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