by
George
Sontag
On
July 1, 1776, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia,
and on the following day 12 of the 13 colonies voted in favor of
Richard Henry Lee’s motion for independence. The delegates then
spent the next two days debating and revising the language of a
statement drafted by Thomas Jefferson. On July 4, Congress officially
adopted the Declaration of Independence, and as a result the date is
celebrated as Independence Day. Nearly a month would go by, however,
before the actual signing of the document took place. First, New
York’s delegates didn’t officially give their support until July
9 because their home assembly hadn’t yet authorized them to vote in
favor of independence. Next, it took two weeks for the Declaration to
be “engrossed”—written on parchment in a clear hand.
It
wasn’t actually signed until August 2nd - for the
most of the
delegates. The
day before,
on August 1st 1776, the "Father of the American Revolution"
gave a famous speech from the steps of the State House in
Philadelphia, the meeting place of the Second Continental Congress in
support of the document.
Proudly
declaring that on this day the people had "restored the
Sovereign, to whom alone men ought to be obedient," Adams made a
passionate speech explaining the philosophical and strategic
foundations for independence.
Here it is in it's entirety.
COUNTRYMEN
AND BRETHREN: I would gladly have declined an honor, to which I find
myself unequal. I have not the calmness and impartiality which the
infinite importance of this occasion demands. I will not deny the
charge of my enemies, that resentment for the accumulated injuries of
our country, and an ardor for her glory, rising to enthusiasm, may
deprive me of that accuracy of judgment and expression which men of
cooler passions may possess. Let me beseech you, then, to hear me
with caution, to examine without prejudice, and to correct the
mistakes into which I may be hurried by my zeal.
Truth
loves an appeal to the common-sense of mankind. Your unperverted
understandings can best determine on subjects of a practical nature.
The positions and plans which are said to be above the comprehension
of the multitude may be always suspected to be visionary and
fruitless. He who made all men hath made the truths necessary to
human happiness obvious to all.
Our
forefathers threw off the yoke of popery in religion; for you is
reserved the honor of levelling the popery of politics. They opened
the Bible to all, and maintained the capacity of every man to judge
for himself in religion. Are we sufficient for the comprehension of
the sublimest spiritual truths, and unequal to material and temporal
ones? Heaven hath trusted us with the management of things for
eternity, and man denies us ability to judge of the present, or to
know from our feelings the experience that will make us happy. ”
You can discern,” say they, ” objects distant and remote, but
cannot perceive those within your grasp. Let us have the distribution
of present goods, and cut out and manage as you please the interests
of futurity.” This day, I trust the reign of political
protestantism will commence. We have explored the temple of royalty,
and found that the idol we have bowed down to, has eyes which see
not, ears that hear not our prayers, and a heart like the nether
millstone. We have this day restored the Sovereign, to whom alone men
ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and with a propitious eye
beholds his subjects assuming that freedom of thought, and dignity of
self-direction which He bestowed on them. From the rising to the
setting sun, may His kingdom come.
Having
been a slave to the influence of opinions early acquired, and
distinctions generally received, I am ever inclined not to despise
but pity those who are yet in darkness. But to the eye of reason what
can be more clear, than that all men have an equal right to
happiness ? Nature made no other distinction than that of higher
or lower degrees of power of mind and body. But what mysterious
distribution of character has the craft of statesmen, more fatal than
priestcraft, introduced?
According
to their doctrine, the offspring of perhaps the lewd embraces of a
successful invader, shall, from generation to generation, arrogate
the right of lavishing on their pleasures a proportion of the fruits
of the earth, more than sufficient to supply the wants of thousands
of their fellow-creatures; claim authority to manage them like beasts
of burden, and without superior industry, capacity, or virtue, nay,
though disgraceful to humanity by their ignorance, intemperance, and
brutality, shall be deemed best calculated to frame laws, and to
consult for the welfare of society.
Were
the talents and virtues, which Heaven has bestowed on men, given
merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the
follies and ambition of a few ? or, were not the noble gifts so
equally dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as
nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of
Providence be equally enjoyed by all? Away then, with those absurd
systems, which, to gratify the pride of a few, debase the greatest
part of our species below the order of men. What an affront to the
King of the universe, to maintain that the happiness of a monster,
sunk in debauchery and spreading desolation and murder among men, of
a Caligula, a Nero, or a Charles, is more precious in his sight than
that of millions of his suppliant creatures, who do justice, love
mercy, and walk humbly with their God! No! in the judgment of Heaven
there is no other superiority among men, than a superiority in wisdom
and virtue. And can we have a safer model in forming ours? The Deity
then has not given any order or family of men authority over others,
and if any men have given it, they only could give it for themselves.
Our forefathers, ’tis said, consented to be subject to the laws of
Great Britain. I will not, at present, dispute it, nor mark out the
limits and conditions of their submission; but will it be denied that
they contracted to pay obedience, and to be under the control of
Great Britain, because it appeared to them most beneficial in their
then present circumstances and situations ? We, my countrymen,
have the same right to consult and provide for our happiness, which
they had to promote theirs. If they had a view to posterity in their
contracts, it must have been to advance the felicity of their
descendants. If they erred in their expectations and prospects, we
can never be condemned for a conduct which they would have
recommended had they foreseen our present condition.
Ye
darkeners of counsel, who would make the property, lives, and
religion of millions, depend on the evasive interpretations of musty
parchments; who would send us to antiquated charters, of uncertain
and contradictory meaning, to prove that the present generation are
not bound to be victims to cruel and unforgiving despotism, tell us
whether our pious and generous ancestors bequeathed to us the
miserable privilege of having the rewards of our honest industry, the
fruits of those fields which they purchased and bled for, wrested
from us at the will of men over whom we have no check ? Did they
contract for us that, with folded arms, we should expect that justice
and mercy from brutal and inflamed invaders which have been denied to
our supplications at the foot of the throne ? Were we to hear
our character as a people ridiculed with indifference ? Did they
promise for us that our meekness and patience should be insulted; our
coasts harassed; our towns demolished and plundered, and our wives
and offspring exposed to nakedness, hunger and death, without our
feeling the resentment of men, and exerting those powers of
self-preservation which God has given us ? No man had once a
greater veneration for Englishmen than I entertained. They were dear
to me as branches of the same parental trunk, and partakers of the
same religion and laws; I still view with respect the remains of the
constitution as I would a lifeless body which had once been animated
by a great and heroic soul. But when I am roused by the din of arms;
when I behold legions of foreign assassins, paid by Englishmen to
imbrue their hands in our blood; when I tread over the uncoffined
bones of my countrymen, neighbors and friends; when I see the locks
of a venerable father torn by savage hands, and a feeble mother,
clasping her infants to her bosom, and on her knees imploring their
lives from her own slaves, whom Englishmen have allured to treachery
and murder; when I behold my country, once the seat of industry,
peace, and plenty, changed by Englishmen to a theatre of blood and
misery, Heaven forgive me, if I cannot root out those passions which
it has implanted in my bosom, and detest submission to a people who
have either ceased to be human, or have not virtue enough to feel
their own wretchedness and servitude.
Men
who content themselves with the semblance of truth, and a display of
words, talk much of our obligations to Great Britain for protection!
Had she a single eye to our advantage? A nation of shopkeepers are
very seldom so disinterested. Let us not be so amused with words; the
extension of her commerce was her object. When she defended our
coasts, she fought for her customers, and convoyed our ships loaded
with wealth, which we had acquired for her by our industry. She has
treated us as beasts of burden, whom the lordly masters cherish that
they may carry a greater load. Let us inquire also against whom she
has protected us? Against her own enemies with whom we had no
quarrel, or only on her account, and against’ whom we always
readily exerted our wealth and strength when they were required. Were
these colonies backward in giving assistance to Great Britain, when
they were called upon in 1739, to aid the expedition against
Carthagena? They at that time sent three thousand men to join the
British army, although the war commenced without their consent. But
the last war, ’tis said, was purely American. This is a vulgar
error, which, like many others, has gained credit by being
confidently repeated. The dispute between the Courts of Great Britain
and France related to the limits of Canada and Nova Scotia. The
controverted territory was not claimed by any in the colonies, but by
the Crown of Great Britain. It was therefore their own quarrel. The
infringement of a right which England had, by the treaty of Utrecht,
of trading in the Indian country of Ohio, was another cause of the
war. The French seized large quantities of British manufactures, and
took possession of a fort which a company of British merchants and
factors had erected for the security of their commerce. The war was
therefore waged in defence of lands claimed by the Crown, and for the
protection of British property. The French at that time had no
quarrel with America; and, as appears by letters sent from their
commander-in-chief, to some of the colonies, wished to remain in
peace with us. The part therefore which we then took, and the
miseries to which we exposed ourselves, ought to be charged to our
affection for Britain. These colonies granted more than their
proportion to the support of the war. They raised, clothed, and
maintained, nearly twenty-five thousand men, and so sensible were the
people of England of our great exertions, that a message was annually
sent to the House of Commons purporting: ” That His Majesty, being
highly satisfied of the zeal and vigor with which his faithful
subjects in North America had exerted themselves in defence of His
Majesty’s just rights and possessions, recommended it to the House,
to take the same into consideration, and enable him to give them a
proper compensation.”
But
what purpose can arguments of this kind answer? Did the protection we
received annul our rights as men, and lay us under an obligation of
being miserable?
Who
among you, my countrymen, that is a father, would claim authority to
make your child a slave because you had nourished him in his infancy?
It
is a strange species of generosity which requires a return infinitely
more valuable than anything it could have bestowed; that demands as a
reward for a defence of our property, a surrender of those
inestimable privileges, to the arbitrary will of vindictive tyrants,
which alone give value to that very property.
Political
right and public happiness are different words for the same idea.
They who wander into metaphysical labyrinths, or have recourse to
original contracts, to determine the rights of men, either impose on
themselves or mean to delude others.
Public
utility is the only certain criterion. It is a test which brings
disputes to a speedy decision, and makes it appeal to the feelings of
mankind. The force of truth has obliged men to use arguments drawn
from this principle who were combating it, in practice and
speculation. The advocates for a despotic government, and
non-resistance to the magistrate, employ reasons in favor of their
systems drawn from a consideration of their tendency to promote
public happiness.
The
Author of Nature directs all his operations to the production of the
greatest good, and has made human virtue to consist in a disposition
and conduct which tend to the common felicity of his creatures. An
abridgement of the natural freedom of man, by the institution of
political societies, is vindicable only on this foot. How absurd,
then, is it to draw arguments from the nature of civil society for
the annihilation of those very ends which society was intended to
procure. Men associate for their mutual advantage. Hence the good and
happiness of the members, that is, the majority of the members of any
state, is the great standard by which everything relating to that
state must finally be determined; and though it may be supposed that
a body of people may be bound by a voluntary resignation (which they
have been so infatuated as to make) of all their interests to a
single person, or to a few, it can never be conceived that the
resignation is obligatory to their posterity; because it is
manifestly contrary to the good of the whole that it should be so.
These
are the sentiments of the wisest and most virtuous champions of
freedom. Attend to a portion on this subject from a book in our
defence, written, I had almost said by the pen of inspiration. ” I
lay no stress,” says he, ” on charters— they derive their
rights from a higher source. It is inconsistent with common-sense to
imagine that any people would ever think of settling in a distant
country, on any such condition, or that the people from whom they
withdrew should forever be masters of their property, and have power
to subject them to any modes of government they pleased. And had
there been express stipulations to this purpose in all the charters
of the colonies, they would, in my opinion, be no more bound by them
than if it had been stipulated with them that they should go naked,
or expose themselves to the incursions of wolves and tigers.”
Such
are the opinions of every virtuous and enlightened patriot in Great
Britain. Their petition to Heaven is—” That there may be one free
country left upon earth, to which they may fly, when venality,
luxury, and vice, shall have completed the ruin of liberty there.”
Courage,
then, my countrymen! our contest is not only whether we ourselves
shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum
on earth, for civil and religious liberty ? Dismissing therefore
the justice of our cause, as incontestable, the only question is,
What is best for us to pursue in our present circumstances?
The
doctrine of dependence on Great Britain is, I believe, generally
exploded; but as I would attend to the honest weakness of the
simplest of men, you will pardon me if I offer a few words on that
subject.
We
are now on this continent, to the astonishment of the world, three
millions of souls united in one common cause. We have large armies,
well disciplined and appointed, with commanders inferior to none in
military skill, and superior in activity and zeal. We are furnished
with arsenals and stores beyond our most sanguine expectations, and
foreign nations are waiting to crown our success by their alliances.
There are instances of, I would say, an almost astonishing Providence
in our favor; our success has staggered our enemies, and almost given
faith to infidels; so that we may truly say it is not our own arm
which has saved us.
The
hand of heaven appears to have led us on to be, perhaps, humble
instruments and means in the great providential dispensation which is
completing. We have fled from the political Sodom; let us not look
back, lest we perish and become a monument of infamy and derision to
the world! For can we ever expect more unanimity and a better
preparation for defence; more infatuation of counsel among our
enemies, and more valor and zeal among ourselves? The same force and
resistance which are sufficient to procure us our liberties will
secure us a glorious independence and support us in the dignity of
free, imperial States. We cannot suppose that our opposition has made
a corrupt and dissipated nation more friendly to America, or created
in them a greater respect for the rights of mankind. We can therefore
expect a restoration and establishment of our privileges, and a
compensation for the injuries we have received from their want of
power, from their fears, and not from their virtues. The unanimity
and valor, which will effect an honorable peace, can render a future
contest for our liberties unnecessary. He who has strength to chain
down the wolf is a madman if he lets him loose without drawing his
teeth and paring his nails.
From
the day on which an accommodation takes place between England and
America, on any other terms than as independent States, I shall date
the ruin of this country. A politic minister will study to lull us
into security, by granting us the full extent of our petitions. The
warm sunshine of influence would melt down the virtue, which the
violence of the storm rendered more firm and unyielding. In a state
of tranquillity, wealth and luxury, our descendants would forget the
arts of war, and the noble activity and zeal which made their
ancestors invincible. Every art of corruption would be employed to
loosen the bond of union which renders our assistance formidable.
When the spirit of liberty which now animates our hearts and gives
success to our arms is extinct, our numbers will accelerate our ruin,
and render us easier victims to tyranny. Ye abandoned minions of an
infatuated ministry, if peradventure any should yet remain among
us!—remember that a Warren and Montgomery are numbered among the
dead. Contemplate the mangled bodies of our countrymen, and then say,
What should be the reward of such sacrifices? Bid us and our
posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, and plough, and
sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on
us the dogs of war to riot in our blood, and hunt us from the face of
the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of
servitude, than the animating contest of freedom—go from us in
peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the
hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may
posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
To
unite the supremacy of Great Britain and the liberty of America, is
utterly impossible. So vast a continent and of such a distance from
the seat of empire will every day grow more unmanageable. The motion
of so unwieldy a body cannot be directed with any despatch and
uniformity, without committing to the Parliament of Great Britain
powers inconsistent with our freedom. The authority and force which
would be absolutely necessary for the preservation of the peace and
good order of this continent, would put all our valuable rights
within the reach of that nation.
As
the administration of government requires firmer and more numerous
supports in proportion to its extent, the burdens imposed on us would
be excessive, and we should have the melancholy prospect of their
increasing on our posterity. The scale of officers, from the
rapacious and needy commissioner, to the haughty governor, and from
the governor with his hungry train, to perhaps a licentious and
prodigal viceroy, must be upheld by you and your children. The fleets
and armies which will be employed to silence your murmurs and
complaints must be supported by the fruits of your industry.
And
yet, with all this enlargement of the expense and powers of
government, the administration of it at such a distance, and over so
extensive a territory, must necessarily fail of putting the laws into
vigorous execution, removing private oppressions, and forming plans
for the advancement of agriculture and commerce, and preserving the
vast empire in any tolerable peace and security. If our posterity
retain any spark of patriotism, they can never tamely submit to such
burdens. This country will be made the field of bloody contention
till it gains that independence for which nature formed it. It is
therefore injustice and cruelty to our offspring, and would stamp us
with the character of baseness and cowardice, to leave the salvation
of this country to be worked out by them with accumulated difficulty
and danger.
Prejudice,
I confess, may warp our judgments. Let us hear the decision of
.Englishmen on this subject, who cannot be suspected of partiality: ”
The Americans,” say they, ” are but little short of half our
number. To this number they have grown from a small body of original
settlers by a very rapid increase. The probability is that they will
go on to increase, and that in fifty or sixty years they will be
double our number; and form a mighty empire, consisting of a variety
of States, all equal or superior to ourselves in all the arts and
accomplishments which give dignity and happiness to human life. In
that period will they be still bound to acknowledge that supremacy
over them which we now claim?
Can
there be any person who will assert this, or whose mind does not
revolt at the idea of a vast continent, holding all that is valuable
to it, at the discretion of a handful of people on the other side the
Atlantic? But if at that period this would be unreasonable, what
makes it otherwise now? Draw the line if you can. But there is still
a greater difficulty. Britain is now, I will suppose, the seat of
liberty and virtue, and its legislature consists of a body of able
and independent men, who govern with wisdom and justice. The time may
come when all will be reversed; when its excellent constitution of
government will be subverted; when pressed by debts and taxes, it
will be greedy to draw to itself an increase of revenue from every
distant province, in order to ease its own burdens; when the
influence of the Crown, strengthened by luxury and an universal
profligacy of manners, will have tainted every heart, broken down
every fence of liberty, and rendered us a nation of tame and
contented vassals; when a general election will be nothing but a
general auction of boroughs, and when the Parliament, the grand
council of the nation, and once the faithful guardian of the state,
and a terror to evil ministers, will be degenerated into a body of
sycophants, dependent and venal, always ready to confirm any
measures, and little more than a public court for registering royal
edicts. Such, it is possible, may, some time or other, be the state
of Great Britain. What will at that period be the duty of the
colonies ? Will they be still bound to unconditional submission?
Must they always continue an appendage to our Government, and follow
it implicitly through every change that can happen to it ?
Wretched condition indeed, of millions of freemen as good as
ourselves! Will you say that we now govern equitably, and that there
is no danger of such revolution ? Would to God that this were
true. But will you not always say the same ? Who shall judge
whether we govern equitably or not? Can you give the colonies any
security that such a period will never come ? ” No! The
period, countrymen, is already come. The calamities were at our door.
The rod of oppression was raised over us. We were roused from our
slumbers, and may we never sink into repose until we can convey a
clear and undisputed inheritance to our posterity. This day we are
called upon to give a glorious example of what the wisest and best of
men were rejoiced to view, only in speculation. This day presents the
world with the most august spectacle that its annals ever unfolded.
Millions of freemen, deliberately and voluntarily forming themselves
into a society for their common defence and common happiness.
Immortal spirits of Hampden, Locke, and Sidney! will it not add to
your benevolent joys to behold your posterity rising to the dignity
of men, and evincing to the world the reality and expediency of your
systems, and in the actual enjoyments of that equal liberty, which
you were happy, when on earth, in delineating and recommending to
mankind!
Other
nations have received their laws from conquerors; some are indebted
for a constitution to the sufferings of their ancestors through
revolving centuries. The people of this country, alone, have formally
and deliberately chosen a Government for themselves, and with open
and uninfluenced consent, bound themselves into a social compact.
Here, no man proclaims his birth or wealth as a title to honorable
distinction, or to sanctify ignorance and vice with the name of
hereditary authority. He who has most zeal and ability to promote
public felicity, let him be the servant of the public. This is the
only line of distinction drawn by nature. Leave the bird of night to
the obscurity for which nature intended him, and expect only from the
eagle to brush the clouds with his wings, and look boldly in the face
of the sun.
Some
who would persuade us that they have tender feelings for future
generations, while they are insensible to the happiness of the
present, are perpetually foreboding a train of dissensions under our
popular system. Such men’s reasoning amounts to this—give up all
that is valuable to Great Britain, and then you will have no
inducements to quarrel among yourselves; or suffer yourselves to be
chained down by your enemies, that you may not be able to fight with
your friends.
This
is an insult on your virtue as well as your commonsense. Your
unanimity this day and through the course of the war, is a decisive
refutation of such invidious predictions. Our enemies have already
had evidence that our present constitution contains in it the justice
and ardor of freedom, and the wisdom and vigor of the most absolute
system. When the law is the will of the people, it will be uniform
and coherent; but fluctuation, contradiction, and inconsistency of
councils must be expected under those governments where every
revolution in the ministry of a court produces one in the state. Such
being the folly and pride of all ministers, that they ever pursue
measures directly opposite to those of their predecessors.
We
shall neither be exposed to the necessary convulsions of elective
monarchies, nor to the want of wisdom, fortitude, and virtue, to
which hereditary succession is liable. In your hands it will be to
perpetuate a prudent, active and just legislature, and which will
never expire until you yourselves lose the virtues which give it
existence.
And,
brethren and fellow-countrymen, if it was ever granted to mortals to
trace the designs of Providence, and interpret its manifestations in
favor of their cause, we may, with humility of soul, cry out, Not
unto us, not unto us, but to thy name be the praise. The confusion of
the devices among our enemies, and the rage of the elements against
them, have done almost as much towards our success as either our
councils or our arms.
The
time at which this attempt on our liberties was made, when we were
ripened into maturity, had acquired a knowledge of war, and were free
from the incursions of enemies in this country, the gradual advances
of our oppressors enabling us to prepare for our defence, the unusual
fertility of our lands and clemency of the seasons, the success which
at first attended our feeble arms, producing unanimity among our
friends and reducing our internal foes to acquiescence—these are
all strong and palpable marks and assurances, that Providence is yet
gracious unto Zion, that it will turn away the captivity of Jacob.
Our
glorious reformers when they broke through the fetters of
superstition, effected more than could be expected from an age so
darkened. But they left much to be done by their posterity. They
lopped off, indeed, some of the branches of popery, but they left the
root and stock when they left us under the domination of human
systems and decisions, usurping the infallibility which can be
attributed to Revelation alone. They dethroned one usurper only to
raise up another; they refused allegiance to the Pope, only to place
the civil magistrate in the throne of Christ, vested with authority
to enact laws, and inflict penalties in his kingdom. And if we now
cast our eyes over the nations of the earth we shall find, that
instead of possessing the pure religion of the gospel, they may be
divided either into infidels who deny the truth, or politicians who
make religion a stalking horse for their ambition, or professors, who
walk in the trammels of orthodoxy, and are more attentive to
traditions and ordinances of men than to the oracles of truth.
The
civil magistrate has everywhere contaminated religion by making it an
engine of policy; and freedom of thought and the right of private
judgment, in matters of conscience, driven from every other corner of
the earth, direct their course to this happy country as their last
asylum. Let us cherish the noble guests, and shelter them under the
wings of an universal toleration. Be this the seat of unbounded
religious freedom. She will bring with her in her train, industry,
wisdom, and commerce. She thrives most when left to shoot forth in
her natural luxuriance, and asks from human policy, only not to be
checked in her growth by artificial encouragements.
Thus
by the beneficence of Providence, we shall behold our empire arising,
founded on justice and the voluntary consent of the people, and
giving full scope to the exercise of those faculties and rights which
most ennoble our species. Besides the advantages of liberty and the
most equal constitution, heaven has given us a country with every
variety of climate and soil, pouring forth in abundance whatever is
necessary for the support, comfort, and strength of a nation. Within
our own borders we possess all the means of sustenance, defence, and
commerce; at the same time, these advantages are so distributed among
the different States of this continent, as if nature had in view to
proclaim to us—Be united among yourselves, and you will want
nothing from the rest of the world.
The
more northern States most amply supply us with every necessary, and
many of the luxuries of life—with iron, timber, and masts for ships
of commerce or of war; with flax for the manufacture of linen, and
seed either for oil or exportation.
So
abundant are our harvests, that almost every part raises more than
double the quantity of grain requisite for the support of the
inhabitants. From Georgia and the Carolinas, we have, as well for our
own wants as for the purpose of supplying the wants of other powers,
indigo, rice, hemp, naval stores, and lumber.
Virginia
and Maryland teem with wheat, Indian corn, and tobacco. Every nation
whose harvest is precarious, or whose lands yield not those
commodities, which we cultivate, will gladly exchange their
superfluities and manufactures for ours.
We
have already received many and large cargoes of clothing, military
stores, etc., from our commerce with foreign powers, and in spite of
the efforts of the boasted navy of England, we shall continue to
profit by this connection.
The
want of our naval stores has already increased the price of these
articles to a great height, especially in Britain. Without our
lumber, it will be impossible for those haughty islanders to convey
the products of the West Indies to their own ports— for a while
they may with difficulty effect it, but without our assistance, their
resources soon must fail. Indeed, the West India Islands appear as
the necessary appendages to this our empire. They must owe their
support to it, and ere long, I doubt not, some of them will from
necessity wish to enjoy the benefit of our protection.
These
natural advantages will enable us to remain independent of the world,
or make it the interest of European powers to court our alliance, and
aid in protecting us against the invasions of others. What argument
therefore do we want, to show the equity of our conduct; or motive of
interest to recommend it to our prudence? Nature points out the path,
and our enemies have obliged us to pursue it.
If
there is any man so base or so weak as to prefer a dependence on
Great Britain to the dignity and happiness of living a member of a
free and independent nation—let me tell him that necessity now
demands what the generous principle of patriotism should have
dictated.
We
have now no other alternative than independence, or the most
ignominious and galling servitude. The legions of our enemies thicken
on our plains; desolation and death mark their bloody career; whilst
the mangled corpses of our countrymen seem to cry out to us as a
voice from heaven—” Will you permit our posterity to groan under
the galling chains of our murderers? Has our blood been expended in
vain? Is the only reward which our constancy, till death, has
obtained for our country, that it should be sunk into a deeper and
more ignominious vassalage? Recollect who are the men that demand
your submission; to whose decrees you are invited to pay obedience!
Men who, unmindful of their relation to you as brethren, of your long
implicit submission to their laws; of the sacrifice which you and
your forefathers made of your natural advantages for commerce to
their avarice—formed a deliberate plan to wrest from you the small
pittance of property which they had permitted you to acquire.
Remember that the men who wish to rule over you, are they who, in
pursuit of this plan of despotism, annulled the sacred contracts
which had been made with your ancestors; conveyed into your cities a
mercenary soldiery to compel you to submission by insult and
murder—who called your patience, cowardice; your piety, hypocrisy.”
Countrymen!
the men who now invite you to surrender your rights into their hands,
are the men who have let loose the merciless savages to riot in the
blood of their brethren—who have dared to establish popery
triumphant in our land—who have taught treachery to your slaves,
and courted them to assassinate your wives and children.
These
are the men to whom we are exhorted to sacrifice the blessings which
Providence holds out to us—the happiness, the dignity of
uncontrolled freedom and independence.
Let
not your generous indignation be directed against any among us, who
may advise so absurd and maddening a measure. Their number is but few
and daily decreases; and the spirit which can render them patient of
slavery will render them contemptible enemies.
Our
Union is now complete; our constitution composed, established, and
approved. You are now the guardians of your own liberties. We may
justly address you, as the Decemviri did the Romans, and say—”
Nothing that we propose can pass into a law without your consent. Be
yourselves, O Americans, the authors of those laws on which your
happiness depends.”
You
have now in the field armies sufficient to repel the whole force of
your enemies, and their base and mercenary auxiliaries. The hearts of
your soldiers beat high with the spirit of freedom —they are
animated with the justice of their cause, and while they grasp their
swords, can look up to heaven for assistance. Your adversaries are
composed of wretches who laugh at the rights of humanity, who turn
religion into derision, and would, for higher wages, direct their
swords against their leaders or their country. Go on, then, in your
generous enterprise, with gratitude to heaven, for past success, and
confidence of it in the future. For my own part, I ask no greater
blessing than to share with you the common danger and common glory.
If I have a wish dearer to my soul, than that my ashes may be mingled
with those of a Warren and Montgomery—it is—that these American
States may never cease to be free and independent!
