have drawn the sword, there is but one step more they can take.  That step is now pressed upon us by the measures adopted, as if they were afraid we would not take it.  Believe me, dear Sir, there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do.  But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America.  We want neither inducement nor power to declare and assert a separation.  It is will alone which is wanting, and that is growing apace under the fostering hand of our King.  One bloody campaign will probably decide everlastingly our future course; I am sorry to find a bloody campaign is decided on.  If our winds and waters should not combine to rescue their shores from slavery, and General Howe’s reinforcement should arrive in safety, we have hopes he will be inspirited to come out of Boston and take another drubbing:  and we must drub him soundly before the sceptred tyrant will know we are not mere brutes, to crouch under his hand, and kiss the rod with which he deigns to scourge us.

Yours, &c.

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER IV.—­TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, August 13, 1777

TO DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, PARIS.

Virginia,

August 13, 1777.

Honorable Sir,

I forbear to write you news, as the time of Mr. Shore’s departure being uncertain, it might be old before you receive it, and he can, in person, possess you of all we have.  With respect to the State of Virginia in particular, the people seem to have laid aside the monarchical, and taken up the republican government, with as much ease as would have attended their throwing off an old and putting on a new suit of clothes.  Not a single throe has attended this important transformation.  A half dozen aristocratical gentlemen, agonizing under the loss of pre-eminence, have sometimes ventured their sarcasms on our political metamorphosis.  They have been thought fitter objects of pity than of punishment.  We are at present in the complete and quiet exercise of well organized government, save only that our courts of justice do not open till the fall.  I think nothing can bring the security of our continent and its cause into danger, if we can support the credit of our paper.  To do that, I apprehend one of two steps must be taken.  Either to procure free trade by alliance with some naval power able to protect it; or, if we find there is no prospect of that, to shut our ports totally to all the world, and turn our colonies into manufactories.  The former would be most eligible, because most conformable to the habits and wishes of our people.  Were the British Court to return to their senses in time to seize the little advantage which still remains within their reach from this quarter, I judge that, on acknowledging our absolute independence and sovereignty,