kings, the consequence
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: of which was there were no wars. It is the
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: pride of kings which throw mankind into confusion. Holland without
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: a king, hath enjoyed more peace for this last century
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: than any of the monarchical governments in Europe. Antiquity favors
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: the same remark for the quiet and rural lives of
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: the first patriarchs. Hath a happy something in them which
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: vanishes away. When we come to the history of the
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Jewish royalty. Government by kings was first introduced into the
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: world by the Heathens, from whom the children of Israel
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: copied the custom. It was the most prosperous invention the
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: The Heathens paid divine honors to their deceased kings, and
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the Christian world hath improved upon the plan by doing
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: the same to their living ones. How impious is the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: title of sacred majesty applied to a worm who, in
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: the midst of his splendor is crumbling into dust. As
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: be justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: can it be defended on the authority of scripture. For
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: the will of the Almighty, as declared by Gideon and
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by kings. All
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: anti monarchical parts of scripture have been smoothly glossed over
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: in monarchical governments, but they undoubtedly merit the attention of
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: countries which have their governments yet to form. Render unto Caesar,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the things which are Caesar's is the scripture, doctrine of courts.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Yet it is no support of a monarchical government for
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the Jews, that at that time were without a king
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and in a state of vassalage to the Romans. Near
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: three thousand year years passed away from the mosaic account
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: of the creation till the Jews, under a national delusion,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: requested a king. Till then their form of government, except
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: in extraordinary cases where the Almighty interposed, was a kind
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: of republic administered by a judge and the elders of
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the tribes kings, they had none, and it was held
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: sinful to acknowledge any being under that title but the
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Lord of Hosts. And when a man seriously reflects on
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: the idolatrous homage which is paid to the persons of kings,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: he need not wonder that the Almighty, ever jealous of
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: his honor, should disapprove of a form of government which
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: so impiously invades the prerogative of heaven. Monarchy is ranked
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: in scripture as one of the sins of the Jews,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: for such a curse in reserve is denounced against them.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: The history of that transaction is worth attending. To the
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: children of Israel being oppressed by the Medeites, Gideon marched
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: against them with a small arm army and victory. Though
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: the divine interposed decided in his favor. The Jews elate
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: with success, and attributing it to the generalship of Gideon,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: proposed making him a king, saying, rule thou over us,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: thou and thy son and thy son's son. Here was
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: temptation in its fullest extent, not a kingdom only, but
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: a hereditary one. But Gideon, in the piety of his soul, replied,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: I will not rule over you, neither shall my son
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: rule over you. The Lord shall rule over you. Words
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: need not be more explicit. Gideon doth not decline the honor,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: but denieth their right to give it. Neither doth he
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: compliment them in inventing declarations of his thanks, but in
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: the positive style of a prophet, charges them with disaffection
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: to their proper sovereign, the King of Heavens. About one
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty years after this, they fell again into
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: the same error. The hank which the Jews had for
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: the idolatrous custom of the Heathens is something exceedingly unaccountable.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: But so it was that, laying hold of the misconduct
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: of Samuel's two sons, who were entrusted with some secular concerns,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: they came in an abrupt and clamorous manner to Samuel, saying, behold,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Now make us a king to judge us like all
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: the other nations. And here we cannot but observe that
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: their motives were bad, viz. That they might be like
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: unto other nations, in other words, the heavens, whereas their
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: true glory lay in being as much unlike them as possible.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: and the Lord said, unto Samuel, hearken to the voice
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: of the people in all that they say unto thee
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: For they have not rejected thee but they have reached
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: me that I should not reign over them, according to
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: all the works which they have done since the day
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: that I brought them up out of Egypt, even into
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: this day, whereon they have forsaken me and served other gods.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: So do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: their voice. Howbi protest solemnly unto them, and show them
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: the manner of the kings that shall reign over them.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: In other words, not of any particular king, but the
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: general manner of the kings of the earth, whom Israel
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: was so eagerly copying after. And notwithstanding the great distance
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: of time and difference of manners, the character is still
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: in fashion. And Samuel told all the words of the
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Lord unto the people that asked of him a king,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: And he said, this shall be the manner of the king.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Thou shalt reign over you. He will take your sons,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: and appoint them for himself for his chariots, and to
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: be his horse, and some shall run before his chariots.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: This description agrees with the present mode of impressing men.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: over fifties, and will set them to ear his ground,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: and to read his harvest, and to make his instruments
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: of war and instruments of his chariots. And he will
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: take your daughters to be confectioneries, and to be cooks,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: and to be bakers. This describes the expense and luxury
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: as well as the oppression of kings. And he will
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: take your fields and your olive yards, even the best
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: of them, and give them to his servants. And he
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: will take the tenth of your feed and of your vineyards,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: and give them to his officers and to his servants,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: by which we see that bribery, corruption, and favoritism are
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the standing vices of kings. And he will take the
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: tenth of your men servants, and your maid servants, and
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: your goodliest young men and you, and put them to
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: his work. And he will take the tenth of your sheep,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: and ye shall be his servants and ye shall cry
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: out in that day because of your king, which ye
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: shall have chosen, and the Lord will not hear you
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: in that day. This accounts for the continuation of monarchy.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Neither do the characters of the few good kings which
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: have lived since either sanctify the title or brought out
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: the sinfulness of the origin. The high ecumen given of
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: David takes no notice of him officially as a king,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: but only as a man after God's own heart. Nevertheless,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: they said, nay, but we will have a king over us,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: that we may be like all the nations, and that
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: our king may judge us and go out before us
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: and fight our battles. Samuel continued to reason with them,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: but to no purpose. He set before them their ingratitude,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: but all would not avail, and seeing them fully bent
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: on their folly, he cried out, I will call unto
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: the Lord, and he shall send thunder and reign, which
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: then was a punishment, being in the time of wheat harvest,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: which ye have done in the sight of the Lord
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: in asking you a king. So Samuel called unto the Lord,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: and the Lord sent thunder and reign that day, and
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel, and
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: all the people said, unto Samuel, pray for thy servants,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: unto the Lord, thy God, that we die not, for
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: we have added unto our sins this evil to ask
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: a king. These portions of scripture are direct and positive.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: They admit of no equivocal construction. That the Almighty hath
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: here entered his protest against monarchical government, is true, or
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: the scripture is false. Man hath good reason to believe
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: that there is as much of kingcraft as priest in
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: withholding the scripture from the public in popish countries. For monarchy,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: in every instance is the popery of government. To the
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: evil of monarchy, we have added that of hereditary succession.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: And as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: so is the second, claimed, as a matter of right,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: is an insult and an imposition on posterity. For all
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: men being originally equals, no one by birth could have
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: a right to set up his own family in perpetual
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: preference to all others forever, And though himself might deserve
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: some decent respect of honors of his contemporaries, yet his
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them. One
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: right in kings is that the nature disproves it, Otherwise
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: giving mankind and ask for a lion. Secondly, as no
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: man at first could possess any other public honors than
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: were bestowed upon him, so the givers of those honors
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: could have no power to give away the right of posterity.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: And though they might say, we choose you for our head,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: they could not, without manifest injustice to their children, say
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: that your children and your children's children shall reign over
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: ours forever, because such an unwise, unjust, unnatural compact might perhaps,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: in the next succession, put them under the government of
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: a rogue or a fool. Most Wise, men in their
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: private sentiments have ever treated hereditary right with contempt. Yet
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: it is one of those evils which, when once established,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: is not easily removed. Many submit from fear, others from superstition,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: and the most powerful part shares with the king the
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: under of the rest. This is supposing the present race
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: of kings is in the world to have had an
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: honorable origin, whereas it is more than probable that could
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: we take off the dark covering of antiquity and trace
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: them to their first rise, that we should find the
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: first of them nothing better than the principal ruffian of
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: some restless group, whose savage manners or pre eminence in
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: suitability obtained him the title of chief among plunderers, and who,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: by increase in power and extending his depretations, overawed the
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: quiet and defenseless to purchase their safety by frequent contributions.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Yet his electors could have no idea of giving hereditary
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: right to his descendants, because such a perpetual exclusion of
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: themselves was incompatible with the free and unrestrained principles they
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: profess to live by. Wherefore, hereditary succession in the early
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: ages of monarchy could not take place as a matter
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: of claim, but as something casual or complemental. But as
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: few or no records were extant in those days, and
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: traditionally history stuffed with fables, it was very easy, after
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: the lapse of a few generations, to trump up some
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: superstitious tale conveniently timed Mahomet like to cram hereditary right
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: down the throats of the vulgar. Perhaps the disorders which
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: threatened or seemed to threaten on the decease of a
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: leader and the choice of a new one for elections
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: among Ruffians could not be very orderly induced many at
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: first to favor hereditary pretensions, by which means it happened
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: as it hath happened, since that what at first was
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: submitted to as a convenience was afterwards claimed as a right.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: England since the conquest hath known some few good monarchs,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: but groaned beneath a much larger number of bad ones.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Yet no man in his senses can say that their
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: claim under William the Conqueror is a very honorable one.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: A French bastard landing with an armed banditti and establishing
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: himself king of England against the consent of the natives is,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: in plain terms, a very paltry, rascally original. It certainly
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: hath no divinity in it. However, it is needless to
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: spend much time in exposing the folly of hereditary right.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: If there are any so weak as to believe it,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: let them promiscuously worship the ass and lion, and welcome.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: I shall neither copy their humility nor disturb their devotion.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Yet I should be glad to ask how they suppose
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: kings came at first? The question admits but of three answers, viz.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Either by lot, by election, or by usurption. If the
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: first king was taken by lot, it establishes a precedent
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: for the next, excludes hereditary succession. Saul was by lot,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Yet the succession was not hereditary. Neither does it appear
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: from that transaction there was any intention it ever should
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: If the first king of any country was by election,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: that likewise establishes a precedent for the next. For to
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: say that the right of all future generations is taken
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: away by the act of the first electors in their
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: choice not only of a king, but of a family
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: of kings. Forever hath no parallel in or out of scripture.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: But the doctrine of original sin, which supposes the free
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: will of all men lost in atom and from such comparison,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: and it will admit of no other. Hereditary succession can
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: derive no glory, For as in Adam all sinned, and
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: as in the first Electors, all men obeyed, as in
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: the one, all mankind were subjected to satan, and in
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: the other to sovereignty inner since was lost in the
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: first and our authority in the last, and as both
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: disable us from resuming some former state and privilege, it
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: unanswerably follows that original sin and hereditary succession are parallels
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: dishonorable rank in glorious connection. Yet the most subtle sophist
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: cannot produce a just simile as to usurpation. No man
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: will be so hardy as to defend it. And that
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: William the Conqueror was a usurper is a fact not
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: to be contradicted. The plain truth is that the antiquity
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: of English monarchy will not bear looking into. But it
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: is not so much the absurdity as the evil of
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: hereditary succession which concerns mankind. Did it ensure a race
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: of good and wise men, it would have the seal
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: of divine authority. But as it opens the door to
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: the foolish, the wicked, and the improper, it hath in
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: the nature of opreshire. Men who look upon themselves born
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: to reign and others to obey, soon grow insolent. Selected
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: from the rest of mankind, Their minds are early poisoned
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: by importance, and the world they act in differs so
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: materially from the world at large that they have but
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: succeed to the government, are frequently the most ignorant and
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: unfit of any throughout the dominions. Another evil which attends
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: hereditary succession is that the throne is subject to be
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: possessed by a miner at any age, all which time
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: the regency, acting under the cover of a king, have
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: every opportunity and inducement to betray their trust. The same
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: national misfortune happens when a king, worn out with age
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: and infirmity, enters the last stage of human weakness. In
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: both these cases, the public becomes a prey to every
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: miscreant who can temper successfully with the fall either of
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: age or infancy. The most plausible plea which hath ever
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: offended in favor of hereditary succession is that it preserves
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: a nation from civil wars, and were this true, it
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: would be weighty, whereas it is the most bare faced
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: falsity ever imposed upon mankind. The whole history of England
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: disowns the fact thirty kings and two miners have reigned
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: in the distracted kingdom since the conquest, in which time
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: there have been, including the Revolution, no less than eight
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: civil wars and nineteen rebellions. Wherefore, instead of making for peace,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: it makes against it and destroys the very foundation it
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: seems to stand on. The contest for monarchy and succession
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: between the Houses of York and Lancaster laid England in
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: a scene of blood. For many years, twelve pitched battles,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: besides skirmishes and sieges, were fought between Henry and Edward.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Twice was Henry prisoner to Edward, who in his turn
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: was prisoner to Henry. And so uncertain is the fate
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: of war and the temper of a nation, when nothing
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: but personal matters are the ground of a quarrel. That
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Henry was taken in triumph from a prison to a palace,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: and Edward obliged to fly from a palace to a
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: foreign land. Yet as sudden transitions of temper are seldom lasting, Henry,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: in his turn was driven from the throne, and Edward
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: recalled to succeed him, the Parliament always following the strongest side.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: This contest began in the reign of Henry the sixth,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: and was not entirely extinguished till Henry the seventh, in
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: whom the families were united, including a period of sixty
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: seven years viz. From fourteen twenty two to fourteen eighty nine.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: In short, monarchy and succession have laid not this or
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: that kingdom only, but the world in blood and ashes.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Tis a form of government which the world of God
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: barres testimony against, and blood will attend it. If we
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: inquire into the business of a king, we shall find
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: that in some countries they have none, and, after sauntering
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: away their lives, without pleasure to themselves or advantage to
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: the nation, withdrawn from the scene, and leave their successors
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: to tread the same idle round. In absolute monarchies, the
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: whole weight of business, civil and military lies on the king.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: The children of Israel, in their request for a king,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: urged this plea, that he may judge us and go
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: out before us and fight our battles. But in countries
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: where he is neither a judge nor a general, as
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: in England, a man would be puzzled to know what
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: is his business. The nearer any government approaches to a republic,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: the less business there is for a king. It is
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: somewhat difficult to find a proper name for the government
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: of England, so William Meredith calls it a republic. But
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: in his present state it is is unworthy of the name,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: because the corrupt influence of the Crown, by having all
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: the places in its disposal, hath so effectually swallowed up
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: the power and eaten out the virtue of the House
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: of Commons, the republican part in the Constitution, that the
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: government of England is nearly as monarchical as that of
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: France or Spain. Men fall out with names without understanding them,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: for it is the republican and not the monarchical part
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: of the Constitution of England, which Englishmen glory in viz.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: The liberty of choosing an House of Commons from out
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: of their own body. And it is easy to see
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues. Why is the Constitution
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: of England sickly But because monarchy hath poisoned the republic.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: The crown hath engrossed the commons in England. The king
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: hath little more to do than to make war and
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: give away places, which in plain terms is to impoverish
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: the nation and set it together by the years a
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: pretty business. Indeed, for a man to be allowed eight
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand sterling a year four and worshiped into the
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: bargain of more Worth is one honest man to society,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: and in the sight of God, than all the crowned
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Ruffians that ever lived. End of Chapter two, Chapter three,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Thoughts on the present state of American Affairs, Part one
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: in the following pages. I offer nothing more than simple facts,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: plain arguments, and common sense, and have no other preliminaries
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: to settle with the reader than that he will divest
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: himself of prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: his feelings to determine for themselves, that he will put on,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: or rather that he will not put off, the true
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: character of a man, and generously enlarge his views. Beyond
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: the present day, volumes have been written on the sub
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: of the struggle between England and America. Men of all
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: ranks have embarked on the controversy from different motives and
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: with various designs, but all have been ineffectual, and the
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: period of debate is closed. Arms as the last resource
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: decide the contest. The appeal was the choice of the
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: king and the continent hath accepted the challenge. It hath
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: been reported of the late mister Pelham, who, though an
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: able minister, was not without his faults, that, on his
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: being attacked in the House of Commons on the score
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: that his measures were only of a temporary kind, he replied,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: they will last my time. Should a thought so fatal
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: and unmanly possess the colonies in the present contest, the
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: name of ancestors will be remembered by future generations with detestation.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: It is not like the affair of a city, country,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent of
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. Tis
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: not the concern of a day, a year, or an age.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: more or less affected even to the end of time
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: by the proceedings. Now now is the seed time of
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now will
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: be like a name engraved with the point of a
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: pin on the tender rind of a young oak. The
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: wound will enlarge with a tree and posterity read in
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: it full grown characters. By referring the matter from argument
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: to arms, A new era for politics is struck, a
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: new method of thinking hath arisen. All planes, proposals, et
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: cetera prior to the nineteenth of April, in other words,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: to the commencement of hostilities, are like the almanacs of
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: the last, which, though proper then, are superseded and useless now.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: Whatever was advanced by the advocates on either side of
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: the question then terminated in one and the same point, viz.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: A union with Great Britain. The only difference between the
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: parties was the method of effectuating it, the one proposing force,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: the other friendship. But it hath so far happened that
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: the first hath failed, and the second hath withdrawn her influence.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: As much hath been said of the advantages of reconciliation,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: which like an agreeable dream, hath passed away and left
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: us as we are. It is but right that we
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: should examine the contrary side of the argument and inquire
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: into some of the many material injuries which these colonies
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: sustain and always will sustain, by being connected with and
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: dependent upon Great Britain. To examine that connection and dependence
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: on the principles of nature and common sense to see
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: what we have to trust to if separated, and what
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: we are to expect if dependent. I have heard it
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: asserted by some that, as America hath flourished under the
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: former connection with Great Britain, that the same connection is
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: necessary towards her future happiness and will always have the
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: of argument. We may as well assert that because a
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: child has thrived upon milk, that it is never to
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: have meat, or that the first twenty years of our
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: lives is to become precedent for the next twenty. But
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: even this is admitting more than is true. For I
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: answer roundly that America would have flourished as much and
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: probably much more, had no European power had anything to
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: do with her. The commerce by which she hath enriched
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: herself are the necessities of life, and will always have
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: a market, while eating is the custom of Europe. But
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: she has protected us. Some say that she hath engrossed
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: us is true, and defended the continent at our expense
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: as well as her own, is admitted, and she would
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: have defended Turkey from the same motive, viz. The sake
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: of trade and dominion. Alas we have been long led
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: away by ancient prejudices and made large sacrifices to superstition.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: We have boasted the protection of Great Britain without considering
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: that her motive was interest, not attachment, that she did
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: not protect us from our enemies on our account, but
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: from her enemies on her own account, from those who
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: had no quarrel with us on any other account, and
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: who will always be our enemies on the same account.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: Let Britain waive her pretensions to the continent, or to
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: the continent, throw off the dependents, and we should be
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: at peace with France and Spain, were they at war
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: with Britain. The miseries of hanover last war ought to
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: warn us against connections. It hath lately been asserted in
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Parliament that the colonies have no relation to each other
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: but through the parent country. In other words, that Pennsylvania
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: and the Jerseys and so on for the rest are
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: sister colonies by way of England. This is certainly a
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: very roundabout way of proving relationship, but it is the
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: nearest and only true way of proving enemy ship. If
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: I may so call it. France and Spain never were,
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: nor perhaps ever will be, our enemies as Americans, but
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: as our being the subject of Great Britain. Yet Britain
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: is the parent country. Some say, then, the more shame
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young,
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: nor savages make war upon their families. Where therefore the assertion,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: if true, turns to her reproach. But it happens not
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: to be true, or only partly so, that the phrase
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: parent or mother country have been justiciously adopted by the
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: King and his parasites, with a low papistical design of
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: gaining an unfair bias on the credulious weakness of our minds.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: Europe and not England, is the parent country of America.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster. And
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: it is so far true of England that the same
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home pursues their
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: descendants still in this extensive quarter of the globe. We
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: forgot the narrow limits of three hundred and sixty miles
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: the extent of England, and carry our friendship on a
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: large scale. We claim brotherhood with every European Christian, and
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: triumph in the generosity of the sentiment. It is pleasant
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: to observe by what regular gradulations we surmount the force
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: of local prejudice as we enlarge our acquaintance with the world.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: A man born in any town in England divided into
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: parishes will naturally associate both with his fellow parishioners, because
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: their interests, in many cases will be common, and distinguished
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: him by the name of neighbour. But if he meet
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: him but a few miles from home, he drops the
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: narrow idea of a street and salutes him by the
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: name of townsmen. If he travel out of the country
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: and meet him in any other he forgets the minor
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: division of street and town and calls him countrymen, in
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: other words, country man. But if in their foreign excursions
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: they should associate in France or any other part of Europe,
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: their local remembrance would be enlarged to that of Englishmen,
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: and by a just parody of reasoning, all Europeans meeting
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: in America or any other quarter of the globe are
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: countrymen for England, Holland, Germany or Sweden, when compared with
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: the whole stand in the same place on the larger scale,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: which the division of street, town and country do on
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: the smaller ones, distinctions too limited for continental minds. Not
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: one third of the inhabitants, even of this province are
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: of English descent. Whetherfore, I reprobate the phrase of parent
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: or mother country applied to England only as being false, selfish, narrow,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: and ungenerous. But admitting that we were all of English descent,
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: what does it amount to nothing? Britain, being now an
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: open enemy, extinguishes every other civil name and title, and
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: to say that reconciliation is our duty is truly farcical.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: The first King of England of the present line, William
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: the Conqueror, was a Frenchman, and half the peers of
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: England are descendants from the same country. Wherefore, by the
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: same method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by France.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: Much hath been said of the united strength of Britain
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: and the colonies, that in conjunction they might bid defiance
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: to the world. But this is mere presumption the fate
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: of war is uncertain. Neither do the expressions mean anything,
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: for this continent would never suffer itself to be drained
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: of inhabitants to support the British arms in either Asia,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: Africa or Europe. Besides, what have we to do with
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: setting the world at defiance. Our plan is commerce, and
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: that well attended to will secure us the peace and
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: friendship of all Europe. Because it is the interests of
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: all Europe to have America a free port. Her trade
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: will always be a protection, and her barrenness of gold
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: and silver secure her from invaders. I challenge the warmest
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: advocate for reconciliation to show a single advantage that this
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: continent may reap by being connected with Great Britain. I
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: repeat the challenge. Not a single advantage is derived. Our
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe,
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: and our imported goods must be paid for by them
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: where we will. But the injuries and disadvantages we sustain
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: by the connection are without number, and our duty to
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: mankind at large, as well as to ourselves, instruct us
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: to renounce the alliance, because any submission to or dependence
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: on Great Britain tends directly to involve this continent in
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: European wars and quarrels, and sets us at variance with
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: nations who would otherwise seek our friendship, and against whom
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: we have neither anger nor complaint. As Europe is our
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: market for trade, we ought to form no partial connection
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: with any part of it. It is the true interest
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: of America to steer clear of European contentions, which she
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: never can do. While her dependence on Britain, she is
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: made the make weight in the scale on British politics.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms to be long
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: at peace, and where never a war breaks out between
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: England and any foreign power, the trade of America goes
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: to ruin. Because of her connection with Britain, the next
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: war may not turn out like the last, and should
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: it not, the advocates for reconciliation now will be wishing
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: for separation then, because neutrality, in that case would be
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: a safer convoy than a man of war. Everything that
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries tis time
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: to part, even the distance at which the Almighty hath
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: placed England and America is a strong and natural proof
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: that the authority of the one over the other was
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: never the design of Heaven. The time likewise at which
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: the continent was discovered adds weight to the argument, and
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: the manner in which it was peopled increases the force
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: of it. The Reformation was preceded by the discovery of America,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: and if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: to the persecuted in future years when home should afford
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: neither friendship nor safety, the authority of Great Britain over
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: this continent is a form of government which, sooner or
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: later must have an end. And a serious mind can
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: draw no true pleasure by looking forward under the painful
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: and positive conviction that what he calls the present Constitution
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: is merely temporary. As parents, we can have no joy
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: anything which we may bequeathed to posterity. And by a
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: plain method of argument, as we are running the next
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: Otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: our children in our hand, and fix our station a
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: few years farther into life, that eminence will present a
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: prospect few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight.
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: Though I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offense, yet I
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: am inclined to believe that all those who espouse the
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: doctrine of reconciliation may be included within the following descriptions
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: interested men who are not to be trusted, weak men
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: who cannot see, prejudiced men who will not see. And
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: a certain set of moderate men who think better of
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: the European world than it deserves. And this last class,
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: by an ill judged deliberation, will be the cause of
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: more calamities to this continent than all the other three.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: It is the good fortune of many to live distant
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: from the scene of sorrow. The evil is not sufficiently
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: brought to their doors to make them feel the precariousness
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: with which all American property is possessed. But let our
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: imaginations transport us for a few moments to Boston. That
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: seat of wretchedness will teach just wisdom and instruct us
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: forever to renounce a power in whom we can have
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: no trust. The inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who but
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: a few months ago were in ease and affluence, have
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: now no other alternative than to stay and starve, or
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: turn out to beg endangered by the fire of their friends.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: If they continue within the city and plundered by the soldiery.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: If they leave it in their present condition, they are
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: prisoners without the hope of redemption, and in a general
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: attack for their relief, they would be exposed to the
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: fury of both armies. Men of passive tempers look somewhat
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: lightly over the offenses of Britain, and still hoping for
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: the best, are apt to call out, Come, Come, we
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: shall be friends again. For all this, but examine the
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: passions and feelings of mankind, bring the doctrine of reconciliation
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me whether
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: you can thereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: that hath carried fire and sword into your land. If
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: you cannot do all these, then are you only deceiving
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: yourselves by your delay, bringing ruin upon posterity. Your future
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: connection with Britain, whom you can neither love nor honor,
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: will be forced and unnatural, and being formed only on
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: the plain of present convenience, will in a little time
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: fall to a relapse more wretched than the first. But
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: if you say you can still pass the violations over,
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: then I ask, hath your house been burnt? Hath your
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: property been destroyed? Before your face? Are your wife and
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: children destitute of a bed to lie on or bread
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: to live on? Have you lost a parent or a
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: child by their hands? And yourself the ruined and wretched survivor?
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: If you have not, then you are not a judge
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: of those who have. But if you have and still
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: can shake hands with the murderers, then you are unworthy
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover. And
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: whatever may be your rank or title in life, you
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: have the heart of a coward and the spirit of
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: a sickophant. It is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: trying them by those feelings and affections which nature justifies,
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: and without which we should be incapable of discharging the
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: social duties of life or enjoying the felicities of it.
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpose of
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: provoking revenge, but to awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers,
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: that we may pursue determinately some fixed object. It is
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: not in the power of Britain or of Europe to
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: conquer America if she do not conquer herself by delay
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: and timidity. The present winter is worth an age if
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: rightly employed, but if lost or neglected, the whole continent
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: will partake of the misfortune. And there is no punishment
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: which that man will not deserve, be he who, or what,
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: or or where he will. That may be the means
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: of sacrificing a season so precious and useful. It is
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things, to
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: all examples from former ages, to suppose that this continent
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: can longer remain subject to any external power. The most
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: seguine in Britain does not think so. The utmost stretch
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: of human wisdom cannot at this time compass a plan
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: short of separation, which can promise the continent even a
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: year's security. Reconciliation is now a fallacious dream. Nature hath
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: deserted the connection, and art cannot supply her place. For,
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: as Milton wisely expresses, never can true reconcilement grow where
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep every quiet
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: method for peace hath been ineffectual. Our prayers have been
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: rejected with disdain, and only intended to convince us that
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: nothing flatters vanity or confirms obstinacy in kings more than
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: repeated petitioning. And nothing hath contributed more than that ary
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: measure to make the kings of Europe absolute witness Denmark
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: and Sweden. Wherefore, since nothing but blows will do for
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: God's sake, let us come to a final separation and
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: not leave the next generation to be cutting throats under
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: the violated, unmeaning names of parent and child. To say
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: that they will never attempt it again is idle and illusionary.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: We thought so at the repeal of the Stamp Act.
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: Yet a year or two undeceived us as well as
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: we supposed that nations which have been once defeated will
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: never renew the quarrel as to government matters. It is
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: not in the power of Britain to do this continent justice.
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: The business of it will soon be too weighty and
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: intricate to be manned with any tolerable degree of convenience
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: by a power so distant from us and so very ignorant.
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: Of us, For if they cannot conquer us, they cannot
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: govern us. To be always running three or four thousand
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: miles with a tail or a petition, waiting four or
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: five months for an answer, which, when obtained, requires five
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: or six more to explain it in will in a
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: few years be looked upon as folly and childishness. There
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: was a time when it was proper, and there is
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: a proper time for it to cease. Small islands, not
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: capable of protecting themselves are the proper objects for kingdoms
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: to take under their care. But there is something very
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: an island. In no instance hath nature made the satellite
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: larger than its primary planet. And as England and America
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: with respect to each other, reverses the common order of nature,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: it is evident they belong to different systems, England to Europe,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: America to itself. I am not induced by motives of pride, party,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: or resentment to espouse the doctrine of separation and independence.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: I am clearly, positively and conscientiously persuaded that it is
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: the true interest of this continent to be so that
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: everything short of that is mere patchwork, that it can
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: afford no lasting felicity, that it is leaving the sword
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: to our children, and chirking back at a time when
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: a little more, a little farther would have rendered this
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: continent the glory of the Earth. End of Part one
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: of Chapter three, Chapter three Thoughts on the present state
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: of American affairs Part two. As Britain hath not manifest
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: the least inclination towards a compromise, we may be assured
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: that no terms can be obtained worthy of the exception
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: of the continent, or any ways equal to the expense
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: of blood and treasure we have been already put to
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: the object contended for ought always to bear some just
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: proportion to the expense. The removal of North, or the
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: whole detestable Guntu, is a matter unworthy the millions we
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: have expended. A temporary stoppage of trade was an inconvenience
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: which would have sufficiently balanced the repeal of all the
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: acts complained of, had such repeals been obtained. But if
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: the whole continent must take up arms, if every man
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: must be a soldier, it is scarcely worth our while
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: to fight against a contemptible ministry. Only dearly, dearly do
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: we pay for the repeal of the axe, if that
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: is all we fight for for In a just estimation,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: it is as great a folly to pay a bunker
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: hill price for law as for land. As I have
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: always considered the end dependency of the continent as an
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: event which sooner or later must arrive, so from the
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: late rapid progress of the continent to maturity, the event
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: could not be far off. Wherefore, on the breaking out
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: of hostilities, it was not worth the while to have
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: disputed a matter which time would have finally redressed, unless
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: we meant it to be in earnest. Otherwise, it is
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: like wasting an estate on a suit at law to
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: regulate the trespass of a tenant whose lease is just expiring.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: No man was a warmer wisher for reconciliation than myself
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: before the fatal nineteenth of April seventeen seventy five. But
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: the moment the event of that day was made known,
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: I rejected the hardened, sullen, tempered pharaoh of England forever
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: and disdain the wretch that, with the pretended title of
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: father of his people, can unfeel willingly hear of their
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: slaughter and composedly sleep with their blood on his soul.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: But admitting that matters were now made up, what would
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: be the event? I answer, the ruin of the continent,
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: And that, for several reasons. First, the powers of governing
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: still remaining in the hands of the King, he will
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: have a negative over the whole legislation of this continent.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: And as he hath shown himself such an inveterate enemy
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: to liberty and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: is he or is he not a proper man to
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: say to these colonies, you shall make no laws but
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: what I please? And is there any inhabitant in America
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: so ignorant as not to know that, according to what
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: is called the present Constitution, that this continent can make
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: no laws but what the King gives it leave to.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: And is there any man so unwise as not to
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: see that, considering what has happened, he will suffer no
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: law to be made here, but such as suits his purpose.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: He may be as ineffectually enslaved by the want of
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: laws in America as by submitting to laws made for
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: us in England. After matters are made up, as it
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: is called, can there be any doubt, but the whole
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: power of the crown will be exerted to keep this
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: continent as low and humble as possible. Instead of going forward,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: we shall go backward, or be perpetually quarreling or ridiculously petitioning.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: We are always greater than the King wishes us to be,
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: and will he not thereafter endeavor to make us less.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: To bring the matter to one point, is the power
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: who is jealous of our prosperity a proper power to
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: govern us. Whoever says no to this question is an independent.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: For independency means means no more than whether we shall
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: make our own laws, or whether the King, that greatest
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: enemy this continent hath or can have, shall tell us
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: there shall be no laws but such as I like.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: But the King, you will say, has a negative. In England,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: the people there can make no laws without his consent.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: In point of right and good order, there is something
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: very ridiculous that a youth of twenty one, which hath
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: often happened, shall say to several millions of people older
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: and wiser than himself, I forbid this or that act
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: of yours to be law. But in this place I
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: decline this sort of reply, though I will never cease
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: to expose the absurdities of it, and only answer that England,
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: being the King's residence, and America not so, make quite
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: another case. The King's negative here is ten times more
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: dangerous and fatal than it can be in England, for
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: there he will scarcely refuse his consent to a bill
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: for putting England into as strong a state of defense
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: as possible, and in America he would never suffer such
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: a bill to be passed. America is only a secondary
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: object in the system of British politics. England consults the
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: good of this country no farther than it answers her
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: own purpose. Wherefore her own interest leads her to suppress
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: the growth of ours in every case which doth not
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: promote her advantage, or in the least interferes with it.
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: A pretty state we should soon be in under such
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: a secondhand government. Considering what has happened, Men do not
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: change from enemies to friends by the alteration of a name.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: And in order to show that reconciliation now is a
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: dangerous doctrine, I affirm that it would be policy in
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: the King at this time to repeal the acts for
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: the sake of reinstating himself in the government of the provinces,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: in order that he may accomplish by craft and subtlety
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: in the long run what he cannot do by force
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: and violence in the short one. Reconciliation and ruin are
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: nearly related. Secondly, that, as ever, the best terms which
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: we can expect to obtain, can amount to no more
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: than a temporary expedient or a kind of government by guardianship,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: which can last no longer than till the colonies come
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: of age. So the general face and state of things
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: in the interim will be unsettled and unpromising. Emigrants of
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: property will not choose to come to a country whose
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: form of government hangs but by a thread, and who
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: is every day tottering on the brink of commotion and disturbance,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: and numbers of the present inhabitants would lay hold of
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: the interval, to dispose of their effects and quit the continent.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: But the most powerful of all arguments is that nothing
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: but independence. In other words, a continental form of government
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: can keep the peace of the continent and preserve it
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: in violate from civil wars. I dread the event of
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: a reconciliation with Britain now, as it is more than
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: probable that it will be followed by a revolt somewhere
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: or other, the consequences of which may be far more
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: fatal than all the malice of Britain. Thousands are already
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: ruined by British barbarity. Thousands more will probably suffer the
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: same fate. Those men have other feelings than us, who
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: have nothing suffered. All they now possess is liberty. What
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: they therefore enjoyed is sacrificed to its service, and having
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: nothing more to lose, they disdain submission. Besides, the general
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: temper of the colonies toward a British government will be
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: like that of a youth who is nearly out of
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: his time. They will care very little about her. And
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: a government which cannot preserve the peace is no government
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: at all. And in that case we pay our money
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: for nothing, and pray, what is it that Britain can do?
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: Whose power will be wholly on paper? Should a civil
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: tumult break out the very day after reconciliation. I have
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: heard some men say, many of whom I believe spoke
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: without thinking that they dreaded an independence, fearing that it
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: would produce civil wars. It is but seldom that our
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: first thoughts are truly correct, And that is the case here,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: for there are ten times more to dread from a
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: patched up connection than from independence. I make the sufferers
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: case my own, and I protest that were I driven
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: from house and home, my property destroyed, and my circumstances ruined,
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: that as a man sensible of injuries, I could never
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: relish the doctrine of reconciliation or consider myself bound thereby
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: the colonies have manifested such a spirit of good order
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: and obedience to continental government as is sufficient to make
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: every reasonable person easy and happy. On that head, no
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: man can assign least pretense for his fears on any
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: other ground. That such are truly childish and ridiculous, viz.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: That one colony will be striving for superiority over another.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: Where there are no distinctions, there can be no superiority.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: Perfect equality affords no temptation. The republics of Europe are all,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: and we may say always in peace. Holland and Switzerland
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: are without wars. Foreign or domestic. Monarchical governments, it is true,
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: are never long at rest. The crown itself is a
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: temptation to enterprising ruffians at home, and that degree of
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: pride and insolence, ever attendant on regal authority, swells to
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: a rupture with foreign powers in instances, or a republican government,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: by being formed on more natural principles, would negotiate the mistake.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: If there is any true cause of fear respecting independence,
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: it is because no plan has yet been laid down.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: Men do not see their way out. Wherefore, as an
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: opening into that business, I offer the following hints, at
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: the same time, modestly affirming that I have no other
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: opinion of them myself than that they may be means
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: of giving rise to something better. Could the straggling thoughts
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: of individuals be collected, they would frequently form materials for
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: wise and able men to improve into useful matter. Let
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: the assemblies be annual, with a president only the representation
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: more equal, their business wholly domestic, and subject to the
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: authority of a continental Congress. Let each colony be divided
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: into six, eight or ten convenient districts. Each district to
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: send a proper number of delegates to Congress, so that
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: each colony sent at least thirty, the whole number in
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: Congress will be leased three hundred and ninety each Congress
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: to sit and to choose a president by the following method.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: When the delegates are met, let a colony be taken
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: from the whole thirteen colonies by lot, after which let
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: the whole Congress choose by ballot a president from out
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: of the delegates of that province. In the next congress,
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: let a colony be taken by lot from twelve, only
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: omitting that colony from which the president was taken in
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: the former Congress, and so proceeding on until the whole
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: thirteen shall have had their proper rotation, in order that
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: nothing may pass into the law. But what is satisfactorily
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: just not less than three fifths of the Congress to
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: be called a majority he that will promote discord under
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: a government so equally formed as this would have joined
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: Lucifer in his revolts. But as there is a peculiar
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: delicacy from whom or in what manner this business must
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: first arise, and as it seems most agreeable and consistent
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: that it should come from some intermediate body between the
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: governed and the governors, that is, between the Congress and
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: the people, let a continental conference be held in the
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: following manner and for the following purpose, a committee of
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: twenty six members of Congress viz. Two from each colony,
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: two members for each House of Assembly or provincial convention,
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: and five representatives of the people at large, to be
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: chosen at the capital city or town of each province
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: for and in behalf of the whole province, by as
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: many qualified voters as shall think proper to attend from
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: all parts of the province for that purpose, or, if
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: more convenient, the representative may be chosen in two or
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: three of the most populous parts thereof. In this conference,
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: thus assembled, will be united the two grand principles of business,
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: knowledge and power. The members of Congress, assemblies or conventions,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: by having had experience in national concerns, will be able
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: and useful counselors, and the whole, being empowered by the people,
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: will have a truly legal authority. The conferring members being met,
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: let their business be to frame a continental Charter or
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: a Charter of the United Colonies, answering to what is
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: called the Magna Carta of England. Fixing the number and
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: manner of choosing members of Congress, members of Assembly, with
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: their dates of sitting and drawing the line of business
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: and jurisdiction between them, always remembering that our strength is continental,
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: not provincial, securing freedom and property to all men, and
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: above all things, the free exercise of religion according to
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: the dictates of Conscience, which such other matter as is
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: necessary for a charter to contain, immediately after which the
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: said conference to dissolve, and the bodies which shall be
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: chosen conformable to the said Charter to be legislators and
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: governors of this continent for the time being, whose peace
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: and happiness may God preserve. Amen, should any body of
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: men be hereafter delegated for this or some similar purpose,
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: I offer them the following extracts from that wise observer
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: on governments Dragonetti. The science, says he of the politician,
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: consists in fixing the true point of happiness and freedom.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages who should
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: of individual happiness and the lead east national expense Dragonette,
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: on virtue and rewards. But where says some is the
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: king of America, I'll tell you friend, he reigns above
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: and doth not make havoc of mankind like the royal
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: be defective even in earthly honors. Let a day be
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter. Let it be
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God.
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: may know that, so far as we approve as monarchy,
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: that in America the law is king. For as in
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: the law ought to be king, and there ought to
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: be no other. But least any ill use should afterward arise.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: Let the crown at this conclusion of the ceremony be
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: demolished and scattered am among the people whose right it is.
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: A government of our own is our natural right. And
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: when a man seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs,
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: he will become convinced that it is infinitely wiser and
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: safer to form a constitution of our own in a cool,
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: to trust such an interesting event to time and chance.
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: If we omit it now, some mazanello may hereafter arise,
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: who lay hold of popular disquietudes may collect together the
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: desperate and contented, and by assuming to themselves the powers
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: like a deluge. Should the government of America return again
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: into the hands of Britain, the tottering situation of things
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: will be a temptation for some desperate adventurer to try
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: his fortune. And in such a case, what really chief
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: can Britain give? Ere she could hear the news the
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: fatal business might be done, and ourselves suffering like the
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: wretched Britons under the oppression of the conqueror. Ye that
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: oppose independence, now ye know not what ye do? Ye
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: are opening a door to eternal tyranny by keeping vacant
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: the seat of government. There are thousands and tens of
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: thousands who would think it glorious to expel from the
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: continent that barbarous and hellish power which hath stirred up
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: the Indians and Negroes to destroy us, and cruelly hath
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: a double guilt. It is dealing brutally by us and
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: treacherously by them to talk of friendship with those in
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: whom our reason forbids us to have faith and our affections,
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: wounded through a thousand pores, instructs us to detest is
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: madness and folly. Every day wears out the little remains
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: of kindred between us and them? And can there be
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: any reason to hope that as the relationship expires, the
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: affection will increase, or that we shall agree better when
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: we have ten times more and greater concerns to quarrel
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: over than ever? Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation?
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: Can ye restore us to the time that is past?
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: Can ye give to prostitution its former innocence? Neither can
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: ye reconcile Britain in America. The last chord now is broken.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: The people of England are presenting addresses against us. There
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: are injuries which Nature cannot forgive. She would cease to
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: be nature if she did. As well? Can the lover
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: forgive the ravisher of his mistress, as the continent forgive
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: the murderers of Britain. The Almighty hath implanted in us
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: these unextinguishable feelings for good and wise purposes. They are
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: the guardians of His image in our hearts. They distinguish
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: us from the herd of common animals. Social compact would
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: dissolve and justice be extirpated from the earth, or have
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: only a casual existence where we callous to the touches
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: of affection, the robber and the murderer would often escape unpunished.
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: Did not the injuries which our tempters sustain provoke us
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: into justice? Oh, ye that love mankind, Ye that dare
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: oppose not only the tyranny, but the tyrant stand forth.
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression.
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: Freedom hath been hunted around the globe. Asia and Africa
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger,
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: and England hath given her warning to depart. Oh, receive
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: the fugitive and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: End of part two of chapter three. End of chapter three,
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: Chapter four of the present Ability of America, with some
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: miscellaneous reflections. I have never met with a man, either
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: in England or America, who hath not confessed his opinion
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: that a separation between the countries would take place one
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: time or other. And there is no instance in which
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: we have shown less judgment than in endeavoring to describe
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: what we call the ripeness or fitness of the continent
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: for independence. As all men allow the measure and vary
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: only in their opinion of the time, let us, in
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: order to remove mistakes, take a general survey of things,
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: and endeavor, if possible, to find out the very time.
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: But we need not go far. The inquiry ceases at once,
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: for that time hath found us the general concurrence, the
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: glorious union of all things, prove the fact. It is
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: not in numbers, but a unity that our god great
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: strength lies. Yet our present numbers are sufficient to repel
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: the force of all the world. The continent hath at
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: this time the largest body of armed and disciplined men
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: of any power under heaven, and is just arrived at
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: the pitch of strength in which no single colony is
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: able to support itself, and the whole, when united, can
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: accomplish the matter. And either more or less than this
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: might be fatal in its effects. Our land force is
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: already sufficient. And as to naval affairs, we cannot be
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: insensible that Britain could never suffer an American man of
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: war to be built while the continent remained in her hands.
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: Wherefore we should be no forwarder and one hundred years Hence,
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: in that branch than we are now. But the truth
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: is we should be less so, because the timber of
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: the country is every day diminishing, and that which will
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: remain at least will be are off and difficult to procure.
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: Where the continent crowded with inhabitants, her sufferings under the
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: present circumstances would be intolerable. The more seaport towns we had,
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: the more should we have, both to defend and to lose.
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: Our present numbers are so happily proportioned to our wants
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: that no man need be idle. The diminution of trade
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: affords an army, and the necessities of an army create
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: a new trade debts we have none, and whatever we
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: may contract on this account will serve as a glorious
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: memento to our virtue. Can we but leave posterity with
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: a settled form of government, an independent constitution of its own.
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: The purchase at any price will be cheap. But to
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: expend millions for the sake of getting a few vile
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: acts repealed and routing the present military only is unworthy
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: the charge, and is using Posterity with the utmost cruelty,
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: because it is leaving them the great work to do,
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: and a debt upon their backs from which they derive
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: no advantage. Such a thought is unworthy a man of honor,
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: and is the true characteristic of a narrow heart and
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: a peddling politician. The debt we may contract doth not
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: deserve our regard, if the work be but accomplished. No
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: nation ought to be without a debt. A national debt
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: is a national bond, and when it bears no interest,
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: is in no case a grievance. Britain is oppressed with
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: a debt of upwards of one hundred and forty millions sterling,
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: for which she pays upwards of four millions interest, And
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: as a compensation for her debt, she has a large navy.
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: America is without a debt and without a navy. Yet
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: for the twentieth part of the English national debt could
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: have a navy as large. Again, the navy of England
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: is not worth at this time more than three millions
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: and a half sterling. The first and second editions of
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: this pamphlet were published without the following calculations, which are
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: now given as a proof that the above estimation of
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: the navy is a just one. From Etic's naval history
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: introduction the charge of building a ship of each rate
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: and furnishing her with masts, yards, nails and ringing, together
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: with a proportion of eight months boastain's and carpenter's sea stores,
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: as calculated by mister Burchett, Secretary to the Navy, for
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: a ship of one hundred guns, thirty five thousand, five
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: hundred fifty three pounds ninety guns, twenty nine thousand, eight
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: hundred eighty six pounds, eighty guns, twenty three thousand, six
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: hundred thirty eight pounds, seventy guns, seventeen thousand, seven hundred
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: eighty five pounds, sixty guns, fourteen thousand, one hundred ninety
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: seven pounds, fifty guns, ten thousand, six hundred and six pounds,
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: forty guns, seven thousand, five hundred fifty eight pounds, thirty guns,
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: five thousand, eight hundred forty six pounds, twenty guns, three thousand,
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: seven hundred ten pounds, And from hence it is easy
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: to sum up the value or cost rather of the
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: whole British Navy, which in the year seventeen fifty seven,
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: when it was at its greatest glory, consisted of the
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: following ships and guns. Six ships, one hundred guns thirty
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: five thousand, five hundred fifty three pounds for one two
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: hundred and thirteen thousand, three hundred eighteen pounds for all
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: ships twelve guns ninety cost of one twenty nine thousand,
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: eight hundred eighty six cost of all three hundred fifty
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: eight thousand, six hundred thirty two ships twelve guns eighty,
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: cost of one twenty three thousand, six hundred thirty eight,
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: cost of all two hundred eighty three thousand, six hundred
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: fifty six ships forty three guns seventy. Cost of one
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: seventeen thousand, seven hundred eighty five. Cost of all seven
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: hundred and forty six thousand, seven hundred fifty five ships
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: thirty five guns sixty cost of one fourteen thousand, one
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: hundred ninety seven cost of all four hundred ninety six thousand,
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: eight hundred ninety five ships forty guns fifty cost of
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: one ten thousand, six hundred six cost of all four
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: hundred twenty four thousand, two hundred forty ships forty five
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: guns forty cost of one seven thousand, five fifty eight
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: cost of all three hundred forty thousand, one hundred ten
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: ships fifty eight guns twenty cost of one three thousand,
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: seven hundred and ten pounds, cost of all two hundred
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: and fifteen thousand, one hundred eighty pounds ships, eighty five sloops,
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: bombs and fire ships one with another at two thousand
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: pounds each one hundred seventy thousand pounds cost three million,
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: two hundred sixty six thousand, seven hundred eighty six pounds.
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: Remains for guns two hundred and thirty three thousand, two
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: hundred fourteen pounds total three million, five hundred thousand pounds Sterling.
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: No country on the globe is so happily situated, so
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: internally capable of raising a fleet as America. Tar, timber,
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: iron and cordage are her natural produce. We need go
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: abroad for nothing, Whereas the Dutch, who makes large profits
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: by hiring out their ships of war to the Spaniards
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: and Portuguese, are obliged to import most of the materials
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: they use. We ought to view the building of a
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: fleet as an article of commerce. It being the natural
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: manufactory of this country, it is the best money we
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: can lay out. A navy whind furnished is worth more
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: than it cost. And is that nice point in national
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: policy in which commerce and protection are united. Let us
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: build if we want them not, we can sell, and
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: by that means replace our paper currency with ready gold
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: and silver. In point of manning a fleet, people in
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: general run into great errors. It is not necessary that
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: one fourth part should be sailor. The terrible privateer Captain
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: Death stood the hottest engagement of any ship last war,
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: yet had not twenty sailors on board, though her complement
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: of men was upwards of two hundred. A few able
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: and social sailors will soon instruct a sufficient number of
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: active landsmen in the common work of a ship. Wherefore,
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: we never can be more capable to begin our maritime
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: matters than now, while our timber is standing, our fisheries
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: blocked up, and our sailors and shipwrights out of employ
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: men of War of seventy and eighty guns were built
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: forty years ago in New England, and why not the
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: same now. Ship Building is America's greatest pride, and in
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: which she will in time excel the whole world. The
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: great empires of the East are mo mostly inland, and
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: consequently excluded from the possibility of rivaling her. Africa is
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: in a state of barbarism, and no power in Europe
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: hath either such an extent of coast or such an
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: internal supply of materials. Where nature hath given the one,
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: she hath withheld the other to America only hath she
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: been liberal of both. The vast empire of Russia is
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: almost shut out from the sea, wherefore her boundless forests,
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: her tar, iron, and cordage are only articles of commerce.
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: In point of safety, ought we be without a fleet.
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: We are not the little people now which we were
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: sixty years ago. At that time we might have trusted
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: our property in the streets or fields rather and slept
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: securely without locks or bolts on our doors or windows.
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: The case now is altered, and our methods of defense
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: ought to improve with our increase of prosperity. A common
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: pirate twelve months ago might have come up the Delaware
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: and laid the city of Philadelphia under instant contribution for
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: what sums he pleased, And the same might have happened
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: to other places. Nay, any darling fellow in a brig
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: of fourteen or sixteen guns might have robbed the whole
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: continent and carried off half a million of money. These
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: are circumstances which demand our attention and point out the
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: necessity of naval protection. Some people will say that after
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: we have made it up with Britain, she will protect us.
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: Can we be so unwise as to mean that she
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: shall keep a navy in our harbors for that purpose?
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: Common sense will tell us that the power which hath
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: endeavored to subdue us is, of all others the most
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: improper to defend us. Conquest may be affected under the
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: pretense of friendship, and ourselves, after a long and brave resistance,
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: be at last cheated into slavery. And if her ships
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: are not to be admitted into our harbor, I would
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: ask how is she to protect us? A navy three
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: or four thousand miles off can be of little use,
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: and on sudden emergencies none at all. Wherefore, if we
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: must hereafter protect ourselves, why not do it for ourselves?
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: Why do it for another? The English list of ships
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: of war is long and formidable, but not a tenth
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: part of them are in any time fit for service,
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: numbers of them not in being. Yet their names are
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: pompously continued in the list. If only a plank be
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: left of the ship, and not a fifth part of
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: such as are fit for service, can be spared on
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: any one station at any one time. The East and
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: West Indies, Mediterranean, Africa, and other parts over which Britain
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: extends her claim make large demands upon her navy. From
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: a mixture of prejudice and in attention, we have contracted
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: a false notion respecting the navy of England, and have
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: talked as if we should have the whole of it
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: to encounter at once, and for that reason supposed that
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: we must have one as large, which, not being instantly practicable,
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: have been made use of by a set of distinguished
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: tories to discourage our beginning thereon. Nothing can be farther
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: from the truth than this, For if America had only
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: a twentieth part of the naval force of Britain, she
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: would be by far an overmatch for her, because as
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: we neither have nor claim any foreign dominion, our whole
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: force could be employed on our own coast, where we should,
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: in the long run have two to one the advantage
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: of those who had three or four thousand miles to
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: sail over before they could attack us, and the same
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: distance to return in order to refit and recruit. And
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: although Britain, by her fleet, hath a check over our
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: trade to Europe. We have as large a one over
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: her trade to the West Indies, which, by laying in
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood of the continent, is entirely at its mercy.
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: Some method might be fallen on to keep up a
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: naval force in time of peace, if we should not
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: judge it necessary to support a constant navy. If premiums
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: are to be given to merchants to build an employ
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: in their service ships mounted with twenty, thirty, forty or
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: fifty guns, the premiums to be in proportion to the
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: loss of bulk to the merchants, fifty or sixty of
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: those ships, with a few guard ships on constant duty,
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: would keep up a sufficient navy, And that without burdening
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: ourselves with the evil so loudly complained of in England,
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: of suffering their fleet in time of peace to lie
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: rotting in the docks. To unite the seuans of commerce
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: and defense is sound policy, for when our strength and
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: our riches play into each other's hand, we need fear
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: no external enemy. In almost every article of defense we
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: abound hemp flourishes even to rankness, so that We need
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: not want cordage. Our iron is superior to them of
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: other countries. Are small arms equal to any in the world.
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: Cannons we can cast at pleasure, saltpeter, and gunpowder we
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: are every day producing. Our knowledge is hourly improving. Resolution
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: is our inherent character, and courage hath never yet forsaken us. Wherefore,
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: what is it that we want? Why is it that
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: we hesitate from Britain? We can expect nothing but ruin.
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: If she is once admitted to the government of America again,
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: this continent will not be worth living in. Jealousies will
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: be always arising, Insurrections will be constantly happening. And who
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: will go forth to quell them? Who will venture his
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: life to reduce his own countrymen to a foreign obedience?
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: The difference between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, respecting some unlocated lands,
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: shows the insignificance of a British government and fully proves
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: that nothing but continental authority can regulate continental matters. Another
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: reason why the present time is preferable to all others
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: is that the fewer our numbers are, the more land
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: there is yet unoccupied, which, instead of being lavished by
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: the king on his worthless. Dependence may be hereafter applied
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: not only to the discharge of the present debt, but
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: to the constant support of government. No nation under Heaven
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: hath such an advantage as this. The infant state of
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: the colonies, as it is called, so far from being against,
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: is an argument in favor of independence. We are sufficiently numerous,
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: and were we more so, we might be less united.
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: It is a matter worthy of observation that the more
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: a country is peopled, the smaller their armies are. In
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: military numbers, the ancients far exceeded the moderns, and the
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: reason is evident, for trade being the consequence of population.
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: Men become too much absorbed thereby to attend to anything else.
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: Commerce diminishes the spirit both of patriotism and military defense,
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: and history sufficiently informs us that the bravest achievements are
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: always accomplished in the non age of a nation. With
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: the increase of commerce, England have lost its spirit. The
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: city of London, notwithstanding its numbers, submits to continued insults
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: with the patience of a coward. The more men have
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: to lose, the less willing are they to venture. The
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: rich are in general slaves to fear and submit to
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: courtly power with the trembling duplicity of a spaniel. Youth
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: is the seed time of good habits, as well in
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: nations as in individuals. It might be difficult, if not impossible,
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: to form the continent into one government half a century. Hence,
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: the vast variety of interests occasioned by an increase of
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: trade and population would create confusion. Colony would be against colony,
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: each being able, might scorn each other's assistance. And while
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: the proud and foolish gloried in their little distinctions, the
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: wise would lament that the union had not been formed before.
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: Wherefore the present time is the true time for establishing it.
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: The intimacy which is contracted in infancy and the friendship
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: which is formed in misfortune, are, of all others, the
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: most lasting and unalterable. Our present union is marked with
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: both these characters. We are young, and we have been distressed.
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: But our concord hath withstood our troubles and fixes a
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: memorable area for posterity to glory in the present time. Likewise,
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: is that particular time which never happens to a nation,
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: but once viz. The time of forming itself into a government.
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: Most nations have let slip the opportunity, and by that
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: means have been compelled to receive laws from their conquerors
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: instead of making laws for themselves. First they had a
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: king and then a form of government, whereas the articles
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: or charter of government should be formed first, and men
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: delegated to execute them afterwards. But from the error of
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: other nations, let us learn wisdom and lay hold to
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: the present opportunity to begin government at the right end.
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: When William the conqueror subdued England, he gave them law
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: at the point of the sword. And until we consent
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: that the seat of government in America be legally and
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: authoritatively occupied, we shall be in danger of having it
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: filled by some fortunate ruffian who may treat us in
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: the same manner. And then where will be our freedom,
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: where our property? As to religion, I hold it to
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: be the indispensable duty of all government to protect all
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: conscientious professors thereof, And I know of no other business
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: which government hath to do therewith let a man throw
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: aside that narrowness of soul, that selfishness of principle, which
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: the niggards of all professions are so unwilling to part with,
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: and he will be at once delivered of his fears.
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: On that head, suspicion is the companion of means, souls,
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: and the bane of all good society. For myself, I
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: fully and conscientiously believe that it is the will of
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: the Almighty that there should be diversity of religious opinions
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: among us. It affords a large field for our Christian kindness.
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: Were we all of one way of thinking, our religious
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: dispositions would want matter for probation. And on this liberal principle,
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: I look on the various denominations among us to be
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: like children of the same family, differing only in what
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: is called their Christian names. I threw out a few
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: thoughts on the property of a continental charter, for I
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: only presume to offer hints, not plans. And in this
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: place I take the liberty of rementioning the subject by
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: observing that a charter is to be understood as a
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: bond of solemn obligation, which the whole enters into to
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: support the right of every separate part, whether religion, no freedom,
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: or property. A firm bargain and a right reckoning make
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: long friends. In a former page, I likewise mentioned the
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: necessity of a large and equal representation, and there is
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: no political matter which more deserves our attention. A small
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: number of electors or a small number of representatives are
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: equally dangerous. But if the number of the representatives be
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: not only small but unequal, the danger is increased. As
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: an instance of this, I mention the following, when the
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: associator's petition as before the House of Assembly of Pennsylvania,
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: twenty eight members only were present, all the Bucks County
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: members being eight, voted against it, and had seven of
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: the Chester members done the same. This whole province had
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: been governed by two counties only. And this danger it
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: is always exposed to the unwarrantable stretch, likewise, which that
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: House made in their last sitting to gain an undue
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: authority over the delegates of that province. Ought to warn
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: the people at large how they trust power out of
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: their own hands. A set of instructions for the delegates
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: were put together, which, in point of sense and business,
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: would have dishonored a schoolboy, and after being approved by
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: a few of very few without doors, were carried into
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: the House and there passed in behalf of the whole colony.
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: Whereas did the whole colony know with what ill will
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: that house hath entered on some necessary public measures, they
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: would not hesitate a moment to think them unworthy of
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: such a trust. Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which,
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: if continued, would grow into oppressions. Expedients and right are
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: different things. When the calamities of America required a consultation,
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: there was no method so ready, or at that time
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: so proper as to appoint persons from the several houses
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: of assets for that purpose. And the wisdom with which
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: they have proceeded hath preserved this continent from ruin. But
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: as it is more than probable that we shall never
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: be without a Congress, every well wisher to good order
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: must own that the mode for choosing members of that
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: body deserves consideration. And I put it as a question
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: to those who make a study of mankind whether representation
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: and election is not too great a power for one
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: and the same body of men to possess. When we
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: is not hereditary. It is from our enemies that we
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: often gain excellent maxims, and are frequently surprised into reason
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: by their mistakes. Mister Cornwall, one of the Lords of
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: the Treasury, treated the petition of New York Assembly with
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: contempt because that house, he said, consisted but of twenty
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: six members. Such trifling number, he argued, could not with
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: decency be put for the whole. We thank him for
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: his involuntary honesty To conclude, however strange it may appear
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: to some, or however unwilling they may be, to think so,
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: matters not. But many strong and striking reasons may be
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: given to show that nothing can settle our affairs so
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: expeditiously as an open and determined declaration for independence, some
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: of which are. First, it is the custom of nations,
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: when any two are at war, for some other power
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: not engaged in the quarrel, to step in as mediators
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: and to bring about the preliminaries of a peace. But
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: while America calls herself the subject of Great Britain, no power,
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: however well disposed she may be, can offer her mediation. Wherefore,
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: in our present state we may quarrel on forever. Secondly,
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: it is unreasonable to suppose that France or Spain will
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: give us any kind of assistance, if if we mean
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: only to make use of that assistance for the purpose
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: of repairing the breach and strengthening the connection between Britain
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: and America, because those powers would be sufferers by the consequences. Thirdly,
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: while we profess ourselves the subjects of Britain, we must,
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: in the eye of foreign nations, be considered as rebels.
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: The precedent is somewhat dangerous to their race. For men
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: to be in arms under the name of subjects. We
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: on the spot can solve the paradox, but to unite
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: resistance and subjugation requires an idea much too refined for
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: the common understanding. Fourthly, we're a manifesto to be published
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: and dispatched to foreign courts, setting forth the miseries we
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: have endured and the peaceable methods we have ineffectually used
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: for redress, declaring at the same time that, not being
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: able any longer to live happily or safely under the
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: cruel disposition of the British Court, we had been driven
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: to the necessity of breaking off all connections with her,
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: at the same time assuring all such courts of our
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: peaceable disposition towards them, and of our desire of entering
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: into trade with them. Such a memorial would produce more
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: good effects to this continent than if a ship were
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: freighted with petitions to Britain. Under our present denomination of
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: British subjects, we can neither be received nor heard abroad.
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: The custom of all courts is against us, and will
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: be so until, by an independence we take rank with
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: other nations. These proceedings may at first appear strange and difficult,
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: but like all other steps which we have already passed over,
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: will in a little time become familiar and agreeable. And
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: until an independence is declared, the continent will feel itself
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant business
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: from day to day, yet knows it must be done,
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: hates to set about it, wishes it over, and is
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: continually haunted with the thoughts of his necessities. Note one,
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: Those who would fully understand of what great consequence a
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: large and equal representation is to a state should read
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: Bergh's political Disquintations, end of Chapter four Appendix. Since the
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: publication of the first edition of this pamphlet, or rather
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: on the same day on which it came out, the
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: King's speech made its appearance in this city, had the
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: spirit of prophecy directed the birth of this production. It
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: could not have brought it forth at a more seasonable
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: juncture or a more necessary time. The bloody mindedness of
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: the one show the necessity of pursuing the doctrine of
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: the other men read by way of revenge, and the speech,
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: instead of terrifying, prepared a way for the manly principles
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: of independence. Ceremony, and even silence, from whatever motive they
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: may arise, have a hurtful tendency when they give the
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: least degree of countenance to base and wicked performances. Wherefore,
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: if this maximum be admitted, it naturally follows that the
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: King's speech, as being a piece of finished villainy, deserved
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: and still deserves a general execration, both by the Congress
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: and the people. Yet, as the domestic tranquility of a
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: nation depends greatly on the chastity of what may properly
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: be called national manners, it is often better to pass
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: some things over in silent disdain than to make use
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: of such new methods of dislike as might introduce the
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: least innovation on that guardian of our peace and safety.
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: And perhaps it is chiefly owing to this prudent delicacy
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: that the King's speech hath not before now suffered a
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: public execution. The speech, if it may be called one,
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: is nothing better than a wilful, audacious libel against the truth,
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: the common good, and the existence of mankind, and is
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: a formal and pompous method of offering up human sacrifices
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: to the pride of tyrants. But this general massacre of
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: mankind is one of the privileges and the certain consequences
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: of kings. For as nature knows them not, they know
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: not her. And although they are beings of our own creation,
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 1: they know not us, and are become the gods of
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: their creators. The speech hath one good quality, which is
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: that it is not calculated to deceive. Neither can we
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: even if we would be deceived by it. Brutality and
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: tyranny appear on the face of it, it leaves us
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: at no loss. And every line convinces, even in the
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: moment of reading, that he who hunts the woods for
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: prey the naked and untutored Indian, is less savage than
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: the King of Britain. Sir John Dollywimple, the punitive Father
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: and whining jesuitical peace falliciously called the Address of the
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: People of England to the inhabitants of America. Hath, perhaps
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: from a vain supposition, that the people here were to
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: be frightened at the pomp and description of a king, given,
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 1: though very unwisely on his part, the real character of
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: the present one. But says this writer, if you are
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: inclined to pay compliments to an administration which we do
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: not complain of, meaning the Marquis of Rockingham's at the
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 1: repeal of the Stamp Act, it is very unfair in
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: which to withhold them from that prince. If those who
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: nod alone they were permitted to do anything. This is
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: toryism with a witness. Here is idolatry, even without a mask.
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: And he who can so calmly hear and digest such
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: doctrine hath forfeited his claim to rationality and apostate from
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: the order of manhood, and ought to be considered as
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: one who hath not only given up the proper dignity
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: of a man, but sunk himself beneath the rank of animals,
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: and contemptuously crawls through the world like a worm. However,
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: it matters very little now what the king of England,
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: either says or does, he hath wickedly broken through every
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: moral and human obligation, trampled nature and conscience beneath his feet,
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: and by a steady and constitutional spirit of insolence and cruelty,
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: procured for himself a universal hatred. It is now the
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: interests of America to provide for herself. She hath already
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: a large and young family, whom it is more her
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: duty to take care of than to be granting away
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: her property to support a power who is become a
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: reproach to the names of men and Christians. Ye whose
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: office it is to watch over the morals of a nation,
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: of whatsoever sect or denomination ye areof, as well as
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: ye who are more immediately the guardians of the public liberty.
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: If ye wish to preserve your native country uncontaminated by
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: European corruption, ye must in secret wish a separation. But
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: leaving the moral part to private reflection, I shall chiefly
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 1: confine my further remarks to the following heads. First, that
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: it is the interest of America to be separated from Britain. Secondly,
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: which is the easiest and most practicable plan reconciliation or
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: independence with some occasional remarks in support of the first,
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: I could, if I judged it proper, produce the opinion
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: of some of the ablest and most experienced men on
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: this continent, and whose sentiments on that head are not
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: yet publicly known. It is in reality a self evident position,
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: for no nation in a state of foreign dependence, limited
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: in its commerce and cramped and fettered in its legislative powers,
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: can ever arrive at any material eminence. America doth not
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: yet know what opulence is, and although the progress which
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: she hath made stands unparalleled in the history of other nations,
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 1: it is but childhood compared with what she would be
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: capable of arriving at, had she, as she ought, to
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: have the legislative powers in her own hands. England is
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: at this time proudly coveting what would do her no
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: good were she to accomplish it, and the continent hesitating
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: on a matter which will be her final ruin if neglected.
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 1: It is the commerce, and not the conquest of America,
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: by which England is to be benefited, and that would
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: in a great measure continue where the countries as independent
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: of each other as France and Spain, Because in many articles,
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: neither can go to a better market. But it is
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: the independence of this country of Britain or any other,
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: which is now the main and only object worthy of contention,
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: and which, like all other truths discovered by necessity, will
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: appear clearer and stronger every day. First because it will
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 1: come to that one time or other. Secondly, because the
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 1: longer it is delayed, the harder it will be to accomplish.
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: I have frequently amused myself, both in public and private companies,
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: with silently remarking the specious errors of those who speak
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: without reflecting, And among the many which I have heard,
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: the following seems most general, viz. That had this rupture
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: happened forty or fifty years hence instead of now, the
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: continent would have been more able to have shaken off
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: the dependence, to which I reply that our military ability
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: at this time arises from the experience gained in the
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: last war, and which in forty or fifty years time
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: would have been totally extinct. The continent would not by
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 1: that time have had a general or even a military
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: officer left, and we or those who may succeed us,
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: would have been as ignorant of martial matters as the
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 1: ancient Indians, and this single position closely attended to, will
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: unanswerably prove that the present time is preferable to all others.
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: The argument turns thus, at the conclusion of the last war,
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: we had experience, but wanted numbers, and forty or fifty years.
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: Hence we should have numbers without experience. Wherefore the proper
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: point of time must be some particular point between the
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 1: two extremes, in which a sufficiency of the former remains
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: and a proper increase of the latter is obtained. And
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: that point of time is the present time. The reader
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 1: will pardon this digression, as it does not properly come
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: under the head I first set out with, and to
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: which I again return by the following position, vise should
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: affairs be patched up with Britain, and she to remain
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: the governing and sovereign power of America, which, as matters
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 1: are now circumstanced, is giving up the point in time.
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: Hirely we shall deprive ourselves of the very means of
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: sinking the debt we have, or may contract the value
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 1: of the back lands which some of the provinces are
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 1: clandestinely deprived of by the unjust extension of the limits
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: of Canada, valued only at five pounds sterling per one
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: hundred acres amount to upwards of twenty five millions Pennsylvania currency,
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 1: and the quit rents at one penny sterling per acre
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 1: to two millions yearly. It is by the sale of
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: those lands that the debt may be sunk without burden
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: to any and the quit rent reserved thereof will always lessen,
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: and in time will wholly support the yearly expense of
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: the government. It matters not how long the debt is
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: in paying, so that the lands, when sold, be applied
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: to the discharge of it, and for the extinction of
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: which the Congress for the time being will be Continental trustees.
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 1: I proceed now to second head, viz. Which is the
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 1: easiest and most practicable plan reconciliation or independence? With some
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 1: occasional remarks, he who takes nature for his guide is
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: not easily beaten out of his argument, And on that
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 1: ground I answer generally that independence being a single simple
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 1: line contained within ourselves, and reconciliation a matter exceedingly perplexed
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: and complicated, and in which a treacherous, capricious court is
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: to interfere, gives the answer without a doubt. The present
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: state of America is truly alarming to every man who
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: is capable of reflection without law, without government, without any
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: other mode of power than what is found on and
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: granted by courtesy, held together by an unexampled concurrence of sentiment,
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: which is nevertheless subject to change, and which every secret
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: enemy is endeavoring to dissolve. Our present condition is legislation
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: without law, wisdom without a plan, constitution without a name,
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: and what is strangely astonishing, perfect independence contending for dependence.
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: The instance is without precedent, the case never existed before,
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: and who can tell what may be the event. The
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: property of no man is secure in the present unbraced
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: system of things. The mind of the multitude is left
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: at random, and, seeing no fixed object before them, they
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 1: pursue such as fancy or opinion starts. Nothing is criminal.
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: There is no such thing as treason. Wherefore every one
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 1: thinks himself at liberty to act as he pleases. The
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: Tories dare not have assembled offensively had they known that
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: their lives, by that act were forfeited to the laws
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: of the state. A line of distinction should be made
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: between English soldiers taken in battle, and inhabitants of America
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 1: taken in arms. The first are prisoners, but the latter traitors.
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: The one forfeits his liberty and the other his head.
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: Notwithstanding our wisdom, there is a visible feebleness in some
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 1: of our proceedings which gives encouragement to dissensions. The continental
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: belt is too loosely buckled, and if something is not
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: done in time, we will be too late to do anything,
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 1: and we shall fall into a state in which neither
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 1: reconciliation nor independence will be practicable. The King and his
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 1: worthless adherents are got at their old game of dividing
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: the continent, and there are not wanting among us printers
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: who will be busy spreading specious falsehoods. The artful and
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: hypocritical letter which appeared a few months ago in two
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: of the New York papers, and likewise in two others,
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: is an evidence that there are men who want either
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: judgment or honesty. It is easy getting into holes and
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: corners and talking of reconciliation. But do such men seriously
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 1: consider how difficult the task is and how dangerous it
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: may prove should the continent divide theirs? Do they take
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 1: within their view all the various orders of men, whose
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: situation and circumstances, as well as their own are to
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 1: be considered. Therein do they put themselves in the place
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 1: of the sufferer, whose all is already gone, and of
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 1: the soldier who hath quitted all for the defense of
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 1: his country. If their ill judged moderation be suited to
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 1: their own private situations only, regardless of others, the event
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 1: will convince them that they are reckoning without their host.
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 1: Put us, some say, on the footing we were on
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 1: in sixty three, to which I answer, the request is
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: not now in the power of Britain to comply with,
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 1: neither will she propose it. But if it were, and
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: even should be granted, I ask, as a reasonable question,
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 1: by what means is such a corrupt and faithless court
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 1: to be kept to its engagements? Another parliament, nay, even
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: the present, may hereafter repeal the obligosation on the pretense
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 1: of its being violently obtained or unwisely granted. And in
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: that case, where is our redress? No going to the
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 1: law with nations canon are the barristers of crowns, And
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: the sword not of justice but of war decides the
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 1: suit to be on the footing of sixty three. It
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 1: is not sufficient that the laws only be put on
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: the same state, but that our circumstances likewise be put
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: on the same state. Our burnt and destroyed towns, repaired
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: or built up, our private losses, made good, our public debts,
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: contracted for defense discharged. Otherwise we shall be millions worse
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 1: than we were at that enviable period. Such a request,
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 1: had it been complied with a year ago, would of
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: what the heart and soul of the continent. But now
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: it is too late. The rubicon is passed. Besides, the
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: taking up arms merely to enforce the repeal of appear
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: cuniary law seems as unwarrantable as the divine law, and
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: as repugnant to human feelings as the taking up arms
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 1: to enforce obedience. There too, the object on either side
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 1: does not justify the means, for the lives of men
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: are too valuable to be cast away on such trifles.
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: It is the violence which is done and threatened to
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: our persons, the destruction of our property by the armed force,
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: the invasion of our country by fire and sword, which
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: conscientiously qualifies the use of arms, and the instant in
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: which such a mode of defense became necessary, all subjugation
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: to Britain ought to have ceased, and the independency of
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: America should have been considered as dating its era from
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: and published by the first musket that was fired against her.
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 1: This line is a line of consistency, neither drawn by
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 1: caprice nor extended by ambition, but produced by a chain
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: of events of which the colonies were not the authors.
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: I shall conclude these remarks with the following timely and
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 1: well intended hints. We ought to reflect that there are
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 1: three different ways by which an independency may hereafter be affected,
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 1: and that one of those three will, one day or
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: other be the fate of America, viz. By the legal
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 1: voice of the people in Congress, by a military power,
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 1: or by a mob. It may not always happen that
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: our soldiers are citizens and the multitude a body of
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: reasonable men. Virtue, as I have already remarked, is not hereditary,
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: neither is it perpetual. Should an independency be brought about
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: by the first of those means, we have every opportunity
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: and every encouragement before us to form the noblest, purest
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 1: constitution on the face of the earth. We have it
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: in our power to begin the world over again. A
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: situation similar to the present. Hath not happened since the
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 1: days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 1: as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: portion of freedom from the event of a few months.
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: The reflection is awful, and in this point of view,
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 1: how trifling, how ridiculous do the little, partly caverlings of
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 1: a few, weak or interested men appear, when weighed against
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: the business of a world. Should we neglect the present
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: favorable and inviting period, and an independence be hereafter effected
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 1: by any other means, we must charge the consequence to ourselves,
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 1: or to those rather whose narrow and prejudiced souls are
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 1: habitually opposing the measure, without either inquiring or reflecting. There
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: are reasons to be given in support of independence, which
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: men should rather privately think of than be publicly told of.
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 1: We ought not now to be debating whether we shall
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 1: be independent or not, but anxious to accomplish it on
• 2:04:57
  Speaker 1: a firm, secure and honorable basis, and uneasy rather than
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: it is not yet begun upon every day convinces us
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 1: of its necessity, even the Tories, if such beings yet
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 1: remain among us, should of all men be the most
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: solicitous to promote it. For as the appointment of committees
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: at first protected them from popular rage, so a wise
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: and well established form of government will be the only
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: certain means of continuing it securely to them. Wherefore, if
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 1: they have not virtue enough to be Whigs, they ought
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 1: to have prudence enough to wish for independence. In short,
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: independence is the only bond that can tie and keep
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 1: us together. We shall see our object, and our ears
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 1: will be legally shut against the schemes of an intriguing,
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 1: as well as a cruel enemy. We shall then too
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: be on a proper footing to treat with Britain. For
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: there is reason to conclude that the pride of that
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: court will be less hurt by treating with the American
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: States for terms of peace than with those whom she
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 1: denominates rebellious subjects for terms of accommodation. It is our
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: delaying it that encourages her to hope for conquest, and
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 1: our backwardness tends only to prolong the war, as we
• 2:06:15
  Speaker 1: have without any good effect. Therefrom withheld our trade to
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: obtain a redress of our aggrievances. Let us now try
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: the alternative, by independently redressing them ourselves, and then offering
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 1: to open the trade. The mercantile and reasonable part in
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: England will be still with us, because peace with trade
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: is preferable to war without it. And if the offer
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 1: be not accepted, other courts may be applied to on
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 1: these grounds. I rest the matter. And as no offer
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: hath yet been made to refute the doctrine contained in
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: the former editions of this pamphlet, it is a negative
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 1: proof that either the doctrine cannot be refuted, or that
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: the party in favor of it are too numerous to
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 1: be opposed. Wherefore, instead of gazing at each other with
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: suspicious or doubtful curiosity, let each of us hold out
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: to his neighbor the hearty hand of friendship, and unite
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: in drawing a line, which, like an act of oblivion,
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: shall bury in forgetfulness every former dissension. Let the names
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 1: of Whig and Tory be extinct, and let none other
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: be heard among us than those of a good citizen,
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: an open and resolute friend, and a virtuous supporter of
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: the rights of mankind and of the Free and Independent
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: States of America. End of Appendix, end of Common Sense
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 1: by Thomas Paine,