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 an house of commons from out of
their own body—and it is easy to see that
when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues.
Why 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.
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 this 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 last
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 county, 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 honour. 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.
