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 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
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THE 
 
 AMERICAN SPEAKER ; 
 .< 
 
 SELECTION 
 
 OF 
 
 rOrULAR, PARLIAMENTARY AND FORENSIC 
 ELOQUENCE,; 
 
 PARTICULARLY CALCULATED 
 
 FOR THE SSmJ^dRIES /JV THE VmTED STATES,^ 
 
 SECOA'D EDITIOX, 
 
 PHILADEIPIIIA : 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY 
 ABRAHAM SMALL. 
 
 181*. 
 
District of Pennsylvania, to wit : 
 
 BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the tlurty-first day of January, 
 J., c T in the thirty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States 
 ii^' »J of America, A. D. 1811. Birch and Small, of the said district, 
 have deposited, in this Office, the title of a Book, the right whereof 
 they claim as proprietors, in the words following-, to wit: " The Ame- 
 rican Speaker: a selection, of popular, parliamentary, and forensic 
 Filoquence; pt^rticularly calculated for the seminaries in tlie United 
 States." 
 
 In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, en- 
 titled, " An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the 
 copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of 
 such copies during the times therein mentioned." And also to the act, 
 entitled, ** An act supplementary to an act, entitled, " An act for the 
 encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and 
 books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the time 
 therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of 
 dv-.signing, engraving and etching historical and other prints." 
 
 D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the District, of Pennsylvania. 
 
# / 
 
 PREFACE, 
 
 THE Compiler of the American Speaker, 
 cannot venture to bring his selection -^before the 
 Public, without stating what inlluenced his mind 
 to the undertaking : — he believes that novelty only, 
 with all its fascinations, will not justify an addi- 
 tion to the numerous School Books already in cir- 
 culation. 
 
 The great importance of such a work as this, as 
 a Class Book in our Academies, is principally ma- 
 nifested by the nature of our Constitutions, and in 
 their practical operations — these have opened all 
 the avenues that can lead to eminence and honor 
 to every Citizen, — whatever therefore, will assist 
 and accelerate them in that distinguished pursuit, 
 must be allowed to be of tbe first utility. 
 
 Without some proficiency in Oratory, there seems 
 to be an almost insurmountable barrier to the pa- 
 triotic views of an aspiring genius — witli it, the 
 road to distinction, is obvious, direct, and almost 
 certain : — ^the many Legislative bodies in our Fe- 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 deral form of government, tlie numerous and cU* 
 versified character of our Courts, present a suita- 
 ble field for every grade, from the unfledged effort 
 of the callow young, to the mature, eagle-eyed 
 flight in the face of the God of Day. 
 
 Our aim then, in making this selection, has been 
 to aid those honorable efforts : — to endeavor to fire 
 the minds of our young men, by placing in their 
 viev/ some of the brightest examples of Genius : 
 to enable them to catch the spirit of those men, 
 who, 
 
 ^* JVith lips ofjire^ have jjled their country^ s cause/-^ 
 
 The nainre of our plan did not admit of the intro- 
 duction of many long harangues ; we have therefore 
 extracted what we thought the happiest, the most 
 eloquent, and as far as we coultl, the most instruc- 
 tive parts of each Speech : — we say instructive, 
 because we have endeavored to find subjects which 
 bear on principles and'facts necessary to be known 
 and understood by xVmericans — that are historical- 
 ly and chronologically useful — that have marched, 
 as it were, with us to Independence — topics near 
 our own time, and which it may be useful, in the ad- 
 vance of our national affairs to be familiarly ac- 
 quainted with — all the pieces of a political charac 
 ter in the American Speaker arc in unison with 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 our own system of government — the principles on 
 which free Constitutions are founded, and the ap- 
 plication of the rights and duties of Citizens un 
 dcr them. 
 
 Although a great part of our Selection is of a 
 character ardent and glowing, we would not be 
 suspected of denying the omnipotency of cool de- 
 liberate argument and reasoning — but how often, 
 has the most powerful eflect, been lost by a neglect 
 of the finest opportunitiQs for appropriate declama- 
 tion? — By an happy appeal to the feelings, how 
 often has truth herself been indebted for all the im- 
 pression she has made ? — wc have culled from tlie. 
 greatest modern masters examples of these facts : 
 and we believe no public speaker will suffer by as- 
 similating himself under a judicious consideration 
 of circumstances, to a Burke, an Erskine, a Grat- 
 tan, or a Curran^ — we are fully convinced of one 
 great truth — that to impress, we must feel — it is this 
 that captivates the heart — without feeling, the elec- 
 tricity of Speech is never emitted — with the ioi« 
 pression which feeling produces, a torrent arises^ 
 that oftentimes overwhelms ungracefVilness itself--* 
 every thing that would impede the current is swept 
 before it, and the man is altogether lost in thQ 
 Orator. 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 We have introduced the immortal Washington 
 wherever we could : we lament that more of the 
 harangues he must have made to his troops in the 
 many trying situations in which he was placed du- 
 ring the revolutionary war, have not heen preserv- 
 ed — we sliould douhtless have found spirit and 
 animation suited to the occasion — hut in his most 
 preceptive pieces the name of Washington, — the 
 consciousness of his greatness, cannot fail to give 
 a glow to every American hosom, heyond what any 
 otiier production can create. 
 
 We wish we could have added to the numher of 
 speeches, of tlic Aboriginal Inhabitants of North 
 America — they abound with so many beauties — 
 similies so just and striking, — that an American 
 
 outh cannot be too proud of those savage models 
 
 -every thing that illustrates their character, must 
 j[;c interesting. And shall he not have strong at- 
 tachments to his country, where the finest flowers 
 ?ae found in her wildernesses ? — Where man in 
 his rude state, speaks with more strength of elo- 
 quence, that he has been able to attain in the most 
 
 olished and cultivated society? 
 No doubt the Book in its plan, is susceptible of 
 
 ;reat improvement — if it should pass through other 
 inlitions, we shall gladly attend to all suggestions 
 
PREFACE, vli 
 
 wliicirmay lead to that object — we leave its fate to 
 those who read, and those who teach — it can hard- 
 ly meet with great support without the patronage 
 of the latter — we indulge the hope that if not 
 adopted;, it will not be condemned. 
 
 Philadelphia. Marck^ 1814*,^ 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 HAMLET'S instructions to the players - - 1 
 Charles V. to his son Philip, on resigning to him his 
 
 vast dominions - - - - 2 
 
 Queen Elizabeth to her army encamped at Tilbury — 1588 2 
 Conclusion of the speech of 'he earl of Strafford before 
 
 the honse of Lords — 1641 - - - 3 
 Speech of Rolla to the Peruvians - - 5 
 Sir John St. Aubyn on ihe duration of Parlia- 
 ments . - - 6 
 
 Sir William Wyndham on the same subject 11 
 
 Sir Robert Walpole in reply - - 12 
 
 ^ Sir Gilbert Heaihcote on the establishment of 
 
 Excise Officers - - 14 
 
 Mr. Pultiiey on a standing army — 1731 15 
 
 Sir Robert Walpole on a motion to dismiss 
 
 him from the King's council - 18 
 
 — Dake of Bedfoid on a motion to make the 
 
 descendi'.nts of traitors answeiuble for the 
 
 crimes of their ancestors - 21 
 
 ■ General Wolfe to his army before Quebec — 
 
 1759 - - - 26 
 
 Lord Chiitham on an address to the King 27 
 
 I, I on the seizure of Falkland Is- 
 lands - - 28 
 
 on an address to the King — 
 
 1766 - - 34 
 
 __— in reply to Lord Mansfield — 
 
 1770 - . . 27 
 
 . on the stute of the nation — 1770 46 
 
 — — Lord Mansfield on the deLys of Justice 54 
 
 Colonel Burre on American affairs - 58 
 
 Do. in reply 63 
 
 Gorernor Pownall on the repeal of the Port 
 
 duties - - - 64 
 
CONTENTS* ix 
 
 Speech of Lord Chatham on the bill for quartering sol- 
 diers , - - '65 
 
 — — Mr. Burke on American taxation - 66 
 
 — Do. with a sketch 
 
 of the character of Mr. Grenville - 71 
 
 Mr. Burke with a view of Lord Chathan's last 
 
 administration, and character of Charles 
 Townshcnd - - -75 
 
 — Mr. Burke, extract from the same - 80 
 
 lo the electors of Bristol, on be- 
 
 ing duly elected - - 82^ 
 
 — Mr. Burke to the electors of Bristol, on the 
 
 right of instructing representatives 83 
 
 -— Lord Chatham on his motion to remove the 
 
 troops from Boston - - 86 
 
 . Lord C..mden on secondinp: the motion 91 
 
 Mr Burke on American affairs — 1775 91 
 
 on conciliation with America 92 
 
 Marquis of Granby on American affairs 95 
 
 . Lord Effingham on resigning his commission 97 
 
 . Lord Chatham on an address to the King 99 
 
 Do. 1777 - 102 
 
 on a motion to adjourn the house 103 
 
 — on his motion for an amend- 
 ment to the address - - 108 
 
 — Lord Chatham on the employment of Indians 
 
 against America - - 111 
 
 — Dr. Shipley, bishop of St. Asaph, on toleration 1 12 
 
 ■ Sir William Meredith on frequent executions 1 15 
 
 Extract from a speech of Mr. Burke on economy 121 
 
 Do, from the same to the electors of Bristol - 124 
 
 Extract from the same speech on imprisonment for debt 126 
 
 Do. Do. on penal statutes against Catholics 128 
 
 Further extract from the same speech - - 131 
 
 Speech of William Pitt on economical reform - 156 
 
 • Mr. Fox on the arrival of the news of the 
 
 battle of Guildford - - 141 
 
 — — William Pi'j, sume lime - - 144 
 
 Mr. Fox on the sui render of Lord Cornwallis 145 
 
 Ml'. Burke on the rii;ht to tax America 146 
 
 of Mr. Fox on Mr. Pitt's motion for a parlia- 
 mentary reform - - 147 
 Extract from a speech of ^Ir. Flood - 15 1 
 Do. Do. of Mr. Fox on Mv. Gray's motion 
 
 for a reform in parliament - - 15" 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 Extract from a speech of Mr. Beaufoy on Test laws 165 
 
 Do. Do. of Mr. Fox on the same subject 173 
 
 Do. Do. on the affairs of Ireland 177 
 
 Do. Do. of Mr. Burke on Mr. Fox's India 
 
 Bill - ' ' - 186 
 
 Mr. Burke's eulogium on Mr. Fox - - 189 
 
 Introduction to a speech of Mr. Fox on the government 
 
 of India - - - 191 
 
 Extract of a speech of Mr. Burke on the nabob of Arcot's 
 
 debts - - - 194 
 
 Do. Do. of Mr. G rattan - - 196 
 
 Speech of Lord Erskine on cruelty to animals - 197 
 
 Extract of Mr. Sheridan's speech on the trial of Warren 
 
 Hastings - - - 215 
 
 JMr. Burke's eulogium on Mr. Sheridan's speech 221 
 
 Extract from a speech of Mr. Grattan concerning tifhes 221 
 Speech of Mr. Curran in the Irish parliament on Pen- 
 sions - - - 228 
 Extract from a speech of Mr. Erskine on the trial of 
 
 Mr. Paine - - - 231 
 
 The petition of the wife of Almas Ali Cavvn to Warren 
 
 Hastings - - - 232 
 
 Mr. Erskine on the liberty of the press - - 233 
 
 Mr. Gurran, on the same subject on Mr. Rowan's trial 236 
 Extract from a speech of Mr. Curran on the trial of 
 
 Massy v. Headfoit - - 240 
 
 Conclusion of Mr. Erskine's address to the jury on the 
 
 trial of Mr. Hardy - - - 241 
 
 Mr. Fox's eulogium on General Washington - 247 
 
 Mr. Sheridan on the death of Mr. Fox - 249 
 
 Extract from Mr. Curran's speech in the case of Justice 
 
 Johnson - - - 252 
 
 Speech of Mr. Grattan on the Catholic question 256 
 
 Dr. Dodd's address to the court before receiving sen- 
 tence of death ... 264 
 Speech of Mr. Home, on the trial of Mr. Barbot for kill- 
 ing Mr. Mills in a duel ^ - - 266 
 
 of Mr. Noland in the Virginia legislature, on 
 
 a hill for the suppression of duelling 267 
 
 Extract from a speech of lord Stanhope on neutral rights 270 
 Do. Do. ol governor Livingston to.tiie coun- 
 
 cil and assembly of New-Jersey - - 271 
 
 Oration of Robert Enimett to his judge before receiv- 
 ing sentence tf d'ealh - - 274 
 
CONTENTS. xi 
 
 Speech of Jacob Henry in the North-Carolina Legisla- 
 ture, on a motion to expel him, he being a Jew 279 
 General Washmgton to Congress, on accepting his com- 
 mission - - - 282 
 
 — to his troops before the battle of 
 
 Long Island - - 283 
 
 to his troops before attacking the 
 
 Hessians at Trenton - - 284 
 
 general orders to the army 285 
 
 ciixular to the governors of the 
 
 States - - 287 
 
 speech to the army in consequence 
 
 of an anonymous publication - 298 
 
 Speech of General Washington to the president of Con- 
 gress on resigning his commission 302 
 Answer of the President of Congress to the foregoing 303 
 Farewel address of General Washington to the army 304 
 Speech of the mayor of Alexandria to General Wash- 
 ington, on his leaving home to enter on the presi- 
 dency - - - 308 
 General Washington's answer to the foregoing 309 
 President Washington's first speech to Congress 310 
 
 speech to the third Congress — 
 
 1793 - - - 314 
 
 farewel address to the people 
 
 of the United States 318 
 
 General Marshall's speech in Congress announcing the 
 
 death of Washington . - - 334 
 
 Extract from General H. Lee's funeral oration on Wash- 
 
 iiji<ton's death - - , 335 
 
 Inaugural speech of President Adams - 340 
 
 ' Jefferson - - 346 
 
 Madison . - 350 
 
 Extract from a speech pf Fisher Ames on the British 
 
 treaty - - - * 353 
 
 from a speech of Mr. Wirt on the trial of Aaron 
 
 Burr - - 355 
 from an oration of Richard Rush Esq. at Wash- 
 ington July 4th, 1812 - 359 
 An old Indian chief lo an English officer - 373 
 An Indian chief to English commissioners - 374 
 Speech of Logan, a Mingo chief » - * 374 
 
xU CONTENTS. 
 
 Speech of an Indian chief to the Provincial Congress of 
 
 New-England - - 375 
 
 , the chiefs oif the Seneca nation to the Presi- 
 
 sident of the United States - 376 
 
 «« the same to the same - - 380 
 
 < the same to the same " 381 
 
 Farmer's Brother - - 382 
 
 . Red Jacket - - 384 
 
 .^ Red Jacket - »• - 388 
 
 . Red Jacket S : 590 
 
 ^ Red Jacket - s - 592 
 
THE 
 
 AMERICAN SPEAKER. 
 
 Hamlet's Instructions to the, Players, Shakespeare. 
 SPE AK the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to 
 you, trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as 
 many of our players do, I had as lieve the town crier had 
 spoke my lines. And do not saw the air too much with 
 your hand ; but use all gently ; for in the very torrent, 
 tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, 
 you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give 
 it smoothness. Oh ! it offends me to the soul, to hear a 
 robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to 
 very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings ; who (for 
 the most part) are capable of nothing, but inexplicable 
 dumb shews and noise. Pray you, avoid it. 
 
 Be not too tame neither : but let your own discretion be 
 your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the 
 action ; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not 
 the modesty of nature ; for any thing so overdone, is from 
 the purpose of playing; whose end is — to hold, as 'twere, 
 the mirror up to nature ; to shew Virtue her own feature, 
 Scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the 
 Time his form and pressure. Now, this overdone, or come 
 tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but 
 make the judicious grieve ; the censure of one of which 
 must, in your allowance, o'erweigh a whole theatre of 
 others. Oh ! there be players that I have seen play, and 
 heard others praise, and that highly, that, neither having the 
 accent of a Christian, nor the gait of Christian, Pagan, 
 nor man, have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought 
 
 B 
 
2 AMERICAN 
 
 some of nature's journeymen had made them, and not made 
 them well ; they imitated humanity so abominably. 
 
 And let those that play your clowns, speak no more than 
 5s set down for them j for there be some of them that will 
 themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spec- 
 tators to laugh too; though, in the mean time, some neces- 
 sary question of the play be then to be considered : — that's 
 villanous, and shews a most pitiful ambition in the fool 
 that uses it. 
 
 Charles V, to his Son Philip IL on resigning to him his 
 vast dominions, Robertson. 
 
 IF I had left you by my death, this rich inheritance, 
 to which I have made such large additions, some re- 
 gard w^ould have been justly due to my memory on that 
 account : but now, when I voluntarily resign to you what I 
 might still have retained, I may well expect the warmest 
 expressions of thanks on your part. With these, however, 
 I dispense : and shall consider your concern for the wel- 
 fare of your subjects, and your love of them, as the best 
 snd most acceptable testimony of your gratitude to me. 
 It is in your power, by a wise and virtuous administration, 
 to justify the extraordinary proof which I this day give of 
 my paternal affection ; and to demonstrate, that you are 
 worthy of the confidence which I repose in you. Preserve 
 an inviolable regard for religion ; maintain the Catholic 
 faith in its purity j let the laws of your country be sacred 
 in your eyes : encroach not on the rights and privileges of 
 your people : and, if the time shall ever come, when you 
 shall wish to enjoy the tranquillity of private life, may you 
 have a son endowed with such qualities, that you can re- 
 sign your sceptre to him with as much satisfaction as I 
 give up mine to you. 
 
 ^een Elizabeth* s Speech to her Army encamped at Tilbury 
 — in the expectation of the Landing of a Spanish force 
 by the " Invincible Armada.''^ — 1588. 
 
 '* MY loving people, we have been persuaded by some 
 that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit 
 ourself to armed multitudes for fear of treachery: but I 
 assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful 
 and loving people. Let tyrants fear ; I have always so be- 
 haved myself, that under God I have placed my chiefest 
 
SPEAKER. 3 
 
 strength and safeguard In the loyal hearts and good- will of 
 my subjects. And therefore I am come amongst you as 
 you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, buc 
 being resolved in the midst and heat of the battle to live or 
 die amongst you all, to lay down for my God, and for my 
 kingdom, and for my people, my honour, and my blood, 
 even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak 
 and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a 
 king, and of a king of England too ; and think foul scorn, 
 that Parma, or Sp.un, or any prince in Europe, should dare 
 to invade the borders of my realm : to which, rather than 
 any dishonor should grow by me, I myself will take up 
 arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder 
 of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already 
 for your forwardness, you have deserved rewards and 
 crowns ; and we do assure you in the word of a prince, they 
 shall be duly paid you. In the mean time, my lieutenant 
 general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince com- 
 manded a more noble or worthy subject ; not doubting but 
 by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the 
 camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a 
 famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my king- 
 doms, and of my people." 
 
 Conclusion of the Speech of the Earl of Strafford^ before the 
 House of Lords ^ on his Trials 1641. 
 My Lords, — It is hard to be questioned upon a law 
 which cannot be shewn. Where hath this fire lain hid so 
 many hundred years, without smoke to discover it, till it 
 thus bursts forth to consume me and my children ? 
 
 That punishment should precede promulgation of a law, 
 to be punished by a law subsequent to the fact, is extreme 
 hard. What man can be safe, if this be admitted ? 
 
 My lords, it is hard in another respect, that there should 
 be no token set by which we should know this offence ; no 
 admonition by which we should avoid it. If a man pass 
 the Thames in a boat, and split himself upon an anchor, 
 and no buoy be floating to discover it, he who owneth the 
 anchor shall make satisfaction ; but if a buoy be set there, 
 every man passeth upon his own peril. Now, where is the 
 mark, where is the token upon this crime, to declare it to be 
 high treason ? 
 
4 AMERICAN 
 
 My lords, be pleased to give that regard to the peeiage 
 of England, as never to expose yourselves to such moot 
 points, such constructive interpretations of law ; if there 
 must be a trial of wits, let the subject matter be of some- 
 what else than the lives and honours of peers. 
 
 It will be wisdom for yourselves, for your posterity, and 
 for the whole kingdom, to cast into the fire these bloudy 
 and mysterious volumes of constructive and arbitrary trea- 
 son, as the primitive christians did their books of curious 
 arts, and betake yourselves to the plain letter of the law and 
 statute, that telleth us what is, and what is not treason, 
 without being ambitious to be more learned in the art of 
 killing than our forefathers. 
 
 It is now full two hundred and forty years since any 
 man was touched for this alleged crime, to this height, be- 
 fore myself. Let us not awaken these sleeping lions to our 
 destruction, by taking up a few musty records that have lain 
 by the walls so many ages, forgotten or neglected. 
 
 May your lordships please not to add this to my other 
 misfortunes ; let not a precedent be derived from me so dis- 
 advantageous as this will be, in its consequence, to the 
 whole kingdom. Do not, through me^ wound the interest of 
 the commonwealth j and howsoever these gentlemen say, 
 they speak for the commonwealth ; yet, in this particular, 
 I indeed speak for it, and shew the inconvenience and mis- 
 chiefs that will fall upon it; for, as it is said in the statute 1 
 Henry IV. no one will know what to do or say, for fear of 
 such penalties. 
 
 Do not put, my lords, such difficulties upon ministers of 
 state, that men of wisdom, of honour, and of fortune, may 
 DOt with cheerfulness and safety be employed for the public. 
 If you weigh and measure them by grains and scruples, the 
 public affairs of the kingdom will lie waste ; no man will 
 meddle with them who hath any thing to lose. 
 
 My lords, I have troubled you longer than I should have 
 done, were it not for the interest of those dear pledges a 
 saint in heaven hath left me. 
 
 [At this word he stopped awhile, letting h\l some tears, 
 to her memory ; then he went on] — 
 
 What I forfeit mj'self is nothing ; but that my indiscre- 
 tion should extend to my posterity, woundeth me to the ve- 
 ry soul -' 
 
SPEAKER. 5 
 
 You will pardon my infirmity. Something I should have 
 added, but am not able ; therefore let it pass. 
 
 Now, my lords, for myself, I have been by the blessing 
 of Almighty God, taught, that the afflictions of this pres-nt 
 life are not to be compared to the eternal weight of glory 
 which shall be revealed hereafter. 
 
 And so, my lords, even so, with all tranquillity of mind, 
 I freely submit myself to your judgment, and whether that 
 judgment be of life or death, tc Deiun laudamus. 
 
 The Speech of Rolla to the Peruvians^ from the Tra^edij 
 of Pizarro, Kotzebue, 
 
 MY brave associates, partners of my toil, my feelings 
 and my fame ! Can Rolla's words add vigour to the virtu- 
 ous energies which inspire your hearts ? No, you have 
 judged as I have, the foulness of the crafty plea by \\tliich 
 these bold invaders would delude you ; your generous spi- 
 rit has compared as mine has, the motives, which in a war 
 like this, can animate their minds, and ours, 'i'hey, by a 
 strange frenzy driven, fight for power, for plunder, and cx^- 
 tended rule: we, for our country, our altars, andour homes* 
 They follow an adventurer whom they fear ; and obey a 
 power which they hate ; we serve a monarch whom we 
 love, a God whom we adore. Whene'er they move in, 
 anger, desolation tracks their progress ! Vv'here"*er they 
 pause in amity, affliction mourns their friendship ! They 
 boast, they come but to improve our state, enlarge our 
 thoughts, and free us from the yoke of error ! Yes, they 
 will give enlightened freedom to our mind, who are them- 
 selves the slaves of pass'on, avarice and pride. They of- 
 fer us their protection , Yes, such protection as vultures 
 give to lambs, covering and devouring them ! They call on 
 us to barter all the good we have inherited and proved, for 
 the desperate chance of something better which they pro- 
 mise. Be our plain answer this: The throne we honor is 
 the people's choice ; the laws we reverence are our brave 
 father's legacy ; the faith we follow teaches us to live in 
 bonds of charity with all mankind, and die with hope of 
 bliss beyond the grave. Tell your invaders this, and tell 
 them too, we seek no change ; and, least of all, such change 
 as they would bring us. 
 
 B 2 
 
3 AMERICAN 
 
 77ie Speech of Sir John St, Aubyn on seconding Mr, 
 Bromley's motion to repeal the Septennial Law — hij which 
 the duration of the English Parliament had been extend- 
 ed to seven years — 1 734. 
 
 *' Mr. Speaker — The honorable gentleman, who made 
 you this motion, has supported the necessity of it by so 
 many strong and forcible arguments, that there is hardly 
 any thing new to be offered. I am very sensible there- 
 fore of the disadvantage I must lie under, in attempting 
 to speyk after him ; and I should content myself with 
 barely seconding him, if the subject matter of this debate 
 was not of such great importance, that I should be asham- 
 ed to return to my Electors, without endeavouring, in the 
 best manner I am able, to declare publicly the reasons 
 which induced me to give my most ready assent to the 
 question. 
 
 " 'Tis evident from what has been said, that the people 
 have an unquestionable right to frequent new parliaments 
 by ancient usage ; and that this usage has been confirm- 
 ed by several laws, which have been progressively made 
 by our senators, as often as they found it necessary to in- 
 ,sist on this essential privilege. 
 
 *' Parliaments were generally annual, but never continued 
 longer than three years, till the remarkable reign of Henry 
 Vlil. He was a prince of unruly appetites, and of an 
 arbitrary will : he was impatient of every restraint : the 
 laws of God and man fell equally a sacrifice as they stood 
 in the way of his avarice, or disappointed his ambition : he 
 therefore introduced long parliaments, because he very 
 well knev/ that they Vi^ould become the proper instruments 
 of both ; and what a slavish obedience they paid to all his 
 measures is sufficiently known. 
 
 " If we come to ;he reign of King Charles I. we 
 must acknowledge him to be a prince of a contrary tem- 
 per: he had certainly an innate love for religion and vir- 
 tue. But here lay the misfortune — he was led away from 
 his natural disposition by sycophants and flatterers : they 
 advised him to neglect the calling of frequent parhaments ; 
 and therefore, by not taking the constant sense of his 
 people in what be did, he was worked up into so high a 
 
SPEAKER. i 
 
 notion of prerogative, that the Commons (in order to re- 
 strain it) obtained that independent fatal power, which at 
 last unhappily brought him to his most tragical end, and 
 at the same time subverted the whole constitution. And 
 I hope we shall learn this lesson from it, never to com- 
 pliment the crown with any new or extravagant powers, 
 nor to deny the people those rights, which by ancient 
 usage they are entitled to ; but to preserve that just and 
 equal balance, from which they will both derive mutual 
 security, and which, if duly observed, will render our con- 
 stitution the envy and admiration of the world. 
 
 " King Charles II. naturally took a surfeit of parlia- 
 ments in his father's time, and was therefore extremely 
 desirous to lay them aside. But this was a scheme im- 
 practicable. However, in effect he did so ; for he obtained 
 a parliament, which, by its long duration, like an army of 
 veterans, became so exactly disciplined to his own mea- 
 sures, that they knew no other command but from that 
 person who gave them their pay. 
 
 " This was a safe and most ingenious way of enslaving 
 a nation. It was very well known that arbitrary power, 
 if it was open and avowed, would never prevail here. 
 The people were therefore amused with the specious 
 forms of their ancient constitution : it existed, indeed, in 
 their fancy ; but, like a mere phantom, had no substance 
 nor reality in it; for the power, the authority, and the 
 dignity of parliaments were wholly lost. This was that 
 remarkable parliament which so justly obtained the oppro- 
 brious name of the Pension Parliament ; and was the 
 model, from which, I believe, some later parliaments have 
 been actually copied. 
 
 " At the time of the Revolution, the people made a 
 fresh claim of their ancient privileges; and as they had so 
 lately experienced the misfortune of long and servile Par- 
 liaments, it was tiKu declared that they should be held 
 frequently. But it seems their full meaning was not un- 
 derstood by this declaration : and therefore, as in every 
 new settlement the intention of all parties should be spe- 
 cifically manifested ; the Parliament never ceased strug- 
 gling v/ith the crown, till the triennial law was obtained : 
 the preamble of it is extremely full and strong ; and in 
 the bodv of the bill vou will find the word declared before 
 
S AMERICAN 
 
 enacted; by which I apprehend, that though this law did 
 not immediately take place at the time of the Revolu- 
 tion, it was certainly intended as declaratory of their first 
 meaning : and therefore stands a part of that original 
 contract, under which the constitution was then settled. 
 His Majesty's title to the Crown is primarily derived from 
 that contract ; and, if, upon a review, there shall appear 
 to be any deviations from it, we ought to treat them as so 
 many injuries done to that title. — And I dare say, that 
 this House, which has gone through so long a series of 
 services to his Majesty, will at last be willing to revert to 
 those original stated measures of government, to renew, 
 and strengthen that tide. But, Sir, I think the manner 
 in which the septennial law was first introduced, is a very 
 strong reason why it should be repealed. People in their 
 fears have very often recourse to desperate expedients, 
 which, if not cancelled in season, will themselves prove 
 fatal to that constitution, which they were meant to se- 
 cure. Such is the nature of the septennial law ; it was 
 intended only as a preservative against a temporary incon- 
 venience : the inconvenience is removed, but. the mis- 
 chievous effects still continue : for it not only altered the 
 constitution of Parliament ; but it extended that same 
 Parliament beyond its' natural duration : and therefore 
 carries this unjust implication with it, that you may at 
 any time usurp the most indubitable, the most essential 
 privilege of the people — I mean that of choosing their own 
 representatives. — A precedent of such a dangerous conse- 
 quence, of so fatal a tendency, that I think it would be a 
 reproach to our statute book if thiit law were any longer 
 to subsist which might record it to posterity. 
 
 " This is a season of virtue and public spirit. Let us 
 take advantage of it, to repeal those laws which infringe 
 our liberties, and introduce such, as may restore the vigor 
 of our ancient constitution. 
 
 " Human nature is so very corrupt, that all obUgations 
 lose their force unless they are frequently renewed. — 
 Long Parliaments give the minister an opportunity of 
 getting acquaintance with members, of practising his se- 
 veral arts to win them into his schemes — This must be the 
 work of time — Corruption is of so base a nature, that at 
 first sight it is extremely shocking — Hardly any one has 
 
SPEAKER. 9 
 
 submitted to it all at once — His disposition must be pre- 
 viously understood — The particular bait must be found 
 out, with which he is to be allured ; and, after all, it is 
 not without many struggles that he surrenders his virtue. 
 — Indeed there are some, who will at once plunge them- 
 selves into any base actions : but the generality of man- 
 kind are of a more cautious nature, and will proceed only 
 by leisurable degress. One or two perhaps have deserted 
 their colours the first campaign: some have done it a se- 
 cond — But a great many, who have not that eager dispo- 
 sition to vice, will v. ait a third — For this reason, short 
 Parliaments have been less corrupt than long ones : they 
 are observed, like streams of water, always to grow more 
 impure, the greater distance they run from the fountain 
 head. 
 
 " I am aware it may be said, that frequent new Parlia- 
 ments will produce frequent new expenses : but I think 
 quite the contrary : I am really of opinion, that it will be 
 a proper remedy against the evil of bribery at elections ; 
 especially as you have provided so wholesome a law to co- 
 operate upon these occasions. Bribery at elections whence 
 did it arise ? not from country gentlemen, for they are sure 
 of being chosen without it : it was, Sir, the invention of 
 wicked and corrupt ministers, who have from time to time 
 led weak princes into such destructive measures, that they 
 did not dare to rely upon the natural representation of the 
 people. Long Parliaments, Sir, first introduced bribery ; 
 because they were worth purchasing at any rate. Country 
 gentlemen, who have only their private fortunes to rely 
 upon, and have no mercenary ends to serve, are unable to 
 oppose it, especially if at any time, the public treasure 
 shall be unfaithfully squandered away to corrupt their bo- 
 roughs. Country gentlemen, indeed, may make some 
 weak efforts : but as they generally f>rove unsuccessful, and 
 the time of a fresh struggle is at so great a distance, they 
 at last*grow faint in the dispute — give up -Lheir country 
 for lost, and retire in despair. Despair naturally pro- 
 duces ind.olence, and that is the proper disposition for 
 slavery. Ministers ot" State understand this very well, and 
 are therefore unwilling to awaken the nation out of its 
 lethargy by frequent elections. They know that the spirit 
 of liberty, like every other virtue of the mind, is to be kept 
 
10 AMERICAN 
 
 alive only by constant action : that it is impossible to en- 
 slave this nation while it is perpetually upon its guard. 
 JLft country gentlemen, then, by having frequent oppor- 
 tunities of exerting themselves, be kept warm and active 
 in their contention for the public good : this will raise that 
 zeiil, and spirit, which, will at last get the better of those 
 undue influences, by which the officers of the crown, 
 though unknown to several boroughs, have been able to 
 supplant country gentlemen of great characters, and fortune, 
 who live in their neighbourhood. I do not say this upon 
 idle speculation only. I live in a country where it is too 
 well known : and I appeal to many gentlemen m the House, 
 to more out of it, (and who are so for this Vvfry reason) for 
 the truth of my assertion. — Sir, it is a sore which has long 
 been eating into the most vital part of our constitution : 
 and I hope the time will come, when you will probe it to 
 the bottom. For if a Minister should ever gain a corrupt 
 familiarity v;ith our boroughs : if he should keep a register . 
 of them in his closet, and by sending down his treasury 
 mandates, should procure a spurious representation of the 
 people, the offspring of his corruption, who will be at all 
 times ready to reconcile and justify the most contradictory 
 measures of his administration : and even to vote every 
 crude indigested dream of their patron into a law : if the 
 maintenance of his power should become the sole object 
 of their attention, and they should be guilty of the most 
 violent breach of parliamentary trust, by giving the Kin^ 
 a discretionary power of taxing the people without limita- 
 tion, or control : the last fatal compliment they can pay to 
 the crown : if this should ever be the unhappy condition 
 of this nation : the people indeed may complain : but the 
 doors of that place, where their complaints should be heard 
 will for ever be shut against them. Our disease, I fear, 
 is of a complicated nature : and I think that this motion 
 is wisely intended to remove the first and principal disor- 
 der. Give the people their ancient right of frequent ricw 
 elections : that will restore the decayed authority of Par- 
 liaments, and will put our constitution into a natural con- 
 dition of working oat her own cure. 
 
 " Sir, upon the whole, I am of opinion, that I cannot 
 express a greater zeal for his Majesty, for the liberties of 
 the people, or the honour and dignity of this House, than. 
 
SPEAKER. U 
 
 by seconding the motion which the honourable gentleman 
 has made you." 
 
 Extract from Sir William Wyndham''s Speech in the same 
 debat?. 
 
 " I have been told, Sir, that no faith is to be given to 
 prophecies : therefore I shall not pretend to prophesy : 
 but I may suppose a case, which, though it has not yet 
 happened, may possibly happen. Let us then suppose a 
 man of mean fortune, and obscure origin, abandoned to 
 ail notions of virtue, and honor, and pursuing no object 
 but his own aggrandizement, raised by the caprice of for- 
 tune to the station of first minister : let us suppose him 
 palpably deficient in the knowledge of the interests of his 
 country : and employing in all transactions with foreign 
 powers, men still more ignorant than himself: let us sup- 
 pose the honor of the nation tarnished : her political con- 
 sequence lost: her commerce insulted: her merchants 
 plundered : her seamen perishing in the depths of dun- 
 geons, and all these circumstances palliated or overlooked 
 lest his administration should be endangered : suppose 
 him possessed of immense wealth, the spoils of an impo- 
 verished nation : and suppose this wealth employed to 
 purchase seats in the national senate for his confidential 
 friends and favorites. In such a parliament suppose all 
 attempts to enquire into his conduct constantly over-ruled 
 by a corrupt majority, who are rewarded for their treach- 
 ery to the public by a profuse distribution of pensions, 
 posts, and places under the Minister : Let us sujDpose this 
 Minister insolently domineering over all men of sense, 
 figure, and fortune in the nation ; and having no virtuous 
 principle of his own, ridiculing it in others, and endea- 
 vouring to destroy or contaminate it in all: With such a 
 Minister, and such a Parliament, let us suppose a Prince 
 upon the throne, uninformed, and unacquainted with the 
 interests, or inclinations of his people, weak, capricious, 
 and actuated at once by the passions of ambition, and 
 avarice. Should such a case ever occur, could any greater 
 curse happen to a nation, than such a Prince, advised by 
 such a Minister, and that Minister supported by such a 
 Parliament ? The existence of such a Prince, and such a 
 Minister no human laws may indeed be adequate to pre- 
 
12 AMERICAN 
 
 vent : but the existence of such a Parliament may and 
 ought to be prevented ; and the repeal of the law in ques- 
 tion I conceive to be a most obvious, necessary, and in- 
 dispensable means for the accomplishment of that pur- 
 pose." 
 
 Extract from Sir Robert Walpole's Speech in reply to Sir 
 William Wyjidham, 
 
 " Sir — I do assure you, I did not intend to have trou- 
 bled you in this debate ; but such incidents now generally 
 happen towards the end of our debates, nothing at all re- 
 lating to the subject, and gentlemen make such supposi- 
 tions, meaning some person, or perhaps as they say, no 
 person now existing^ and talk so much of wicked ministers, 
 domineering ministers, ministers plumingthemselves in de- 
 fiances, which terms and the like have been so much of 
 late made use of in this House, that if they really mean 
 nobody either in the House, or out of it, yet it must be sup- 
 posed, that they at least mean to call upon some gentleman 
 in this House to make them a replv, and therefore I hope, 
 I may be allowed to draw a picture in my turn — and I may 
 likewise say, that I do not mean to give a description of 
 any person now in being. — When gentlemen talk of minis- 
 ters abandoned to all sense of virtue, or honor, other gen- 
 tlemen may, I am sure, with equal justice and, I think, 
 more justly, speak of anti-ministers and mock-patriots, who 
 never had either virtue or honor, but in the whole course 
 of their opposition are actuated only by motives of envy, 
 and of resentment; against those who may have disappoint- 
 ed them in thtir views, or may not perhaps have complied 
 with all their desires. But now, Sir, let me too suppose, 
 and the House b-ing cleared, I am sure no person that hears 
 me can come within the description of the person, I am 
 to suppose — let us suppose in this, or some other unfor- 
 tunate country, an anti-minister, who thinks himself a 
 person of so great, and extensive parts, and of so many 
 eminent qualifications, that he looks upon himself as the 
 only person in the kingdom capable to conduct the public 
 affairs of the nation, and therefore christening every other 
 gentleman, who has the honor to be employed in the 
 ad. ministration, by the name of blunderer : suppose this 
 fine gentleman lucky enough to have gained over to his 
 
SPEAKER. 13 
 
 party some persons really of fine parts— of ancient fami- 
 lies — and of great fortunes, and others of desperate views, 
 arising from disappointed and malicious hearts : all these 
 gentlemen, with respect to their political behaviour, mov- 
 ed by him, and by him solely : all they say either in pri- 
 vate, or in public, being only a repetition of the words he 
 has put into their mouths ; and a spitting out of that venom 
 which he has infused into them: and yet we may suppose 
 this leader not really liked by any, even of those who so 
 blindly follow him, and hated by all the rest of mankind : 
 We'll suppose this anti-minister to be in a country where 
 he really ought not to be, and where he could not have 
 been but by an effect of too much goodness, and mercy : 
 yet endeavouring with all his might and with all his art 
 to destroy the fountain from whence that mercy flowed : 
 in that country suppose him continually contracting friend- 
 ships, and familiarities with the ambassadors of those 
 Princes, who at the time happen to be most at enmity 
 with his own. And if at any time it should happen to be 
 for the interest of any of those foreign ministers to have 
 a secret divulged to them, which might be highly preju- 
 dicial to his native country — as well as to all its friends : 
 suppose this foreign minister applying to him, and he 
 answering him, Til get it you, tell me, bat what you wanti 
 I'll endeavour to procure it for yoa. Upon this he puts 
 a speech or two in the mouth of some of his creatures, or 
 some of his new converts: what he wants is moved for in 
 Parliament; and when so very reasonable a request as this 
 is refused, suppose him and his creatures and tools, by his 
 advice, spreading alarm over the whole nation, and crying 
 out. Gentlemen, our country is at present involved in 
 many dangerous difficulties, all which we would have ex- 
 tricated you from, but a wicked minister, and a corrupt 
 majority, refused us the proper materials ; and upon this 
 scandalous victory, this minister became so insolent as to 
 plume himself in defiances. Let us farther suppose this 
 anti- minister ti have travelled, and at every court where 
 he was, thinking himself the greatest Minister, and mak- 
 ing It his trade to betray the secrets of every court where 
 he had before been ; void of all faith or honor, and be- 
 traying every master he had ever served. Sir, I could 
 carry my suppositions a great deal farther j and I may 
 
 C 
 
14 AMERICAN 
 
 say, I mean no person now in being : but if we can sup- 
 pose such a one, can there be imagined a greater disgrace 
 to human nature than such a wretch as this?" 
 
 Sir Gilbert Heathcote^ in the British House of Com7nonSj 
 on the establishnent oj Excise Officers^ in 1732. 
 
 Sir, — OTLER gentltmen have already fully explain- 
 ed and set lorth the great inconveniences which must be 
 brought on the trade of this nation, by the scheme now pro- 
 post a to us ; those have bt en made very apparent, and from 
 them arises a very strong objection against what is now pro- 
 posed . but the grei test objection arises from the danger to 
 which this scht me will most certainly expose the liberties 
 of f iir country ; these liberties, for which cur ancestors 
 hi ve so often ventured their lives and fortunes ; those 
 liberties which have cost this nation so much blood and 
 treasure, seem already to be greatly retrenched. I am 
 sorry to say it, but what is now in dispute, seems to m^ 
 to be the last branch of liberty we have to contend for ; 
 wt have already established a standing arm; , and have 
 made it in a mnrncr, a part of our constitution ; we 
 have alread) subjected great numbers of the people of 
 this nation to the arbitrary laws of excise ; and this 
 sch< m.e is so wide a step towards subjecting all the rest 
 of tht people oi Engliind to those arbitrary laws, that it 
 will be impossible for us to recover, or prevent the fatal 
 consequences of such a scheme. 
 
 We are told that his majesty is a good and a wise 
 prince : we all believe him to be so; but I hope no man 
 will pretend to draw any argument from thence for our 
 surrendering those liberties and privileges, which have 
 been handccl down to us by our ancestors. We have in- 
 deed, nothing to fear from his present majesty ; he never 
 will make a bad use of that power which we have put 
 into his hands ; but if we once grant to the crown too 
 great an extent of power, we cannot recal that grant when 
 we have a mind ; and though his majesty should never 
 make a bad use of it, some of his successors may ; the 
 being governed by a wise and good king, does not make 
 the people a free people ; the Romans were as great 
 slaves under the few good emperors they had to reign 
 over them as they were under the most cruel of their ty- 
 
SPEAKER. 15 
 
 rants. After the people have once given up theu' liber- 
 ties, their governors have all the same power of oppress- 
 ing them, though they may not perhaps all make the same 
 wicked use of the power lodged in their hands ; but a 
 slave that has the good fortune to meet ■ ith a good na- 
 tured and humane master, is no less a slave than he that 
 meets with a cruel and barhiroas one. Our liberties are 
 too valuable, and have been purchased at too high a price, 
 to be sported with, or wantonly given up even to the b-st of 
 kings: we have before now had some good, some wise 
 and gracious sovereigns to reign over us, but we find, 
 that under th^^m our ancestors were as jealous of their 
 liberties as they were under the worst of our kings. It is to 
 be hoped that we have stilf the same value" for our liber- 
 ties : if we have we certainly shall use all peaceable me- 
 thods to preserve and secure them : and if such methods 
 should prove ineffectual, I hope there is no Englishman 
 but has spirit enough to use those methods for the pre- 
 servation of our liberties, wHich were used for our ances- 
 tors for the defence of theirs, and for transmitting them 
 down to us in that glorious condition in which we found 
 them. There are some still alive who bravely ventured 
 their lives and fortunes in defence of the liberties of their 
 country ; there are many, whose fathers were t robarked 
 in the same glorious cause ; let it never be said, that the 
 sons of such men wantonly gave up those liberties for 
 which their fathers had risqued so much, and that for the 
 poor pretence of suppressing a few frauds in the collect- 
 ing of the public revenues, which might easily have been 
 suppressed without entering into any such dangerous 
 measures. This is all I shall trouble you with at pre- 
 sent ; but so much I thought it was incumbent upon me 
 to say, in order that I might enter my protest against the 
 question now before us. 
 
 Mr. Pulteneifs Speech on the motion for reducing the 
 Army. — 1731. 
 
 « Sir, — WE have heard a great deal about parlia- 
 mentary armies, and about an army continued trom year 
 to year ; I have always been. Sir, and always shalf be. 
 against a standing army of any kind : to me it is a terrible 
 thing, whether under "that of parliamentary or any other 
 
16 AMERICAN 
 
 designation ; a standing army is still a standing army what- 
 ever name it be called by ; they are a body of men dis- 
 tinct from the body of people ; they are governed by differ- 
 ent laws, ond blind obedience, and an entire submission to 
 the orders of theircommT^ndingofRct^r,istheironly principle. 
 The rations around us, Sir, are already enslaved, and have 
 been enslaved by those very means; by means of their 
 standing armies they have every one lost their liberties; 
 it is indeed impossible that the liberties of the people can 
 be preserved in any country where a numerous standing" 
 army is kept up. Shail we then take any of our mea- 
 sures from the examples of our neighbours? No, Sir, on 
 the contrary, from their misfortunes we ought to learn to 
 avoid those rocks upon which tlrey have split. 
 
 " It signifies nothing to tell me, that our army is com- 
 manded by such gentlemen as cannot be supposed to join 
 in any measures for enslaving their country: it may be 
 so ; I hope it is so ; I have a very good opinion of many 
 gentlemen now in the army ; I believe they would not 
 join in any such measures ; but their lives are uncertain, 
 nor can we be sure how long they may be continued in 
 command ; they may be all dismissed in a moment, and 
 proper tools of power put in their room. Besides, Sir, we 
 know the passions of men, we know how dangerous it is 
 to trust the best of men with too much power. Where 
 was there a braver army than that under Julius Csesar? 
 Wher was there ever an army that had served their 
 couuiry more faithfully ? That army was commanded ge- 
 nerally by the best citizens of Rome, by men of great for- 
 tune and figure in their country : yet that army enslaved 
 their country. The affections of the soldiers towards their 
 country, the honor and integrity of the under officers, are 
 T-ci to be depended on ; by the military law, the adminis- 
 tration of justice is so quick, and the punishment so se- 
 vere, that neither officer nor soldier dares offer to dispute 
 the orders of his supreme commander; he must not con- 
 sult his own inclinations : if an officer were commanded 
 to pull his own father out of this house, he must do it ; he 
 dares not disobey ; immedii*.te death would be the sure 
 coi sequence of ihe least grumbling. And if an officer 
 were sent into the court of requests, accompanied by a 
 body ot musketeers with screwed bayonets, and with or- 
 
SPEAKER. ir 
 
 ders to tell us what we ought to do, and how we were to 
 vote, I know what would be the duty of this house ; I 
 know it would be our duty to order the officer to be taken 
 and hanged up at the door of the lobby : but. Sir, I doubt 
 much if such a spirit could be found in the house, or in 
 any house of Commons that will ever be in England. 
 
 " Sir, I talk not of imaginary things; I talk of what has 
 happened to an English house of Commons, and from au 
 English army ; not only from an English army, but an army 
 that was i aised by that very house of Commons, an army 
 that was paid by them, and an arm}; that was commanded 
 by generals appointed by them. Therefore do not let us 
 vainly imagine, that an army raised and maintained by 
 authority of Parliament, will always be submissive tc 
 them: if an army be so numerous as to have it in theii 
 power to over-awe the Parliament, they will be submis 
 sive as long as the Parliament does nothing to disoblige 
 their favourite general : but when that case happens, I am 
 afraid that in place of the Parliament's dismissing the ar 
 my, the army will dismiss the Parliament, as they havt- 
 done heretofore. Nor does the legality or illegality of 
 that Parliament, or of that ?.rmy, alter the case ; for v/ith 
 respect to that army, and according to their way of think- 
 ing, the Parliament dismissed by them was a legal Parlia 
 ment ; they Were an army raised and maintained accord - 
 ing to law, and at first they were raised, as they imagined, 
 for the preservation of those liberties which they after- 
 wards destroyed. 
 
 " It has been urged, Sir, that whoeve/ is for the Pro- 
 testant succession must be for continuing the army : fur 
 that very reason, Sir, I am against continuing the army. 
 I know that neither the Protestant succession in his Ma- 
 jesty's most illustrious house, nor any succession, can 
 ever be safe as long as there is a standing army in the 
 country. Armies, Sir, have no regard to hereditary 
 succession. The first two Caesars at Rome did pretty well, 
 and found means to keep their armies in tolerable subjec- 
 tion, because the generals and officers were all their own 
 creatures. But how did it fare with their successors ? 
 Was not every one of them named by the army, without 
 any regard to hereditary right, or to any right ? A cobler, 
 a gardener, or any man-who happened to raise himself in 
 
 C 2 
 
18 AMERICAN 
 
 the army, or could gain their afFectiorvs, was made empe- 
 ror of the world : was not e\ ery succeeding emperor rais- 
 ed to the throne, or tumbled headlong into the dust, ac- 
 cord ng to the mere whim, ©r mad frenzy of the soldiers? 
 "" We ; re told this army is desired to be continued but 
 for ( nt- year longer, or for a limited term of years. How 
 absurd is this distinction ? Is there any army in the world 
 continued for any term of years ? Does the most abso- 
 lute monarch tell his army, that he is to continue them 
 for any number of.years, or any number of months? How 
 long have we already continued our army from year to 
 year? And if it thus continues, wherein will it differ 
 from the standing armies of those countries which have 
 already submitted their necks to the yoke ? We are now 
 come to the Rubicon ; our army is now to be reduced, or 
 it never will ; from his Majesty^s own mouth we are as- 
 sured of a profound tranquillity abroad, we know there is 
 one at home ; if this is not a proper time, if these circum- 
 stances do not afford;us a safe opportunity for reducing at 
 least a part of our regular forces, we never can expect to 
 see any reduction ; and this nation, already over-burdened 
 with debts and taxes, must be loaded with the heavy 
 charge of perpetually supporting a numerous standing ar- 
 my ; and remain for ever exposed to the danger of havmg 
 its liberties and privileges trampled upon by any future 
 King or Ministry, who shall take it in their heads to do 
 so, and shall take a proper care to model the army for 
 that purpose. 
 
 The Exardivm to Sir Robert Walpole'^s Speech on the 7no- 
 tion for {dismissing" him from his Majesty^ s Councily 
 1740. , 
 
 "Mr. Speaker^ — IT has been observed by several 
 gentlemen, in vindication of this motion, that if it should 
 be carried, neither my life,^iberty, or estate will be affect- 
 ed. But do the honorable gentlemen consider my cha* 
 racter and reputation as of no moment t Is it no imputation 
 to be arraigned before this house, in which I have sat for- 
 ty Vf ars, and to have my name transmitted to posterity 
 "with disp:race and infamy? I will not conceal my senti- 
 ments, that to be named in parliament as a subject of in- 
 quiry, is to me a matter of great concern j but I have the 
 
SPEAKER. 1^ 
 
 satisfaction at the same time to reflect, that the impres- 
 sion to be made depends upon the consistency of the 
 charge and the motives of the prosecutors. Had the 
 charge been reduced to specific allegations, I should have 
 felt myself called upon a specific defence. Had I served 
 ^ weak or wicked master and implicitly obeyed his dic- 
 tates, obedience to his commands must have been my only 
 justification. But as it has been my good fortune to serve 
 a master who wants no bad ministers, and would have 
 hearkened to none, my defence must rest on my own 
 conduct. The consciousness of innocence is also suffi- 
 cient support against my present prosecutors. A further 
 justification is also derived from a consideration of the 
 views and abilities of the prosecutors. Had I been guil- 
 ty of great enormities, they want neither zeal and inclina- 
 tion to bring them forward, nor ability to place them in 
 the most prominent point of view. But as I am consci- 
 ous of no crime, my own experience convinces me, that 
 none can be justly imputed. I must therefore ask the 
 gentlemen, from whence does this attack proceed? From 
 the passions and prejudices of the parties combined 
 against me, who may be divided into three classes, the 
 boys, the riper patriots, and the tories. The tories I can 
 easily forgive, they have unwillingly come into the mea- 
 sure, and they do me honor in thinkmg it necessary to 
 remove me, as their only obstacle. What is the infer- 
 ence to be drawn from these premises ? that demerit with 
 them ought to be considered as merit with others. But 
 my great and principle crime is my long continuance in 
 office, or, in other words, the long exclusion of those who 
 now complain against me. This is the heinous oflfence 
 which exceeds all others. I keep from them the posses- 
 sion of that power, those honors and those emoluments, 
 to which they so ardently and pertinaciously aspire. I 
 will not attempt to deny the reasonableness and necessity 
 of a party war ; bat in carrying on that war, all principles 
 and rules of justice should not be departed from. — The 
 tories must confess, that the most obnoxious persons have 
 lelt few instances of extra-judicial power. Wherever 
 they have been arraigned, a plain charge has been exhi- 
 bited against them. They have had an impartial trial, 
 and have been permitted to make their defence j and will 
 
20 AMERICAN 
 
 they, who have experienced this fair and equitable mode 
 of proceeding, act in direct opposition to every principle 
 of justice, and establish this fatal precedent of parliamen- 
 tary inquisition ? and whom would they conciliate by a 
 conduct so contrary to principle and |)recedent. 
 
 Can it be fitting in them, who have divided the public 
 opinion of the nation, to share it with those who now ap- 
 pear as their competitors? With the men of yesterday, the 
 boys in politics, who would be absolutely contemptible did 
 not their audacity render them detestable? With the mock 
 patriots, whose practice and professions prove their sel- 
 fishness and malignity, who threatened to pursue me to 
 destruction, and who have never for a moment lost sight 
 of their object? These men, under the name of Separatists, 
 presume to call themselves, exclusively, the nation and the 
 people, and under that character, assume all power. In 
 their estimation, the king, lords, and commons are a fac- 
 tion, and they are the government. Upon these principles 
 they threaten the destruction of all authority, and think 
 they have a right to judge, direct, and resist, all legal 
 magistrates. They withdraw from parliament because 
 they succeed in nothing, and then attribute their want of 
 success not to its true cause, their own want of integrity 
 and importance, but to the effect of places, pensions, and 
 corruption. May it not be asked, are the people on the 
 court side more united than on the other? Are not the to- 
 ries, Jacobites, and patriots equally determined ? What 
 makes this strict union ? What cements this heterogenous 
 mass? Party engagements and personal attachments. How- 
 ever different their views and principles, they all agree in 
 opposition. The Jacobites distress the government they 
 would subvert ; the tories contend for party prevalence 
 and power. The patriots, for discontent and disappoint- 
 ment, would change the ministry, that themselves might 
 exclusively succeed. They have laboured this point tvycur 
 ty years unsuccessfully ; they are impatient of longer de- 
 lay. They clamour for change of measures, but mean 
 only change of ministers. 
 
 In party contests, whv should not both sides be equally 
 steady ? Does not a whig administration as well deserve 
 the support of the whigs as the contrary ? Why is not 
 principle the cement in one as well as the other, especially 
 
SPEAKER. 21 
 
 when they confess, that all is levelled against ene man ? 
 Why this one man ? Because they think, vainly, nobody 
 else could withstand them. All others are treated as 
 tools and vassals. The one is the corruptor ; the num- 
 bers corrupted. But whence this cry of corruption, and 
 exclusive claim of honorable distinction ? Compare the es- 
 tates, characters, and fortunes of the commons on one side, 
 with those on the other. Let the matter be fairly investi- 
 giited. Survey and examine the individuals who usually 
 support the measures of government, and those who are 
 in opposition. Let us see to whose side the balance pre- 
 ponderates. Look round both houses, and see to which 
 side the balance of virtue and talents preponderates. Are 
 all these on one -side, and not on the other ? Or are all 
 these to be counterbalanced by an affected claim to the 
 exclusive title of patriotism. Gentlemen Have talked a 
 great deal about patriotism. — A venerable v/ord, when 
 duly practised. But I am sorry to say, that of late it has 
 been so much hackneyed about, that it i-s in danger of fall- 
 ing into disgrace. The very idea of true patriotism is 
 lost ; and the term has been prostituted to the very worst 
 of purposes. A patriot, sir ! — Why patriots spring up 
 like mushrooms! I could raise (ihy of them within the 
 four and twenty hours. I have raised many of them in 
 one night. It is but refusing to gratify an unreasonable 
 or an insolent demand, and up starts a patriot. I have 
 never been afraid of making patriots ; but I disdain and 
 despise all their efforts. But this pretended virtue pro- 
 ceeds from personal malice, and from disappointed ambi- 
 tion. There is not a man amongst them whose particular 
 aim I am not able to ascertain, and from what motive they 
 have entered into the lists of opposition. 
 
 Speech of the Duke of Bedford in the house of Lords ^ in the 
 year 17'43, on a motio?i of Lord Hardxvieke for makings 
 the descendents of Traitors punishable for the Treason 
 of their ancestors. 
 
 " My Lords,-^THOUGH I hope that I have never 
 given reason for suspicion, that I am less zealous than 
 any other lord for the security of our present constitution, 
 or the defence of the family now upon the throne ; though 
 I desire to be considered as equally zealous for liberty, 
 
22 AMERICAN 
 
 and equally tenacious of those laws which secure property 
 with every other man ; though 1 am convinced that ~a 
 Prince forced upon us by the armies and fleets of France 
 will become only the Vice-Roy of the monarch to whom 
 he owes his exaltation, and th^-.t we should thenceforth be 
 considered by the French as their tributaries and their 
 vassals, yet I cannot approve the motion which the noble 
 lord has made. 
 
 " Your lordships cannot be surprised that I am alarmed 
 at thi proposal of a law like this, I, whose family has suf- 
 f{ rtd so lately the deprivation of its rank and its fortune by 
 thv^^ tyranny of a court j I, whose grandfathtr was cut off 
 by an unjust prosecution, and whose father was condemn- 
 ed tor mai»y \ ears to see himself deprived of the rights of 
 his birth, which were at length restored to him by more 
 equitable judges. It is surely reasonable, my lords, that 
 I should oppose the execution of penalties to the descen- 
 dants of offenders, who have scarcely myself escaped the 
 blast of an cittainder. I am very far from denying, my 
 lords, what has been asserted, that the French have long 
 been aspiring to universal monarchy ; that they consider 
 their projects as liable to be defeated only by the Eng- 
 lish ; and that they have therefore for many years labor- 
 ed, to give a king to England ; but, my lords, the ill suc- 
 cess of all tfaeir past attempts convinces me, that they have 
 nothing to hope from any future efforts of the same kind, 
 and that therefore we need not have recourse to new de- 
 grees of severity, or enact penal laws of an extraordinary 
 kind to prevent that which experience has shewn impossi- 
 ble to be accomplished. 
 
 " What could not be accomplished by the power or the 
 policy of the great French monarch, may, very justly, be 
 considered by his successor as an hopeless project ; for 
 the French counsels do not now appear to be guided by 
 the wisdom which at that time was discovered in all their 
 treaties and negotiations, nor have their arms yet acquir- 
 ^ that reputation which filled half the nations of the world 
 with terror. They are not able now to influence kingdoms 
 by their manifestos, or to revive a dejected party by the 
 promise of their assistance : they are now indeed wealthy 
 and powerful, but they are not wealthy to such a degree as 
 
SPEAKER. 23 
 
 to hire the nation to destroy itself, nor so powerful as to 
 sink it to despair. 
 
 Besides, not only the force which is to be employed 
 against the fabric of our constitution is diminished ; but 
 the edifice is grown stronger by time, the basis is sunk 
 deeper, the superstructure is become more solid, and all 
 the parts havt by dtgrees conformed to each other, so 
 that there is no chasm or weakness to be found. Many 
 circumstances, by which the French were formerly indu- 
 ced to hope for success have now vanished for ever. The 
 nation was then divided into two parties, of which that 
 which publicly avowed the desire of restoring the exiled 
 family to the throne, was generally computed to be more 
 numerous. This infatuation, my lords, is now at an end : 
 the numbers of the Jacobites are reduced to a small set 
 below consideration, and seem now more desirous to en- 
 joy their opinions in peace and privacy, than to make 
 proselytes ; and to be tolerated by the lenity of the go- 
 vernment, than to endanger themselves by new provoca- 
 tions. 
 
 The English people, my lords, are now consolidated 
 into one body, and more uniformly together ; they have 
 at last discovered that nominal distinctions are only idle 
 sound, by which they have been long amused by more 
 parties than one^ while they were plundered, and oppress- 
 ed. And whosoever shall review the conduct of the peo- 
 ple for about twenty years backward, shall hnd that they 
 have every year appeared better informed of the true na- 
 ture of our government, and that they have sacrificed, all 
 narrow views and petty considerations to the great scheme 
 of general felicity ; that they have acted steadily, resolute- 
 ly, and wisely ; and that in their regard for one man, or 
 their opposition to another, they have considered truly 
 how far the public good was promoted or obstructed by 
 their counsels. 
 
 On the present occasion, my lords, they have given the 
 fullest proof of their loyalty which they are able to exhi- 
 bit, by innumerable addresses sent from all parts, and 
 drawn up in terms which express the firmest fidelity and 
 warmest affections, — professions, my lords, which surely 
 deserve some oiher return than the severity of a penal 
 law, a law by which one person is condemned to suffer 
 
24 AMERICAN 
 
 for the crime of another. As it is necessary, my lords, 
 that subjects should obey their governors, so it is likewise 
 reasonable, that governors should trust their subjects ; at 
 least that they should not studiously disgust them by 
 groundless suspicions , for when the people see that no 
 degree of obedience can recommend them to regard, they 
 will naturally lose their affection for their superiors ; and 
 when their affection is once extinguished, if they do not 
 violate their duty, they will at least neglect it. To be 
 stispected my lords, is always offensive, and as a suspi- 
 cious man is perpetually harassing himself with superflu- 
 ous vigilance, disturbing his quiet with dreams of dan- 
 ger, and wearying himself by providing securities against 
 violence or fraud which never was designed, so a suspi- 
 cious government always defeats its own endeavours, and 
 by destroying that popularity to which it must always 
 trust for its defenct: in time of real danger, weakens it- 
 self. The multiplication of penal laws, the establishment 
 of armies, and the distribution of pensions, the usual me- 
 thods by which weak governments endeavour to strength- 
 en their basis, are all transitory and uncertain supports, 
 which the first blast of general discontent may drive be- 
 fore it, and v/hich have a tendency to produce that rage 
 which they cannot lurnish the means of resisting. I think 
 it therefore necessary, my lords, to oppose this motion, 
 because I think it my duty to preserve the government 
 from the greatest of all evils, the loss of popularity ; and 
 am of opinion that ten thousand penal laws cannot so 
 much contribute to the perpetual establishment of the 
 royal family, as one act of confidence, condescension, or 
 bounty, by which the affections of the people may be con- 
 ciliated. 
 
 But this, my lords, is not the only argument against it, 
 by which I am inclined to deny my concurrence. It 
 ought to be always remembered, and by me shall not be 
 easily forgotton, that we are here assembled to deliberate, 
 not for any particular purposes or narrow plans, but for 
 the great end of society, the general happiness ; that, as 
 we are not to gratify the caprices of the people by vilify- 
 ing the dignity or restraining the power of the throne, so 
 we are not to appease the suspicions of the throne by sa- 
 crificing the safety or honor of the people : we are to sup- 
 
SPEAKER. 25 
 
 port our sovereign, indeed, but not by such means as de- 
 stroy the ends by which sovereignty was established, the 
 public welfare, and common security. The motion is 
 therefore, in my opinion, wholly indefensible, because, 
 though it should be granted that it may add som ; secu- 
 rity to the throne, it must in proportion impair the happi- 
 ness of the people, as it must fill the nation in this time of 
 general commotion with anxiety, and oblige almost every 
 man to the unnatural and unavailing care of watching the 
 conduct of another, and at last must involve thousands in 
 undeserved misery, by punishing them for crimes which 
 they did not commit, ^md which they could not prevent, 
 and inflicting penalties, therefore, which can have no other 
 effect than that of enriching, by forfeitures, the minions of 
 the court. These reasons, my lords, are surely sufficiently 
 powerful to justify me in opposmg the motion ; and yet 
 there remains another, which pjrhaps may, when it is 
 fully examined, appear equally weighty. Notwithstand- 
 ing the happiness of our present state, the protection of 
 our rights, and the security of our property ; notwith- 
 standing the confidence which may be reposed in the 
 equity, the moderation, and the wisdom of his Majesty, 
 and the hopes which we may reasonably have of bemg 
 governed to all succeeding ages by his i lusirious descen- 
 dants v/ith the same justice, and magnanimity, and pru- 
 dence, yet I am not confident that th -se hopes may not be 
 disappointed. I know not any evidence, by which I can 
 ascertain the continuance of these blessmgs or by which I 
 can prove to the people of England, that there never will 
 come a time in which a superstitious, an ambitious, or a 
 tyrannical prince may once more attempt the subversion of 
 their rights, the seizure of their properties, or the aboli- 
 tion of their religion. I am not certain that our constitu- 
 tion is so strongly built that it can never want repairs, or 
 that our laws are so judiciously formed, as that they may 
 not bccom , in the hands of rapacity, the toos of avarice, 
 or in the hands of cruelty the scourge of oppression. 
 Whenever this fatal prriod shall arrive, it niust be .u,rant- 
 ed, my lords, that another revolution will be nectssary, 
 and that every law, which shall hinder the people from 
 m tkmg use of the only remedy which thci» remains, will 
 obstruct the public happiness, and counteract the great de« 
 
 D 
 
26 AMERICAN 
 
 sign of government ; and surely, my lords, a law which 
 involves the son in the guilt of his father, must naturally 
 extinguish chat ardor of patriotism by which all revolutions 
 have been accomplished. For who will be found suffi- 
 ciently hardy to oppose the crown, when if he should hap- 
 pen to fail, he must not only perish as a traitor, but sink 
 his whole posterity in poverty and disgrace? Since there- 
 fore, my lords, it appears to me not more likely that the 
 king of England will be in danger from his subjects, than 
 that the people of England will be in danger trom their 
 king, I think it convenient to hold the balance equal be- 
 tween them ; as I would not give the people any exemp- 
 tion which might encourage them to rebel, I would give 
 the crown no such prerogatives as may encourage any fu- 
 ture monarchs to oppress on. 
 
 " Thus, my lords, I have laid before you the argu- 
 ments which influence me to disapprove the motion ; and 
 which will, I believe, determine me to vote against it : 
 for though I am desirous to secure the throne, I would 
 not willingly secure it by disarming the people, but by 
 placing them as guards before it. The dependence of 
 the monarch and the subjects ought to be on reciprocal 
 affection and mutual assistance, and therefore neither 
 ought to imagine that any increase of safety is to be ob- 
 tained by diminishing the legal privileges of one, or vio- 
 lating the natural rights of the other." 
 
 The Speech of General Wolfe to his Army — before ^lebec^ 
 
 1759. 
 
 " I congratulate you, my brave countrymen, and fel- 
 low-soldiers ! on the spirit and success with which you 
 have executed this important part of our enterprise. The 
 formidable Heights of Abraham are now surmounted; 
 and the city of Qu' bee, the object of all our toils, now 
 stands in full view before us. A perfidious enemy who 
 have dared to exasperate you by their cruelties, hut not to 
 oppose you on equal ground, are now constrained to face 
 you on the open plain, without ramp.irts or entrenchments 
 to shelter them. 
 
 *" You know too well the forces which compose their 
 army to dread their superior numbers. A few regular 
 troops from Old France, weakened by hunger and sick- 
 ness, who, when fresh, were unable to withstand the Bri- 
 
SPEAKER. 27 
 
 tish soldiers, are their General's chief dependence. Those 
 numerous companies of Canadians, insolent, mutinous, 
 unsteady, and ill-disciplined, have exercised his utmost 
 skill to keep them together to this time ; and as soon as 
 their irregular ardor is damped by one firm fire, they will 
 instanily turn their backs, and give you no further trouble 
 but in the pursuit. As for those savage tribes of Indians, 
 whose horrid yells in the forests have struck many a bold 
 heart with affright, terrible as they are with a tomahawk 
 and scalping-knife to a flying and prostrate foe, you have 
 experienced how little their ferocity is to be dreaded by 
 resolute men upon fair and open ground : you can now 
 only consider them as the just objects of a severe revenge 
 for the unhappy fate of mimy slaughtered countrymen. 
 
 '* This day puts it into your power to terminate the fa- 
 tigues of a siege which has so long employed your cou- 
 rage and patience. Possessed with a full confidence of 
 the certain success which British valor must gain over 
 such enemies, I have led you up these steep and danger- 
 ous rocks; only solicitous to shew you the foe within vour 
 reach. The impos^sibility of a retreat makes no difTerence 
 in the situation of men resolved to conquer or die : and, 
 believe me, my friends, if your conquest could be bought 
 with the blood of your general, he would most cheer- 
 fully resign a life which he has long devoted to his 
 country." 
 
 Extract from a Speech of Lord Chatham^ on a motion of 
 Address to the King, 
 
 Let us be cautious how we admit an idea, that our 
 rights stand on a footing different from those of the peo- 
 ple. Let us be cautious how we invade the liberties of 
 our fellow-subjects, however mean, however remote ; for 
 be assured, my lords, that in whatever part of the empire 
 you suffer slavery to be established, whether it be in Ame- 
 rica or in Ireland, or here at home, you will find it a dis- 
 ease which spreads by contact, and soon reaches from the 
 extremities to the heart. The man who has lost his own 
 freedom, becomes from that moment an instrument in the 
 hands of an ambitious prince, to destroy the freedom of 
 others. These refle^^tions, my lords, are but too applica- 
 Ijle to our present situation. The liberty of the subject is 
 
28 AMERICAN 
 
 invaded, not only in provinces, but here at home. The 
 English people are loud in their complaints : they pro- 
 claim with one voice the injuries they have received : they 
 demand redress, and depend upon it, my lords, that one 
 way or other, they will have redress. They will never re- 
 turn to a state ot tranquiiliry until they are redressed ; nor 
 ought they ; for in my judgment, my lords, and I speak it 
 boldly, it were better for them to perish in a glorious conten- 
 tion for their rights, than to purchase a slavish tranquillity 
 at the expence of a single iota of the constitution. Let 
 me entreat your lordships, then, in the name of all the du- 
 ties you owe to your sovereign, to your country, and to 
 yourselves, to perform that office to which you are called 
 by the constitution ; by informing his majesty truly of the 
 condition of his subjects, and of the real cause of their 
 dissatisfaction. 
 
 Speech on the Seizure of the Falkland Islands* 
 
 Earl of Chatham* " I rise to give my heartv assent to 
 the motion made by the noble Duke j by his Grace's fa- 
 vour, I have been permitted to see it, before it was offered 
 to the House. I hiive fully considered the necessity of ob- 
 taining from the King's servants a communication of the 
 papers described in the motion, and I am persuaded that 
 the alarming state of facts, as well as the strength of rea- 
 f.oning, with which the noble Duke has urged, and enforc- 
 ed that necessity, must have been powerfully felt by your 
 lordships; — what I mean to say, upon this occasion, may 
 seem perhaps to extend beyond the limits of the motion 
 before us. But I flatter myself, my lords, that if I am 
 honored v/ith your attention, it will appear that the mean- 
 ing and object of this question are naturally connected 
 with considerations of the most extensive, national impor- 
 tance. For entering into such considerations, no season 
 is improper; no occasion should be neglected. Some- 
 thing must be done, my lords, and immediately, to save 
 an injured, insulted, undone country. If not to save the 
 state, my lords, at least to mark out, and drag to public 
 justice those servants of the crown, by whose ignorance, 
 neglect, or treachery, this once great flourishing people 
 are reduced to a condition as deplorable at home, as it is 
 despicable abroad. Examples are wanted, my iQrds, and 
 
SPEAKER. 29 
 
 should be given to the world, for the instruction of future 
 times, even though they be useless to ourselves. I do 
 not mean, my lords, nor is it intended bv the motion, to 
 impede, or embarrass a negotiation, which we have been 
 told is now in a prosperous train, and promises a happy 
 conclusion." 
 
 Lord Weymouth. I beg pardon for interrupting the 
 noble lord, but I think it necessary to remark to your 
 lordships, that I have not said a single word tending to 
 convey to your lordships any information, or opini>^n, 
 with regard to the state, or progress of the negotiation — 
 I did, with the utmost caution, avoid giving to your lord- 
 ships the least intimation upon that matter. 
 
 Earl of Chatham. " I perfectly agree with the noble 
 lord. I did not mean to refer to any thing said by his 
 lordship. He expressed himself, as he always does^ with 
 moderation, and reserve, and with the greatest propriety; 
 — it was another n(.'ble lord, very high in ofTice, who told 
 us he understood that the negotiation was in a favourable 
 train." 
 
 Earl of Hillsborough. I did not make use of the word 
 train. I know the meaning of the word too well. Irk 
 the language from which it was derived, it signifies pro- 
 traction, and delay, which I could never mean to apply to 
 the present negociation. 
 
 Earl of Chatham. " This is the second time that I 
 have been interrupted. I submit it to your lordships 
 whether this be fair, and candid treatment. I am sure 
 it is contrary to the orders of the House, and a gross vio- 
 lation of dea. ncy, and politeness. I listen to everv noble 
 lord in this House with attention, ai>d respect. The no- 
 ble lord's design in interrupting me, is as mean, and un- 
 worthy, as i.\Q manner in v/hich he has done is irregular 
 and disorderly. He flutters himself that, by breaking the 
 thread ol my discourse, he shall confuse me in my argu- 
 ment. But, my lords, I will not submit to this treatments 
 I will not be interrupted. When I have concluded let hiiu 
 answer me if he can. — As to the word, which he has de- 
 nied, I still affirm that it was the w^rd he made use of; 
 but if he had used any other, I am sure every noble lord 
 will agree with me, that his meaning was exactlv what I 
 had expressed it. Whether he said course or traiti is £rj= 
 
30 AMERICAN 
 
 difFerent— ?He told your lordships that the negotiation was 
 in a way that promised a happy, and honourable conclu- 
 sion. His distinctions are mean, frivolous, and puerile. 
 3V1\ lords, — I do not understand the exalted tone assum- 
 ed by that noble lord. In the distress, and weakness of 
 this country, my lords, r.nd conscious as the ministry ought 
 to be how much they have contributed to that distress and 
 weakness, I think a tone of modesty, of submission, of 
 humility, would become them better; qiK^dam caiisce 7710- 
 destiam desiderant. Before this country they stand as 
 the greatest criminals. " Such I shall prove them to be ; 
 for 1 do not doubt of pnwing to your lordship's satisfac- 
 tion, that since they have been entrusted with the con- 
 duct of the king's iffasrs they have done every thing that 
 they ought not to have done, and hardly any thing that 
 they ought to have done — The noble lord talks of Spanish 
 punctilios in the lofty style and odium of a Spaniard. We 
 •are to be worderfully tender of the Spanish point of hon- 
 our, as if they had been the complainants, as if they had 
 received the injury. I think he would have done better 
 to have told us, what care had been taken of the English 
 honour. My lords, I am well ac quainted with the character 
 ol that nation, as least as i<\Y as it is represented by their 
 court and mmistry, and should think this country dishon- 
 oured by a comparison of the English good faith with the 
 punctilios of a Spaniard. My lords, the English are a can- 
 did, an ingenuous people ; the Spaniards are as mean and 
 cr. fty, as they are proud and insolent. The integrity of 
 the English merchants, the generous spirit of our naval 
 and military ofRcers, would be degraded by a comparison 
 with their merchants or officers. With their ministers I 
 have often been obliged to negotiate, and never met with 
 an instance of candour or dignity in their j-ioceedings ;. 
 nothing but low cunning, trick, and artifice. Alter a long 
 experience of their want of candour and good faith, I 
 found myself compelled to talk to them in a peremptor- , 
 decisive language^ On this principle I submitted m) ad- 
 vice to a trembling council for an immediate dech.ration 
 of war with Spain. Your lordships well know what were 
 the consequences of not following that advice. Smce, 
 however, for reasons unknown to me, it has been thought 
 -adviseuble- to liegotiate with the court of Spain, 1 should 
 
SPEAKER. 31 
 
 have conceived that the great and single object of such a 
 negotiation would have been, to have obtained complete 
 satisfaction for the injury done to the crown and people 
 of England. But, if I understand the noble lord, the 
 only object of the present negotiation is to find a salvo for 
 the punctilious honour of thf Spaniards. The absurdity 
 of such an idea is of itself insupportable. But, my lords, 
 I object to our negotiating at all, in our present circum- 
 stances. We are not in that situation, in which a great 
 and powerful nation is permitted to negotiate. — A foreign 
 power has forcibly robbed his majesty of a part of his 
 dominions. Is the island restored.^ Are you replaced in 
 statu quo'? If that had been done, it might then perhaps 
 have been justifiable to treat with the aggressor upon the 
 satisfaction he ought to make for the insult offered to the 
 crown of England. But will you descend so low ? will 
 you so shamefully betray the king's honour, as to make it 
 matter of negotiation whether his Majesty's possessions 
 shall be restored to him or not ? 1 doubt not, my lords, 
 that there are some important mysteries m the conduct of 
 this affair, which, whenever they are explained, will ac- 
 count for the profound silence now observed by the king's 
 servants. The time will come, my lords, when they shall 
 be dragged from their concealments. There are some 
 questions, which, sooner or later, must be answered. The 
 ministry, I find, without declaring themselves explicitly, 
 have taken pains to possess the public with an opinion, 
 that the Spanish court have constaMly disavowed the pro- 
 ceedings of their governor; and son\e pers(.ns, I see, have 
 been shameless and daring enough to advise his majesty 
 to support and countenance this opinion in his speech from 
 the throne. Certainly, my lords, there nevc-r was a more 
 odious, a more infamous falsehood imposed on a great na- 
 tion — It degrades the king's honour — It is an insult to 
 parliament. His majesty hns been advised to confirm 
 and give currency to an absolute falsehood. I beg your 
 lordship's attention, and i hope \ shall be understood, 
 when I repeat, that the court of Spain's having disavowed 
 the act of their governor is an absolute^ a palpable false- 
 hood. Let me ask, my lords, when the first communica- 
 tion was made by the court of Madrid, of their being ap- 
 prised of their talking of Falkland's Islands, was it ac- 
 
32 AMERICAN 
 
 companied with an offer of instant restitution, of imme- 
 diate satisfaction, and the punishment of the Spanish go- 
 vernor? If it was not, they have adopted the act as their 
 own, and the very mention of a disavowal is an impudent 
 insuU offered to the king's dignity. The king of Spain 
 disowns the thief, while he leaves him unpunished, and 
 profits by the theft ; in vulgar English, he is the receiver 
 of stolen goods, and ought to be treated accordingly. 
 
 "• If your lordships will look back to a period of the 
 English history, in which the circumstances are reversed, 
 in which the Spaniards were the complainants, you will 
 see how differently they succeeded ; you will see one of 
 the ablest men, one of the bravest officers this or any other 
 country ever produced (it is h irdly necessary to mention 
 the name of sir Walter Raleigh) sacrificed by the mean- 
 est prince that ever sat upon the throne, to the vindictive 
 jealousy of that haughty court. J mies the First was 
 base enough, at the instance of Gondomar, to suffer a sen- 
 tence against sir Walter Raleigh, for another supposed 
 offence, to be carried into execution almost twelve years 
 after it had been passed. This was the pretence. His 
 real crime was, that he had mortally offended the Spa- 
 niards, while he acted by the king's express orders, and 
 under his commissi cm. 
 
 " My lords, the pretended disavowal by the court of 
 Spain is as ridiculous ns it is false. If your lordships 
 want any other proof, cali for your own officers, who were 
 stationed at Falkland Island. Ask the officer who com- 
 ma. .ded the garrison, whether, when he was summoned 
 to surrender, the demand w >s made in the name of the 
 governor of Buenos Ayres, or of his Catholic Majesty t 
 Was the island said to belong to Don Francisco Bucarelli, 
 or to the king of Spain ? If I am not mistaken, we have 
 been in possession of these islands since the year 1764, or 
 1765. Will the ministry assert, that, in all that time, the 
 Spanish court have never once claimed them? that their 
 right to them has never been urged, or mentioned to our 
 ministry ? If it has the act of the governor of Buenos Ayres 
 is plainly the const quence of our refusal to acknowledge 
 and submit to the Spanish claims. For five years they 
 negotiate ; when that fails they take the island by force. 
 II that measure had arisen out of the general instructionsj^ 
 
SPEAKER. 33 
 
 constantly given to the governor of Buenos Ayres, why 
 should the execution of it have been deferred so long? 
 
 " My lords, if the falsehood of this pretended disavow- 
 al had been confined to the court of Spain, I should have 
 admitted it without concern. I should have been content 
 that they themselves had left a door open for excuse, and 
 accommodation. The king of England's honour is not 
 touched till he adopts the falsehood, delivers it to parlia- 
 ment, and makes it his own. 
 
 " From vvh.it I have said, my lords, I do not doubt but 
 it will be understood by many lords, and given out to the 
 public, that I am for harrying the nation, at all events, into 
 a war with Spain. My lords, I disclaim such councils, 
 and I beg that this declaration may be remembered — Let 
 us have peace, my lords, but let it be honourable, let it be 
 secure. A patched up peace will not do. It will not sa- 
 tisfy the nation, though it may be approved of by parlia- 
 ment. I distinguish widely between a solid peace, and 
 the disgraceful expedients, by which a war may be defer- 
 red, but cannot be avoided. I am as tender of the effu- 
 sion ol human blood, as the noble lord who dwelt so long 
 upon the miseries of the war. If the bloody politics of 
 some noble lords had been followed, England, and every 
 quarter of his majesty's dominions would have been glut- 
 ted with blood — the blood of our own countrymen. 
 
 *' My lords, I have better reasons, perhaps, than many 
 of your lordships for desiring peace upon the terms I have 
 dtscribed. I know the strength and preparation of the 
 House of Bourbon ; I know the defenceless, unprepared 
 condition of this country. I know not by what misma- 
 nagement we are reduced to this situation ; and when I 
 consider, who are the men by whom a war, in the outset at 
 least, must be conducted, can I but wish for peace ? — Let 
 them not screen themselves behind the want oi intelligence 
 — they had intelligence; I know they had. If they had 
 not, they are criminal; and their excuse is their crinf,— 
 But I will tell these young ministers the true source of 
 intelligence. It is sagacity. Say^acity to compare causes 
 and effects ; to judge of the present state of things, and 
 discern the future by a careful review of the past. — Oliver 
 Cromwell^ who astonished mankind by his intelligence did 
 not derive it from spies in the cabmet of every pnnce in 
 
34 AMERICAN 
 
 Europe : he drew it from the cabinet of his own saga- 
 cious mind. He observed facts and traced them forward 
 to their consequences. From what was, he concluded 
 what must be, and he never was deceived. In the pre- 
 sent situation of affairs, I think it would be treachery to 
 the nation to conceal from them their real circumstances, 
 and with respect to a foreign enejYw , I kuow that all con- 
 cealments are vain and useless. They are as well ac- 
 quainted with the actual force and weakness of this coun- 
 try, as any of the king's servants. — This is no time for si- 
 lence, or reserve. I charge the ministers with the high- 
 est crimes that men in their stations can be guilty of. I 
 charge them with having destroyed all content and unani- 
 mity at home, by a series of oppressive, unconstitutional 
 measures ; and with having betrayed, and delivered up 
 the nation defenceless to a foreign enemy. 
 
 " Their utmost vigour has reached no farther than to a 
 fruitless, protracted negotiation. When they should have 
 acted, they have contented themselves with talking about it, 
 Goddess, and about it — If we do not stand forth, and do our 
 duty in th present crisis, the nation is irretrievably un- 
 done. I despise the little policy of concealments. You 
 ought to know the whole of your situation. If the infor- 
 piation be new to the ministry, let them take care to pro- 
 fit by it. I mean to rouse, to alarm the whole nation — to 
 rouse the ministry, if possible, who seem to awake to no- 
 thing but the preservation of their places — to awaken the 
 king. 
 
 Extract from a Speech of Mr, Pitt, (after-wards Earl of 
 Chatham) on the address to the King, in January^ 
 
 1765. 
 
 " It is a long time, Mr. Speaker, since I have attended 
 in parliament. When the resolution was taken in this 
 house to tax America, I was ill in bed. If I could have 
 endured to have been carried in my bed, so great was the 
 agitation of my mind for the consequences, I would have 
 solicited some kind hand to have laid me down on this 
 floor, to have born my testimony against it. It is my opi» 
 nion that this kingdom has no right to lay a tax upon the 
 colonies. At the same time, I assert the authority of this 
 Jfingdom to be sovereign and supreme in every circum- 
 
SPEAKER. 35 
 
 stance of government and legislation whatsoever. Taxa- 
 tion is no part of the governing or legislative power : 
 the taxes are a voluntary gift and grant of the commons 
 alone. The concurrence of the peers and of the crown is 
 necessary only as a form of law. This house represents 
 the commons of Great Britain. When in this house we 
 give and grant ; therefore we give and grant what is our 
 own; but can we give and grant the property of the commons 
 of America? Ii is an absurdity in terms. There is an idea 
 in some, that the colonies are virtually represented in this 
 house ? I would fain know by whom ? The idea of virtual 
 representation is the most contemptible that ever entered 
 into the head of man: it does not deserve a serious refu- 
 tation. The .commons in America represent*. d in their 
 several assemblies, have invariably exercised this consti- 
 tutional right of giving and granting their own money : 
 they would have been slaves, if they had not enjoyed it. 
 At the same time this kingdom has ever possessed the 
 power of legislative and commercial control. The colo- 
 nies acknowledge your authorities in all things, with the 
 sole exception that you shall not take their money out of 
 their pockets without th-ir consent. H -re would I draw 
 the line, quani ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum^ 
 
 *' Sir, a charge is brought ag unst gentlemen sitting in the 
 house, for giving birth to sedition in America. The free- 
 dom, with which they have spoken their sentiments against 
 this unhappy act, is imputed to them as a crime ; but the 
 imputation shall not discourage me. It is a liberty which 
 I hope no gentleman will be afraid to exercise : it is a li- 
 berty by which the gendemen who calumniates it mi^ht 
 have pr >fited. He ought to have desisted from his pro- 
 ject. We are told America is obstinate — America is 
 almost in open rebellion. Sir, I rejoice that America 
 has resisted — three millions of people so dead to ali the 
 feelings of liberty as volunt irily to submit to be slaves, 
 would have been fit instruments to m .ke slaves of all the 
 rest. I came not here armed at all points with law c ises 
 and acts of parliament ; with the statute book doubled 
 down in dog's ears to defend the cause of liberty ; but for 
 the defence of liberty upon a general constitutional prin- 
 ciple ; it IS a ground on which I dare mert any man: I 
 will not debate points of law ; but what, after all, do the 
 
36 AMERICAN 
 
 cases of Chester and Durham prove, but that, under the 
 most arbitrary reigns, parliament were ashamed of taxing 
 a people without their consent, and allowed them repre- 
 sentatives? A higher and better example might have been 
 taken from Wales; that principality was never taxed by 
 parliament till it was incorp(^rated with England. We are 
 told of many classes of persons in this kingdom not repre- 
 sented in parliament ; but are they not all virtually repre- 
 sented as Englishmen resident within the realm ? Have 
 they not the option, many of them at least, of becoming 
 themselves electors ? Every inhabitant of this kingdom is 
 necessarily included in the general system of representa- 
 tion. It is a misfortune that more are not actually repre- 
 sented. The honourable gentleman boasts of his bounties 
 to America. Are not these bounties intended finally for 
 the benefit of this kingdom? If they are not, he has mis- 
 applied the national treasures. I am no courtier of Ame- 
 rica. I maintain that parliament has a right to bind, to 
 restrain America. Our legislative power over the colo- 
 nies is sovereign and supreme. The honourable gentle- 
 man tells us, he understands not the difference between 
 internal and external taxation ; but surely there is a plain 
 difference between taxes It vied for the purpose of raising 
 a revenue, and duties imposed for the regulation of com- 
 merce. When, said the honorable gentleman, were the 
 colonies emancipated ? At what time, say I in answer, 
 were they made slaves ? I speak from accurate knowledge, 
 w^hen I say, that the profits to Great Britain from the 
 trade of the colonies, through all its branches, is two mil- 
 lions per an. urn. This is the fund which carried jou 
 triumphantly through the last war ; this is the price Ame- 
 rica pays you for her protection ; and sh.ill a miserable 
 financier come with a boast that he can fetch a pepper-corn 
 into the exchequer, at the loss of millions to the nation? It 
 know the valour of your troops; I know the skill of your 
 officers ; I know the force of this country ; but in such a 
 cause, your success would be hazardous, America, if she 
 fell, would fall hke the strong man : she would embrnce 
 the pillars of the state, and pull down the constitution with 
 her. Is this your boasted peace ? Not to shec=the the 
 sword in the scabbard, but to sheathe it in the bowels of 
 your countrymen ? The Americans have been wronged ; 
 
SPEAKER. 37 
 
 they have been driven to madness by injustice. Will 
 you punish them for the madness you have occasioned? 
 No J let this country be the first to resume its prudence 
 and temper. I will pledge myself for the colonies, that, 
 on their part, animosity and resentment will cease. Let 
 affection be the only bond of coercion. The system of 
 policy I would earnestly recommend Gr« at Britain to 
 adopt, in relation to America, is happily expressed in the 
 words of a favorite poet : 
 
 " Be to her faults a little blind, 
 
 *' Be to her virtues very kind ; 
 
 *' Let all her ways be unconfined ; 
 
 ** And clap your Padlock on her mind." Priok. 
 
 " Upon the whole I beg leave to tell the house in a few 
 words, what is really my opinion. It is that the stamp act 
 be repealed— ABSOLUTELY— TOTALLY and immediately." 
 
 Lord Chatham^ in reply to Lord Mansfield on a motion and 
 address to the King on the state of the nation* — British 
 House of Lords ^ 1770. 
 
 My Lords, — There is one plain maxim, to which I 
 have invariably adhered through life ; that m every ques- 
 \ tion, in which my liberty or my property were concerned, 
 I should consult and be determined by the dictates of 
 common sense. I confess, my lords, that I am apt to 
 distrust the refinements of learning, because I have seen 
 the ablest and the most learned men equally liable to de- 
 ceive themselves and to mislead others. The condition 
 of human nature would be lamentable indeed, if nothing 
 less than the greatest learning and talents, which fall to 
 the share of so small a number of men, were sufficient to 
 direct our judgment and our conduct. But providence 
 has taken better care of our happiness, and given us, in 
 the simplicity of common sense, a rule for our direction, 
 by which we never shall be misled. I confess, my lords> 
 I had no other guide in drawing up the amendment wh*^ h 
 I submitted to your Consideration : and before I heard the 
 opinion of the noble lord who spoke last, I did not con- 
 ceive, that it was even within the limits of possibility for 
 thv greatest human genius, the most subtle understand ng, 
 or the acutest wit, so strangely to misrepresent my me m- 
 ing, and give it an interpretation so entirely foreign /rom 
 
 E 
 
38 AMERICAN 
 
 what I intended to express, and from that sense which the 
 very terms of the amendment plainly and distinctly carry 
 with them. If there be the smallest foundation for the 
 censure thrown upon me by that noble lord ; if, either ex- 
 pressly or by the most distant implication, I have said or 
 insinuated any p«rt of what the noble lord has charged 
 me with, discard the opinions for ever, discard the motion 
 with contempt. 
 
 My lords, I must beg the indulgence of the house* 
 Neither will my health permit me, nor do I pretei d to 
 be qualified to follow that learned lord minutely through 
 the whole of his argument. No man is better acquainted 
 with his abilities or his learning, nor has a greater respect 
 for them, than I have. I have had the pleasure of sitting 
 with him in the other house, and always listened to him 
 with attention. I have not now lost a word of what he 
 said, nor did I ever. Upon the present question I meet 
 him without fear. The evidence which truth carries with 
 It, is superior to all argument ; it neither wants the sup- 
 port, nor dreads the opposition of the greatest abilities. 
 It there be a single word in the amendment to justify the 
 interpretation which the noble lord has been pleased to 
 give it, I am ready to renounce the whole; let it be read, 
 my lords : let it speak for itself. (It was read.) — In what 
 instance does it interfere with the privileges of the house 
 of commons ? In what respect does it question their juris- 
 diction, or suppose an authority in this house to arraign 
 the justice of their sentence ? I am sure that every lord 
 who hears me, will bear me witliess that I said not one 
 word touching the merits of the Middlesex election : far 
 from conveying any opinion vipon that matter in the 
 amendment, I did not even in discourse deliver my own 
 sentiments upon it. I did not say that the house of com- 
 mons had done either right or v.rong : but when his ma- 
 jesty was pleased to recommend it to us to cultivate una- 
 nimity among ourselves, I thought it the duty of this 
 house, as ^he great hereditary council of the crown, to 
 state to his majesty the distracted condition of his domi- 
 .nions, together with the events which had destroyed una- 
 nimity among his subjects. But, my lords, I stated those 
 events merely as facts, without the smallest addition either 
 of censwre or of opinion. They are facts, my lords, which 
 
SPEAKER, 39 
 
 I am not only convinced are true, but which I know are 
 indisputably true. For example, my lords ; will any man 
 deny that discontents prevail in many parts of his majes- 
 ty's dominions ? or that those discontents arise from the 
 proceedings of the house of commons, touching the de- 
 clared incapacity of Mr. Wilkes? It is impossible: no 
 man can deny a truth so notorious, nor will any man 
 deny that those proceedings refused, by a resolution of 
 one branch of the legislature only, to the subject, his com- 
 mon right. Is it not indisputably true, my lords, that Mr. 
 Wilkes had a common right, and that he lost it no other 
 way but by a resolution of the house of commons ? My 
 lords, I hnve been tender of misrepresenting the house 
 of commons; I have consulted thfir journals, and have 
 taken every word of their own resolution. Do they not 
 tell us, in so many words, that Mr. Wilkes having been 
 expelled, was thereby rendered incapable of serving in 
 that parliament? And is it not their resolution alone, 
 whicli refuses to the subject his common right? The 
 amendment says farther, that the electors of Middlesex 
 are deprived of their free choice of a representative. Is 
 this a false fact, my lords ? or have I given an unfair I'e- 
 presentation of it? Will any man presutne to affirm that 
 colonel Luttrell is the free choice of the electors of Mid- 
 dlesex? We all know the contrary. We all know ih.it 
 Mr. Wilkes (whom I mention without either praise or 
 censure) was the favourite of the country, and chosen, 
 by a very great and acknowledged majority, to represent 
 them in parliament. If the noble lord dislikes the man- 
 ner in which these facts are stated, I shall think myself 
 happy in being advised by him" how to alter it. I am very 
 little anxious about terms, provided the substances be 
 preserved; and these are facts, my lords, which I am 
 sure will always retain their weight and importance, in 
 whatever Torm of language they are described. 
 
 Now, my lords, since I have been forced to enter into 
 the explanation of an amendment, in which nothing less 
 than the genius of penetration could have discovered an 
 obscurity ; and having, as I hope, redeemed myself in the 
 opinion of the house; having redeemed my motion from 
 the severe representation givv-n of it by the noble lord, I 
 must a little longer intreat your lordships' indulgence. 
 
40 AMERICAN 
 
 The constitution of this country has been openly invaded 
 in fact ; and I have heard with horror and astonishment, 
 that very invasion defended upon principle. What is this 
 mysterious power, undefined by law, unknown to the sub- 
 ject, which we must not approach without awe, nor speak 
 oi without reverence ; which no man may question, and to 
 Kvhich all men must submit? My lords, I thought the 
 slavish doctrine of passive obedience had long since been 
 exploded: and, when our kin^fs were obliged to confess 
 that their title to the crown, and the rule of their govern- 
 ment, had no othe-r foundation ihun the known laws of the 
 land, I never expected to hear a divine right, or a divine 
 infallibility, atiributed to any other branch of the legisla- 
 ture. My lords, I beg to be understood : no man re- 
 spects the housfc of commons more than 1 do, or would 
 contend more strenuously than I would to preserve them 
 their just and legal authority. Within the bounds pre- 
 scribed by the constitution, that authority is necessary to 
 the v/eli being of the people; beyond that line every exer- 
 tion of power is arbitrary, is illegal ; it threatens tyranny 
 to the people, and destruction to the state. Power, with- 
 out right, is the most odious and detestable object that 
 can be offered to the human imagination ; it is not only 
 pernicious to those who are subject to it, but tends to its 
 own destruction. It is what my noble friend (lord Lyt- 
 tleton) has truly described it, res detestabilts et caduca. 
 jNIy lords, I acknowledge the just power, and reverence 
 the constitution of the house of commons. It is for their 
 own sake s that I would present their assuming a power 
 which the constitution has denied them, lest, by grasping 
 at an authority they have no right to, they should forfeit 
 that which they legally possess. My lords, I uffirm that 
 ihey have betrayed their constituents, and violated the 
 coniititution. Under pretence of declaring the law, they 
 have made a law, and united in the si?me persons the of- 
 fice of legislator and of judge. I shi>ll endeavour to ad- 
 here strictly to the noble lord's doctrine, which it is in- 
 deed impossible to mistake, as far as my memory will 
 permit me to preserve his expression. He seems fond of 
 the word jurisdiction; and 1 confess, with the force and 
 effv ct which he has given it, it is a word of copious mean- 
 ing and wonderful extent. If his lordship's doctrine be 
 
AMERICAN 4i 
 
 well founded, we must renounce all those political max- 
 ims by which our understandings have hitherto been 
 directed; and even the first elements of learning taught 
 us when we were school-boys. My lords, we know that 
 jurisdiction was nothing more than jfus dicere; we know 
 that Legem facere and Legem dicere were powers clearly 
 distinguished from each oth..-r in the nature of things, am 
 wisely separated by the wisdom of the English constitu- 
 tion: but now, it seems, we must adopt a new system c 
 thinking. Tiie house of commons, we are told, have i 
 supreme jurisdiction; that there is no appeal from their 
 sentence; and that whenever they are competent judges, 
 their decision must be received and submitted to, as, ipso 
 facto^ the law of the land. My lords, I am a plain man, 
 and have been brought up in a religious reverence for 
 the original simplicity of the laws of England. By what 
 sophistry they have been perverted, by what artifices they 
 have been invf^lved in obscurity, is not for me to explain; 
 the principles, however, of the English laws are still suf- 
 ficiently clear; they are founded in reason, and are the 
 master-piece of the human understanding; but it is in the 
 text that I would look for a direction to my judgment, 
 not in the commentaries of modern professors. The no- 
 ble lord assures us, that he knows not in what code the 
 law of parliament is to be found : that the house of com- 
 mons, when they act as judges, have no law to direct them 
 but their own wisdom ; that their decision is law ; and if 
 they determine wrong, the subject has no appeal but to 
 heaven. What then, my lords, are all the generous efforts 
 of our ancestors, are all those glorious contentions, by 
 which they meant to secure to themselves, and to trans- 
 mit to their posterity, a known law, a certain rule of liv- 
 ing, reduced to this conclusion, that instead of the arbitra- 
 ry power of a king, we must submit to the arbitrary power 
 of a house of comm .ns? If this be true, what benefit da 
 we derive from the exchange ? Tyranny, my lords, is de- 
 testable in every shape ; but in none so formidable as 
 where it is assum^rd and exercised by a number of tyrants. 
 But, my lords, this is not the fact; this is not the consti- 
 tution: we have a law of parliament, we have a code in 
 which every honest man mav find it. Wc; have 7nagna 
 chartOy we have the statute book, and the bill of rights. 
 E2 
 
42 SPEAKER. 
 
 If a case should arise unknown to these great authori- 
 ties, we have still that plahi English reason left, which is 
 the foundation of all our English jurisprudence. That 
 reason tells us, that every judicial court, every political 
 society, must be vested with those powers and privileges 
 which are necessary for performing the office to which 
 they are appointed. It tells us also, that no court of jus- 
 tice can have a power inconsistent with, or paramount to 
 the known laws of the land j that the people, when they 
 choose their representatives, never mean to convey to 
 them a power of invading their rights, or trampling upon 
 the liberties of those v. horn they represent. What secu- 
 rity would they have for their rights, if once they admit- 
 ted, that a court of judicature might determine evefy 
 question that came before it, not by any known positive 
 law, but by the vague, indeterminate, arbitrary rule, of 
 what the noble lord is pleased to call ' the wisdom of the 
 court:' With rtspect to the decision of the courts of jus- 
 tice, I am far from denying them their due weight and au- 
 thority; yet, placing them in the most respectable view, I 
 still consider them, not as law, but as an evidence of the 
 law ; and before they can arrive even at that degree of au- 
 thority, it must appear, that they are founded in, and con- 
 firmed by reason ; that they are supported by precedents 
 taken from good and moderate times ; that they do not 
 contradict any positive law ; that they are submitted to 
 without reluctance by the people ; that they are unques- 
 tioned by the legislature (which is equivalent to a tacit 
 confirmation); and, which in my judgment is by far the 
 most important, that they do not violate the spirit of the 
 constitution. My lords, this is not a vague or loose ex- 
 pression ; we all know what the constitution is ; we all 
 k'ow, that the first principle of it is, that the subject shall 
 not bt governed by the arbitrium of any one man or body of 
 men (less than the whole It gislature), but by certain laws, 
 to which he has virtually given his consent, which are 
 open to him to examis.e, and not bej ond his ability to un- 
 derstand. Now, my lords, I affirm, and am ready to 
 maintain, that the late decision of the house of commons 
 upon the Middlesex ekttion, is destitute of every one of 
 those prpperties and conditions which i hold to be essen- 
 tial to the legality of such a decision. It is not founded 
 
SPEAKER. 4^ 
 
 in reason ; for it carries with it a contradiction, that the 
 representative should perform the office of the constituent 
 body. It is not supported by a single precedent ; for the 
 case of sir R. Walpole is but a half precedent, and even 
 that half is imperfect. Incapacity was indeed declared ; 
 but his crimes are stated as the ground of the resolution, 
 and his opponent was declared not to be duly elected, 
 even after his incapacity was established. It contradicts 
 magna charta^ and the bill of rights, by which it is pro- 
 vided, that no subject shall be deprived of his freehold, 
 unless by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the 
 land ; and that election of members to serve in parliament 
 shall be free ; and so far is this decision from being sub- 
 mitted to by the people, that they have taken the strong- 
 est measures, and adopted the most positive language, to 
 express their discontent. — Whether it will be questioned 
 by the legislature, will depend upon your lordship's reso- 
 lution ; but that it violates the spirit of the constitution, 
 will, I think, be disputed by no man who has heard this 
 day's debate, and who wishes well to the freedom of his 
 country ; }et, if we are to believe the noble lord, this great 
 grievance^ this manifest violation of the first principles of 
 the constitution, will not admit of a remedy ; is not even 
 capable of redress, unless we appeal at once to heaven. 
 Mv lords, I have better hopes of the constitution, and a 
 firmer confidence in the wisdom and constitutional autho- 
 rity of this house. It is to your ancestors, my lords, it is 
 to the English barons, that we are indebted for the laws 
 and constitution we possess. Their virtues were rude 
 and uncultivated, but they were great and sincere. Their 
 understandings were as little polished as their manners, 
 but they had hearts to distinguish right from wrong; they 
 had heads to distinguish truth from falsehood ; they un- 
 derstood the rights of humanity, and they had spirit to 
 maintain them. 
 
 My lords, I think that history has not done justice to their 
 conduct, when they obtained from their sovereign that 
 great acknowledgment of national rights contained in 
 magna charta; they did not confine it to themselves alone, 
 but delivered it as a common l^Jpssing to the whole peo- 
 ple. They did not say, these are the rights of the great 
 barons, or, these are th'e rights of the great prelates : no. 
 
U AMERICAN 
 
 my lords, they said, in the simple Latin of the times, 7iui' 
 lu's liber homo^ and provided as carefully for the meanest 
 suhjtrct as for the greatest. These are uncouth words, 
 and sound but poorly in the ears of scholars ; but they are 
 dear to the hearts of free men. These three words, 7iul- 
 lus liber /iowo, have a meaning which interests us all: they 
 deserve to be remembered — they deserve to be inculcated 
 in our minds — they are worth all the classics. — Let us 
 not, then, degenerate from the glorious example of our an- 
 cestors. Those iron barons (for so I may call them, when 
 compared with the silken barons of modern days) Were 
 the guardians of the people ; yet their virtues, my lords, 
 were never engaged in a question of such importance as 
 the present. A breach has been made in the constitution 
 — the battlements are dismantled — the citadel is opened 
 to the first invader — the walls totter — the constitution is 
 not tenable. What remains, then, but for us to stand fore- 
 most in the breach, to repair it, or perish in it. 
 
 Great pains have been taken to alarm us with the 
 dreadful consequences of a difference between the two 
 houses of parliament: that the house of commons will 
 resent our presuming to take notice of their proceedings : 
 that they will resent our daring to advise the crown, and 
 never forgive us for attempting to save the state. My 
 lords, I am sensible of the importance and difficulty of 
 this great crisis : at a moment such as this, we are called 
 upon to do our duty, without dreading the resentment of 
 any man. But if apprehensions of this kind are to affect 
 us, let us consider which we ought to respect most — ihe 
 representati\ e, or the collective Ijody of the people. My 
 lords, five hundred gentlemen arc not ten millions ; and 
 if we must have a contention, let us take care to have the 
 English nation on our side. If this question be given up, 
 the freeholders of England are reduced to a condition 
 baser than the peasantry of Poland. If they desert their 
 own cause, they deserve to be slaves ! My lords, this is 
 not merely the cold opinion of my understanding, but the. 
 glowing expression of what I feel. It is my heart that 
 speaks. I know I speak warmly,' my lords, but this 
 warmth shall neithei' betray my argument nor my tem- 
 per. The kingdom is in a flame ; as mediators between 
 the king and people, it is our duty to represent to him the 
 
SPEAKER. 45 
 
 true condition and temper of his subjects. It is a duty 
 which no particular respects should hinder us from per- 
 forming ; and whenever his majesty shall demand our ad- 
 vice, it will then be our duty to enquire more minutely 
 into the causes of the present discontents. Whenever 
 that enquiry shall come on, I pledge myself to the house 
 to prove, that since the first institution of the house of 
 commons, not a smgle precedent can be produced to jus- 
 tify their late proceedings. My noble and learned friend, 
 (the lord Chancellor) has also pledged himself to the 
 house, that he will support that assertion. 
 
 My lords, the character and circumstances of Mr. 
 Wilkes have been very improperly introduced into this 
 question, not only here, but in that court of judicature 
 where his cause was tried: — I mean the house of com- 
 mons. With one party he was a patriot of the first mag- 
 nitude: with thfe other, the vilest incendiary. For my 
 own part, I consider him merely and indifferently as an 
 English subject, possessed of certain rights which the 
 laws have given him, and which the laws alone can take 
 from him. I am neither moved by his private vices, nor 
 by his public merits. In his person, though he were the 
 worst of men, I contend for the safety and security of the 
 best ; and God forbid, my lords, that there should be z 
 power in this country of measuring the civil rights of the 
 subject by his moral character, or by any other rule but 
 thi; fixed laws of the land. I believe, my lords, I shall 
 not be suspected of any personal partiality to this unhappy 
 man : I am not very conversant in pamphlets or newspa- 
 pers ; but from what I have heard, and from the little I 
 have read, I may venture to afiirm, that I have had my 
 share in the compliments which have come from that quar- 
 ter: and as for motives of ambition (for I must take to my- 
 self a part of the noble duke's insinuation,) I believe, my 
 lords, there have been tunes in which I have had the hon- 
 our of standing in such favour in the close^that there 
 must have been something extravagantly unreai^nable in 
 my wishes, if they might not at all have been gratified. 
 After neglecting those opportunities, I am now suspected 
 of coming forward in the decline of life, in the anxious 
 pursuit of wealth and power, which it is impossible for 
 me to enjoy. Be it so : there is one ambition, at least. 
 
46 AMERICAN 
 
 which I ever will acknowledge, which I will not renounce 
 but with my life. It is the ambition of delivering to my 
 posterity those rights of freedom which 1 have received 
 from my ancestors. I am not now pleading the cause of 
 an individual, but of every freeholder in England. In 
 what manner this house may constitutionally interpose in 
 their defence, and what kind of redress this case will re- 
 quire and admit of, is not at present the subject of our 
 consideration. The amendment, if agreed to, will natu- 
 rally lead us to such an enquiry. That enquiry, may 
 perhaps, point o^ut the necessity of an act of the "legisla- 
 ture, or It may lead us, perhaps, to desire a conference with 
 the other house ; which one noble lord affirms, is the only 
 parliamentary way of proceeding; and which another no- 
 ble lord assures us the house of commons would either not 
 come to. or would break off with indignation. Leaving 
 their lordships to reconcile that matter* between them- 
 selves, I shall only sa} , that before we have enquired, we 
 cannot be provided with materials ; c-onsequently, at pre- 
 sent we are not prepared for a conference. 
 
 It is possible, my lords, that the enquiry I speak of may 
 lead us to advice his majesty to dissolve the present par- 
 liament; nor have I any doubt of our right to give that 
 advice, if we should think it necessary. His majesty will 
 then determine whether he will yield to the united peti- 
 tions of the people of England, or maintain the house of 
 commons in the exercise of a legislative power, which 
 heretofore abolished the house of lords, and overturned 
 the monarchy. I willingly acquit the present house of 
 commons of having actually formed so detestable a de- 
 sign : but they cannot themselves foresee to what excesses 
 they may be carried hereafter : and for my own part, I 
 should be sorry to trust to their future moderation. Un- 
 limited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who 
 possess it; and this I know, my lords, that where lav/ 
 ends, tyranny begins ! 
 
 Lor a Chatham on the State of the Nation, — 1770. 
 
 My lords, — I shall give you my reasons for concurring 
 with the motion, not methodically, but as they occur to 
 my mind. I may wander, perhaps, froAi the exact par- 
 liamentary debate ; but I hope I shall say nothing but 
 
SPEAKER. 47 
 
 what may deserve your attention, and what if not strictly 
 proper at present, would be fit to be said, wht-n the state 
 of the nation shall come to be considered. My uncertain 
 state of health must plead my excuse. I am now in some 
 paini and very probably may not be able to attend my 
 duty when I desire it most in this house. I thank God, 
 my lords, for having thus long preserved so inconsiderable 
 a being as I am, to take a part upon this great occasion, 
 and to contribute my endeavours, such as they are, to re- 
 store, to save, to confirm the constitution. My lords, I 
 need not look abroad for grievances. The grand capital 
 mischief is fixed at home. It corrupts the very founda- 
 tion of our political existence, and prej's upon the vitals of 
 
 the state. The constitution has been grossly violated. 
 
 The constitution at this moment stands violated; 
 Until that wound be healed, until the grievance be re- 
 dressed, it is in vain to recommend union to parliament 
 
 in vain to promote concord among the people. If we 
 mean seriously to unite the nation within itself, we must 
 convince them that their complaints are regarded, and that 
 their enquiries shall be answered. On that foundation, I 
 would take the lead in recommending peace and harmony 
 to the people: on any other, I would never wish to see 
 them united again. If the breach in the constitution be 
 effectually repaired, the people will of thems .Ives return 
 to a state of trariquillity : if not, may discord prevail 
 FOR EVER ! I know to what point this doctrme and this 
 language will appear directed. But I feel the principles 
 of an Englishman, and I utter them, without apprehension 
 or reserve. The crisis is indeed alarming; so much the 
 more does it n quire a prudent relaxation on the part of 
 government. If the king's servants will not permit a con- 
 stitutional question to be decided on according to the 
 forms and on the principles of the constitution, it must 
 then be decided in some other manner: and rather than it 
 should be given up, rather than the nation should surren- 
 der their birthri;^ht to a despotic minister, I hope, my 
 lords, old as I am, I shall see the question brought to is- 
 sue, and fairly tried between the people and government. 
 My lords, this is not the language of faction. Let it be 
 tried by that criterion by which alone we can distinguish 
 what is factious from what is not — by the principles of the 
 
 r 
 
48 AMERICAN 
 
 English constitution. I have been bred up in these prin- 
 ciples, and know that when the liberty of the subject is in- 
 vaded, and all redress denied him, resistance is justified. 
 If I had a doubt upon the matter, I should follow the ex- 
 ample set us by the most reverend bench ; with whom I 
 believe it is a maxim, when any doubt in point of faith 
 arises, or any question of controversy is started, to appeal 
 at once to the greatest source and evidence of our religion 
 - — I mean the Holy Bible. The constitution has its poli- 
 tical bible, by which, if it be fairly consulted, every politi- 
 cal question may, and ought to be determined. Magna 
 Charta^ the petition of rights, and the bill of rights, form 
 that code which I call the bible of the English constitu- 
 tion. Had some of his majesty's unhappy predecessors 
 trusted less to the comments of their ministers, had they 
 been better read in the text itself, the glorious revolution 
 would have remained only possible in theory, and Would 
 not now have existed upon record — a formidable example 
 to their successors. 
 
 My lords, the condition of his majesty's affairs in Ire- 
 land, and the state of that kingdom within itself, will un- 
 doiibtedly make a very material part of your lordship's 
 enquiry. I am not sufficiently informed to enter into the 
 subject so fully as I could wish, but from what appears to 
 the public and my own observation, I confess I cannot 
 give the ministry much credit for the spirit of prudence 
 of their conduct. I see that where their measures are 
 well chosen, they are incapable of carrying them through 
 without some unhappy mixture of weakness or impru- 
 dence. They are incapable of doing entirely right. My 
 lords, I do from my conscience, and from the best weigh-» 
 cd principles of my understanding, applaud the augmenta- 
 tion of the army. As a military plan, I believe it has 
 been judiciously arranged. In a political view, I am con- 
 vinced it was for the welfare, for the safety of the whole 
 empire. But, my lords, with all these advantages, with 
 all these recommendations, if I had the honour of advis- 
 ing his majesty, I would never have consented to his ac- 
 cepting the augmentation with that absurd, dishonourable 
 condition which the ministry have submitted to annex to 
 it. Mv lords, I revere that just prerogative of the crown, 
 and would contend for it as warmly as for the rights of 
 
SPEAKER. 49 
 
 the people. They are linked together, and naturally sup- 
 port each other. I would not touch a feath' r of the pre- 
 rogative. The expression perhaps is too light ; but since 
 I have made use of it, let me add, that the entire com- 
 mand and power of directing the local disposition of the 
 army, is to the royal prerogative as the master feather in 
 the eagle's wing : and if I were permitted to carry the 
 allusion a little farther, I would say, they have disarm .'d 
 the imperial bird, the " ministrum fubninis alitem^^ The 
 army is the thunder of the crown. The ministry have 
 tied up the hand which should direct the bolt. 
 
 My lords, I remember that Minorca ^ as lost for want 
 of four battalions : they could not be spared from hence, 
 and there was a delicacy about taking them from Ireland. 
 I was one of those who promoted an enquiry into that 
 matter in the other house ; and I was convinced we h id 
 not regular troops sufficient for the necessary service of 
 the nation. Since the moment the plan of augmentation 
 ■was first talked of, I have constantly and warmly support- 
 ed it among my friends ; I have recommended it to several 
 members of thelrishhouseof commons, and exhorted them 
 to support it with their utmost interest in parliament. I did 
 not foresee, nor could I conceive it possible, the ministry 
 wouid accept of it, with a condition that makes the plan 
 itself ineffectual, and, as far as it operates, defeats every 
 useful purpose of maintaining a standing military force. 
 His majesty is now so confined with his promise, that he 
 must leave twelve thousand men locked up in Ireland, let 
 the situation of his affairs abroad, or the approach of dan- 
 ger to this country, be ever so alarming, unless there be an 
 actual rebellion or invasion in Great Britain. Even in the 
 two cases excepted by the king's promise, the mischief 
 must have already begun to operate, must have already 
 taken effect, before his majesty can be authorised to send 
 for the assistance of his Irish army. He has not left him- 
 self the power of taking any preventive measures ; let his 
 intelligence be ever so certain, let his apprehensions of in- 
 vasion or rebellion be ever so well founded ; unless the 
 traitor be actually in arms, unless the enemy be in the 
 heart of your country, he cannot move a single man from 
 Ireland. 
 
 1 
 
50 AMERICAN 
 
 I feel myself compelled, my lords, to return to that sub- 
 ject which occupies and interests me most — I mean the 
 internal disorder of the constitution, and the remedy it de- 
 mands. But first, I would observe, there is one point 
 upon which 1 think the noble duke has not explained him- 
 self. I do not mean to catch at words, but if possible to 
 possess the sense of what I hear. I would treat every 
 man with candour, and should expect the same candour in 
 return. For the noble duke, in particular, I have every 
 personal respect and regard. I never desire to understand 
 him but as he wishes to be understood. His grace. I 
 think, has laid much stress upon the diligence of the seve- 
 ral public offices, and the assistance given them by the ad- 
 ministration, in preparing a state of the expences of his 
 majesty's civil government, for the information of parlia- 
 ment, and for the satisfaction of the public. He has given 
 us a number of plausible reasons for their not having yet 
 been able to finish the account ; but as far as I am able to 
 recollect, he has not yet given us the smallest reason to 
 hope that it ever will be finished, or that it ever will be 
 laid before parliament. 
 
 My lords, I am not unpractised in business ; and if with 
 all that apparent diligence, and all that assistance which 
 the noble duke speaks of, the accounts in question have 
 not yet been made up, I am convinced there must be a 
 defect in some of the public offices, which ought strictly 
 to be enquired into, and severely punished. But my lords, 
 the waste of the public money, is not of itself so import- 
 ant as the ptrnicious purpose to which we have reason to 
 suspect that money has been applied. For some years 
 past, there has been an influx of wealth into this country, 
 which has been attended with many fatal consequences ; 
 because it has not been the regular, natural produce of labour 
 ard industry. The riches of Asia have been poured in 
 ^.^pon us, and have brought with them not only Asiatic 
 luxury, but I fear Asiatic principles of government. 
 Without connections, without any natural interest in the 
 soil, the importers of foreign gold have forced their way 
 into parliament, by such a torrent of private corruption as 
 i;o private hereditary fortune could resist. My lords, I 
 s y nothing but what is within the knowledge of us all. 
 iiio corruption of the people is the great original cause oi 
 
SPEAKER. 51 
 
 the discontents of the people themselves, of the enter- 
 prises of the crown, and the notorious decay of the inter- 
 nal vigour of the constitution. For this great evil some 
 immediflte remedy must be provided: and I confess, my 
 lords, I did hope that his majesty's servants would not 
 have suffered so many years of peace to elapse without 
 paying some attention to an object which ought to engage 
 and interest us all. I flattered myself I should see some 
 barriers thrown up in defence of the constitution, some 
 impediment formed to stop the rapid progress of corrup- 
 tion. I doubt not we all agree that something must be 
 done. I shall offer my own thoughts, such as tht- y are, to 
 the consideration of the house ; and I wish that every no- 
 ble lord who hears me would be as ready as I am to con- 
 tribute his opinion to this important service. I will not 
 call my own sentiments crude and indigested : it would be 
 unfit for me to off^r any thing to your lordships which I 
 had not well considered ; and this subject, I own, has long 
 occupied my thoughts. I will now give them to your 
 lordships without reserve. Whoever understands the 
 theory of the English constitution, and will compare it 
 with the fact, must see at once how widely they differ. 
 We must reconcile them to each other, if we wish to save 
 the liberties of this country. We must reduce our politi- 
 cal practice as nearly as possible to our political principles. 
 The constitution intended that there should be a perma- 
 nent relation between the constituent and representative 
 body of the people. Will any man affirm that as the 
 house of commons is now formed, that relation is in any 
 degree preserved ? My lords, it is not preserved : it is de- 
 tiroyed. Let us be cautious, however, how we have re- 
 course to violent expedients. 
 
 The boroughs of this country have properly enough 
 been called the rotten parts of the constitution. I have 
 lived in Cornw-all, and without entering into an invidious 
 particularity, have seen enough to justify the appellation. 
 But in my judgment, my lords, these boroughs, corrupt 
 as they are, must be considered as the natural infirmity of 
 the constitution. Like the infirmities of the body, we 
 must bear them in patience, and submit to carry them 
 about with us. The limb is mortified, but the amputation 
 might be death. 
 
 -Let us try, my lords, whether some gentle remedies 
 
52 AMERICAN 
 
 may not be discovered. Since we cannot cure the disor= 
 der, let us endeavour to infuse such a portion of new 
 health into the constitution as may enable it to support its 
 most inveterate diseases. 
 
 The represeiitation of the counties is, I think, still pre- 
 serve d pure and uncorrupted. That of die great cities is 
 upon a fooling equally respectable ; and there are many of 
 the larger trading towns, which still preserve their inde- 
 pendence. The inlus on of health which I now allude to, 
 \v uld be to permit evt ry county to elect one member more 
 ir addition to their present representation. The knights 
 of the shires approach nearest to the v.onstitutional repre- 
 sentation of the country, because they represent the soil. 
 It is not the little dependent boroughs, it is in the great 
 cities and counti's that the strength and vigour of the con- 
 stitution resides, and by thtm alone, if an unhappy ques- 
 t'um should ever arise, will the constitution be honestly and 
 firn^iy defended. I would encrease that strength, because 
 I think it is the onh security we have against the profliga- 
 cy of the times, the corruption of the people, and the am- 
 bition of ihe crown. 
 
 I thii.k I have weighed every possible objection that 
 can be raised against a plan of this nature ; and I confess 
 I see but one which to me carries any appearance of soli- 
 dity. It may be said, perhaps, that when the act passed 
 for uniting the two kingdoms, the number of persons who 
 were to represent the whole nation in parliament was pro- 
 portioned and fixed on for ever — that the limitation is a 
 fundamental article, and cannot be altered without hazard- 
 ing a dissolution of the union. 
 
 My lords, no man who hears me can have a greater re- 
 verence for that V ise and important act than I have. I 
 revere the memory of that great prince who first formed 
 the plan, and of those illustrious patriots who carried it 
 into execution. As a contract, every article of it should 
 be inviolable. As the common basis of the strength and 
 happiness of two nations, every article of it should be 
 sacred. I hope 1 cannot be suspected of conceiving a 
 thought so detestable, as to propose an advantage to one 
 of the contracting parties, at the expence of the other* 
 No, my lords, I mean that the benefit should be universal, 
 and the consent to receive it unanimous. Nothing less 
 than a most urgent and important occasion should per- 
 
SPEAKER, 53 
 
 suade me to varv even from the letter of the act ; but 
 there is no occasion, however urgmt, however import- 
 ant, that should ever induce me to d- p -rt from the spirit 
 of it. Let that spirit be religiously preserved. Let us 
 follow the principle upon which the representation of the 
 two countries was proportioned at the union ; and when 
 we increase the number of representatives for the Eng- 
 lish counties, let the shires of Scotland be allowed an equal 
 privilege. On these terms, and while the proportion 
 limited by the union is preserved between the two nations, 
 I apprehend that no man, who is a friend to either^ will 
 object to an alteration, so necessary for the security of 
 both. I do not speak of the authority of the legislature 
 to carry such a measure into effect, because T imagine no 
 man will dispute it. But I would not wish the legislature 
 to interpose by an exertion of its power alone, without the 
 cheerful concurrence of all parties. My object is the 
 happine^is and security of the two nations, and I would 
 not wish to obtain it without their mutual consent. 
 
 My lords, besides my warm approbation of the motion 
 made by the no!)le lord, I have a particular and personal 
 pleasure in rising up to second it. I consider my second- 
 ing his lordship's motion, and I would wish it to be con- 
 sidered by others, as a public demonstration of that cor- 
 dial union which I am happy to afilrni subsists between us 
 — of ray attachment to those principles which he has so 
 well defended, and of my respect for his person. There 
 has been a time, my lords, when those who wished well 
 to neither of us, who wished to see us separated for ever, 
 found a sufficient gratification for their milignity against 
 us both. But that time is happily at an end. The friends 
 of this country will, I doubt not, hear w-ith pleasure, that 
 the noble lord and his friends are 'now united with me 
 and mine, upon a principle which I trust will make our 
 union indissoluble. It is not to possess, or divide, the 
 emoluments of government; but, if possible, to save the 
 state. Upon this ground wj met — upon this ground we 
 stand, firm and inseparable. No ministerial artifices, no 
 private offers, no secret seduction, can divide us. United 
 as we are, we can set the profoundest policy of the present 
 ministry tht-ir grand, their only arcanum of government, 
 their divide ct impera^ at defiance. 
 
 F ?. 
 
54 AMERICAN 
 
 I hope, an early day will be agreed to for considering 
 the state of the nation. My infirmities must fidl heavily 
 upon me, indeed, if I do not attend my duties that day. 
 When I consider my age and unhippv state ot" health, I 
 feel how little 1 am personally interested in the event of 
 any political question. But I look forward to others, and 
 am determined as far as my poor ability extends, to con- 
 vey to those who come after me, the blessings which I 
 cannot long hope to enjoy myself. 
 
 Lord MansfidcPs Speech in the Home of Lords ^ 1770, on 
 the Bill for preventing the Delays of Justice^ by claim- 
 ing the Privilege of Parliament. 
 
 " My lords, — When I consider the importance of this 
 bill to \our lordships, I am not surprised it has taken up 
 so much of your consideration. It is a bill, indeed, of no 
 common magnitude ; it is no less than to take away from 
 two-thirds of the legislative body of this great kingdom, 
 certain privileges and immunities of whichthey have been 
 long possessed. Perhaps there is no situation the human 
 miiui can be placed in, that is so difficult and so trying, as 
 when it is made a judge in its own cause. There is some- 
 th'i'ig implanted in the breast of man so attached to self, so 
 tenacious of privileges once obtained, that, in such a situa- 
 tion, either to discuss with impartiality, or decide with 
 justice, has ever been held the summit of all human vir- 
 tue. The bill now in question puts your lordships in this 
 very predicament ; and I doubt not but the wisdom of 
 your decision will convince the world, that where self-in- 
 terest and justice are in opposite scales, the latter will 
 ever preponderate with your lordships. 
 
 Privileges have been granted to legislators in all ages, 
 and in all countries. The practice is founded in wisdom ; 
 and, indeed, it is peculiarly essential to the constitution of 
 this country, that the members of both houses should be 
 free in their persons, in cases of civil suits: for there may 
 come a time when the safety tuid welfare of this whole em- 
 pire, may depend upon their attendance in parliament. I 
 am far from advising any measure that would in future en- 
 danger the state : but the bill before your lordships has, I 
 am confident, no such tendency; for it expressly secures 
 the persons of members of either House in all civil suits. 
 
SPEAKER. 
 
 I^is being the case, I confess, when I see many noble 
 lords, for whose judgment I have a very great respect, 
 standing up to oppose a bill which is calculated merely to 
 facilitate the recovery of just and legal debts, I am aston- 
 ished and amazed. They, I doubt not, oppose the bill 
 upon public principles: I would not v/ish to insinuate, 
 that private interest had the least weight in their determi- 
 nation. 
 
 The bill has been frequently proposed, and as frequent- 
 ly has miscarried : but it was always lost in the Lower 
 House. Little did I think, when it had passed the Com- 
 mons, that it possibly could have met with such opposi- 
 tion here. Shall it be said, that you, my lords, the grand 
 council of the nation, the highest judicial and legislative 
 body of the realm, endeavour to evade, by privilege, those 
 very laws which you enforce on your fellow-subjects ? 
 Forbid it Justice ! — I am sure, were the noble lords as 
 well acquainted as I am, with but half the difficulties and 
 delays occasioned in the courts of justice, under pretence 
 of privilege, they would not, nay they could not, oppose 
 this bill. 
 
 I have waited with patience to hear what arguments 
 might be urged against the bill ; but I have w«ited in 
 vain : the truth is, there is no argument that can weigh 
 against it. The justice and expediency of the bill are 
 such as render it self-evident. It is a proposition of that 
 nature, that can neither be weakened by argument, nor 
 entangled with sophistry. Much, indeed, has been said by 
 some noble lords, on the wisdom of our ancestors, and 
 how diiTerently they thought from us. They not only de- 
 creed, that privilege should prevent all civil suits from 
 proceeding during the sitting of parliament, but likewise 
 granted protection to the very servants of members. I 
 shall sny nothing on the wisdom of our ancestors; it might 
 perhaps appear invidious ; that is not necessary in the 
 present case. I shall only say, that the no!)le lords who 
 flatter themselves with the weight of that reflection, should 
 remember, that as circumstances alter, things themselves 
 should alter. Formerly, it was not so fashionable either 
 for masters or servants to run in debt, as it is at present. 
 Foimerly, we were not that great commercial nation we 
 are at present ; nor formerly were merchants and manu- 
 
S6 AMERICAN 
 
 facturers members of parliament, as at present. The case 
 is now very different : both merchants and manufacturers 
 are, with great propriety, electt d members of the Lower 
 House. Commerce having thus got into the legislative 
 body of the kingdom, privilege must be done away. We 
 all know, that the very soul and essence of trade are re* 
 gular payments : and sad experience teaches us, that there 
 are m.en, who will not make their regular payments with- 
 out the compulsive power of the laws. The law then 
 ought to be equally open to all. Any exemption to parti- 
 cular men, or particular ranks of men, is, in a free and 
 commercial country, a solecism of the grossest nature. 
 
 But I will not trouble your lordships with arguments 
 for that, which is sufficiently evident without any. I shall 
 only say a few words to some noble lords, who foresee 
 much inconveniency, from the persons of their servants 
 being liable to be arrested. One noble lord observes^ 
 That the coachman of a peer may be arrested, while he is 
 driving his master to the House, and that, consequently, 
 he will not be able to attend his duty in parliament. If 
 this were actually to happen, there are so many methods 
 by which the member might still get to the House, that 
 I can hardly think the noble lord is serious in his objec- 
 tion. Another noble peer said, That, by this bill, one 
 might lose his most valuable and honest servants. This 
 I hold to be a contradiction in terms : for he can neither 
 be a valuable servant, nor an honest man, who gets into 
 debt which he is neither able nor willing to pay, till com- 
 pelled by the law. If my servant, by unforeseen accidents, 
 has got into debt, and 1 still wish to retain him, I certainly 
 would pay the demand. But upon no principle of liberal 
 legislation whatever, can my servant have a title to set his 
 creditors at defiance, while for forty shillings only, the 
 honest tradesman maybe torn from his family, and locked 
 up in a jail. It is monstrous injustice ! I flatter myself^ 
 however, the determination of this day will entirely put 
 an end to all such partial proceedings for the future, by 
 passing into a law the bill now under your lordship's con- 
 sideration. 
 
 " I come now to speak upon what, indeed, I woulcj 
 have gladly avoided, had I not been particularly pointed 
 at, for the part I have taken in this bill. It has been said 
 
SPEAKER. 57 
 
 by a noble lord on- my left hand, that I likewise am run- 
 ning the race of popularity. If the noble lord means by 
 popularity, that applause bestowed by after- ages on good 
 and virtuous actions, I have long been struggling in that 
 race : to what purpose, all-trymg Time can alcne deter- 
 mine. But if the noble lord means that mushroom popu- 
 larity, which is raised without merit, and lost without a 
 crimt , he is much mistaken in his opinion. I defy the 
 noble lord to point out a single action in my life, in which 
 the popularity of the times ever had the smallest influence 
 on my determinations. I thank God I have a more per- 
 manent and steady rule for my conduct, — the dictates of 
 my own breast. They who have foregone that pleasmg 
 adviser, and given up their mind to be the slave of every 
 popular impulse, I smcerely pity . I pity them still more, 
 if their vanity leads them to mistake the shouts of a mob 
 for the trumpet of fame. Experience might inform them 
 that many, who have been saluted with the huzzas of a 
 crowd one day, hvve received their execrations the next; 
 and many, who, by the popularity of their times, have 
 been held up as spodess patriots, have, nevertheless, ap- 
 peared upon the historian's page, when truth his triumph- 
 ed over delusion, the assassins of liberty. Why then the 
 noble lord can think I am ambitious of present popularity, 
 that echo of follv, and shadow of renown, I am at a loss 
 to determine. Besides, I do not know that the bill now 
 before your lordships will be popular ; it depends much 
 upon the caprice of the day. It may not be popular to 
 compel people to pay their debts ; and, in that case, the 
 present must be a very unpopular bill. It may not be 
 popular neither to take away any of the privileges of par- 
 liament: for I very well remember, and many of your 
 lordships may remember, that, not long ago, the popular 
 cry was for the extension of privilege ; and so far did ihey 
 carry it at that time, that it was said, the privilege pro- 
 tected members even in criminal actions ; nay, such was 
 the power of popular prejudices over weak minds, that 
 the very decisions of some of the courts were tinctured 
 with that doctrine. It was undoubtedly an abominable 
 doctrine ; I thought so then, and I think so still ; but 
 nevertheless, it was a popular doctrine, and came imme- 
 diatelv from those v/ho v/ere called the friends of liberty, 
 
 W 
 
58 AMERICAN 1 
 
 how deservedly, time will show. True, liberty, in my opi- 
 nion, can only exist when justice is equally administered 
 to all ; to the king and to the beggar. Where is the- jus- 
 tice then, or where is the law that protects a member of 
 parliament more than any other man, from the punishment 
 due to his crimes.^ The laws of this country allow of no 
 place, nor any employment, to be a sanctuary for crimes; 
 and where I have the honor to sit as judge, neither royal 
 favor, nor popular applause, shall ever protect the guilty. 
 I have now only to beg pardon for having employed so 
 much of your lordships' lime ; and I am sorry a bill, 
 fraught with so many good consequences, has not met 
 with an abler advocate ; but I doubt not your lordships' 
 determination will convince the world, that a bill, calcu- 
 lated to contribute so much to the equal distribution of 
 justice as the present, requires with your lordships but 
 very little support. 
 
 Colonel Barre i?i reply to Lord North on a message from the 
 King on Afnerican affairs^ British House of Commons^ 
 —1774. 
 
 I rise with great unwillingness to oppose this measure 
 in its very infancy, before its features are well formed, or 
 to claim that attention which this house seems to bestow 
 with so much reluctance on any arguments in behalf of 
 America. But I must call you to witness, that I have 
 been hitherto silent, or acquiescent, to an unexpected de- 
 gree of moderation. While your proceedings, severe as 
 they were, had the least colour of foundation in justice, I 
 desisted Irom opposing them ; nay more — though your 
 bill for stopping up the port of Boston contained in it 
 many things most cruel, unwarrantable, and unjust, yet 
 as they were couched under those general principles of 
 justice, retribution for injury, and compensation for loss 
 sustained, I not only desisted from opposing, but assented 
 to its passing. The bUl was a bad way of doing what was 
 right ; but stiil it was doing what was right. I would not, 
 therefore, by opposing it, seem to countenance those vio- 
 lences which had been committed abroad ; and of which 
 no man disapproves more than I do. 
 
 Upon the present question I am totally unprepared. 
 The motion itself bears no sort of resemblance to what 
 
SPEAKER. 59 
 
 was formerly announced. The noble lord and his friends 
 have had every advantage of preparation. They have re- 
 connoitred the field, and chosen their ground. To attack 
 them in these circumstances may, perhaps, savour more 
 of the gallantry of a soldier, than of the wisdom of a sena- 
 tor. But, sir, the proposition is so glaring ; so unprece- 
 dented in any former proceedings of parliament; so un- 
 warranted by any delay, denial, or preservation of justice 
 in America ; so big with misery and oppression to that 
 country, and with danger to this — that the first blush of it 
 is sufficient to alarm and rouse me to opposition. 
 
 It is proposed to stigmatize a whole people as persecu- 
 tors of innocence, and men incapable of doing justice ; yet 
 you have not a single fact on which to ground that impu- 
 tation. I expected the noble lord would have supported 
 this motion by producing instances of the officers of go- 
 vernment in America having been prosecuted with unre- 
 mitting vengeance, and brought to cruel and dishonoura- 
 ble deaths by the violence and injustice of American ju- 
 ries. But he has not produced one such instance ; and I 
 will tell you more, sir — he cannot produce one. The in- 
 stances which have happened are directly in the teeth of 
 his proposition. Colonel Preston, and the soldiers, who 
 shed the blood of the people, were fairly tried, and fully 
 acquitted. It was an American jury, a New England 
 jury, a Boston jurv, which tried and acquitted them. 
 Colonel Preston has, under his hand, publicly declared, 
 that the inhabitants of the very town in which their fel- 
 low citizens had been sacrificed, were his advocates and 
 defenders. Is this the return you make them ? Is this 
 the encouragement you give them to persevere in so laud- 
 able a spirit of justice and moderation ? When a com- 
 missioner of the customs, aided by a number of ruffi ms, 
 assaulted the celebrated Mr. Otis in the midst of the 
 town of Boston, and with the most barbarous violence 
 almost murdered him, did the mob, which is said to rule 
 that town, take ven;;eance on the perpetrators of this inhu- 
 man outrage, against a person who is supposed to be their 
 demagogue ? No, sir, the law tried them : the law gave 
 heavy damages against them ; which the irreparably in- 
 jured Mr. Otis most generously forgave, upon the ac- 
 knowledgment of the offence. Can you expect any more 
 
\ 
 
 60 AMERICAN 
 
 such instances of magnanimity under the principle of the 
 bill now proposed? But the nuble lord says, " We must 
 now shew the Americans that we will no longer sit quiet 
 tinder their insults." Sir, I am sorry to say that this is 
 declamation, unbecoming the character and place of him 
 who utters it. In what moment have you been quiet? 
 Has not your government for many years past been a se- 
 ries of irritating and offensive measures, without policy, 
 principle, or moderation ? Have not your troops and your 
 ships made a vain and insulting parade in their streets and 
 in their harbours ? It has seemed to be your study to irri- 
 tate and inflame them. You have stimulated discontent 
 into disaffection, and you are now goading that disaffection 
 into rebellion. Can you expect to be well informed when 
 you listen only to partizans ? Can you expect to do justice 
 when you will not hear the accused ? 
 
 Let us consider, sir, the precedents which are olTered to 
 warrant this proceedirig — the suspension of the habeas cor- 
 •pus 2iZ\.'vci 1745 — the making smugglers triable in Mid- 
 dlesex, and the Scotch rebels in England. Sir, the first 
 wt s done upon the most pressing necessity, y?w^T<:/;?/e' hello ^ 
 with a dangerous rebellion in the very heart of the king- 
 dom ; the second, you well know, was warranted by the 
 most evident facts ; armed bodies of smugglers marched 
 publicly, without presentment or molestation from the 
 people of the county of Sussex, who, even to their magis- 
 trates, were notoriously conuected with them. They 
 murdered the officers of the revenue, engaged your troops, 
 and openly violated the laws. Experience convinced you, 
 that the juries of that, and of the counties similarly cir- 
 cumstanced, would never find such criminals guilty ; and 
 upon the conviction of this necessity you passed the act. 
 The same necessity justified the trying Scotch rebels in 
 England. Rebellion had raised its dangerous standard in 
 Scotland, and the principles of it had so universally taint- 
 ed that people, that it was manifestly in vain to expect 
 justice from them against their countrymen. But in Ame- 
 rica, not a single act of rebellion has been committed. 
 Let the crown law officers, who sit by the noble lord, de- 
 clare, if they can, that there is upon > our table a single 
 evidence of treason or rebellion in America. They know, 
 
SPEAKER. 61 
 
 sir, there is not one, and yet are proceeding as if there 
 were a thousand. 
 
 Having thus proved Sir, that the proposed bill is without 
 precedent to support, and without facts to warrant it, let 
 us now view the consequences it is likely to produce. A 
 soldier feels himself so much above the rest of mankind, 
 that the strict hand of the civil power is necessary to con- 
 trol the haughtiness of disposition which such superiority 
 inspires. You know, sir, what constant care is taken in 
 this country to remind the military that they are under 
 the restraint of the civil power. In America their supe- 
 riority is felt still greater. Remove the check of the law, 
 as this bill intends, and what insolence, what outrage may 
 you not expect ? Every passion that is pernicious to so- 
 ciety will be let loose upon a people unaccustomed to 
 licentiousness and intemperance. On the one hand will 
 be a people who have been long complaining of oppres* 
 sion, and see in the soldiery those who are to enforce it 
 upon them ; on the other, an army studiously preposses- 
 sed with the idea of that people being rebellious, unawed by 
 the apprehension of civil control, and actuated by that ar- 
 bitrary spirit which prevails even amongst the best of 
 troops. — III this situation the prudent officer will find it 
 impossible to restrain his soldiers, or prevent that provo- 
 cation which will rouse the tamest people to resistance. 
 The inevitable consequence will be, that you will produce 
 the rebellion you pretend to obviate. 
 
 I have been bred a soldier ; having served long. — I re- 
 spect the profession, and live in the strictest habits of 
 friendship with a great many officers ; but there is not a 
 country gentleman of you all, who looks upon the army 
 with a more jealous eye, or would more strenuously 
 resist the setting them above the control of the civil pow- 
 er. No man is to be trusted in such a situation. It is 
 not the fault of the soldier, but the vice of human nature, 
 which, unbridled by law, becomes insolent and licentious, 
 wantonly violates the peace of society, and tramples upon 
 the rights of human kind. 
 
 With respect to those gentlemen who are destined to 
 this service, they are much to be pitied. It is .1 service, 
 which an officer of feeling and of worth must enter upon 
 with infinite reluctance. A service, in which his only 
 
 G 
 
62 AMERICAN 
 
 merit much be, to hear much^ and do little. With the me- 
 lancholy prospect before him of commencing a civil war, 
 and embruing his hands in the blood of his fellow-subjects, 
 his feelings, his life, his honour are hazarded, without a 
 possibility of any equivalent or compensation. You may 
 perhaps think a law, founded upon this motion, will be his 
 protection. I am mistaken if it will. Who is to execute 
 it? He must be a bold man indeed who makes the at- 
 tempt: if the people are so exasperated, th^t it is unsafe 
 to bring the man who has injured them to trial, let 
 the governor who withdraws him from justice look to 
 himself. The people will not endure it : they would no 
 longer deserve the reputation of being descended from the 
 the loins of Englishmen, if they did endure it. 
 
 W^hen I stand up as an advocate for Arherica, I feel 
 myself the firmest friend of this country. We stand upon 
 the commerce of America. Alienate your colonies, and 
 you will subvert the foundation of your riches and your 
 strength. Let the banners be once spread in America, 
 and you .are an undone people. You are urging this des- 
 perate, this destructive issue. You are urging it with 
 such violence, and by measures tending so manifestly to 
 that fatal point, that, but for that state of madness which 
 only could inspire such an intention, it would appear to be 
 your deliberate purpose. In assenting to your late bill I 
 resisted the violence of America, at the hazard of my po- 
 pularity there. I now resist your phrenzy, at the same 
 risk here. You have changed your ground. You are 
 becoming the aggressors, and offering the last of human 
 outrages to the people of America, by subjecting them, in 
 effect, to military execution. I know the vast superiority 
 of your disciplined troops over the Provincials; but be- 
 ware hsw you supply the want of discipline by despera- 
 tion. Instead of sending them the olive branch, 50U have 
 sent the naked sword, l.^y the olive branch I mean a re- 
 peal of all the late laws, fruitless to you and oppressive to 
 Uiem. 
 
 Ask their aid in a constitutional manner, and they will 
 give it to the utmost of their iibility. They never yet re- 
 fused it when properly required. Your journals bear the 
 recortied acknowledgments of the zeal with which they 
 have contributed to the general necessities of the state. 
 
SPEAKER. -63 
 
 What madness is it that prompts you to attempt obtaining 
 that by force which you may more certainly procure by 
 requisition i They may be flattered into any thing ; but 
 they are too much like yourselves to be driven. H^ve 
 some indulgence for your own likeness ; respect their 
 sturdy English virtue ; retract your odious exertions of au- 
 thority, and remember, that the first step towards making 
 them contribute to your wants, is to reconcile them to 
 your government. 
 
 Anszver of Colonel Barre to one of the Ministry who haa 
 exclaimed — '' And now will these Americans^ children 
 planted by our care^ nourished up by our indulgence^ tm» 
 til they are groxvn to a degree of strength and opulence^ 
 and protected by our arms^ will they grudge to contribute 
 their mite to relieve ics from the heavy weight of that 
 burden which we lie under ^" 
 
 They planted by your care ! No, your oppressions plant- 
 ed them in America. They fled from yoiir tyranny, to a 
 then uncultivated and unhospitable country, where they 
 exposed themselves to almost all the hardships to which 
 human nature is liable ; and, among others, to the cruelties 
 of a savage foe, the most subtle, and I will take upon rne 
 to say, the most formidable of any people upon the face 
 of God's earth ; and yet, actuated by principles of true 
 English liberty, they met all hardships with pleasure, 
 compared with those they suffered in their own country, 
 from the hands of those that should have been their 
 friends. They nourished up by your indulgence ! They 
 grew by your neglect of them. As soon as you began 
 to care about them, that care was exercised in sending 
 persons to rule them, in one department and another, who 
 were, perhaps, the deputies of deputies to some members 
 of this house, sent to spy out their liberties, to misrepre- 
 sent their actions, and to pry upon them — men, whose be- 
 haviour on many occasions, has caused the blood of those 
 sons of liberty to recoil within them — men promoted to 
 the highest seats of justice ; some who to my knowledge 
 were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape being 
 brought to the bar of a court of justice in their own. 
 They protected by your arms ! They have nobly taken up 
 
64 AMERICAN 
 
 arms in your defence ; have exerted a valor, amidst their 
 constant and laborious industry, for the defence of a coun- 
 try, whose frontier was drenched in blood, while its inte- 
 rior parts yielded all its little savings to your emolument. 
 And believe me, remember I this day told you so, that 
 same spirit of freedom, which actuated that people at first, 
 will accompany them still — but prudence forbids me to 
 explain myself further. God knows I do not at this time 
 speak from motives of party heat; what I deliver are the 
 genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to 
 me in gtneral knowledge and experience the respectable 
 body of this house ma\ be, yet I claim to know more of 
 America than most of you, having seen and been conver- 
 sant in that country. The people, I believe, are as truly 
 loyal as any subjects the king has ; but a people jealous of 
 their liberties, and who will vindicate them if ever they 
 should be violated — but the subject is too delicate — I 
 will say no more. 
 
 Extract from a Speech of Governor Poxvncl^on Lord NortK^s 
 motion for a Repeal of the Port Duties^ 1770. 
 
 " If it be asked, whether it will remove apprehensions 
 excited by your resolutions and address of last year for 
 bringing to trial in England persons accused of treason in 
 America, I answer no. If it be asked, if this commercial 
 concession would quiet the minds of Americans as to the 
 political doubts and fears which have struck them to the 
 heart throughout the continent, I answer no. So long as 
 ihey are left in doubt, whether the habeas corpus act, whe- 
 ther the bill of rights, whether the common law, as now 
 existing m England, have any operation and effect in 
 xVmerica, they cannot be satisfied. At this hour they 
 know not, whether their civil constitutions be not sus- 
 pended and superseded by the establishment of a military 
 force. The Americans think that they have, in return to 
 all their applications, experienced a temper and disposi- 
 tion that is unfriendly ; — that the enjoyment and exercise 
 of th'e common rights of freemen have been refused to 
 them. Never, with these views will they solicit the favor 
 of this house. Never more will they wish to bring before 
 parliament the grievances under which they conceive 
 
SPEAKER. . 6S 
 
 themselves to labor. Deeply as they feel, they suffer with 
 a determined and alarming silence. For their liberty they 
 are under no apprehensions. It was first planted under 
 the auspicious genius of the constitution. It has grown 
 up into a verdant and flourishing tree ; and should any 
 severe strokes be aimed at the branche*, and fate reduces 
 it to the bare stock, it would only take deeper root, and 
 spring out again more hardy and durable than before. 
 They trust Providence, and wait with firmness and forti- 
 tude the issue." 
 
 Lord Chathaiii's Speech on the Bill for quartering soldiers 
 in America^ 1774. 
 
 " If, my lords, we take a transient view of the mo- 
 tives which induced the ancestors of our fellow-subjects 
 in America to leave their native country, to encounter 
 the innumerable difficulties of the unexplored regions of 
 the western world, our astonishment at the present con- 
 duct of their descendants will naturally subside. There 
 was no corner of the globe to which they would not have 
 fled, rather than submit to the slavish and tyrannical spirit 
 which prevailed at that period in their native country ; 
 and viewing them in their originally forlorn and now flou- 
 rishing state, they may be cited as illustrious instances to 
 instruct the world, what great exertions mankind will na- 
 turally make, when left to the free exercise of their own 
 powers. Notwithstanding my intention to give my heartv 
 negative to the question nov/ before you, I condemn, my 
 lords, in the severest manner, the turbulent and unwar- 
 rantable conduct of the Americans in some instances, par- 
 ticularly in the late riots at Boston ; but, my lords, the 
 mode which h-^s been pursued to bring them back to a 
 sense of their duty, is so diametrically opposite to everv 
 principle of sound policy, as to excite my utmost astonish- 
 ment. You have involved the guilty and the innocent in 
 one common punishment, and avenge the crimes of a few 
 lawless depredators upon the whole body of the- inhabi- 
 tants. My lords, the different provinces of America, in 
 the excess of their gratitude for the repeal of the Stamp 
 Act, seemed to vie with each other in expressions of loy- 
 alty and duty ; but the moment they perceived your inten- 
 tion to tax them was renewed under a pretence of serving 
 
 G2 
 
6a AMERICAN 
 
 the East India company, their resentment got the ascend- 
 ant of their moderation, and hurried them into actions 
 which iheir cooler reason would abhor. But, my lords, 
 from the whole complexion of the late proceedings, I can- 
 not but incline to think that administration has purposely 
 irritated them into these violent acts, in order to gratify 
 their own malice and revenge. What else could induce 
 them to dress taxation, the father of American sedition, 
 in the robes of an East India director, but to break in 
 upon that mutual peace and harmony, which then so hap- 
 pily subsisted between the colonies, and the mother coun- 
 try ? My lords, it has always been my fixed and unaltera- 
 ble opinion, and I will carry it with me to the grave, that 
 this country had no right under heaven to tax America. 
 It is contrary to all the principles of justice and civil po- 
 licy : it is contrary to that essential, that unalterable right 
 in ijature, ingrafted into the British constitution as a fun- 
 damental law, that what a man has honestly acquired is 
 absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but which 
 cannot be taken from him without his consent. Pass 
 then, my lords, instead of these harsh and severe edicts, 
 an amnesty over their errors : by measures of lenity and 
 affection allure them to their duty : act the part of a gene- 
 rous and forgiving parent. A period may arrive when 
 this parent may stand in need of every assistance she can 
 receive from a grateful and affectionate offspring. The 
 welfare of this country, my lords, has ever been my great- 
 est joy, and undrr all the vicissitucies of my life has afford- 
 ed me the most pleasing consolation. Should the all-dis- 
 posing hand of Providence prevent me from contributing 
 my poor and feeble aid in the day of her distress, my 
 prayers shall be ever ^or her prosperity, * Length of 
 clays be in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and 
 honour. May her ways be the ways of pleasantness; and 
 ;all ht r paths be peace !' 
 
 ■ Extract from 3Ir. Burke^s Speech on American Taxation^ 
 April I9th, 1774. 
 
 Sir, — I agree with the honorable gentleman who spoke 
 last, that this subji-ct is not new in this house. Very dis- 
 agreeably to this house, very unfortunately to this nation, 
 and to the peace and prosperity of this whole empire, no 
 
SPEAKER. 6^ 
 
 topic has been more familiar to us. For nine long years, 
 session after session, we have been lashed round and 
 round this miserable circle of occasional arguments and 
 temporary expedients. I am sure our heads must turn, 
 and our stomachs nauseate with them. We have had 
 them in every shape ; we have looked at them in every 
 point of view. Invention is exhausted ; reason is fatigued ^ 
 experience has given judgment; but obstinacy is not yet 
 conquered. 
 
 But I hear it rung continually in my ears, now and for- 
 merlv, — *' the preamble ! what will become of the pream- 
 ble, if you repeal this tax?" — I am sorry to be compelled 
 so often to expose the calamities and disgraces of parlia- 
 ment. The preamble of this law, standing as it now 
 stands, has the lie direct given to it by the provisionary 
 part of the act; if that can be called provisionary which 
 makes no provision. I should be afraid to express my- 
 self in this manner, especially in the face of such a for- 
 midable array of ability as is now drawn up before me, 
 composed of the ancient household troops of that side of 
 the house, and the new recruits from this, if the matter 
 were not clear and indisputable. Nothing but truth could 
 give me this firmness; but plain truth and clear evidence 
 can be beat down by no ability^ The clerk will be so good 
 as to turn to the act, and to read this favourite preamble: 
 
 Whereas it is expedient that a reveiiue should be raised 
 in your majestifs dominions in America^ for making a more 
 certain and adequate provision for defrafing the charge of 
 the administration of justice, and support of civil govern- 
 ment, in such provinces ivhere it shall be found necessary ; 
 and toxvards further defraying the expenses of defending, 
 protecting, and securing the said dominions. 
 
 You have heard this pompous performance. Now 
 where is the revenue which is to do all these mighty 
 things? Five sixths repealed — abandoned — sunk — gone 
 — lost for ever.-:-Does the poor solitary tea duty support 
 the purposes of this preamble ? Is not the supply there 
 stated as eifectually abandoned as if the tea duty had pe- 
 rished in the general wreck? Here, Mr. Speaker, is a pre- 
 cious mocker}' — a preamble without an act — taxes grant- 
 ed in order to be repealed — and the reasons of the grant 
 still carefully kept up ! This is raising a revenue in Ame- 
 
68 AMERICAN 
 
 rica! This is preserving dignity in England! If you re- 
 peal this tax in compliance with the motion, I readily ad- 
 mit that you lose this fair preamble'. Estimate your loss 
 in it. The object of the act is gone already; and all you 
 suffer is the purging the statute-book of the opprobrium of 
 an empty, absurd, and false recital. 
 
 *' Sir, It is not a pleasant consideration; but nothing in 
 the world can read so awful and so instructive a lesson, as 
 the conduct of ministry in this business, upon the mischief 
 of not having large and liberal ideas in the management of 
 great affairs. Never have the servants of the state look- 
 ed at the whole of your complicated interests in one con- 
 nected view. They have taken things, by bits and scraps, 
 some at one time and one pretence, and some at another, 
 just as they pressed, without any sort of regard to their 
 relations or dependencies. They never had any kind of 
 system, right or wrong ; but only invented occasionally 
 some miserable tale for the day, in order meanly to sneak 
 out of difficulties, into which they had proudly strutted. 
 And they were put to all these shifts and devices, full of 
 meanness and full of mischief, in order to pilfer piecemeal 
 a repeal of an act, which they had not the generous cou- 
 rage, when they found and felt their error, honourably and 
 fciirly to disclaim. By such management, by the irresis- 
 tible operation of feeble councils, so paltry a sum as three- 
 pence in the ejes of a financier, so insignificant an article 
 as tea in the eyes of a philosopher, have shaken the pillars 
 of a commercial empire that circled the whole globe. 
 
 Could any thing be a subject of more just alarm to Ame- 
 rica, than to see you go out of the plain high road of 
 finance, and give up your most certain revenues and your 
 clearest interest, merely for the sake of insulting your co- 
 lonies? No man ever doubted that the commodity of tea 
 could bear an imposition of three-pence. But no commo- 
 dity will bear three-pence, or will bear a penny, when the 
 general feelings of men are irritated, and two millions of 
 people are resolved not to pay. The feelings of the colo- 
 nies were iormerly the feelings of Great Britain. Theirs 
 were formerly the feelings of Mr. Hampden when called 
 upon for the payment of twenty shillings. Would twenty 
 shillings have rumed Mr. Hampden's fortune? No! but 
 the payment of half twenty shillings, on the principle it 
 
SPEAKER. 69 
 
 was demandecl, would have made him a slave. It is the 
 weight of that preamble, of which you are so fond, and 
 not the weight of the duty, that the Americans are unable 
 and unwilling to bear. 
 
 They tell you, sir, that your dignity is tied to it. I know 
 not how it happens, but this dignity of yours is a terrible 
 incumbrance to you ; for it has of late been ever at war 
 with your interest, your equity, and every idea of your 
 policy. Shew the thing you contend for to be reason ; 
 shew it to be common sense; shew it to be the means of 
 attaining some useful end ; and then I am content to allow 
 it what dignity you please. But what dignity is derived 
 from the perseverance in absurdity is more than I ever 
 could discern. 
 
 If this dignity, which is to stand in the place of just 
 policy and common sense, had been consulted, there was 
 a time for preserving it, and for reconciling it with any 
 concession. If, in the session of 1768, that session ot 
 idle terror and empty menaces, you had, as you were often 
 pressed to do, repealed these taxes ; then your strong ope- 
 l^tions wuuld have come justified and enforced, in case 
 your concessions had been returned by outrages. But, 
 preposterously, you began with violence ; and before ter- 
 rors could have any effect, either good or bad, your mini- 
 sters immediately begged pardon, and promised that re- 
 peal to the obstinate Americans which they had refused 
 in an easy, good-natured, complying British parliament. 
 The assemblies, which had been publicly and avowedly dis- 
 solved for ihei7- contumacy, are called together to receive 
 i/oz/r submission. Your ministerial directors blustered like 
 tragic tyrants here; and then went mumping with a sore 
 leg in America, canting and whir.ing, and complaining of 
 faction, which represented them as friends to a revenue 
 from the colonies. 
 
 Sir, they who are friends to the schemes of American 
 revenue say, that the commercial restraint is full as hard a 
 law for America to live under. I think so loo. I think 
 it, if uncompensated, to be a condition of as rigorous ser- 
 vitude as men can be subject to. But America bore it 
 from the fundamental act of navigation until 1764.— 
 Why? because men do beai^ the inevitable constitution of 
 their original nature with all its infirmities. I'he act of 
 
TO AMERICAN 
 
 navigation attended the colonies from their infancy, grew 
 with iheir growth, and strengthened with their strength. 
 They were confirmed in obedience to it, even more by 
 Usage than by law. They scarcely had remembered a 
 time when they were not subject to such restraint. Be- 
 sides, they were indemnified for it by a pecuniary com- 
 pensation. Their monopohst happened to be one of the 
 richest men in the world. By his immense capital (pri- 
 marily employed, not for their benefit, but his own) they 
 were enabled to proceed with their fisheries, their agricul- 
 ture, their ship-building (and their trade too within the 
 limits), in such a manner as got far the start of the slow 
 languid operations of unassisted nature. This capital was 
 a hot-bed to them. Nothing in the history of mankind 
 is like their progress. For my part, I never cast an eye 
 on their flourishing commerce, and their cultivated and 
 commodious life, but they seem to me rather ancient na- 
 tions grown to perfection through a long series of fortu- 
 nate events, and a train of successful industry, accumulat- 
 ing wealth in many centuries, than the colonies of yester- 
 day ; than a set of miserable out-coats, a fc-w years ago, 
 not so mucn sent as thrown out, on the bleak and barren 
 shore of a desolate wilderness three thousand miles from 
 all civilized intercourse. 
 
 All this was done by England, whilst England pursued 
 trade, and forgot revenue. You not only afcquired com- 
 merce, but you actually created the very objects of trade 
 in America; and by that creation you raised the trade of 
 this kingdom at least four-fold. America had the com- 
 pensation of your capital, which made her bear her servi- 
 tude. She had another compensation, which you are now 
 going to take away from her. She had, except the com- 
 mercial restraint, every characteristic mark of a free peo- 
 ple in all her internal concerns. She had the image of the 
 British constitution. She had the substance. She was 
 taxed by her own representatives. She chose most of her 
 own magistrates. She paid them all. She had in effect 
 the sole disposal of her own internal government. This 
 whole state of commercial servitude and civil liberty, 
 taken together, is certainly not perfect freedom ; but com- 
 paring it with the ordinary circumstances of human na- 
 ture, it was an happy and a liberal condition. 
 
SPEAKER. 71 
 
 Extract from the same speech on American Taxation^ zvith 
 a sketch of the character of Mr, Grenmlle. 
 
 Whether you were right or wrong in establishing the 
 colonies on the principles of commercial monopoly, rather 
 than on that of revenue, is at this day a problem of mere 
 speculation. You cannot have both by the same authority. 
 To join together the restraints of an universal internal 
 and external monopoly, with an universal internal and ex- 
 ternal taxation, is an unnatural union ; perfect uncompen- 
 sated slavery. You have long since decided for yourself 
 and them ; and you and they have prospered exceedingly 
 under that decision. 
 
 This nation, sir, never thought of departing from that 
 choice until the period immediately on the close of the 
 last war. Then a scheme of government new in many 
 things seemed to have been adopted. I saw, or thought I 
 saw, several symptoms of a great change, whilst I sat in 
 your gallery, a good while before I had the honour of a 
 seat in this house. At that period the necessity was esta- 
 blished of keeping up no less than twenty new regiments, 
 with twenty colonels capable of st nts in this house. This 
 scheme was adopted with very general applause on both 
 sides, at the very time that, by your conquests in Ameri- 
 ca, your danger from foreign attempts in that part of the 
 world was much lessened, or indeed rather quite over. 
 When this huge increase of military establishment was 
 resolved on, a revenue was to be found to support so great 
 a burthen. Country gentlemen, the great patrons of eco- 
 nomy, and the great resisters of a standing armed force, 
 would not have entered wiih much alacrity into the vote 
 for so large and so expensive an army, if they had been 
 very sure that they were to continue to pay for it. But 
 hopes of another kind were held out to them ; and iri par- 
 ticular, I well remember, that Mr. Townshend, in a bril- 
 liant harangue on this subject, did dazzle them, by playing 
 before their eyes the image of a revenue to be raised in 
 America. 
 
 Here began to dawn the first glimmerings of this new 
 colony system. It appeared more distinctly afterwards, 
 when it was devolved upon a person to whom, on other 
 accounts, this country owes very great obligations. I do 
 
rz AMERICAN 
 
 believe, that he had a very serious desire to benefit the 
 public. But with no small study of the detail, he did not 
 seem to have his view, at least equally, carried to the total 
 circuit of our affairs. He generally considered his objects 
 in lights that were rather too detached. Whether the 
 business of an American revenue was imposed upon him 
 altogether ; whether it was entirely the result of his own 
 speculation ; or, what is more probable, that his own ideas 
 rather coincided with the instructions he had received ; 
 certain it is, that, with the best intentions in the world, he 
 first brought this fatal scheme into form, and established it 
 by act of parliament. 
 
 No man can believe, that at this time of day I mean to 
 lean on the venerable memory of a great man, whose loss 
 we deplore in common. Our little party-differences have 
 been long ago composed ; and I have acted more with 
 him, and certainly with more pleasure with him, than ever 
 I acted against him. Undoubtedly Mr. Grenville was a 
 first-rate figure in this country. With a masculine under- 
 standing, and a stout and resolute heart, he had an appli- 
 cation undissipated and unwearied. He took public busi- 
 ness, not as a duty which he was to fulfil, but as a pleasure 
 he was to enjoy ; and he seemed to have no delight out of 
 this house, except in such things as some way related to 
 the business that was to be done within it. If he was 
 ambitious, I will say this for him, his ambition was of a 
 noble and generous strain. It was to raise himself, not 
 by the low pimping politics of a court, but to win his way 
 to power, through the laborious gradations of public ser- 
 vice ; and to secure himself a well-earned rank in parlia- 
 ment, by a thorough knowledge of its constitution, and a 
 perfect practice in all its business. 
 
 Sir, if such a man fell into errors, it must be from de- 
 fects Yiot intrinsical ; they must be rather sought in the 
 particular habits of his life ; which, though they do not 
 alter the ground-work of character, yet tinge it with their 
 own hue. He was bred in a profession. He was bred to 
 the law, which is, in my opinion, one of th first and no- 
 blest of human sciences ; a science which does more to 
 quicken and invigorate the understanding, than all the 
 other kmds of learning put together ; but it is not apt, ex- 
 cept in persons very happily born, to open and to libs-ralise 
 
SPEAKER. 73 
 
 the mind exactly in the same proportion. Passing from 
 that study he did not go very largely into the world ; but 
 plunged into business ; I mean into the business of office ; 
 and the limited and fixed methods and forms established 
 there. . Much knowledge is to be had undoubtedly in 
 that line ; and there is no knowledge which is not va- 
 luable. But it may be truly said, that men too much con- 
 versant in office, are rarely minds of remarkable enlarge- 
 ment. Their habits of office are apt to give them a turn 
 to think the substance of business not to be much more im- 
 portant than the forms in which it is conducted. These 
 forms are adapted to ordinary occasions ; and therefore 
 persons who are nurtured in office, do admirably well, as 
 long as things go on in their common order ; but when the 
 high roads are broken up, and the waters out, when a new 
 and troubled scene is opened, and the file affords no prece- 
 dent, then it is that a greater knowledge of mankind, and a 
 far more extensive comprehension of things is requisite 
 than ever office gave, or than office can ever give. Mr. 
 Grenville thought betjer of the wisdom and power of hu- 
 man legislation than in truth it deserves. He conceived, 
 and many conceived along with him, that the flourishing 
 ' trade of this country was greatly owing to law and institu- 
 tion, and not quite so much to liberty ; for but too many 
 are apt to believe regulation to be commerce, and taxes to 
 be revenue. Among regulations, that which stood first 
 in reputation v, as his idol. I mean the act of navigation. 
 He has often professed it to be so. The policy of that 
 act is, I readily admit, in many respects well understood. 
 But I do say, that if the act be suffered to run th- fall 
 length of its principle, and is not changed and nudified 
 according to the change of times and the fluctuation of 
 circumstances, it must do great mischief, and frequently 
 even defeat its own purpose. 
 
 After the war, and in the last years of it, the trade of 
 America had increased far beyond the speculations of the 
 most sanguine imaginations. It swelled out on every 
 side. It filled all its proper channels to the brim. It 
 overflowed with a rich redundance, and breaking its banks 
 on the right and on the left, it spread out upon some 
 places, where it was indeed improper, upon others where 
 it was only irregular. It is the nature of all greatness 
 
74^ AMERICAN 
 
 not to be exact ; and great trade will always be attended 
 with considerable abuses. The contraband will always 
 keep pace in some measure with the fair trade. It should 
 stand as a fundamental maxim, that no vulgar precaution 
 ought to be employed in the cure of evils, which are close- 
 ly connected with the cause of our prosperity. Perhaps 
 this great person turned his eyes somewhat less than was 
 just, towards the incredible increase of the fair trade; and 
 looked with something of too exquisite a jealousy towards 
 the contraband. He certainly felt a singular degree of 
 anxiety on the subject ; and even began to act from that 
 passion earlier than is commonly imagined. For whilst 
 he was first lord of the admiralty, though not strictly cal- 
 led upon in his official line, he presented a very strong 
 memorial to the lords of the treasury (my Lord Bute was 
 then at the head of the board) ; heavily complaining of 
 the growth of the illicit commerce in America. Some mis- 
 chief happened even at that time from this over-earnest zeal. 
 Much greater happened afterwards when it operated with 
 greater power in the highest department of the finances. 
 The bonds of the act of navigation were straitened so 
 much, that America was on the point of having no trade, 
 either contraband or legitimate. They found, under the 
 construction and execution then used, the act no longer 
 tying but actually strangling them. All this coming with 
 new enumerations of commodities ; with regulations which 
 in a manner put a stop to the mutual coasting intercourse 
 of the colonies ; with the appointment of courts of admi- 
 ralty under various improper circumstances ; with a sud- 
 den extinction of the paper currencies ; with a compulsory 
 provision for the quartering of soldiers ; the people of 
 America thought themselves proceeded against as delin- 
 quents, or at best as people under suspicion of delinquen- 
 cy ; and in such a manner, as they imagined, their recent 
 services in the war did not at all merit. Any of these in- 
 numerable regulations, perhaps, would not have alarmed 
 alone ; some might be thought reasonable ; the multitude 
 struck them with terror. 
 
SPEAKER. 75 
 
 Vteiu of the EarlofChathain^s last administration^ and Cha- 
 racter of Charles Townshendy — Burke, 1774. 
 " Tranquillity and concord, were restored by the repeal 
 of the stamp act : but did not continue long. Another 
 scene was opened, and other actors appeared on the stage. 
 The state, in the condition I have described it, was de- 
 livered into the hands of lord Chatham — a great and ce- 
 lebrated name — a name that keeps the name of this coun- 
 try respectable in every other country on the globe — It 
 may be truly called 
 
 *' Clarum et venerabile nomen 
 
 •'Gentibus, et multum nostr?e quod proderat urbi. 
 " The venerable age of this great man, his merited 
 rank, his superior eloquence, his splendid qualities, his 
 eminent services, the vast space he fills in the eye of man- 
 kind, and, more than all the rest, his fall from power, 
 which, like death, canonizes and sanctifies a great charac- 
 ter, will not suffer me to censure any part of his conduct. 
 I am afraid to flatter him ; I am sure I am not disposed 
 to blame him. Let those who have betrayed him by their 
 adulation, insult him with their malevolence. But whit 
 I do not presume to censure, I may have leave to lament. 
 For a wise man, he seemed to me at that time to be gov- 
 erned too much by general maxims. I speak with the 
 freedom of history, and I hope without offence — one, or 
 two of these maxims, flowing from an opinion not the 
 most indulgent to our unhappy species, and surely a little 
 too general, led him into measures » hich were greatly 
 mischievous to himself, and for that reason, among others 
 perhaps, fatal to his country — measures, the effects of 
 which, I am afraid, are for ever incurable. 
 
 '^ He made an administration so chequered and speck- 
 led ; he put together a piece of joinery so crossly indent- 
 ed, and whimsically dove-tailed ; a cabinet so variously 
 inlaid, such a piece of diversified mosaic, such a tesselated 
 pavement without cement, here a bit of black stone and 
 there a bit of white ; patriots and courtiers, king's friends 
 and republicans, whigs and turies, treacherous friends and 
 open enemies ; that it was indeed a very curious show, 
 but utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure to stand on. 
 
 " In consequence of this arrangement, having put so 
 much the larger part of his enemies and opposers into 
 
r6 AMERICAN 
 
 power, the confusion was such that his own principles 
 could not possibly have any effect or influence in the con- 
 duct of affairs. If ever he fell into a fit of the gout, or 
 if any other cause withdrew him from public cares, prin- 
 ciples directly the contrary were sure to predominate.— 
 "When he had executed his plan, he had not an inch of 
 ground to stand upon. When he had accomplished his 
 scheme of administration, he was no longer a minister. 
 When his face was hid but for a moment, his whole sys- 
 tem was on a wide sea, without chart or compass. The 
 gentlemen, his political friends, who with the names of 
 various departments of ministry, were admitted, to seem, 
 as if they acted a part under him, with a modesty that 
 becomes all men, and with a confidence in him which was 
 justified even in its extravagance by his superior abilities, 
 had never in any instance, presumed upon any opinion of 
 their own. Deprived of his guiding influence, they were 
 whirled about, the sport of every gust, and easily driven 
 into any port ; and as those who joined with them in man- 
 ning the vessel were the most directly opposite to his opi- 
 nions, measures, and character, and far the most artful and 
 most powerful of the set, they easily prevailed so as to seize 
 upon the vacant, unoccupied, and derelict minds of his 
 friends ; and instantly they turned the vessel wholly out 
 of the course of his policy. As if it were to insult as 
 well as to betray him, even long before the close of the 
 first session of his administration, when every thing was 
 publicly transacted, and with great parade, in his name, 
 they made an act declaring it highly just and expedient to 
 raise a revenue in America. 
 
 " At the period of the Earl of Chatham's evening de- 
 clination, I discover another luminary, rising in the op- 
 posite quarter of the heavens, and becoming for his 
 hour, lord of the ascendant. This light too, is passed 
 and set forever. You understand, to be sure, that I speak 
 of Charles Townshend, ofticially the reproducer of this 
 fatal scheme, whom I cannot even now remember with- 
 out some degree of sensibility. In truth he was the de- 
 light and ornament of this house, and the charm of every 
 private society which he honored with his presence. Per- 
 hapsjlhere never arose in this country, nor in any country, 
 a man of a more pointed and finiihed wit ; and (where 
 
SPEAKER. 11 
 
 his passions were not concerned) of a more refined, ex- 
 quisite, and penetrating judgment. If he had not so 
 great a stock, as some have had who flourished formerly, 
 of knowledge long treasured up, he knew better by far 
 than any man I ever was acquainted with, how to bring to- 
 gether in a short time all that was necessary to establish, to 
 illustrate, and to decorate that side of the question he 
 supported. He stated his matter skilfully and powerfully. 
 He particularly excelled in a most luminous explanation 
 and display of his subject. His style of argument was nei- 
 ther trite nor vulgar, nor subtle, and abstruse. He hit the 
 House just between wind and water — And not being trou- 
 bled v/ith too anxious a zeal for any matter in question, he 
 was never more tedious, or more earnest, than the pre-con- 
 ceived opinions, and present temper of his hearers required; 
 to whom he was always in perfect unison. He conformed 
 exactly to the temper of the House, and he seemed to guide, 
 because he was always sure to follow it. 
 
 " I beg pardon, if when I speak of this and of other 
 great men, I appear to digress in saying something ol their 
 characters. In this eventful history of the revolutions of 
 America, the characters of such men arc of much import- 
 ance. Great men are the guide posts and land-marks in the 
 state. The credit of such men at court, or in the nation, is 
 the sole cause of all the public measures. It would be an in- 
 vidious thing (most foreign I trust to what you think 
 my disposition) to remark the errors into which the autho- 
 rity of great names has brought the nation, without doing 
 justice at the same time to the great qualities, whence that: 
 authority arose. The subject is instructive to those who 
 wish to form themselves on whatever of excellence has 
 gone before them. There are many young members in the 
 House (such of late has been the rapid succession of public 
 men) who never saw that prodigy Charles Townshend, nor 
 of course know what a ferment he was able to excite in ev- 
 ery thing by the violent ebullition of bis mixed virtues and 
 failings ; for failings he had undoubtedly. Many of us re- 
 member them — We are this day considering the effect of 
 tlTem. But he had no failings which were not owing to a no- 
 ble cause ; to an ardent, generous, perhaps an immoderata 
 passion for fame — a passion which h the insrinct of all great 
 
 H2 
 
ra AMERICAN 
 
 souls. He worshipped that goddess wheresoever she ap- 
 peared ; but he paid his particular devotions to her in her 
 favorite habitation, in her chosen temple, the House of 
 Commons. Besides the characters of the individuals that 
 compose our body, it is impossible not to observe, that this 
 House has a collective character of its own. That character 
 too, however imperfect, is not unamiable. Like all great 
 public collections of men, you possess a marked love of vir- 
 tue, and an abhorrence of vice. But, among vices, there is 
 none which the House abhors in the same degree with ob- 
 stinacy. Obstinacy, Sir, is certainly a great vice ; and, in 
 the changeful state of political affairs, it is frequently the 
 cause of great mischief. It happens however very unfortu- 
 nately, that almost the whole line of the great and mascu- 
 line virtues, constancy, gravity, magnanimity, fortitude, 
 fidelity, and firmness are closely allied to this disagreeable 
 quality of which you have so just an abhorrence ; and in 
 their excess all these \artues very easily fall into it. Ht who 
 paid such a punctilious attention to all your feelings cer- 
 tainly took care not to shock them by that vice which is 
 the most disgustful to you. That fear of displeasing those 
 who ought most to be pleased, betrayed him sometimes 
 into the other extreme. He had voted, and in the year 
 1765 had been an advocate for the stamp act. Things 
 and the disposition of men's minds were changed. In 
 short, the stamp act began to be no favorite in this House. 
 He therefore attended at the private meeting, in which 
 the resolutions moved by a right honorable gentleman, 
 [general Conway] v/ere settled — resolutions leading to the 
 repeal. The next day he voted for that repeal ; and 
 he would hav^e spoken for it too, if an illness, not as 
 was then given out, a political, but to my knowledge, a 
 very real illness, had not prevented it. 
 
 '"'"rhe very next session, as the fashion of this 
 world passeth away, the repeal began to be in as 
 bad an odour in this House as the stamp act had been in 
 the session before. To conform to the temper which 
 began to prevail, and to prevail mostly amongst those 
 most in power, he declared very early in the win- 
 ter, that a revenue must be had out of America. In- 
 stantly he was tied down to his engagements by some who 
 bad no objection to such experimente, when made at the 
 
SPEAKER. 79 
 
 cost of persons for whom they had no particular regard. 
 The whole body of courtiers drove him onward. They al- 
 ways talked as if the king stood in a humiliated state, 
 until something of the kind should be done. Here this 
 extraordinary man, then chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 found himself in great straits. To please universally was 
 the object of his life ; but to tax and to please, no more 
 than to love and to be wise, is not given to men. How- 
 ever, he attempted it. To render the tax palatable to the 
 partisans of American revenues, he made a preamble sta- 
 ting the necessity of such revenue. To close with the 
 American distinction, this revenue was external^ or port 
 duty, but again to soften it to the other party, it was a 
 duty of supphf. To gratify the colonists^ it was laid on 
 British manufactures ; to satisfy the merchants of B7-itain^ 
 the duty was trivial, and (except that on tea, which 
 touched only the devoted East India Company) on none 
 of the grand objects of commerce. To counterwork the 
 American contraband, the duty on tea was reduced from 
 a shilling to three pence. But to secure the favor of those 
 who would tax America, the scene of collection was 
 changed, and with the rest, it was levied in the colonies. 
 What need I say more ? This fine spun scheme hud the 
 usual fate of all exquisite policy. But the original plan 
 of the duties, and the mode of executing that plan, both 
 arose singly and solely from a love of our applause. He 
 was truly the child of the House. He never thought, did, 
 or said any thing, but with a view to you. He every day 
 adapted himself to your disposition ; and adjusted him- 
 st.lf before it as at a looking glass. He had observed (in- 
 deed it could not escape him) that several persons infinite- 
 ly his inferiors in ail respects had formerly rendered 
 themselves considerable in this House by one method 
 alone. They were a race of men (I hope in God the spe- 
 cies is extinct) who when they rose in their place, no man 
 living could divine, from any known adherence to par- 
 ties, to opinions, or to principles, from any order or sys- 
 tem in their politics, or from any sequel or connection in 
 their ideas, what part they were going to take in any de- 
 bate. It is astonishing how much this uncertainty, espe- 
 cially at critical times, called the attention of all parties 
 on such men. All eyes were fixed on them; all ears open 
 to hear them ; each party gaped and looked ahernately 
 
80 AMERICAN 
 
 for their vote almost to the end of their speeches. While 
 the House hung in this uncertainty, now the hear-himSy 
 rose from this side— -now they rebellowed from the other; 
 and that party, to whom at length they fell from their 
 tremulous and dancing balance, always received them in 
 a tempest of applause. The fortune of such men was a 
 temptation too great to be resisted by one, to whom a 
 single whiff of incense, withheld, gave much greater pain, 
 than he received delight in the clouds of it, which daily 
 rose about him from the prodigal superstition of his in- 
 numerable admirers. He was a candidate for contradic- 
 tory honors ; and his great aim to make those agree in 
 admiration of him, who never agreed in any thing else. 
 Hence arose this unfortunate act, the subject of this day's 
 debate, from a disposition, v/hich, after making an Ame- 
 rican revenue to please one, repealed it to please others, 
 and again revived it in hopes of pleasing a third, and of 
 catching someihing in the ideas of all.'' 
 
 Extract fro77i the same speech^ — Burke. 
 
 Let us, Sir, embrace some system or other before we 
 end this session. Do you mean to tax America, and to 
 draw a productive revenue from thence ? If you do, 
 speak out : name, fix, ascertain this revenue ; settle its 
 quantity ; define its objects ; provide for its collection ; 
 and then fight when you have something to fight for. If 
 you murder — rob ; if you kill, take possession : and do 
 rot appear in the character of madmen, as well as assas- 
 sins, violent, vindictive, bloody, and tyrannical, without 
 an object. But mav better counsels guide you ! 
 
 Again, and again, revert to your old principles — seek 
 peace and ensure it — ^leave America, if she has taxable 
 matter in her, to tax herself. I am not here going into 
 the distinctions of rights, nor attempting to mark their 
 boundaries. I do not enter into these metaphysical dis- 
 tinctions ; I hate the very sound of them. Leave the. 
 Aiiiericans as they anciently stood, and these distinctions, 
 born of our unhappy contest, will die along with it. They 
 and we, and their and our ancestors, have been haf)py 
 under that system. Let the memory of all actions, in con- 
 tradiction to that good old mode, on both sides, be ex- 
 tinguished for ever. Be content to bind America by laws 
 of trade ; you have always done it. Let this be your 
 
SPEAKER. 81 
 
 reason for binding their trade. Do not burthen them by 
 taxes ; you were not used to do so from the beginning. 
 Let this be your reason for not taxing. These are the 
 arguments of states and kingdoms. Leave the rest to 
 the schools ; for there only they may be discussed with 
 safety. But if, intemperately, unwisely, fatally, you sophis- 
 ticate and poison the very source of govtrnment, by ur- 
 ging subtle deductions, and consequences odious to those 
 you govern, from the unlimited and illimitable nature of 
 supreme sovereignty, you will teach them by these means 
 to call that sovereignty itself in question. When you drive 
 him hard, the boar will surely turn upon the hunters. If 
 that sovereignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled, 
 which will they take ? They will cast your sovereignty in 
 your face. No body will be argued into slavery. Sir, let 
 the "gentlemen on the oth^^r side call foith all their ability ; 
 let the best of them get up, and tell m(-, what one charac- 
 ter of liberty the Americans have, and what one brand of 
 slavery they are free from, if they are bound in their pro- 
 perty and industry, by all the restraints you can imagine 
 on commerce, and at the same time are made pack-hor- 
 ses of every tax you choose to impose, without the least 
 share in granting them. When they bear the burthens of 
 unlimited monopoly, will you bring them to bear the bur- 
 thens of unlimited revenue too ? The Englishman in A- 
 merica will feel that this is slavery — that it is /i'^^r/slave- 
 ry, will be no compensation, either to his feelings or his 
 understanding. 
 
 On this business of America, I confess I am serious, 
 even to sadness. I have had but one opinion concerning 
 it since I sat, and before I sat in parliament. The noble 
 lord (lord North) will, as usual, probably, attribute the 
 part taken by me and my friends in this business, to a 
 desire of getting his places. Let him enjoy this happy 
 and original idea. If I deprived him of it, I should take 
 away most of his wit, and all his argument. But I had 
 rather bear the brunt of all his wit ; and indeed blows 
 much heavier, than stand answerable to God for embra- 
 cing a system that tends to the destruction of some of 
 the very best and fairest of his works. But I know the 
 map of England, as well as the noble lord or as any other 
 person -, and I know that the vfay.I take is not the road 
 
83 AMERICAN 
 
 to preferment. My excellent and honourable friend un- 
 der me on the floor, (Mr. Dowdeswell) has trod that road 
 with great toil for upwards of twenty years together. He 
 is not yet arrived at the noble lord's destination. Howe- 
 ver, the tracks of my worthy friend are those I have ever 
 wished to follow ; because I know they lead to honour. 
 Long may we tread the same road together ; whoever 
 may accompany us, or whoever may laugh at us on our 
 journey ! I honestly and solemnly declare, I have in all 
 seasons adhered to the system of 1766, for no other rea- 
 son, than that I think it laid deep in your truest interests 
 — and that, by limiting the exercise, it fixes on the firm- 
 est foundations, a real, consistent, well-grounded authori- 
 ty in parliament. Until you come back to that system> 
 there will be no peace for England. 
 
 Mr* Burke to the Electors of Bristol^ on his being declared 
 didy elected^ Nov, 3^, 17/4. 
 
 Gentlemen, — I rannot avoid sympathising strongly with 
 the ft^elings of xht gentleman who has received the same 
 honour that you have conferred on me. If he, who was 
 bred and passed his whole life amongst you ; if he, who 
 through the easy gradations of acquaintance, friendship, 
 and esteem, has obtained the honour, which seems of it- 
 self, naturally Und almost insensibly, to meet with those, 
 who, by the even tenor of pleasing manners and social 
 virtues, slide into the love and confidence of their fellow- 
 citizens ; — if he cannot speak but with great emotion on 
 this subject, surrounded as he is on all sides with his old 
 friends ; you will have the goodness to excuse me, if my 
 real, unaffected embarrassment prevents me from expres- 
 sing my gratitude to you as I ought. 
 
 I was brought hither under the disadvantage of being 
 unknown, even by sight, to any of you. No previous can- 
 vass was made for me. I was put in nomination after 
 the poll was opened. I did not appear until it was far 
 advanced. If, under all these accumulated disadvantages, 
 your good opinion has carried me to this happy point of 
 success ; you will pardon me, if I can only say to you 
 collectively, as I said to you individually, simply and 
 plainly, I thank you — I am obliged to you— I am not in- 
 sensible of your kindness. 
 
SPEAKER. 83 
 
 I owe myself, in all things, to all the freemen of this 
 city. My particular friends have a demand on me, that I 
 should not deceive their expectations. Never was cause or 
 man supported with more constancy, more activity, more 
 spirit. I have been supported with a zeal indeed and heart- 
 iness in my friends, which, (if their object had been at all 
 proportioned to their endeavours) could never be sufficient- 
 ly commended. They supported me upon the most liberal 
 principles. They wished that the members for Bristol 
 should be chosen for the city, and for their country at large, 
 and not for themselves. 
 
 So far they are not disappointed. If I possess nothing 
 else, 1 am sure I possess the temper that is fit for your ser- 
 vice. I know nothing of Bristol, but by the favours I have 
 received, and the virtues I have seen exerted in it. 
 
 I shall ever retain, what I now feel, the most perfect and 
 grateful attachment to my friends — and I have no enmities; 
 no resentment. I never can consider fidelity to engage- 
 ments, and constancy in friendships, but with the highest 
 approbation ; even when those noble qualities are employ- 
 ed against my own pretensions. The gendeman, who is not 
 fortunate as I have been in this contest, enjoys, in this res- 
 pect, a consolation full of honour both to himself and to his 
 friends. They have certainly left nothing undone for his 
 service. 
 
 As for the trifling petulance, which the rage of party 
 stirs up in little minds, though it should shew itself even in 
 this court, it has not made the slightest impression on me. 
 The highest flight of such clamorous birds is winged in an 
 inferior region of the air. We hear them, and we look 
 upon them, just as you, gentlemen, when you enjoy the se- 
 rene air on your lofty rocks, look down upon the gulls, that 
 skim the mud of your river, when it is exhausted of its 
 tide. 
 
 31i\ Burke to the Electors of Bristol, on the rig-ht of in* 
 structing Representatives, 
 
 I am sorry I cannot conclude, without saying a word on 
 a topic touched upon by my worthy colleague. I wish that 
 topic had been passed by ; at a time when I have so little 
 leisure to discuss it. But since he has thought proper to 
 
84 AMERICAN 
 
 throw it out, I owe you a clear explanation of my poor senti- 
 ments on that subject. 
 
 He tells you, that " the topic of instructions has occasion- 
 ed much altercation and uneasiness in this city j" and he ex- 
 presses himself (if I understand him rightly) in favour of 
 the coercive authority of such instructions. 
 
 Certainly, gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and 
 glory of a representative, to live in the strictest union, the 
 closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communi- 
 cation with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have 
 great weight with him; their opinion, high respect; their bu- 
 siness unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his 
 repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs ; and above 
 all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. 
 But, his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enligh- 
 tened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you ; to any 
 man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive 
 from yoyr pleasure ; no, nor from the law and the constitu- 
 tion. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of 
 which he is deeply answerable. Your representative 
 owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment ; and he 
 betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your o- 
 pinion. 
 
 My worthy colleague says, his will ought to be subservi- 
 ent to yours. If that be all, the thing is innocent. If govern- 
 ment were a matter of will upon any side, yours, without 
 question, ought to be superior. But government and legis- 
 lation are mutters of reason and judgment, and not of incli- 
 nation ; and, what sort of reason is that, in which the deter- 
 mination precedes the discussion ; in which one set of men 
 deliberate, and another decide ; and where those who form 
 the conclusion are perhaps three hundred miles distant from 
 those who hear the arguments ? 
 
 To deliver an opinion, is the right of all men ; that of 
 constituents is a weighty and respectable opinion, which a 
 representative ought always to rejoice to hear ; and which 
 he ought always most seriously to consider. But aiithori- 
 tative instructions ; mandates issued, which the member is 
 bound blindly and imphcitU' to obey, to vote, and to argue 
 for, though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judg- 
 ment and conscience ; these are things utterly unknown to 
 
SPEAKER. 85 
 
 the laws of this land, and which arise from a fundamen- 
 tal mistake of the whole order and tenor of our constitu- 
 tion. 
 
 Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from dif- 
 ferent and hostile interests ; which interests each must 
 maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents 
 and advocates ; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of 
 one nation, with one interest, that of the whole ; where, 
 not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, 
 but the general good, resulting from the general reason 
 of the whole. You chuse a member indeed ; but when 
 you have chosen him, he is not member of Bristol, but 
 he is a member of parliament. If the local constituent 
 should have an interest, or should form an hasty opinion, 
 evidently opposite to the renl good of the rest of the com- 
 munity, the member for that place ought to be as far, as 
 any other, from any endeavour to give it effect. I beg 
 pardon for saying so much on this subject. I have been 
 unwillingly drawn into it ; but I shall ever use a respect- 
 ful frankness of communication with you. Your faithful 
 friend, your devoted servant, I shall be to the end of my 
 life ; a flatterer you do not wish for. On this point of in- 
 structions, however, I think it scarcely possible, we ever 
 can have any sort of difference. Perhaps I may give you 
 too much, rather than too little trouble. 
 
 From the first hour I was encouraged to court your fa- 
 vour to this happy day of obtaining it, I have never pro- 
 mised you any thing, but humble and persevering endea- 
 vors to do my duty. The weight of that duty, I confess, 
 ^ makes me tremble ; and whoevcr^'Well considers what it 
 is, of all things in the world will fly from what has the 
 least likeness to a positive and precipitate engagement. 
 To be a good member of parliament, is, let me tell you, 
 no easy task ; especially at this time, when there is so 
 strong a disposition to run into the perilous extremes of 
 servile compliance or wild popularit)'. To unite circum- 
 spection with vigour, is absolutely necessary ; but it is ex- 
 tremely difHcult. We are now members for a rich com- 
 mercial city ; this city, however, is but a part of a rich 
 commercial 7iation^ the interests of which are various, 
 multiform, and intricate. We are members for that great 
 nation, which however is itself but part of a QXQ.?ii empire. 
 
86 AMERICAN 
 
 extended by our virtue and our fortune to the farthest li- 
 mits of the east and of the west. All these wide-spread 
 interests must be considered ; must be compared ; must 
 be reconciled if possible. We are members for a free 
 country ; and surely we all know, that the machine of a 
 free constitution is no simple thing ; but as intricate and 
 as delicate, as it is valuable. We are members in a great 
 and ancient monarchy ; and we must preserve religiously, 
 the true legal rights of the sovereign, which form the key- 
 stone that binds together the noble and well-constructed 
 arch of our empire and our constitution. A constitution 
 made up of balanced powers must ever be a critical thing. 
 As such I mean to touch that part of it which comes with- 
 in my reach. I know my inability, and I wish for sup- 
 port from every quarter. In particular I shall aim at the 
 friendship, and shall cultivate the best correspondence, of 
 the worthy colleague you have given me. 
 
 Lord Chatham^s Speech^ wherein he moves that the troops 
 be withdrawn from Boston — the Secretary of State hav- 
 i7ig previously laid the Official Papers on American af- 
 fairs on the Table of the House of Lords ^January 20thy 
 -1775, 
 
 " Too well apprised of the contents of the papers, now 
 at last laid before the House, I shall not take up their 
 lordships' time in tedious and fruitless investigations, but 
 shall seize the first moment to open the door of reconcile- 
 ment ; for every moment of delay is a moment of dan- 
 ger. As I have not the honor of access to his Maje«ty, I 
 will endeavor to tranlfrnit to him, through the constitu- 
 tional channel of this House, my ideas of America, to 
 rescue him from the mis-advice of his present ministers. 
 America, my lords, cannot be reconciled, she ought not 
 to be reconciled to this country, till the troops of Britain 
 are withdrawn from the continent; they are a bar to all 
 confidence ; they are a source of perpetual irritation ; 
 they threnten a fatal catastrophe. How can America trust 
 you with tile bayonet at her breast ? How can she suppose 
 that you mean less than bondage or death ? I therefore, 
 my lords move, that an humble address be presented to 
 his Majesty, most humbly to advise and beseech his Ma- 
 jesty, '''' that, in order to open the v/ay towards an happy 
 settlement of the dangeroua iiciibles in America, it may 
 
SPEAKER. 87 
 
 graciously please his Majesty to transmit orders to gene- 
 ral Gage for removing his Majesty's forces from the 
 town of Boston." I know not, my lords, who advised the 
 present measures : I know not who advises to a perseve- 
 rance and enforcement of them ; but this I will say, that 
 the authors of such advice ought to answer it at their ut- 
 most peril. I wish, my lords, not to lose a day in this ur- 
 gent, pressing crisis : an hour now lost in allaying fer- 
 ments in iVmerica may produce years of calamity. Never 
 will I desert, in any stage of its progress, the conduct of 
 this momentous business. Unless fettered to my bed by 
 the extremity of sickness, I will give it unremitting atten- 
 tion. I will knock at the gates of this sleeping and con- 
 founded ministry, and will, if it be possible, rouse them 
 to a sense of their danger. The recal of your army I 
 urge as necessarily preparatory to the restoration of your 
 peace. By this it will appear that you are disposed to 
 treat amicably and equitably, and, to consider, revise, and 
 repeal, if it should be found necessary, as I affirm it will, 
 those violent acts and declarations which have dissemina- 
 ted confusion throughout the empire. Resistance to these 
 acts was necessary, and therefore just : and your vain de- 
 clarations of the omnipotence of parliament, and your im- 
 perious doctrines of the necessity of submission, will be 
 found equally impotent to convince or enslave America, 
 who feels that tyranny is equally intolerable, whether it 
 be exercised by an individual part of the Legislature, or 
 by the collective bodies which compose it. The means 
 of enforcing this thraldom are found to be as ridiculous 
 and weak in practice as they are unjl!st in principle. Con- 
 ceiving of Generiil Gage as a man of humanity and under- 
 standing ; entertaining, as I ever must, the highest respect 
 and affection for the British troops, I feel the most anxious 
 sensibility for their situation, pining in inglorious inactivity. 
 You may call them an army of safety and defence, but they 
 are in truth an army of impotence and contempt, and to 
 make the folly equal to the disgrace, they are an army 
 of irritcition and vexation. Allay then the ferment pre- 
 vailing in America by removing the obnoxious hostile 
 cause. If you delay concession till your vain hope shall be 
 accomplished of triumphantly dictating reconciliation, you 
 delay for ever : the force of this country would be dispro- 
 
88 AMERICAN 
 
 portionably exerted against a brave, generous, and united 
 people, with arms in their hands, and courage in their 
 hearts — three millions of people, the genuine descendants 
 of a valiant and pious ancestry, driven to those deserts by 
 the narrow maxims of a superstitious tyranny. But is the 
 spirit of persecution never to be appeased ? Are the brave 
 sons of those brave forefathers to inherit their sufferings, 
 as they have inherited their virtues ? Are they to sustain 
 the infliction of the most oppressive and unexampled se- 
 verity, beyond what history has related, or poetry has 
 
 leignea ■* 
 
 -Rhadamanlhus habetdurisslma regna. 
 
 Castigalque, auditque dolos. 
 But the Americans must not be heard j they have been 
 condemned unheard. The indiscriminate hand of ven- 
 geance has devoted thirty thousand British subjects of all 
 ranks, ages, and descriptions to one common ruin. • You 
 may, no doubt, destroy their cities ; you may cut them off 
 from the superfluities, perhaps the conveniences of life ; 
 but, my lords, they will still despise your power, for they 
 Irave yet remaining their woods and their liberty. What, 
 though you march from town to town, from province to 
 province ; though you should be able to enforce a tempo- 
 rary and local submission, how shall you be able to secure 
 the obedience of the country you leave behind you, in 
 your progress of eighteen hundred miles of continent, 
 animated v^ith the same spirit of liberty and of resistance ? 
 This universal opposition to your arbitrary system of tax- 
 ation might have been foreseen ; it was obvious from the 
 nature of things, and ffbm the nature of man, and, above 
 all, from the confirmed habits of thinking, from the spirit 
 of vvhiggism, flourishing in America. I'he spirit which 
 ROW pervades America, is the same which formerly oppo- 
 sed loar^s, benevolences, and ship money in this country 
 — the same spirit which roused all England to action at 
 the revolution, and which established at a remote jera 
 your liberties on the basis of that great fundamental max- 
 im of the constitution, that no subject of England shall 
 be taxed but by his own consent. What shall oppose diis 
 spirit, aided by the congenial flame glowing in the breast 
 of every generous Briton ? To maintain this principle is 
 the common cause of the whigs on the other side of the 
 
SPEAKER. 69 
 
 Atlantic, and on this ; it is liberty to liberty engaged. la 
 this great cause they are immoveably allied : it is the al- 
 liance of God and nature, immutable, eternal, fixed as the 
 firmament of heaven. As an Englishman, I recognise to 
 the Americans their supreme unalterable right of pro- 
 perty. As an American, I would equally recognise to Eng- 
 land her supreme right of regulating commerce and nav- 
 igation. This distinction is involved in the abstract na> 
 ture of things : property is private, individual, absolute : 
 the touch of another annihilates it. Trade is an extended 
 and complicated consideration . it reaches as far as ships 
 can sail, or v^inds can blow : it is a vast and various ma- 
 chine. To regulate the numberless movements of its se- 
 veral parts, and to combine them in one harmonious ef- 
 fect, for the good of the whole, requires the superintend- 
 ing wisdom and energy of the supreme power of the em- 
 pire. On this grind practical distinction, then, let us 
 rest : taxation is theirs : commercial regulation is ourso 
 As to the metaphysical refinements, attempting to shew 
 that the Americans are equally free from legislative con- 
 trol and commercial restraint, as from taxation for the 
 purpose of revenue, I pronounce them futile, frivolous, 
 groundless. When your lordships have perused the pa- 
 pers transmitted us from America, when you consider 
 the dignity, the finnness, and the wisdom with which the 
 Americans have acted, you cannot but respect their cause. 
 History, my lords, has been my favorite study ; and m the 
 celebrated writings of antiquity have I often admired the 
 patriotism of Greece and Kome ; but, my lords, I must 
 declare and avow, that in the master-states of the world, 
 I know not the people, nor the senate, who in such a com- 
 plication of difficult circumstances, can stand in preference 
 to the Delegates of America, assembled in General Con- 
 gress at Philadelphia. I trust it is obvious to your lord- 
 ships that all attempts to impose servitude upon such 
 men, to establish despotism over such a mighty continent- 
 al nation, must be vain, must be futile. Can such a na- 
 tional principled union be resisted by the tricks of office 
 or ministerial manoeuvres ? Heaping papers on your ta- 
 ' ble, or counting your majorities on a division, will not 
 avert or postpone the hour of danger. It must arrive, my 
 lords, unless tiiese fatal acts are done away : it must ar» 
 
 I 2 
 
90 AMERICAN 
 
 rive, in all its horrors ; and then these boastful ministers, 
 in spite of all their confidence and all their manceuvres, shall 
 be compelled to hide their heads. But it is not repealing 
 this or that act of parliament ; it is not repealing a piece of 
 parchment, that can restore America to your bosom : you 
 must repeal her fears and resentments, and then you may 
 hope lor her love and gratitude. But now, insulted with 
 an armed force, irritated with an hostile array before her 
 eyes, her concessions, if you could force them, would be 
 suspicious, and insecure. But it is more than evident that 
 you cannot force them to your unworthy terms of submis- 
 sion : it is impossible : we ourselves shall be forced ulti- 
 mately to retract : let us retract while we can, not when 
 we must. I repeat it, my lords, we shall one day he forced 
 to undo these violent acts of oppression : they must be re- 
 pealed ; you will repeal them. I pledge myseif for it, that 
 you will in the end repeal them : I stake my reputation 
 on it : I will consent to be taken for an ideot if they are 
 not repealed. Avoid then this humiliating, disgraceful 
 necessity. With a dignity becoming your exalted situation, 
 make the first advances to concord, to peace and to happi- 
 nt ss. Concession comes with better grace and more salu- 
 tary effect from superior power : it reconciles superiority 
 of power with the feelings of man, and establishes solid 
 confidence on the foundations of affection and gratitude. 
 On ihe other hand, every danger and every hazard im- 
 pend to deter you from perseverance in the present ruinous 
 Hieiisures : foreign war hanging ovtr your heads by a 
 slight and brittle thread — France and Spain watching your 
 conduct, and waiting for the maturity of your errors, with 
 a vigilant eye to America and the temper of your colonies 
 more than to their own concerns, be they what they may. 
 To conclude, my lords, if the ministers thus persevere in 
 misadvising and misleading the King, I will not say, that 
 they can alienate the affections of his subjects from the 
 crown ; but I aflirm, they will make the crown not worth 
 his wearing. I will not say that the king is betrayed, but I 
 will pronounce, that the kingdom is undone." 
 
SPEAKER. 91 
 
 Extract from Lord CamderCs Speech on seconding Lord 
 Chatha7n's motion* 
 
 " King, Lords, and Commons, are grand and sounding 
 names, but King, Lords, and Commons may become ty- 
 rants as well as others. Tyranny in one or more is the 
 same : it is as lawful to resist the tyranny of many, as of 
 one : this has been a doctrine known and acted upon in 
 this country for ages. When the famous Selden was ask- 
 ed, by what statute resistance to tyranny could be justi- 
 fied ? his reply was ; It is to he justified by the custom of 
 England^ which is apart of the laxv of the land. I will af- 
 firm, my lords, not only as a statesman, politician, and phi- 
 losopher, but as a common lawyer, that you have no right 
 to tax America. No man, agreeably to the principles of 
 natural or civil liberty, can be divested of any part of his 
 property without his consent : and whenever oppression 
 begins, resistance becomes lawful and right." 
 
 Extract from Mr, Burke''s speech on American affairs^ in 
 March^ 177 S, 
 
 As to the wealth which the colonies have drawn from 
 the sea by their fisheries, you had all that matter fully 
 opened at your uar. You surely thought those acquisi- 
 tions of value, for they seemed even to excite your envv; 
 and yet the spirit, by which that enterprising employment 
 has been exercised, ought rather, in my opinion, to have 
 raised your esteem and admiration. And pray, sir, what 
 in the world is equal to it ? Pass by the other parts, and 
 look at the manner in which the people of New-England 
 have of late carried on the whale fishery. Whilst we fol- 
 low them among the tumbling mountains of ice, and be- 
 hold them penetrating into the deepest frozen recesses of 
 Hudson's Bay, and Davis's Straits ; whilst we are looking 
 for them beneath the arctic circle, \ve hear that they have 
 pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, that they are 
 at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of 
 the south. Falkland island, which seemed too remote 
 and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, 
 is but a stage and resting-place in the progress of their 
 victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more dis- 
 couraging to them, than the accumulated winter of both 
 
92 AMERICAN 
 
 the poles. We know that whilst some of them draw the 
 line and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others 
 run the longitude, and pursue their gigantic game along 
 the coast of Brazih No sea but what is vexed by their 
 fisheries : no climate that is not witness to their toils.—- 
 Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of 
 France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of English en- 
 terprise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy in- 
 dustry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this re- 
 cent people ; a people who are still, as it were but in the 
 gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood. 
 When I contemplate these things ; when I know that the 
 colonies in general owe little or nothing to any care of ours, 
 and that they are not squeezed into this happy form by 
 the constraints of watchful and suspicious government^ 
 but that through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous 
 nature has been suffered to take her own way to perfection; 
 when I reflect upon these effects, when I see how profita- 
 ble they have bt en to us, I feel all the pride of power sink, 
 and all presumption in the wisdom of human contrivances 
 melt, and die away within me. My rigour relents. I par- 
 don something to the spirit of liberty. 
 
 Extract from Mr, Burke's speech on Conciliation with Am- 
 erica, 
 
 A revenue from America transmitted hither — do not 
 delude yourselves — you never tan receive it — No, not a 
 shilling. We have experience that from remote countrres, 
 it is not to be expected. If when you attempted to ex- 
 tract revenue from }5engal, you were obliged to return in 
 loan what you had taken in imposition ; what can you ex- 
 pect from North America ? for certainly, if ever there was 
 a country qualified to produce wealth, it is India; or an 
 institution fit for the transmission, it is the East-India 
 Company. America has none of these aptitudes. If A- 
 merica gives you taxable objects, on which you lay your 
 duties here, and gives you, at the same time, a surplus by 
 a foreign sale of her commodities to pay the duties on these 
 ©bjects which you tr.xat home, she has performed her part to 
 the British revenue. But with regard to her own internal 
 establishments, she may, I doubt not she will, contribute 
 m moderation. I say in moderation- , for she ought not to 
 
SPEAKER. 9J 
 
 be permitted to exhaust herself. She ought to be reserved 
 to a war ; the weight of which, with the enemies that we 
 are most likely to have, must be considerable in her quar- 
 ter of the globe. There she may serve you, and serve yoa 
 essentially. 
 
 For that service, for all service, whether of revenue, 
 trade, or empire, my trust is in her interest in the British 
 constitution. My hold of the colonies is in the close affec- 
 tion which grows from common names, frum kindred 
 blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These 
 are ties, which, though light as air, are as strong as links 
 of iron. Let the colonies always keep t^^*^ ^^^^ ^^ their 
 civil rights associated with your government ; — they will 
 cling nnd grapple to you ; and no force under heave^ will 
 have power to tear them from their allegiance. But let 
 it be once understood, that your government may be one 
 thing, and their privileges another ; that these two things 
 may exist without any mutual relation ; the cement is 
 ^one ; the cohesion is loosened ; and every thing hastens 
 to decay and dissolution. As long as you have the wis- 
 dom to keep the sovereign authority of this country as the 
 sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our 
 common faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of Eng- 
 land worship freedom, they will turn their faces towards 
 you. I'he more they multiply, the more friends you will 
 have ; the more ardently they love liberty, the more per- 
 fect v/ ill be their obedience. Slavery they can have any 
 where. It is a weed that grows in every soil. They mav 
 have it from Spain, they may have it from Prussia. But 
 until you become lost to all feeling of } our true interest 
 and your natural dignity, freedom they can have from 
 none but you. This is the commodity of price, of which 
 you have the monopoly. This is the true act of naviga- 
 tion, which binds to you the commerce of the colonies, 
 and through them s cures to you the v.-ealth of the work). 
 Deny them this p«rLicipation of freedom, and you break 
 that sole bond, which originally made, and must still pre- 
 serve, the unity of trie empire. Do not entertain so weak 
 an imagination, as ihat your registers and your bonds, 
 your aiTidavits and your sufferances, your cockets and your 
 clearances, are what form the great securities of your com- 
 merce. D:) not dreau\ that your letters of ofllce, and vour 
 
94 AMERICAN 
 
 instructions, and your suspending clauses, are the things 
 that hold together the great contexture of this mysterious 
 whole. These things do not make your government. Dead 
 instruments, passive tools as they are, it is the spirit of the 
 English communion, that gives all their life and efficacy 
 to them. It is the spirit of the English constitution, 
 which, infused through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds, 
 unites, invigorates, vivifies, every part of the empire, even 
 down to the minutest member. 
 
 Is it not the same virtue which does every thing for us 
 here in England ? Do you imagine, then, that it is the 
 land tax act which raises your revenue ? that it is the an- 
 nual vote in the committee of supply, which gives you 
 your army ? or that it is the mutiny bill which inspires it 
 with bravery and discipline? No! Surely no! It is the 
 love of the people ; it is their attachment to their govern- 
 ment from the sense of the deep stake they have in such 
 a glorious institution, which gives you your army and 
 your navy, and infuses into both that liberal obedience, 
 without which your army would be a base rabble, and 
 your navy nothing but rotten timber. 
 
 All this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chi- 
 merical to the profane herd of those vulgar and mechani- 
 cal politicians, who have no place among us ; a sort of 
 people who think that nothing exists but what is gross 
 and material ; and who, therefore, far from being qualified 
 to be the directors of the great movement of empire, are 
 not fit to turn a wheel in the machine. But to men truly 
 initiated and rightly taught, these ruling and master prin- 
 ciples, which in the opinion of such men as I have men- 
 tioned, have no substantial existence, are in truth every 
 thing, and all in all. Magnanimity in politics is not sel- 
 dom the truest wisdom ; and a great empire and little 
 minds go ill together. If we are conscious of our situa- 
 tion, and glow with zeal to fill our places as becomes our 
 station and ourselves, we ought to auspicate all our public 
 proceedings on America, with the old warning of the 
 church, Sursi^m core/a / We ought to elevate our minds 
 to the greatness of that trust to which the order of Provi- 
 dence has called us. By adverting to the dignity of this 
 high calling, our ancestors have turned a savage wilder- 
 ness into a glorious empire ; and have made the most ex- 
 
SPEAKER. 95 
 
 tensive, and the only honorable conquests ; not by des- 
 troying, but by promoting, the wealth, the number, the 
 happiness, of the human race. Let us get an American 
 revenue as we have got an American empire. English 
 privileges have made it all that it is ; English privileges 
 alone will make it all it can be. 
 
 In full confidence of this unalterable truth, I now (quod 
 felix faustumque sit^J — lay the first stone of the temple of 
 peace ; and I move you, 
 
 " That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain in 
 North America, consisting of fourteen separate govern- 
 ments, and containing two millions and upwards of free 
 inhabitants, have not had the liberty and privilege of elect- 
 ing and sending any knights and burgesses, or others, to 
 represent them in the high court of parliament." 
 
 Speech of the Marquis of Granby on American affairs, 
 
 I rise, to trouble the house with a few words on the bill 
 now before it. 1 have sat, sir, during the course of two 
 divisions, without taking any part, even so much as giv- 
 ing a silent vote on any American question ; because, sir, 
 as I will fairly confess to you, I entered with prejudices 
 against the system administration was pursuing : I thought 
 it was but justice to hear the argument that might be ur- 
 ged on both sides, to compare those arguments, and draw 
 my opinion from that comparison. As to the bill imme- 
 diately the object of our consideration, I think it in every 
 respect so arbitrary, so oppressive, and so totally founded 
 on principles of resentment, that I am exceedingly happy 
 at having this public opportunity of bearing my testimony 
 against it, in the strongest manner I am able. In God's 
 name, what language are you now holding out to Ame- 
 rica ? Resign your property, divest yourselves of your 
 privileges and freedom, renounce every thing that can 
 make life comfortable, or we will destroy your commerce, 
 we will involve your country in all the miseries of fa- 
 mine ; and if you express the sensations of men at such 
 harsh treatment, we will then declare you in a state of re- 
 bellion, and put yourselves and your families to fire and 
 sword. And yet, sir, the noble lord on the floor (lord 
 North) has told this house that a reconciliation is the sole 
 object of his wishes. I hope the noble lord will pardon 
 
96 AMERICAN 
 
 me, if I doubt the perfect sincerity of those wishes ; at 
 least, sir, his actions justify my doubt ; for every circum- 
 stance in his whole conduct, with regard to America, ha^ 
 directly militated against his present professions ; and 
 what, sir, must the Americans conclude ? Whilst you are 
 ravaging their coasts and extirpating their commerce, and 
 are withheld only by your impotence from spreading fresh 
 ruin, by the sword, can they, sir, suppose such chastise- 
 ment is intended to promote a reconciliation, and that you 
 mean to restore to their forlorn country those liberties you 
 deny to their present possession, and in the insolence of 
 persecution, are compassing earth and seas to destroy ? 
 You can with no more justice compel the Americans to 
 your obedience, by the operation of the present measures, 
 by making use of their necessities, and withholding from 
 them that commerce on which their existence depends, 
 than a ruffian can found an equitable claim to my posses- 
 sions, when he forcibly enters my house, and with a dag- 
 ger at mv throat, or a pistol at my breast, makes me seal 
 deeds, which will convey to him my estate and property. 
 I have a very clear, a very adequate idea of rebellion, 
 at least according to my own principles ; and those are the 
 principles on which the revolution was founded. It is not 
 against whom a war is directed, but it is the justice of that 
 war that does, or does not, constitute rebellion. If the in- 
 nocent part of mankind must tamely relinquish their free- 
 dom, their property, and every thing they hold dear, mere- 
 ly to avoid the imputation of rebellion, I beg, sir, it may be 
 considered what kind of peace and loyalty there will then 
 exist in the world, which consists only in violence and ra- 
 pine, and is merely to be maintained for the benefit of rob- 
 bers and oppressors. I hope, sir, I shall be believed when 
 I assure you that I am as warm a friend to the interests of 
 my country as any man in this house ; but then it must be 
 understood, when those interests are founded injustice. I 
 am not attached to any particular acre of land. The farmer 
 in Cumberland or Durham is as little connected with me 
 as the peasant in America. It is not the ground a man 
 stands on that attaches me to him ; it is not the air he 
 breathes tb:it connects me with him ; but it is the princi- 
 ples of that man, those independent, those generous prin- 
 ciples of liberty which he professes, co-operating with my 
 
SPEAKER. 97 
 
 own, which call me forth as his advocate, and make me 
 gloryfm bting considered his friend. As for myself, Sir, 
 I am not in the least ashamed to avow that this is the 
 source of my attachment to a noble lord, who has been, 
 in my opinion, very unjustly reflected on in the course of 
 this debate (I mean lord Chatham.) I am not even per- 
 sonally acquainted wiih the noble lord ; I do not know the 
 inconsistencies of which he stands accused : but this, S<r, 
 I know, I shall not support his inconsistencies ; I shall only- 
 support him in those principles which have raised his 
 name to the elevation on which it is now placed in this 
 country, and have so deservedly procured him the love 
 and admiration of his fellow citizens. 
 
 From the fullest conviction of my soul, I disclaim ev- 
 ery idea both of policy and right, internally to lax Ame- 
 rica. I disavow the whole system ; it is commenced in 
 iniquity ; it is pursued with resentment ; and it cnn ter- 
 minate in nothmg but blood. Under whatever shape in fu- 
 turity it may be revived, by whomsoever produced und 
 supported, it shall, from me, meet the most constant, de- 
 termined, and invariable opposition. 
 
 LordEffn^haii-Cs Speech in the house of Lords on resigmng- 
 h'ls mUitary commission^ 'rather than bear arms ag^iinst 
 America^ 1775. 
 
 " I confess, I wish to avoid the discussion of our right 
 to such a power as wear, contending tor, that is to say, 
 a power of taxing a s< t of sul)jects who are not represent- 
 ed amongst us, and who have full power to tax them- 
 selves in thr ordinary and constitutional manner. Were 
 any particular province among the Americans to refuse 
 grants of money in proportion to others, or to commii any 
 act in abuse of their charters, I thi;.k that supreme con- 
 troiling power, v hich the province in question allows in 
 its lull extent wouUl give us thr cha)-ge, Nc quid detrimen- 
 ti respublica capiat'. And in th-.t c-se, my lords, ai.« ost 
 tht whf)le empire would be united against the wrorg- 
 headed tew, who would soon be brought to reason. But 
 I nil satisfied, that without such uccessitv we have no 
 more power of taxation in that country, than a' Ronvui 
 
 K 
 
S8 AMERICAN 
 
 dictator had to begin his office with a declaratioj^ that 
 his power should be perpetual, and was necessaryfn the 
 ordinar> businrss of government. Tiierefore, my lords, 
 "whatever has been done by the Americans, I must deem 
 it the mere consequence of our unjust demands. They 
 have come to you with fair arguments ; you have refused 
 to hear them : they have made the moat respectful re- 
 monstrances ; you answer them with bills of pains and pe- 
 nalties. They know thty ought to be free ; you tell them 
 they shall be slaves. Is it then a wonder, if they say in 
 despair, " For the short remainder of our lives we will be 
 free !" Is there one auiong your lordships, who, in a si- 
 tuation similar to that which I have described, would not 
 resolve the same ? If there could be such an one, I am 
 sure he ought not to bt- here. 
 
 " To bring the history down to the present scene — here 
 are two armies in presence of each other ; armies of bro- 
 thers and countrymen ; each dreading the event, yet each 
 feeling that it is in the power of the most trifling accident, 
 a private dispute, a drunktrn fray in any public house m 
 Boston, in short, a nothing, to cause the sword to be 
 drawn, and to plunge the whole country into all the hor- 
 rors of blood, flames, and parricide l^ 
 
 " In this dreadful moment, a set of men more wise and 
 moderate than the rtst, excrt themselves to bring us all 
 to reason. They state their claims and their grievances ; 
 nay, if any thing can be proved by law and history, they 
 prove ihtm. They propose oblivion ; they makt the first 
 concession. We treat them with contempt ; we prefer 
 poverty, blood, and servitude, to wealth, happiness, and 
 liberty. 
 
 " What weight these few observations may have, I do 
 not know ; but the capciour your lordships have indulged 
 me with, requires a confession on my purt which - ay still 
 lessen that weight: I must own, I am not personally dis- 
 interested. 
 
 " Ev.r since I was of an age to. have any ambition at 
 all, my highest has been to serve my country m a military 
 capacity. If ihert was on earth an event I dreaded, it 
 Was to see this country so situated, as to make that pro- 
 fession iucoiiipatible with my duty as a citizen. 
 
SPEAKER. 99 
 
 " That period, is, in my opinion, arrived ; and I have 
 thought myself bound to relinquish the hopes I had form- 
 ed, by a resignation, which appeared to me the only me- 
 thod of avoiding the guilt of enslaving my country, and 
 er^sl:)ruing my hands in the blood of her sons. 
 
 '•*' Wht n the duties of a soldier and citizen become Incon- 
 sistent, I sball always think myself obliged to sink the 
 character of the soldier in that of the citizen, till such 
 time as those duties shall, by the malice of our real ene- 
 mies, become again united. 
 
 ''• It is no sm dl sacrifice which a man makes who gives 
 up his protVssion ; but it is a much greater, when a pre- 
 dilection, strengthened by habit, has given him so strong an 
 att ichment to his profession as I feel. I have, however, 
 this consolation) that by making that sacrifice, I at le ist 
 giv> to my country an unequivocal proof of the sincerity 
 ot my principles." 
 
 Lord Chatham on an address to the king, 
 
 MY Lords, I most cheerfully agree with the first para- 
 graph of the address moved by the noble lord. I would 
 even go and prostrate myself at the foot of the throne, 
 were it necessary^ to testify my joy at any ev nt which 
 may promise to add to the domestic felicity of my so- 
 vereign ; at any thing which may seem to give a further 
 security to the permanent enjoyment of the religious and 
 civil rights of my fellow subjects ; but while I do this, 
 I must at the same time express my strongest disappro- 
 bation of the address, and the fatal measures which it ap- 
 proves. My lords, it was customary for the king, on 
 similar occasions, not to lead parliament, but to be gui- 
 ded by it. It was usual, 1 say, my Ibrds, to ask the ad- 
 vice of this house, the hereditary great council of the 
 nation, not to dictate to it. My lords, what does this 
 speech say ? "It tells you of measures already agreed up- 
 on, and very cavalierly desires your concurrence. It 
 indeed, talks of wisdom and support ; it counts on the 
 certainty of events yet in the womb of time ; but in point 
 of plan and design, it is peremptory and dictatorial. Is 
 this a proper language, fit to be endured I Is this high 
 
100 ^ AMERICAN 
 
 pretention to over-rule the dispositions of Providence 
 itscif, and the wil) and judgment of parliament, justified 
 b} iny former conduct or precedent ? No, my lords, it 
 is the language of an ili-founded confidence : a confidence, 
 ni\ lords, I will be bold to say, supported hitherto only 
 by a succession of disappointments, disgraces, and defeats. 
 I am astonished how any minister dare advise his majes- 
 ty to hold such a language to your lordships : I would be 
 glad to see ihe minister that dare avow it in his place. 
 What is the import of this extraordinary application ? 
 Vvhat, but an unlimited confidence in those who have hi- 
 therto misguided, deceived, and misled you? It is, I 
 maintain, unlimited : it desires you to grant not what 
 you may be satisfied is necessary, but what his majesty's 
 r»ir.isters may choose to thir-k so ; troops, fleets, treaties, 
 aiid subsidies, not yet revealed. Should your lordships 
 agree to the present address, you will stand pledged to 
 all this; you cannot retreat ; it binds you to the conse- 
 quences be they what they may. My lords, whoever 
 guve this pernicious counsel to the king ought to be made 
 answerable to this house, and to the nation at large for the 
 consequences : the precedent is dangerous and unconsti- 
 tutional. Who, 1 say, has had the temerity to tell the 
 king that his affairs are in a prosperous condition? and 
 who, of course, is the author of those assurances which 
 are this day given you, in order to mislead you ? My 
 lords, v'hat is the present state of this nation ? It is big 
 with difficulty and danger ; it is full of the most destruc- 
 tive circumstances : I say, my lords, it is truly perilous. 
 W'hat are thes° little islands. Great Britain and Ireland ? 
 What is your defence ? Nothing. What is the condition 
 of yotir formidable and inveterate enemies, the two lead- 
 inn- branches of the house of Bourbon ? They have a for- 
 midable navy: I say, my lords, their intentions are hos- 
 tile : 1 knov/ it: their coasts are lined with troops, from 
 the furthermost part of the coast of Spain up to Dunkirk. 
 W hat have you to oppose them ? Not five thousand men in 
 this island ; nor more in Ireland ; nor above twenty ships of 
 the line manned and fit for service. My lords, without 
 peace, without .-n immediate restoration of tranquillity, 
 this nation is ruined. What has been the conduct of your 
 How have they cndeiivoiucd to conciliate the 
 
SPEAKER. • 101 
 
 afFection and obedience of their American brethren ? They 
 have gone to Germany ; they have sought the alliance and 
 assistance of every pitiful, beggarly, insignificant, paltry 
 German prince, to cut the throats of their loyal, brave and 
 injured brethren in Americfi; they have enteredinto merce- 
 nary treaties wkh~tliQse human butchers, for the pun base 
 and sale of human blood. But, my lords, this is not all ; 
 ihey have entered into other treaties ; they have let the 
 savages of America loose upon their innocent, unoff'-nding 
 brethren, — loose upon the weak, the aged, and defenceh-ss; 
 on old men, women, and children ; upon the very babes up- 
 on the breast, to be cul, mangled, sacrificed, broii-d, 
 roasted, nay, to be literally eut alive. These, my l(;rds, 
 are tlie allies Great Britain now has : carnage, desolation, 
 and destruction, wherever her arms are carried, is her new- 
 ly adoped mode of making war.^ Ourministers have made 
 alliances at the German shambles, and with the barbarians of 
 America ; with the merciless torturers of their species : 
 where they will next apply, I cannot tell: having already 
 scoured all Germany and America, to seek the assistance 
 of cannibals and butchers. The arms of this country are 
 disgraced, even in victory, as well as defeat. Is this con- 
 sistent, my lords, v/ith any part of our former conduct ? 
 Was it by means like these we arrived at that pinnacle 
 of fame and grandeur, which, while it established our re- 
 putation in every quarter of the globe, gave the fullest tes- 
 timony of our justice, mercy and national integrity ? Was 
 it by the tomahawk and scalping-knife that British valour 
 and humanity became in a ma'nner proverbial, and the 
 triumphs of war and. the eclat of conquest became but 
 matters of secondary praise, when compared to those of 
 national humanity, and national honour ? Was it by set-- 
 ting loose the savages of America, to embrue their hands 
 in the blood of our enemies, that the duties of the soldier^ 
 the citizen, and the man, came to be united ? Is this ho- 
 nourable warfare, my lords ? Does it correspond with the 
 language of of the poet ? — 
 
 "The pvlde, pomp, and circumstance of glorious v/ar^ 
 That makes ambition virtue." 
 
 * " and at his heels, 
 
 Leash'd in like hounds, should Famine, Sword- and Fircj. 
 
 Crouch for employment." hej^idt y, 
 
 K2. 
 
102 AMERICAN 
 
 i« 
 
 Lord Chatham'' s Speech^ 30th 3Iay 1777 — on moving " That 
 an humble address be presented to his7najesty^ most hum- 
 bly to advise his majesty to take the most speedy and effec- 
 tual measures for putting a stop to the present unnatural 
 ivar against the colonies^ upon the only just and solid 
 foundation, namely the removal of accumulated grievan- 
 
 " THE present motion will open the way for treaty. 
 It will be the harbinger of peace, and will convince the 
 Americans, thiit parliament is sincerely disposed to recon- 
 ciliation. We have tried for unconditional submission — 
 let us now try what can be gained by unconditional re- 
 dress. The door of mercy has been hitherto shut against 
 them : you have ransacked every corner of Germany for 
 boors and ruffians to invade and ravage their country ; for 
 to conquer it, ray lords, is impossibly — you cannot do it» 
 I may as well pretend to drive them before me with this 
 CRUTCH. I am experienced in spring hopes and vernal 
 promises, but at last will come your equinoctial disappoint- 
 ment. But were it practicable by a long continued course 
 of success to conquer America, the holding it in subjection 
 afterwards will be utterly impossible. No benefit can be 
 derived from that country to this, but by the good-will and 
 pure affection of the inhabitants : this is not to be gained by 
 force of arms ; their affection is only to be recovered by re- 
 conciliation and justice. If ministers are founded insaying, 
 that no engagements are entered into by America with 
 France, there is yet a moment left; the point of honor is 
 still safe ; a few weeks may decide our fate as a nation^ 
 \Vere America suffered to form a treaty with France, vv'e 
 should not only lose the immense advantages resulting from 
 the vast and increasing commerce of our colonies, but those 
 advantages would be thrown into the hands of our heredita- 
 ry enemy. America, ray lords, is now contending v/ith 
 Great Britain under a masked battery of France, which 
 will open as she perceives this country to be sufficiently 
 weakened by the contest. France • S\ not lose so fair an 
 opportunity of separating for ever America from this king- 
 dom. This is the critical moment — for such a treaty must 
 and will take place, should pacification be delayed ; and war 
 betv/een England and France is not the less probable<.be= 
 
SPEAKER. lOj 
 
 cause professions of amity continue to be made. It would 
 be folly in France to declare it now, while America gives 
 full employment to our arms, and is pouring into her lap 
 her wealth and produce. While the trade of Great Bri- 
 tain languishes, while her taxes increase and her revenues 
 diminish, France is securing and drawing to herself that 
 commerce which is the basis of your power. My motion 
 was stated generally, that I might leave the question at 
 large to the wisdom of your lordships. But, my lords, I 
 will tell you fairly what I wish for — I wish for a repeal of 
 every oppressive act passed since 1763 ; I would put Ame- 
 rica precisely on the footing she stood at that period. If 
 it be asked, Why should we submit to concede ? I will 
 tell you, my lords : Because you have been the aggressors 
 from the beginning : you ought, therefore, to make the 
 first overture. I say again, my lords, you have been the 
 aggressors, you have made descents upon their coasts, you 
 have burned their towns, plundered their country, made 
 war upon the inhabitants, confiscated th ir property, pros- 
 cribed and imprisoned their ptrson? : — you have injured, 
 oppressed, and endeavored to enslave them. — America is 
 therefore entitled to redress. Let then reparation come 
 from the hand that inflicted the injuries ; let conciliation 
 succeed to oppression ; and I maintain, that parliament 
 will again recover its authority ; that his m jesty will be 
 once more enthroned in the hearts of his subj/ cts ; and 
 that your lordships, as contributing to so great, benignant 
 and glorious an event, will receive the pra^-ers and. bene- 
 dictions of every part of the British empire." 
 
 Farl of Chatham^ on Lord OxforcTs moUoJi to adjourn the 
 House— 1777. 
 
 IT is not wldi less grief than astonishment I hear the 
 motion now made by the noble earl, at a time when the 
 affairs of this country present on every side prospects full 
 of awe, terror, and impending danger; when, I will be 
 bold to say, events of a more alarming tendency, iittle ex- 
 pected or foreseen, will shortly happen ; when a cloud, that 
 may crush this niitlon, and bury it in destruction for ever, 
 is ready to burst and overwhelm us m. ruin. At so tre- 
 
104 AMERICAN 
 
 mendous a season, it does not become your lordships, the 
 great hereditary council of the nation, to neglect your du- 
 ty, to retire to your country seats for six weeks, in quest of 
 joy and merriment, while the real state of public afF^irs 
 calls for grief, mourning, and lamentation ; at least, for the 
 fullest exertions of your wisdom. It is your duty, my 
 lords, as the grand hereditary council of the nation, to ad- 
 vis-^ your sovereign, to be protectors of your country, to feel 
 your own weight and authority. As hereditary counsellors, 
 as members of this house, you stand between the crown 
 and the people ; you are nearer the throne than the other 
 branch of the legislature ; it is your duty to surround and 
 protect, to counsel and supplicate it. You hold the ba- 
 lance ,* your duty is to see that the weights are properly 
 poised, that the balance remains even, that neither may 
 encroichon the other, and that the executive power may be 
 prevented, by an urxonstitutional exertion of even consti- 
 tutional authority, from bringing the nation to destruction. 
 My lords, I lear we are arrived at the very brink of that 
 stiUe; and I am persuaded that nothing" short of a spirited 
 interposition on your part, in giving speedy and whole- 
 some advice to }Qiir sovereign, can prevent the people 
 from feeling bc)ond remedy the full effects of that ruin 
 which ministers have brought upon us. These calamitous 
 circumstances ministers have been the cause of: and shall 
 we, in such a state of things, when every moment teems 
 with events productive of the most fatal narratives, shall 
 we trust, during an adjournuient of six weeks, to those men 
 who have brought those calamities upon us, when, per- 
 haps, oar utter overthrow is plotting, nay ripe for execu- 
 tion, without almost a possibility of prevention ? Ten thou- 
 sand brave men have fallen victims to ignorance and rash- 
 ness. The only army you have in America may, by this 
 time, be no more. This very nation remains no longer 
 safe than its enemies think proper to permit. I do not 
 augur ill. Events of a most critical nature may take place 
 before our next meeting. Will your lordships, then, in 
 such a st:ite ui things, trust to the guidance of men who in 
 every single step of this cruel, this wicked war, from the 
 very beginning, have proved themselves weak, ignorant, 
 and mistaken:' I will no_t say, my lords, nor do 1 mean 
 any thing personal, or that they have brought premeditated 
 
SPEAKER. 10a 
 
 ruin on this country. I will not suppose that they foresaw 
 what has since happened ; but I do contend, my lords, that 
 their want of wisdom, their incapacit> , their temerity in 
 depending on their own judgment, or their base complian- 
 ces with the orders and dictates of others, perhaps caused 
 by the influence of one or two individuals, have rendered 
 them totally unworthy of your lordships' confidence, of the 
 confidence of parliament, ami those whose rights they are 
 the conf^titutional guardians of, the ptople at large. A re- 
 monstrance, my lords, should be carried to the throne. The 
 king has been deluded by his ministers: they have been im- 
 posed on by false information, or have, from motives best 
 known to themselves, given apparent credit to what they 
 have be en convinced in their hearts was untrue. The na- 
 tion has been betrayed into the ruinous me -.sure of an Am- 
 erican war by the arts of imposition, by th-. ir O'v n crt-du- 
 litv, through the means of false hopes, false pride, and pro- 
 mised advantages, oT the most romantic and improbable 
 nature. My lords, I do not wish to call your attention en- 
 tirely to that point. 1 would fairly appeal to your own sen- 
 timents, whether I can be justly charged with arrogance or 
 presumption, if I said, great and able as ministers think 
 themselves, that all the wisdom of the nation is not confi- 
 ned to the nr^rrow circle of their petty cabinet. I might, I 
 think, without presumption, say, that your lordships, as one 
 of the branches of the legislature, may be supposed as ca- 
 pable of advising your sovereign, in the moment of difficul- 
 ty and danger, as any lesser council, composed of a iewer 
 number ; and who,, being already so fati\lly trusted, have 
 betrayed a want of honesty, or a want of talents. Is it, my 
 lords, within the utmost stretch of the most sanguine ex- 
 pectation, that the same men who have plunged you into 
 your present perilous and calamitous situation are the pro- 
 per persons to rescue you from it? No, my lords, such an 
 expectation would be preposterous and absurd. I say, .ny 
 lords, you are now specially called upon to interpose. It is 
 your duty to forego every call of business and pleasure, to 
 give up your whole time to inquire into past misconduct ; 
 to provide remedies for the present; to prevent further 
 future evils ; to rest on your arms^ if 1 may use ,the ex- 
 pression, to watch for the public safety ; to delend and 
 support the throne, and if fate sliould so ordain it, to fall 
 
106 AMERICAN 
 
 with becoming fortitude, with the rest of your fellow sub- 
 jects, in the general ruin. I fear this last must be the 
 event of this mad, unjust, and cruel war. It is your lord- 
 ships' duty to do every thing in your power that it shall 
 not ; but, if it must be so, I trust your lordships and the 
 nation will tall j^loriously. 
 
 My lorda, I contend that we have not, nor can procure 
 any f rce sufficient to subdue Americru It is monstrous 
 to think of it. i'hcre are several noble lords present, well 
 acquainted with military affairs. I call upon any one of 
 them, to rise and pledge himself, that the military force 
 now within the kingdom is adequate to its defence, or 
 that rny possible force to be procured from Germany, 
 Sv\ itz< r'ard, or elsewhere, will be equal to the conquest of 
 Amtrica. I am too perfectly persuadtd of tht-ir abilities 
 and integrity to expect any such assurance from them. — 
 Oh ! but if Am rica is not to be co .quered, she may be 
 treated with. — Conciliation is at length thought of ; terms 
 are to he ( ff rtd. Who are the persons that are to treat 
 on the part (f this afflicted and deluded country? The 
 vtr) men who have been the authors of our misfortunes ; 
 the very men who h ve endeavoured by the most perni- 
 cious policy, thr hight st injustice j^nd oppression, the 
 most cruel and devastating war, to enslave those people 
 they would conciliate, to gain the confidence and affection 
 of those who have survived the Indian tomahawk and 
 German bayonet. Can your lordships entertain the most 
 distant prospect of success from such a treaty and such 
 negociations? No, my lords, the A-nericans have virtue, 
 and they must detest the principles of such men ; they have 
 understanding, and too much wisdom, to trust to the cun- 
 ning and narrow politics which must cause such overtures 
 on the part of their merciless persecutors. My lords, I 
 maintain that they would sliun, with a mixture of pru- 
 dence and detestation, any proposition coming from that 
 quarter. They would receive terms from such men, as 
 snares to allure and betray. They would dread them as 
 ropes meant to be put about their legs, in order to entan- 
 gle and overthrow them in certain ruin. My lords, sup- 
 posing that our domestic danger, if at all, is far distant j 
 that our enemies will leave us at liberty to prosecute this 
 
SPEAKER. lor 
 
 war to the utmost of our ability ; suppose your lordships 
 should grant a fleet one day, an army another ; all these, I 
 do affirm, will avail nothing, unless you accompany it with 
 advice. Ministers have been in error: experience has 
 proved it ; and what is worse, they continue it ; they told 
 you in the beginning that 15,000 men would traverse all 
 America, without scarcely an appearance of mterruption ; 
 two campaigns have passed since they gave us this assu- 
 rance. Treble that number have been employed; and one 
 of your armies, which composed two-thirds of the force 
 by which America was to be subdued, has been totally 
 destroyed, and is now led captive through those provinces 
 you call rebellious. Those men whom you called cowards, 
 paltrons, runaways, arnd knaves, are become victorious 
 over your veteran troops ; and, in the midst of victory, 
 and flush of conquest, have set ministers an example of 
 moderation and magnanimity well worthy of imitation. 
 
 M\ lords, no time should be lost which may promise to 
 improve this disposition in America ; unless by an obsti- 
 nacy founded in madness, we wish to stifle those embers 
 of aff'ection which, after all our sav.tgc treatment, do not 
 seem as yet to have been entirely extinguished. While 
 on one side we must lament the unhappy fate of that spirit- 
 ed officer, Mr. Burgoyne, and the gallant troops under his 
 command, who were sacrificed to the wanton temerity 
 and ignorance of ministers, we are as strongly compelled 
 on the ofher to admire and applaud the generous, mag- 
 nanimous conduct, the noble friendship, brotherly afl'cc- 
 tion, and humanity ol the victors, who condescending to 
 impute the horrid orders of massacres and devastatiori to 
 their true authors, supposed that, as soldiers and Eng- 
 lishmen, th(;se cruel excesses could not have originated 
 with the p:eneral, nor were consonant to the iirave an . hu- 
 mane spirFt of a British soldier, if not compelled to it as 
 an act of duty. They traced the first cause of th )se dia- 
 bolic orders to their true source; and, by that vvise and 
 generous interpretation, granted thi ir profrsst d destroyers 
 terms of capitulaiioi^ which tht v could be only entitled to 
 as the makers of lair and honourHble war. 
 
 My l(»rds' I should not have presumed to trouble you, 
 if the treajendous state of this :i 'ioM did not, in my opi- 
 nion, make it necessary. Such as 1 have this day describ- 
 
108 AMERICAN 
 
 ed it to be, I do maintain it is. The same measures arc 
 still persisted in ; and ministers, because your lordships 
 have be^n deluded, deceived and misled, presume that 
 whenever the worst comes, they will be enabled to shelter 
 themselves behind parliament. This,' my lords, cannot be 
 the case ; they have committed themselves and their mea- 
 sures to the fate of war, and they must abide the issue. I 
 tremble for this country : I am almost led to despair that 
 we shall ever be able to extricate ourselves. At any rate, 
 they day of retribution is at hand, when the vengeance of 
 a much injured and afflicted people, will, I trust, fall heavi- 
 ly on the authors of their ruin ; and I am strongly inclined 
 to believe, that before the day to which the proposed ad- 
 journment shall arrive, the noble earl who moved it, will 
 have just cause to repent of his motion. 
 
 Lord Chatham^s Speech^ moving^ an amendment to the ad- 
 ' dress to the King in ansiuer to his Speech — wherein he 
 had announced his determination " steadily to pursue hos- 
 tilities against America,''— ■Nove?nber 20th, 1777. 
 
 <' It has been usual on similar occasions of public diffi- 
 culty ^nd distress, for the crown to make application to 
 this L-ouse, the great hereditary council of the nation, for 
 advice and assistance. As it is the right of parliament to 
 give, so it is the duty ot the crown to ask it. But, on 
 this day, and in this extreme momentous exigency, no re- 
 liance is reposed on your counsels — no advice is asked of 
 parliament ; but the crown from itself, and by itself, de- 
 clares an unalterable determination to pursue its own pre- 
 concerted measures ; and what measures, my lords ? mea- 
 sures vv'hich have, produced hitherto nothing but disap- 
 pointments and defeats. I cannot, my lords, I will not 
 join in congratulation on mvofortune and disgrace. This, 
 my lords, is a perilous and tremendous moment : it is not 
 a time for adulation: the smoothness of flattery cannot 
 save us in this rugged and awful crisis. It is now neces- 
 sary to instruct th throne, in the language of Truth. We 
 must, if possihl , aisi>.l the d lusion and darkness which 
 envelope it ; and display, in its full danger and genuine 
 colors the ruin which is brought to our doors. Can mini- 
 sters still presume to expect support in their infatuation ! 
 
SPEAKER. 109 
 
 Can parliament be so dead to its dignity and duty as to 
 give their support to ipeasures thus obtruded and forced 
 upon them ? Measures, my lords, which have reduced this 
 late flourishing empire to scorn and contempt. But yes- 
 terday, " and England might have stood against the 
 world — NOW, none so poor to do her reverence." The 
 people whom we at first despised as rebels^ but whom we 
 now acknowledge as enemies^ are abetted against you, sup- 
 plied with every military store, their interests consulted, 
 and their ambassadors entertainrd by your inveterate tne- 
 my ; and our ministers do not, and dare not, interpos- with 
 dignity or effect. The desperate state of our army abroad 
 is in part known. No man more highly esteems and ho- 
 nours the English troops than I do : I know their virtue 
 and thtir valor : I know they c;ni achieve any thing ex- 
 cept impossibilities ; and I know that the ( onquest of Eng- 
 lish America is an impossibility. You cannot, my lords, 
 you CANNOT conquer America. What is your present 
 situation there ? We do not know the worsts but we know 
 that in three campaigns we have done nothing, and suffer- 
 ed much. You may swell ever> expense, and strain every 
 effort, accumulate every assistance, and extend yoiw* traffic 
 to the shambles of every Genncm despot ; your attempts 
 for ever will be vain and impotent ; douMy so indeed from 
 this mercenary aid on which you rely ; for it irritates to 
 an incurable resentment the minds of your adversaries to 
 overrun them with the mercenary sons of rapine and plun- 
 der, devoting them and their possessions to thf rupacitvof 
 hireling cruelty. If I were an American, as 1 am an Eng- 
 lishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, 
 I never would lay down my arms — never ! never ! ne- 
 ver! But, my lords, who is the man, that in addition to 
 the disgraces and mischiefs of Wi r, has dared to autho- 
 rize, and associate to our c-rm . the tomahawk and scalping 
 knife of the savage — to call into civilized alliance the wild 
 and inhuman inhabitant of the woods f — to delegate to 
 the merciless Indian the defence of disputed rights, and to 
 wage the horrors of his barbarous war against our bre- 
 thren ? My lords, these enormities cry aloud for redress 
 and punishment. Familiarized to the horrid scenes of 
 savage cruelty, our army can no longer boast of the noble 
 and generous principles which dignify a soldier. No Ion- 
 
no AMERICAN 
 
 ger are their feelings awake to "the pride, pomp, and cir- 
 cumstance ©f GLORIOUS war;" — ^but the sense of honour 
 IS degraded into a vile spirit of plunder, and the systema- 
 tic practice ot murder. P'rom the ancient connection be- 
 tween Great Britain and her colonies, both parties derived 
 the most important advantage. While the shield of our 
 protection was extended over America, she was the foun- 
 tain of our wealth, the nerve of our strength, the basis of 
 our power. It is not, my lords, a wild and lawless ban- 
 ditti whom we oppose ; the resistance of America is the 
 struggle of free and virtuous patriots. Let us then seize 
 with eagerness the present moment of reconciliation. 
 America has not yet finally given herself up to France ; 
 there yet remains a possibility of escape from the fatal 
 eftect of our delusions. In this complicated crisis of dan- 
 ger, weakness, and calamity, terrified and insulted by the 
 neighbouring powers, unable to act in America, or acting 
 only to be destroyed, where is the man who will venture 
 to flatter us with the hope of success from the perseve- 
 rance in measures productive of these dire effects ? Who 
 has the effrontery to attempt it ? Where is that man ? Let 
 him if he dare, stand forward and shew his face. You 
 cannot conciliate America by your present measures : you 
 cannot subdue her by your present or any measures. What 
 then can you do ? You cannot conquer, you cannot gain ; 
 but you can address : you can lull the fears and anxieties 
 of the moment into ignorance of the- danger that should 
 produce them. I did hope, instead of that false and emp- 
 ty pride, engendering high conceits and presumptuous 
 imaginations, that ministers would have hvmibled them- 
 selves in their errors — would have confessed and retracted 
 them, and by an active, though a late repentance, have en- 
 deavoured to redeem them. But, my lords, since they 
 have ntither sagacity to foresee, nor justice nor humanity 
 to shun those calamities — since not even bitter exp rience 
 can make them feel, nor the imminmt ruin of their coun- 
 try awaken them from their stupefaction, the guardian 
 care ot parliament, must interpose. I shall then lore, ray 
 lords, propose to you an amendment to the address to his 
 Majesty — To recommend an immediate cessation ot hos- 
 tilities, and the commencement of a treaty to restore peace 
 and liberty to America, stn nuth and happiness to England, 
 sccuritv'and uciD:Loncm prosperv^s to both couutrits. This, 
 
SPEAKER. Ill 
 
 my lords, is yet in your power ; and let not the wisdom 
 and justice of your lordships neglect the happy and per- 
 haps the only opportunity." 
 
 Lord Suffolk having in the debate justijied the employment 
 of Indians against America., as one of the means., which 
 God and Nature had given — Lord Chatham again rose, 
 and delivered the folloxving eloquent reply. 
 
 ,'•'• I am astonished, shocked to hear such principles 
 confessed : to hear them avf)wed in this House or even in 
 this country. My lords, I did nut intend to have en- 
 croached again on your attention, but I cannot repress my 
 indignation. I feel myself impelled to speak. My 
 lords, we are called upon as members of this House, as 
 men, as Christians, to protest against such horrible bar- 
 barity — That God and Nature put into our hands ! What, 
 ideas of (jod and Nature that noble lord may entertain, I 
 know not; but I know that such detestable princip! -s are 
 equally abhorrent to religion and humamitv ! What to 
 attribute the sacred sanction of God and Nature to the 
 massacres f the Indian scalping kuife ! — to the cannibals 
 savage torturing, murdering, devouring, drinking the 
 blood of his mangled victims ! Such notions shock every 
 precept of morality, every feeling of humanity, every sen- 
 timent of honor. These abominable principles, and this 
 more abominable avowal of them, demand the most deci- 
 sive indignation. I call upon that reverend, and this most 
 learned bench to vindicate the religion of their God, to 
 support the justice of their country. I call upon the bishops 
 to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their lawn : upon the 
 judges to interpose the purity of their ermine, to save us 
 from this pollution. I call upon the honour of your lord- 
 ships to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to 
 maintain your own. I call upon the spirit and humanity 
 of my country, to vindicate the national character, I invoke 
 the genius of the constitution. From the tapestry that 
 adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor of this noble 
 lord frowns with indignation at the disgrace of his coun- 
 try.* In vain did he defend the liberty and establish the 
 
 * The tapestry of the house of Lords represents the defeat of the 
 Spanish Armada i\\ the reis^n of Queen Elizabetli, by Admiral How- 
 ard, an ancestor of Lord Suiiblk— the Admiral is a coiispicuous %'ire 
 in the tapesti-y. 
 
112 AMERICAN 
 
 religion of Britain, against the tyranny of Rome, if these 
 worse than pojMsh cru hies and inquisitorial practices are 
 endured among us. To send forth the merciless cannibal, 
 thirsting for blood! against whom! Your protestant bre- 
 thren ! — t ' lay waste their country, to desolate their dwel- 
 lings, and extirpate their race and name, bv the aid and 
 i'istrumentality of these horr*ible hell-hounds of war! 
 Spain can no longer boast pre-eminence in barbarity. She 
 armed herself with blood hounds to extirpate the wretched 
 natives of Mexico ; but we, mi>re ruthless, loose the dogs 
 of war against our countrymen in America, endeared to 
 us by every tie that should sanctify humanity. Mv lords, 
 I solemnly call upon your lordsViips, and upon every order 
 of men in the slate, to stamp upon this infamous proce- 
 dure thfr iiidthble siigma of the public abhorrence. Mort 
 particularly I cdl upon th-^ holy pr.'lates of our religion 
 to do away this iniq^Jity : let them perform a lustration to 
 purify their country from this deep and deadly sin. My 
 lords, I am old and weak, and U present unable to say 
 more, but my feeiings and indignation were too strong to 
 say less. I could not have slept this night in my bed, nor 
 reposed my head upon my pillow, without giving this vent 
 to. my eternal abhorrence of such enormous and preposte- 
 rous principles." 
 
 Speech of JDr. Shipley^ bishop of St, Asaph^ hi support of 
 the bill for enlarging the toleration act^ in the session of 
 1779. 
 
 The repeal of those penal laws which have long been 
 the disgrace of the national church, has my most cordial 
 acquiescence ; I object only to the condition annexed to 
 the repeal, the imposition of a confession of faith, how- 
 ever short, and general, and true, such as I hope I shall 
 have the virtue, if called upon, to seal with my blood. 
 But I absolutely disclaim for myself any authority civil 
 or sacred to impose this creed upon other men. By such 
 imposition the present bill, which professes to repeal all 
 former penal laws, is converted into a penal law itself: for 
 those, who do not subscribe the declaration, still remain 
 liable to all the old penalties. The truth contained in the 
 declaration, viz. — '' That the scriptures are the reveak4 
 
SPEAKER. 113 
 
 will of God, and the rule of faith and practice," was in- 
 deed acknowledged by every Protestarit. But supposing 
 the existence of any set of Christians who should reject 
 our canon of scripture, who should build their faith on the 
 basis of tradition, or on the supposed illuminations of the 
 spirit, would you, my lords, persecute them for believing 
 Christianity upon arguments that suit th» ir own under- 
 standings ? Such men would undoubtedly be in error, but 
 error in religion is the very ground and subject of tole- 
 ration. The evils resulting from this declaration are not 
 however confined to possibilities. Many of the most mi- 
 nent of the dissenting ministers — men highly dtser\ ing 
 esteem for- their science, their literature, their critical 
 study of the Scriptures, for their excellent writings in de- 
 fence of Christianity, as w. 11 as of the civil, and religious 
 rights of ma;ikind — men, whom it would be no disp.^rage- 
 ment to this Bench to acknowledge as friends and bre- 
 thren, engaged in the same hono.rrable and arduous task 
 of instructing the world in the ways of happiness — such 
 men as these, m\ lords, if the clause in question be enact- 
 ed and carried into execution, will not even be tolerated. 
 Declaring, as they have invariably done, against all hiv- 
 man authority in matters of religion, and holding it as : 
 first principle of protestantism that no church has a righ'; 
 to imposi" its own articles of faith upon others, the)^ con- 
 ceive that an acxjuiescence in this declaration v/culd imply 
 a recognition of that claim which they are bound, as Chris - 
 tians, and protestants to resist. It is the duty of magis- 
 trates, it is indeed the very end of magistracy to protec-: 
 all men in the enjoyment of their natural rights, of vvh'ch 
 the free exercise of their religion is one of the first and 
 best. All history, my lords, is full of the mischiefs occa- 
 sioned by the v/ant of toleration ; but no one has ever yet 
 pretended to shew, that any public evils have been occa- 
 sioned by toleration. At a meeting of the Right Reverend 
 Bench, where I h;:d the honor to be present, it was a.sked,, 
 whether the clause in question was ever intended to be 
 put in execution ? It was answered, No — there v/as no 
 such intention. I asked then, aiid I ask now. What was 
 the use of making laws that were never to be executed ? 
 To make useless aiid insignificant laws is not to exercise 
 authority, but to degrade it : it is a vain, idle, and inso- 
 
 JL 2 
 
114 AMERICAN 
 
 lent parade of legislation ; and yet, my lords, would to 
 God ! the four last shameful and miserable years had been 
 emplo) ed in making such laws as this : this wretched 
 country might still have been safe, and perhaps once more 
 might have been happy. But, my lords, let us for a mo- 
 ment consider to whom this power of prescribing articles 
 of faith IS to be confided : undoubtedly this holy deposit 
 cannot fail to be lodged, where we have placed every thing 
 else that is great, and good : the honor, the interest, the 
 strength, and revenues of the nation, all are placed in 
 tht keeping of the ministry. Perhaps, my lords, there 
 might be mmisters to whose management none, who have 
 thf (' ast value for their religion, would choose to confide 
 it. One might naturally ask a minister for a good pen- 
 sion, or a good contract, or a place at court ; but hardly 
 any one would think* of making interest with him for a 
 place in heaven. What I nov/ say applies only to future 
 bad ministers, for of the present administration I most 
 iirmly believe that they are fully as capable of defining 
 articles of faith as of directing the councils of the state. 
 The ruling party is always very liberal in bestowing the 
 tide of schismatic and heretic on those who differ from 
 them in religion, and in representing them as dangerous 
 to the state. My lords, the contrary is the truth. Those 
 who are uppermost and have the power, are the men who 
 do the mischief, while the schismatics .only suffer and 
 complain. Ask who has brought the affairs of this coun- 
 try into the present calamitous state ? Who are the men 
 that have plundered and depopulated Bengal ? Who are 
 they that have- turned a whole continent, inhabited by 
 friends and kindred, into our bitterest enemies? Yes, they 
 who have shorn the strength, and cut off the right arm of 
 Bita'n, v/cre all members of the established churcit^ 
 all orthodox men. I am not afraid of those tender and 
 scrupulous consciences who are over cautious of profess- 
 ing or believing too much : if they are sincerely in the 
 wrong, I forgive their errors, and respect ihcir integrity; 
 The men I am afraid of are the men who believe every 
 thing, who subscribe every thing, and who vote for every 
 thing," 
 
SPEAKER. 115 
 
 Speech of Sir U'lliiam dieredith, on frequent executions, 
 
 1777. 
 
 Whether hanging ever did, or can, answer any good 
 purpose, I doubt : but the cruel exhibition of every exe- 
 cution day, is a proof that hanging carries no terror with 
 it. And I am confident, that every new sanguinary law 
 operates as an encouragement to commit capital offences ; 
 for it is not the mode, but the certainty of punishment, 
 that creates terror. What men know they must endure, 
 they fear ; what they think thty can escape, they despise. 
 The multiplicity of our hanging laws has produced these 
 two things ; frequency of condemnation, and frequent par- 
 dons. As hope is the first and greatest spring of action, 
 if it was so, that out of twenty convicts one only was to be 
 pardoned, the thitf would say, " Why may I not be that 
 one ?" But since, as our laws are actually administered, 
 not one in twenty is executed, the thief acts on the chance 
 of twenty to one in his favour ; he acts on a fair and rea- 
 sonable presumption of indemnity ; and I verily believe, 
 that the confident hope of indemnity is the cause of nine- 
 teen in tv/enty robberies that are committed. 
 
 But if we look ;o the executions themselves, what ex- 
 ample do they give ? The thief dies either hard^ ned or 
 penitent. We are not to consider such rt:fl>.^ctions as oc- 
 cur to reasonable and good men, i)ut such impressions as 
 are made on the thoughtless, the desperat.;' and thje wick- 
 ed. These men look on the hardened villain with envy 
 rnd admiration. All that animation and contempt of 
 death with whicii heroes and mart\rs inspire good men 
 in a good cause, the abandoned villain feels in seeing a 
 devperado like himself meet death with intrepidity. The 
 penitent thief, on the other liand, often niirkes the sober 
 villain think in this way : himself oppress' d with poverty 
 and want, he sees a man die with that penitence which 
 promises pardon for his sins here, and happiness hereafter ; 
 straight he thinks that by robbery, forgery, or murder, he 
 can relit ve all his wants ; and if he be brought to justice, 
 the punishment will be short and triflmg, and the reward 
 ^.'ternaL 
 
116 AMERICAN 
 
 Even in crimes which are seldom or never pardoned, 
 death is no prevention. House-breakers, forgers, and 
 coiners, are sure to be hanged : yet house-breaking, for- 
 gery, and coining, are the very crimes which are the of- 
 tenest committed. Strange it is, that in the case of blood, 
 of which we ought to be most tender, we should still go 
 on, against reason and against experience, to make una- 
 vailing slaughter of our fellow creatures. A recent event 
 has proved that policy will do what blood cannot do. I 
 mean the late regulation of the coinage. Thirty years 
 together men were continually hanged for coining ; still it 
 went on : but on the new regulation of the gold coin, 
 ceased. This event proves these tv/o things : the efficacy 
 of police, and the inefficacy of hanging. But, is it not 
 very extraordinary, that since the regulation of the gold 
 coin, an act has p^sst d, making it treason to coin silver ? 
 But has it stopped the coining ot" silver ? O . the contrary, 
 do you not hear of it more than ever ? It seems as if the 
 law and the crime bore the same date. I do not know 
 what the honorable member thinks who brought in the 
 bill ; but perhaps some feelings may come across his own 
 mind, when he sees how many lives he is taking away for 
 no purpose. Had it been f irly stated, and specifically 
 pointed out, v>'hat the mischief of coining silver in the ut- 
 most extent, is, that hanging bill miglat not have been so 
 readily adopted : under the name of treason it found an 
 easy passage. I indeed have always understood treason 
 to be nothing less than some act of conspiracy against the 
 life or honor of the king, and the safety of the state : but 
 what the king or state can suffer by my taking now and 
 then a bad sixpence or a bad shiiling, I cannot imagine. 
 
 By this nil kname of treason, however, there lies at this 
 moment in Newgate, under sentence to be burnt alive, a 
 girl just turned of fourteen ; at her master's bidding, she 
 hid some v^hite-wabhed farthirigs behind her stays, on 
 which the jury found her guiii), as an accomplice with 
 her master in the treason. The master was hanged last 
 Wednesday ; and the faggots all lay ready — no reprieve 
 came till just as the cart was setting out, and the girl 
 would have been burnt alive on the same day, had it not 
 been lor the humane but casual interference of lord Wey- 
 mouth. Good God ! sir, are we taught to execrate the 
 
SPEAKER. 117 
 
 iires of Smithfield, and are we lighting them now to burn 
 a poor harmless child for hiding a white-washed farthing? 
 And yet, this barbarous sentence, which ought to make 
 men shudder at the thought of shedding blood for such 
 trivial causes, is brought as a reason for more hanging 
 and burning. It was recommended to me not many days 
 ago, to bring in a bill to make it treason to coin copper, 
 as well as gold and silver. Yet, in the formation of these 
 sanguinary laws, humanity, religion, and policy are thrown 
 out of the question. This one wise argument is always 
 sufficient ; if you hang for one fiul., why not for another? 
 If for stealing a sheep, why not a cow or a horse ? if for 
 a shilling, why not for a handkerchief that is worth eigh- 
 teen-pence ?— and so on. We therefore ought to oppose 
 the increase of those new laws : the more, because every 
 fresh one begets twenty others. 
 
 When a member of parliament brings in a new hanging 
 law, he begins with mentioning some injury that may be 
 done to private property, for which a man is not yet liable 
 to be hanged ; and then proposes the gallows as the speci- 
 fic and infallible means of cure and prevention. But the 
 bill, in progress of time, makes crimes capital, thit scarce 
 deserve whipping. For instance, the shop-lifting act was 
 to prevent bankers' and silver-smiths', and other shops, 
 where there are commonly goods of great value, from be- 
 ing robbed ; but it goes so far as to make it death to lift 
 any thing off a counter with intent to steal. 
 
 Under this act, one Mary Jones was executed, whose 
 case I shall just mention : it was at the time when press 
 warrants were issued on the alarm about Falkland Islands. 
 The woman's husband was ]iressed, their goods seized tor 
 some debts of his, and she with two small children, turn- 
 ed into the streets a-begging. 'Tis a circumstance not to 
 be forgotten, that she was very young, (under nineteen) 
 and most remarkably handsoine. Sh'- went to a linen- 
 draper's shop, took some coarse linen off the counter, and 
 slipped it under her cloak ; the shopman saw her, and she 
 laid it down : for diis she was hanged. Her defence was 
 (I have the trial in my pocket) '•' th \t she had lived in 
 credit and v/anted for nothing, till a press-gang came and 
 stole her husband from her ; but, since then she had no 
 bed to lie on ; nothing to give her children to eat j and 
 
118 AMERICAN 
 
 they were almost naked : and perhaps she might have 
 done something wrong, for she hardly knew what she 
 did." The parish officers testified the truth of this story ; 
 but it seems there had been a good deal of shop-lifting 
 about Ludgate ; an example was thought necessary ; and 
 thic woman was hanged for the comfort and satisfaction 
 of some shop-keepers in Ludgate-street. When brought 
 to receive sentence, she behaved in such a fri-.ntic manner, 
 as proved her mind to be in a distracted and desponding 
 state ; and the child was sucking at her breast when she 
 set out for Tyburn. 
 
 Let us reflt^ct a little on this woman's fate. The poet 
 says, '* an honest man's the noblest work of God." He 
 might have said with equal truth, that a beauteous wo- 
 man's the noblest work of God. 
 
 But for whi^t cause was God's creation robbed of this 
 its n blest work ? Ir was for no injury ; but for a mere 
 attempt to clotht two naked children by unlawful means. 
 Compare this with what the state did, and with what the 
 law did. The state bereaved the woman of her husband, 
 and the children of a father, who was all their support, 
 the L.w deprived the woman ot her life, and the children 
 of their remaining parent, e,xposing them to every dan- 
 ger, insult, and merciless treatment, that destitute and 
 helpless orphans suffer. Take all the circumstances to- 
 gether, I do not believe that a fouler murder was ever 
 committed against law, than the murder of this woman 
 by law. Some who hear me, arc perhaps blaming the 
 judges, the jury, and the hangman; but neither judge, 
 jury, nor hangman are to blame, they are but ministerial 
 agents; the trur hangman is the member of parliament: 
 he who frames the bloody law is answerable for all the 
 blood that is shed under it. But there is a farther con- 
 sideration still. Dying as these unhappy wretches often 
 do, who knows what their future lot may be ! Perhaps, 
 my honorable friend who moves this bill, has not yet 
 considered himself in the light of an executioner; no man 
 has more humanity, no man a stronger sense of religion 
 than himself; and I verily believe, that at this moment he 
 wishes as little success to his hanging law, as I do. His 
 nature must recoil at making himself the cause not only 
 
SPEAKER. 119 
 
 of shedding the blood, but perhaps destroying the soul of 
 his ftllow creatures. 
 
 But the wretches who die are not the only sufferers ; 
 there are more and greater objects of compassion still ; — 
 I mean the surviving relations and friends. Who knows 
 how many innocent children we may be deeming to igno- 
 miny and wretchedness ? Who knows how many widows' 
 hearts we may break with grief, how many grey hairs of 
 parents we may bring with sorrow to the grave ? 
 
 The Mosaic law ordained, that for a sheep or an ox, 
 four and five fold should be restored : and for robbing a 
 house, double ; that is, one fold for reparation, the rest 
 for example ; and the forfeiture was greater, as the pro- 
 perty was more exposed. If the thief came by night, it 
 was lawful to kill him : but if he came by day he was 
 only to make restitution ; and if he had nothing, he was 
 to be sold for his theft. This is all that God required in 
 felonies, nor can I find in history any sample of such laws 
 as ours, except a code that was framed at Athens by- 
 Draco. He made every offence capital, upon this modern 
 way of reasoning ; " That petty crimes deserved death, 
 and he knew nothing worse for the greatest." His laws, 
 it was said, were written, not with ink, but with blood ; 
 but they were of short duration, being all repealed by 
 Solon, except one, for murder. 
 
 An attempt was made some years ago by my honor- 
 able friend, sir Charles Bunbury, to repeal some of the 
 most absurd and cruel of our capital laws. The bill passed 
 this house, but was rejected by the lords, for this reason : 
 " It was an innovation, (they said) and subversion of 
 law." The very reverse is truth. These hanging laws 
 are themselves innovations. No less than three and thirty 
 of them passed during the last reign. I believe, I myself 
 was the first person who checked the progress of them. 
 When the great AKred came to the throne, he four.d the 
 kingdom overrun with robbers ; but the silly expedient of 
 hanging never came into his head : he mstituttd a police, 
 which w IS, to m.ike every tovnship answerable for the 
 felonies committed in it. Thus property became the guar- 
 dian of property ; and all robbr rv was so effectually stop- 
 ped, that (the historians tell us) ia a very short time a 
 
120 AMERICAN 
 
 man might travel through the kingdom, unarmed, with his 
 purse in his hand. 
 
 Treason, murder, rape, and burning a dwelling house, 
 were all the crimes that were liable to be punished with 
 death by our good old common law. And such was the 
 tenderness, such the reluctance to shed blood, that if re- 
 compense could possibly be made, life was not to be touch- 
 ed. Treason being against the king, the remission of that 
 crime was in the crown. In case of murder itself, if com- 
 pensation could be made, the next of kin might discharge 
 the prosecution, which, if once discharged, could never 
 be revived. If a ravisher could make the injured woman 
 satisfaction, the law had no power over him ; she might 
 marry the man under the gallows, if she pleased, and take 
 him from the jaws of death to the lips of matrimony. 
 But so fatally are we deviated from the benignity of our 
 ancient laws, that there is now under sentence of death an 
 unfortunate clergyman, who made satisfaction for the in- 
 jury attempted : the satisfaction was accepted ; and yet 
 the acceptance of the satisfaction, and the prosecution 
 bear the same date. 
 
 There does not occur to my thoughts a proposition more 
 abhorrent from nature, and from reason, than that in a 
 matter of property, when restitution is made, blood should 
 still be required. 
 
 Having said so much on the general principles of our 
 criminal laws, I have only a short word or two to add, on 
 the two propositions now before us ; one, to hang persons 
 that wilfully set fire to ships ; the other, to compel such 
 offenders to work seven years on the Thames. 
 
 The question arises from the alarming events of the 
 late fires at Portsmouth and Bristol ; for which the incen- 
 diary is put to death. But, will an act of parliament pre- 
 vent such men as John the Painter from coming into the 
 world, or control them when they are in it.^ You might as 
 well brint; in a bill to prevent the appearance, or regulate 
 the motions, of a comet. John the Painter was so far 
 from fearing death, that he courted it; was so far from 
 concealing his act, that he told full as much as was true, 
 to his own conviction. When once a villain turns enthu- 
 siast, he is above all law. Punishment is his reward, and 
 death his glory. But, though the law will be useless 
 
SPEAKER. 121 
 
 against villains, it is dangerous, and may be fatal to many 
 an innocent person. There is not an honest industrious 
 carpenter or sailor, who may not be endangered in the 
 course of his daily labour ; ihey are constantly using fire 
 and combustible matter about shipping, tarring and pitch- 
 ing, and caulking : accidents are continually happening ; 
 and who knows how many of these accidents may be at- 
 tributed to design ? Indeed, the act says, the firing must 
 be done xviifiilly and maliciously ; but judges and juries do 
 not always distinguish right between the fact and the in- 
 tention. It is the province of a jury only to try the fact 
 by the intention ; but they are too apt to judge of the in- 
 tention by the fact. Justices of peace, however, are not 
 famed for accurate and nice distinctions ; and all the hor- 
 rors of an ignomin ous death would be too much to threaten 
 every honest shipwright with, for what may happen in the 
 necessary work ot his calling. 
 
 But, as I think punishment necessarv for so heinous an 
 offence, and, as the end of alJ punishment is example ; of 
 the two modes of punishment, I shall prefer that which is 
 most profitable in point of example. Allowing then the 
 punishment of death its utmost force, it is only short and 
 momentary ; that of labour, permanent ; and so much tx- 
 ample is gained in him who is reserved for labour, more 
 than in him who is put to death, as there are hours in the 
 life of the one, beyond the short moment of the other's 
 death. 
 
 Extract from a Speech' of Mr, Burke^on Economical Reform, 
 
 " At the beginning of his Majesty's reign, Lord Tal- 
 bot came to the administration of a great department in 
 the household. I believe no man ever entered into his 
 Majesty's service, or into the service of any prince, with 
 a more clear integrity, or with more zral and affection for 
 the interest of his master ; and, I must add, with abilities 
 for a still higher service. Economy was then announced 
 as a maxim of the reign. 
 
 This noble Lcrd, therefore, made several attempts to- 
 wards a reform. In the year 177^, when the King's civil 
 list debts came last to be paid, he explained very fully the 
 
 M 
 
122 ' AMERICAN 
 
 success of his undertaking. He told the house of Lords, 
 that he had attemptf d to reduce the charges of the King's 
 tables and his kitchen. The thing, Sir, was not below 
 him. He knew that there is nothing interesting in the 
 concerns of men whom we love and honor, that is beneath 
 our attention. '' Love," says one of our old poets, '' es- 
 teems no office mean ;" and with still more spirit, " entire 
 affection scorneth nicer hands." Frugality, Sir, is found- 
 ed on the principle, that all riches have limits. A royal 
 household, grown enormous even in the meanest depart- 
 ments, may weaken and perhaps destroy all energy in the 
 highest offices of the state. The gorging a royal kitchen 
 may stint and famish the negotiations of a kingdom. 
 Therefore the object was. Worthy of his, was worthy of 
 any man's attention. 
 
 In consequence of this noble Lord's resolution (as he 
 told the other house,) he reduced several tables, and put 
 the persons entitled to them upon board wages, much to 
 their own satisfaction. But, unluckily, subsequent duties 
 requiring constant attendance, it was not possible to pre- 
 vent their being fed where they were employed ; and thus 
 this first step towards economy doubled the expense. 
 
 There was another disaster far more doleful than this. 
 I shall state it, as the cause of that misfortune lies at the 
 bottom of almost all our prodigality. Lord Talbot 
 attempted to reform the kitchen ; but such, as he well 
 observed, is the consequence of having duty done by one 
 person, whilst another enjoys the emolument, that he 
 found himself frustrated in all his designs. On that rock 
 his whc4e adventure split — his whole scheme of economy 
 was dashed to pieces ; his department became more ex- 
 pensive than ever — the civil dtbt accumulated — Why ? It 
 w. s M uly from a cause which, though perfectly adequate 
 to the fleet, om would not have instantly guessed — it was 
 because the tunispit in the King's kitchen was a member of 
 parliament. The King's domestic servants were all un- 
 
 dovu his tradesman remained unpaid and became baiik- 
 
 ^xxm-^-because the tiiriispit in the King's kitchen was a 
 member of parliament, his Majesty's slumbers were in- 
 terrupted ; his piilcw was stuff d with thorns ; and his 
 peace of mind entirdv broke- —because the King's turn- 
 spit was a member of parliament. The judge* were un- 
 
SPEAKER. 123 
 
 paid, the justice of the kingdom bent and gave away ; the 
 foreign ministers remained inactive and unprovided ; the 
 system of Europe was dissolved ; the chain of our alliances 
 were broken ; all the wheels of government at home and 
 abroad were stopped — because the King-^s turnspit zvas a 
 member of parliament. Such, Sir, was the situation of 
 aif .irs, and su :h thi cause of that situation, when his Ma- 
 jesty came a second time to Parliament, to desire the pay- 
 ment of those debts which the employment of its members 
 in various offices visible and invisible had occasioned. I 
 believe that a like fate will attend every attempt at eco- 
 nomy by detail under similar circumstances, and in every 
 department. 
 
 To avoid frittering and crumbling down the attention 
 by a blind unsystr^matic observance of every trifle, it has 
 ever been found to be the best way to do all things which 
 are great in the total amount, and minute in the compo- 
 nent parts, by a general contract. No dealing is exempt 
 from the possibility of fraud. But by a contract on a 
 matter certain, you have this advantage, you are sure to 
 know the utmost extent of the fraud to which you itte 
 subject. By a contract with a person in his own trade 
 you are sure you shall not suffer by want of skilL — but 
 what skill can members of Parliament obtain in that low 
 kind of province ? What pleasure can they have in the 
 execution of that kind of duty? And if they should ne- 
 glect it, how does it affect their interest, when we know 
 that it is their vote in Parliament, and not their diligence 
 in cookery or catering, that recomnricnds them to their of- 
 fice, or keeps them in it? 
 
 The same clue of principle leads us through the laby- 
 rinth of the other departments. What, Sir, is there in 
 the office of the great wardrobe that may not be executed 
 by the lord chamberlain himself? He has an honorable 
 appointment ; he has time sufficient to attend to the duty; 
 and he has the vice-chamberlain to assist him. Why 
 should he not deal also by contract for all things belong- 
 ing to this office, and carry his estimates first and the re- 
 port of the execution in its proper time for payment di- 
 rectly to the board of treasury itself? By a single opera- 
 tion, the expenses of a department, which for naked walls, 
 
124 AMERICAN 
 
 or walls hung with cobwebs, has in a few years cost the 
 crown 150,0(X)/. may at It-ngth hope for regulation ? 
 
 To what end. Sir, does die office of removing the ward- 
 robe serve at all i Why should a jewel office exist, for the 
 soit purpose of taxing the King's gifts of plate ? Its object 
 falls naturally wuhin the cha}7iberlain'*s province^ and ought 
 to be under his care and inspection without any fee. 
 
 The board of -works^ which, in the seven years preced- 
 ing 1777, has cost towards 400,000/. and has not cost less 
 in proportion from the bf:ginning of the reign, is under 
 the vrry same description of all the other ill-contrived es- 
 tablishments. For all this expense we do not see a building 
 o\ i\v:, size and importance of a pigeon-house. The good 
 works of that board of works are as carefully concealed as 
 other good works ought to be. They are perfectly invi- 
 sible : but though it is the perfection of charity to be con- 
 cealed, it is. Sir, the property and glory of magnificence 
 to appear and stand forward to the eye. 
 
 That board, which ought to be a concern of builders 
 and such like, and of none else, is turned into a junto of 
 w ambers of Parliament. That office too has a treasury 
 and a paymaster of its own ; and lest the arduous affairs 
 of that unimportant exchequer should be too fatiguing, 
 that paymaster has a deputy to partake his profits, and re- 
 lieve his cares. I therefore, propose to pull down this 
 whole ill-contrived scaffolding which obstructs rather than 
 forw. rds our public works, — to take away its treasury, — 
 to put the whole into the hands of a real builder, who shall 
 not be a member of Parliament — and to oblige hmi by a 
 previous estimate and final payment to appear twice at the 
 treasury, before the public can be loaded." 
 
 Extract from Mr. Burkes Speech to the Electors of Bris- 
 tol^ hi 1780, in justification of his conduct as their Re- 
 presentative^ against certain objections made to it — one 
 ofzvhich zvas, that 07i the qiiestion'of the Irish Trade Jie 
 had acted more as a native of Ireland^ than as an English 
 Mem ber of Par Ham en t. 
 
 " I was an Irishman in the Irish business, just as much 
 as I was an American, when, on the same principles, I 
 
SPEAKER. 125 
 
 wished you to concede to America, at a time when she 
 prayed concession at our feet. Just as much was I an 
 American, when I wished parli im nt to offer terms in 
 victory, and not to wait the hour of defeat, for milking 
 good, by weakness and by supp^c^j-ion, a claim of prero- 
 gative, pre-eminence, and authority. 
 
 " Instead of requiring it from me as a point of duty, 
 to kindle with your passions, had you all been as cool as 
 I was, you would have saved disgraces and distresses that 
 are unutterable. Do you remember our commission ? We 
 s-nt out a solemn embassy, across the Atlantic ocean, to 
 lay the crown, the peerage, the commons of Great Bri- 
 tain, at the feet of the American congress. That our dis- 
 grace might want no sort of brightening and burnishing ; 
 observe who they were that cou-posed this famous em- 
 *bassy. My Lord Carlisle is among the first ranks of 
 our nobllit}'. He is the identical man who but two years 
 before had been put forward, at the opening of a session 
 in the House of Lords, as the mover of a haughty and 
 rigorous address against America, He was put in the 
 front of the embassy of submission. Mr. Eden was taken 
 from the office of Lord Suffolk, to whom he was then 
 nnder-secretary of state ; from the office of that Lorcf 
 Suffolk, who but a few weeks before, in his place in par- 
 liament, did not deign to inquire where a congress ot 
 vagrants was to be found. This Lord Suffolk sent Mr. 
 Eden to find these vagrants^ without knowing where the 
 Ki'ig's generals were to be found, who were joined in the 
 same conmission of supplicating those' whom they were 
 sent to subdue. They enter the capital of America only 
 to abandon it; and these assertors and representatives ol 
 the dignitv of England, at the tail of a flying army, let 
 fly their Parthian shafts of memorials and remonstrances 
 at random behind them. Their promises and their offers, 
 their flatteries aud their menaces were all despised ; and 
 we were saved the disgrace of their formal reception, only 
 because the congress scorned to receive them ; w^iiilst the 
 state-house of independent Philadelphia opened her doors 
 to the public entry of the ambassador of France* From 
 war and blood we went to submission ; and from submis- 
 sion plunged back again to war and blood ; to desolate ami 
 be desolated, without measure, hope, or end. 1 am- i*. 
 
 M 2 
 
126 AMERICAxNj 
 
 Royalist— 1 blushed for this degradation of the crown. I 
 am a Whig — I blushed for the dishonor of parliament. I 
 air. a true Enghshman — I felt to the quick for the dis- 
 gryce of England. I am a Man — I felt for the melan- 
 choly reverse of human affairs, in the fall of the first 
 power in the world. 
 
 ** To read whHt was approaching in Ireland, in the 
 black and bloody characters of the American war, was a 
 painful, but it was a necessary part of my public duty. 
 For, gentlemen, it is not your fond desires, nor mine, 
 that can alter the nature of things ; by contending aQ;ainst 
 Hvhich, whit have we got, or evt; shall get, but defeat and 
 shame ? I did not obey your instructions — No. I con- 
 formed to the instructions of truth and nature, and main- 
 tained your interest, against your opinions, with a con-, 
 stancy that became me. A representative worthy of you 
 ought to be a person of stability. I am to look, indeed, 
 to your opinions ; but to such opinions as you and I must 
 have five years hence. I was not to look to the flash of 
 the day. I knew that your chose me, in my place, along 
 with others, to be a pillar of the state, and not a weather- 
 cock on the top of the edifice, exalted for my levity and 
 versatility, and of no use but to indicate the shiftings of 
 every fashionable gale. Would to God, the value of my 
 sentiments on Ireland and on America had been at this 
 day subject of doubt and discussion ! No matter v/,hat my 
 suff.rn-gs had been, so that this kingdom had kept the au- 
 thority I wished it to maintain, by a great foresight, and 
 by an equitable temperance in the use of its powers." 
 
 Extract from the same, in ayiswer to a charge made against 
 him, of having forsaken the interest ofCom?nerce by sup- 
 vorting a Bill brought into Parliament btj Lord Beau- 
 diamp, to relieve Insolvent Debtors. 
 
 '•'• Genfiemen, I never relished acts of grace, nor ever 
 submitted to them but from despair of better* They are 
 a dishonorable invention, by which, not from humanity, 
 aot from policy ; but merely because we have not room 
 iiooiigh to hold these victims of the absurdity of our laws, 
 v'^ *'irn locv^ uDon the public three or four thousand. 
 
SPEAKER. 127 
 
 naked wretches, corrupted by the habits, debased by the 
 Ignominy of a prison. If the creditor had a right to those 
 carcasses as a natural security for his property, I am sure 
 we have no right to deprive him of that security. But 
 if a few pounds of flesh were not necessary to his secu- 
 rity, we had not a right to detain the unfortunate debtor, 
 without any benefit at all to the person who confined him. 
 Take it as you will, we commit injustice. Now Lord 
 Beauchamp's bill intended to do deliberately, and with 
 great caution and circumspection, upon each several case, 
 and with all attention tc the just claimant, what acts of 
 grace do in a much greater measure, and with very little 
 care, caution, and deliberation. 
 
 " I suspect that here too, if we contrive to oppose this 
 bill, we shall be found in a struggle r.gainst the nature of 
 things. For as we grow enlightened, the public will not 
 bear, for any length of time, to pay for the maintenance 
 of whole armies of prisoners, nor, at their own expense, 
 r-ubmit to ket- p jails as a sort of garrisons, merely to for- 
 tify their absurd prmciple of making men judges in their 
 own cause. For credit has little or no concern in this 
 cruelty. I speak in a commercial assembly. You know 
 that credit is given, because a capital rnust be employed j 
 that men calculate the chances of insolvency ; and they 
 either withhold the credit, or make the debtor pay the 
 risk in the price. The counting-house has no alliance 
 with the jail. Holland understands trade as well as we ; 
 and she has done more than this obnoxious bill intended 
 to do. There was not, when Mr. Howard visited Hol- 
 land, more than one prisoner for debt in the great city of 
 Rotterdam. Although Lord Beauchamp's act (which 
 was previous to this bill, and intended to feel the way for 
 it) has already preserved liberty to thousands ; and though 
 it is not three years since the last act of grace passed, yet, 
 by Mr. Hqward^s last account, there were near three- 
 thousand again in jail. I cannot name this gentleman 
 without remarking, that his labors and writings have done 
 miich to open the eyes and hearts of mankind. He has 
 visited all Europe , — not to survey the su.nptuousness of 
 palaces, or the staieJiness of templrs; not to make accu- 
 rate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur^ 
 nor to form a scale of the curiosity of modern art ; not 
 
128 AMERICAN 
 
 to collect medals, or to collate manuscripts ;-— but to dive 
 into the depths of dungeons ; to plunge into the infection 
 of hospitals ; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain ; 
 to take the gage and dimensions of misery, depression, 
 and contempt ; to remember the forgotten, to attend to 
 the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and 
 collate the distresses of all men in all countries. His 
 plan is original ; and it is as full of genius as it is of hu- 
 manity. It was a voyage of discovery ; a circumnaviga- 
 tion of charity. Already the benefit of his labor is felt 
 more or less in every country : I hope he will anticipate 
 his final reward, by seeing all its effects fully realised in 
 his own. He will receive, not by retail, but in gross, the 
 reward of those who visit the prisoner ; and he has so 
 forestalled and monopolized this branch of charity, that 
 there will be, I trust, little room to merit by such acts of 
 benevolence hereafter." 
 
 Extract fr 0771 the same^ in cm.^xver to a charge brought 
 against him of being unfriendly to the Protestant Reli- 
 gion^ he having voted for the repeal of parts of a penal 
 
 ■ statute against Catholics. 
 
 " A statute was fabricated in the year 1699, by which 
 the saying mass (a church service in the Latin tongue, 
 not exactly the same as our liturgy, but very near it, and 
 containing no o§ence whatever against the laws, or 
 against good morals) was forged into a crime punishable 
 with perpetual imprisonment. The teaching school, an 
 useful and virtuous occupation, even the teaching in a 
 private family, was in evt-ry Catholic subjected to the 
 same unprcportionecl punishment. Your industry, and 
 the bread of your children, was taxed for a pecuniary re- 
 ward to stimulate avarice to do what nature refused, to 
 inform and prosecute on this law. Every Roman Catho- 
 lic was, under the same act, to forfeit his estate to his 
 nearest Protestant relation, until, through a profession of 
 what he did not beiieve, he redeemed by his hypocrisy, 
 what the law had transferred to the kinsman as the re- 
 compense of his profligacy. When thus turned out of 
 doors from his paternal estate, he was disabled from ac- 
 
SPEAKER. 129 
 
 quiring any other by any industry, donation, or chanty ; 
 but was rendered a foreigner in his native land, only be- 
 cause he retained the religion, along with the property, 
 handed down to him from those who had been the old in- 
 habitants of that land before him. 
 
 *' Does any one, who hears me, approve this scheme of 
 things, or think there is common justice, common sense, 
 or common honesty in any part of it ? If any does, let him 
 say it, and I am ready to discuss the point' with temper 
 and candor. But instead of approving, I perceive a vir- 
 tuous indignation beginning to rise in your minds on the 
 mere cold stating of the statute. 
 
 " The eflects of the act have been as mischievous, as 
 its origin was ludicrous and shameful. From that time 
 every person of that communion, lay and ecclesiastic, has 
 been obliged to fly from the face of day. The clergy, 
 concealed in garrets of private houses, or obliged to take 
 a shelter, (hardly safe to themselves, but infinitely dan- 
 gerous to their country,) under the privileges of foreign 
 ministers, officiated as their servants, and und' r their 
 protection. The whole body of the Catholics, condemn- 
 ed to beggary and ignorance in their native land, have 
 been obliged to learn the principles of letters, at the ha-, 
 zard of all their other principles, from the charity of your 
 enemies. They have been taxed to their ruin at the plea- 
 sure of necessitous and profligate relations, and according 
 to the measures of their necessity and profligacy. Exam- 
 ples of this are many and affecting. Some of them are 
 known by a friend who stands near me in this hall. It is 
 but six or seven years since a clergyman by the name of 
 Malony, a man of morals, neither guilty nor accused of 
 any thing noxious to the state, was condemned to perpe- 
 tual imprisonment for exercising the functions of his reli- 
 gion ; and after lying in jail for two or three years, was 
 relieved by the mercy of government from perpetual im- 
 prisonment, on condition of p rpetual banishment, A bro- 
 ther of the Earl of Shrewsbury, a Talbot, a name re- 
 spectable in this countr)-, whilst its glory is any part of its 
 concern, was hauled to the bar of the Old Bailey, among 
 common felons, and only escaped the same doom, either 
 by some error in the process, or that the wretch who 
 brought him there could not correctly describe his per- 
 
130 AMERICAN 
 
 son ; I now forget which. In short, the persecution would 
 never have relented for a moment, if the judges superseding 
 (though with an ambiguous example) the strict rule of 
 their official duty, by the higher obligations of their con" 
 sciences, did not constantly throw off everv difficulty in 
 the way of such informers. But so ineffectual is the 
 power of legal evasion against legal inquiry, that it was 
 but the other day, that a lady of condition, beyond the 
 middle of life, was on the point of being stripped of her 
 whole fortune by a near relation, to whom she had been a 
 friend and benefactor; and she must have been totally 
 ruined, without a power of redress or mitigation from the 
 courts of law, had not the legislature itself rushed in, and 
 by a special act of parliai^.jent rescued her from the injus- 
 tice r,f its own statutes. One of tht- acts authorizing such 
 things was that which we in part rep. aUd, knowmg what 
 our duty was, and doing that duty as men of honor and 
 virtue, as good Protrstants, and as good citizens. Let 
 him stand forth that disapproves what we have done. 
 
 " Gentlemen, bad laws arc the worst sort of tyranny. 
 In such a country as this they are of all bad things the 
 worst, worst by far than any where else ; and they derive 
 a particular malignity even from the wisdom and sound- 
 ness of the rest of our institutions. For very obvious 
 reasons you cannot trust the crown with a dispensing 
 power over any of your laws. However, a government, 
 be it as bad as it may, will, in the exercise of a discre- 
 tionary power, discriminate times and persons ; and will 
 not ordinarily pursue any man, when his own safety is not 
 concerned. A mercenary informer knows no distinction. 
 Under such a system, the obnoxious people are slaves, not 
 only to the government, but they live at the mercy of every 
 individual ; they are at once the slaves of the whole com- 
 munity and of every part of it ; and the worst and most 
 unmerciful men are those on whose goodness they most 
 depend. 
 
 '* In this situation men not only shrink from the frowns 
 of a stern magistrate ; but they are obliged to fly from 
 their very species. The seeds of destruction are sown in 
 civil intercourse, in social habitudes. The blood of whole- 
 some kindred is infected. Their tables and beds are sur- 
 rounded with snares. All the means given by Providence 
 
SPEAKER. 131 
 
 to make life safe and comfortable, are perverted into in- 
 struments of terror and torment. This species of univer- 
 sal subserviency, that makes the very servant, who waits 
 behind your chair, the arbiter of your life and fortune, has 
 such a tendency to degrade and abase mankind, and to 
 deprive them of that assured and liberal state of mind, 
 which alone can make us what we ought to be, that I vow 
 to God I would sooner bring myself to put a man to im- 
 mediate death for opinions I disliked, and so to get rid of 
 the man and his opinions at once, than to fret him with a 
 feverish being, tainted with, the jail-distemper of a conta- 
 gious servitude, to keep him above ground an animated 
 mass of putrefaction, corrupted himself, and corrupting all 
 about him," 
 
 Extract from the same. 
 
 " I must fairly tell you, that so far as my principles are 
 concerned, (principles, that I hope will only depart with 
 my last breath,) that I have no idea of a liberty uncon- 
 nected with honesty and justice. Nor do I believe, that 
 any good constitutions of government or of freedom, can 
 find it necessary for their security to doom any part of the 
 people to a permanent slavery. Such a constitution of 
 freedom, if such can be, is in effect no more than another 
 name for the tyranny of the strongest faction ; and fac- 
 tions in republics have been, and are, full as capable as 
 monarchs, of the most cruel oppression and injustice. It 
 is but too true, that the love and even the very idea of 
 genuine liberty is extremely rare. It is but too true, that 
 there are many, whose whole scheme of freedom is made 
 up of pride, perverseness, and insolence. They feel them- 
 selves in a state of thraldom, they imagine that their souls 
 are cooped and cabbined in, unless th y have some man, 
 or som body of men, dependent on their mercy. This 
 desire of huving some one below them, descends to those 
 who are the very lowest of all; and a protestant cobler, 
 debased by his poverty, but exalted by his share of the 
 ruling chuich, feels a pride in knowing it is by his gene- 
 rosity alone, that the peer, whose footman's instep he 
 measures, is able to keep his chaplam from a jail. This 
 
13? AMERICAN 
 
 disposition is the true source of the passion, which many 
 men, in very humble life, have taken to the American war. 
 Our subjects in America ; our colonies j our dependants. 
 This lust of party-power is the liberty they hunger and 
 thirst for ; and this Syren song of ambition has charmed 
 ears, that one would have thought were never organised 
 to that sort of music. This way oi proscribing the citizens 
 by denominations and general descriptions^ dignifit-d by 
 the name of reason of state, and security for constitutions 
 and commonwealths, is nothing better at bottom than the 
 miserable invention of an ungenerous ambition, which 
 would fain hold the sacred trust of power, without any of 
 the virtues, or any of the energies, that give a title to it ; 
 a receipt of policy made up of a detestable compound of 
 malice, cowardice, and sloth. They would govern men 
 against their will ; but in that government they would be 
 discharged from the exercise of vigilance, providence, and 
 fortitude ; and therefore, that they may sleep on their 
 watch, they consent to take some one division of the so- 
 ciety into partnership of the tyranny over the rest. But 
 let government, in what form it may be, comprehend the 
 whole in its justice, and restrain the "suspicious by its vigi- 
 lance ; let it keep watch and ward ; let it discover by its 
 sagacity, and punish by its firmness, all delinquency against 
 its power, whenever delinquency exists in the overt acts ; 
 and then it will be as safe as God and nature ever intend- 
 ed it should be. Crimes are the acts of individuals, and 
 not of denominiitions ; and therefore arbitrarily to class 
 men under general descriptions, in order to prescribe and 
 punish them in the lump for a presumed delinquency, of 
 which perhaps but a part, perhaps none at all, are guilty, 
 is indeed a compendious method, and saves a world of 
 trouble about proof; but such a method, instead ot being 
 law, is an act of unnatural rebellion against the legal do- 
 minion of reason and justice ; and this vice, in any con- 
 stitution that entertains it at one time or other will cer- 
 tainly bring on its ruin. 
 
 " We are told that this is not a religious persecution : 
 and its abettors are loud in disclaiming all severities on 
 account of consrit^nce. Very fine indeed! then let it be 
 so; they are not persecutors ; they are only tyrants. With 
 all my heart. 1 am perfectly indifferent concerning the 
 
SPEAKER. 133 
 
 pretexts upon which we torment one another ; or whether 
 it be for the constitution of the church of England, or for 
 the constitution of the state of England, the people choose 
 to make their fellow-creatures wretched. When we were 
 sent into a place of authority, you that sent us had your- 
 selves but one commission to give. You could give us 
 none to wrong or oppress, or even to suffer any kind of 
 oppression or wrong, on any grounds whatsoever ; not on 
 political, as in the affairs of America ; not on commer- 
 cial as in those of Ireland ; not in civil, as in the laws for 
 debt ; not in religious, as in the statutes against Protestant 
 or Catholic dissenters. The diversified but connected fa- 
 bric of universal justice is well cramped and bolted to- 
 gether in all its parts ; and depend upon it, I never have 
 employed, and I never shall employ, any engine of power 
 which may come into my hands, to wrench it asunder. All 
 shall stand, if I can help it, and all shall stand connected. 
 After all, to complete this work, much remains to be 
 done ; much in the East, much in the West. But great 
 as the work is, if our will be ready, our powers are not 
 deficient. 
 
 '' 4^ince you have suffered me to trouble you so much 
 on this subject, permit me gentlemen, to detain you a lit- 
 tle longer. 1 am indeed most solicitous to give you per- 
 fect satisfaction. I find there are some of a better and 
 softer nature than the persons with whom I have supposed 
 myself in debate, who neither think ill of the act of relief, 
 nor by any means to desire the repeal, yet who, not ac- 
 cusing but lamenting what was done, on account of the 
 consequences, have frequently expressed their wish that 
 the late act had never been made. Some of this descrip- 
 tion, and persons of worth, I have met with in this city. 
 They conceive, that the prejudices, whatever they might 
 be, of a large part of the people, ought not to have been 
 shocked ; that their opinions ought to have been previous- 
 ly taken, and much attended to ; and that thereby the late 
 horrid scenes might have been prevented. 
 
 " I confess, my notions are widely different ; and I 
 never was less sorry for any action of my life. I like the 
 biH the better, on account of the events of all kinds that 
 followed it. It relieved the real sufferers; it strengthened 
 the state, and, by the disorders that ensued, we had clear 
 
 N 
 
134 AMERICAN 
 
 evidence that therfi lurked a temper somewhere, which 
 ought not to be fostered by the laws. No ill consequences 
 whatever could be attributed to the act itself. We knew 
 beforehand, or we were poorly instructed, that toleration 
 IS odious to the intolerant; freedom to oppressors ; pro- 
 perty to robbers ; and all kinds and degrees of prosperity 
 to the envious. We knew, that all these kinds of men 
 would gladly gratify their evil disposition under the sanc- 
 tion of law and religion, if they could : if they could not, 
 yet, to make way to their objects, they would do their 
 utmost to subvert all religion and all law. This we cer- 
 tainly knew. But knowing this, is there any reason, be- 
 cause thieves break in and steal, and thus bring detriment 
 to you, and draw ruin on themselves, that I am to be sor- 
 ry that you are in possession of shops, and of warehouses, 
 and of wholesome laws to protect them ? Are you to build 
 no houses, because desperate men may pull them down 
 upon their own heads ? Or, if a malignant wretch will cut 
 his own throat, because he sees you give alms to the ne- 
 cessitous and deserving ; shall his destruction be attribut- 
 ed to your charity, and not to his own deplorable mad- 
 ness ? If we repent of our good actions, what, I praj^^ou, 
 is left for our faults and follies ? It is not the beneficence 
 of the laws, it is the unnatural temper which beneffcence 
 can fret and sour, that is to be lamented. It is this tem- 
 per, which, by all rational means, ought to be sweetened 
 and corrected. If froward men should refuse this cure, 
 can they vitiate any thing but themselves ? Does evil so 
 re-act upon good, as not only to retard its motipn, but to 
 change its nature ? If it can so operate, then good men 
 will always be in the power of the bad ; and virtue, by a 
 dreadful reverse of o:der, must lie under perpetual sub- 
 jection and bondage to vice. 
 
 " As to the opinion of the people, which some think, 
 in such cases, is to be implicitly obeyed ; near two years 
 tranquillity, which followed the act, and its instant imita- 
 tion in Ireland, proved abundantly, that the late horrible 
 spirit was, in a great measure, the act of insidious art, 
 and perverse industry, and gross misrepresentation. But 
 suppose that the dislike had been much more deliberate, 
 and muce more general than I am persuaded it was — 
 WheA we know that the opinions of even the greatest 
 
SPEAKER. 135 
 
 multitudes are the standard of rectitude, I shall think my- 
 self obliged to make those opinions the masters of my con- 
 science. But if it be doubted whether Omnipotence it- 
 self is competent to alter the essential constitution of 
 right and wrong, sure I am, that such thingSy as they and 
 I, are possessed of no such power. No man carries idv-* 
 ther than I do the policy of making government pleasing 
 to the people. But the widest range of this politic com- 
 plaisance is confined within the limits of justice. I would 
 not only consult the interests of the people, but I would 
 cheerfully gratify their humours. We are all a sort of child- 
 ren that must be soothed and managed. I think I am 
 not austere or formal in my nature. I would bear, I would 
 even myself play my part in, any innocent buffooneries, 
 to divert them. But I never will act the tyrant for their 
 amusement. If they will mix malice in their sports, I 
 shall never consent to throw them any living, sentient, 
 creature whatsoever, no, not so much as a kitling to 
 torment. 
 
 " But, if I profess all this impolitic stubbornness, 
 " I may chance never to be elected into parliament." It 
 is certainly not pleasing to be put out of the public ser- 
 vice. But I wish to be a member of parliament, to have 
 my share of doing good and resisting evil. It would 
 therefore be absurd to renounce my objects, in order to 
 obtain my seat. I deceive myself indeed most grossly, 
 if I had not much rather pass the remainder of my life, 
 hidden in the recesses of the deepest obscurity, feeding 
 my mind even with the visions and imaginations of such 
 things, than to be placed on the most splendid throne of 
 the universe, tantalized with a denial of the practice of all 
 which can make the greatest situation any other than the 
 greatest curse. Gentlemen, I have had my day. I cau 
 never sufficiently express my gratitude to you for having 
 set me in a place, wherein I could lend the slightest help to 
 great and laudable designs. If I have had my share in any 
 measure in giving quiet to private property, and private 
 conscience ; if by my vote I have aided in securing to fami- 
 lies the best possession, peace ; if I have joined in recon- 
 ciling kings to their subjects, and subjects to their prince; 
 if I have assisted to loosen the foreign holdings of the citi- 
 zen, and taught him to look for his protection to the laws of 
 
136 AMERICAN 
 
 his country, and for his comfort to the good will of his 
 countrymen : if I have thus taken my part with the best 
 of men in the best of their actions, I can shut the book — 
 I might wish to read a page or two more — but this is e- 
 nough for my measure — I have not lived in vain. 
 
 «' And now, gentlemen, on this serious day, when I 
 come, as it were, to make up my account with you, let me 
 take to myself some degree of honest pride on the nature 
 of the charges that are against me. I do not here stand 
 before you accused of venality, or neglect of duty. It 
 is not said, that, in the long period of my service, I have, 
 in a single instance, sacrificed the slightest of your inter- 
 ests to my ambition, or to my fortune. It is not alleged, 
 that to gratify any anger, or revenge of my own, or of 
 my party, I have had a share in wronging or oppress- 
 ing any description of men, or any one man in any des- 
 cription. No ! the charges against me are all of one 
 kind, that I have pushed the principles of general justice 
 and benevolence too far j further than a cautious policy 
 would warrant ; and further than the opinions of many 
 would go along with me. — In every accident which may 
 happen through life, in pain, in sorrow, in depression, 
 and distress — I will call to mind this accusation, and be 
 comforted." 
 
 Mr. Pitfs Speech ifi 1781, on Mr. Burke^s motion for an 
 Econo7nical Reform, 
 
 [This is Mr. Pitt's first Speech in Parliament.] 
 
 Mr. Pitt said, that he gave the most hearty consent to 
 what had fallen from his honorable friend on the other side 
 of the house — that a proposition for the retrenchment of 
 the civil list revenue oughtto have come from his Majesty's 
 ministers. He gave his entire approbation to this sen- 
 timent. It would have come with more grace ; it would 
 have come with more benefit to the public service, if it 
 had sprung from the royal breast. His Majesty's minis- 
 ters ought to have come forward and proposed a reduction 
 in the civil list, to give the people the consolation of 
 knowing that their Sovereign participated in the suffermgs 
 of the empire, and presented an honourable example of 
 
SPEAKER, ' isr 
 
 retrenchment in an hour of general difficulty. They 
 ought to have consulted the glory of their royal masterj, 
 and have seated him in the hearts of the people, by aba- 
 ting from magnificence what was due to necessity. In- 
 stead of waiting for the slow request of a burthcned peo- 
 ple, they should have courted popularity by a voluntary 
 surrender of useless revenue. Far more agreeable would 
 it have been to that house, to accede than to propose : 
 much more gracious to have observed the free exercise of 
 royal bounty than to make thp appeal, and point out what 
 was right, what was necessar}^ But if ministers failed 
 to do this ; if ihey interfered between the benignity of 
 the sovereign and the distresses of his people, and stopped 
 the tide of royal sympathy, was that a reason why the 
 house of commons, his Majest^'^s public counsellors, 
 should desist from a measure so congenial to the paternal 
 feelings of the sovereign, so applicable to the wants and 
 miseries of the people.' The natural benificence of the 
 royal heart would be gratif^t^d by the seasonable remit- 
 tance. And surely it was no reason, because ministers 
 failed to do their duty, that the house should cease to at- 
 te.-sd to theirs. Acting as the faithful representatives of 
 tlic people, who had trusted them, they ought to seize oa 
 every o!)ject of equitable resource that presi>nted itself; 
 and surely no'ie v/erc so fair, so probable, or so flattering 
 as retrenchment and economy. The obligations of their 
 character dc manded iVoin them not to hesitate in pursuing 
 those objects, even to the foot of th- throne ; and actuated 
 by duty, to advise the crown to part with useless osten- 
 tation, that he might preserve necessary power ; to abue 
 a littlv'. of pomp, that he might ascertain respect ; to dimi- 
 nish a little of exterior grandeur, that he might increase 
 and secure authentic dignity. Such advice would become 
 them, as the counsellors of his Majesty, and as the re- 
 presentatives of the people; for it was their immediate 
 duty, as the commons house of Parliament, to guard the 
 lives, the liberties, and the properties of the people. The 
 last obligation was the strongest, it was more immediate- 
 ly incumbent upon them to guard the properties, because 
 they w :re more liable to invasion by the secret and subtle 
 attacks of influence, than either their lives or liberties. 
 It would not derogate from the real gloi-y of the crown to 
 N2 
 
138 AMERICAN 
 
 accept of the advice. It would be no diminution of true 
 grandeur to yield to the respectful petitions of the people. 
 The tutelage of that house might be a hard term : but the 
 guardianbhip of that house could not be disgraceful to a 
 constitutional king. The abridgment of useless and un- 
 nec«^ssary expv use could be no abatement of royalty. Mag- 
 nificence and grandeur were not inconsistent with retrench- 
 m« iit and economy, but, on the contrary, in a time of 
 necessity and of common exertion, solid grandeur was 
 dependent on the reduction of expense : And it was the 
 general sentiment and observation of the house, that e- 
 conomy was at this time essentially necessary to national 
 salvation. This had been the language of the noble lord 
 [lord Nugent] on the other side of the house, and he 
 had declared that if the bill then before the house had 
 provided that all the monies to be derived from the re- 
 ductions proposed were be applied to the public service, 
 he v/ould have given his hearty concurrence in it, and 
 would have become one of its warmest advocates. Here 
 then he begged leave to join issue with the noble lord. He 
 had said that the savings were to be appropriated towards 
 a fui;d for creating a provision for the royal family ; and 
 this clause he had found in the bill before them. He 
 begged to inform the noble lord, that there was a clause 
 in this bill which expressly stated th;^t the monies arising 
 from the reductions proposed shr^uld be directly applied 
 to the public service. The only merit that he could claim 
 in a competition with the noble lord was, that his eyes 
 were somewhat youviger than his, and he would read the 
 claus- to which he alluded. He here read the clause al« 
 luded to. 
 
 This was the clearest refutation of the noble lord's as- 
 sertions, but his error seemed to have arisen from his 
 having taken notice of another clause in the act, which 
 ordams, that the monies appropriated to the payment of 
 annuities to be granted to those persons whose places 
 were to be abolished, should be placed in a fund as they 
 should arise by the death of the annuitants, to create a 
 provision for the royal family. This was the error of the 
 noble lord : he had mistaken tins provision for all the 
 savings of the plan : unless indeed he imagined that to 
 place money in the sinking f*ind subject to the disposal of 
 
SPEAKER. 1S9 
 
 Parliament, was net to apply it to the public service. He 
 might consider the blind profusion of the minister as the 
 public service ; and unless it had been left to him to be 
 mismanaged and squandered in his usual way, it was not 
 applying it, in his opinion to the public service. — He trust- 
 ed the house would excuse him for having wantoned with 
 their patience on this point : and he, for his own part, 
 should think his time and labor very well repaid, if there- 
 by he hc;d been fortunate enough to gain over so power- 
 ful an assisf.uit and friend as the noble lord, to the princi- 
 ple of the bill. It had been said by an honorable gentle- 
 man, who spoke early in the debate, that the bill connect- 
 ed two objects that ought to have been kept separate. 
 His honorable friend [Mr. John Townshend] near him 
 had shewn, that these objects ought 'to go hand in hand 
 together, and i^ad very properly contend;^d that this was 
 the fit moment for introducing reform and economy. He 
 should add, that the bill had a third object, much more 
 important than either of these, and that was the reduction 
 of the influence of the crown : that influence which the 
 last Parliament, by an express resolution, had declared to 
 be increasing, and that it ought to be diminished: an in- 
 fluence which was more to be dreaded, because more se- 
 cret in its attacks, and more concealed in its operations, 
 than the power of |;rerog:itivc. All these objects were 
 not only cojnpatible v.i;h each other, but they had a mu- 
 tual connection, and ought not to be divided in a mea- 
 sure of reformation. In all the arguments of the noble 
 lord who spoke last, on the subject oi^ the resolutions of 
 the 6di of April, he obstrved the nobie lord's objections 
 were directed solely to the second of these resolutions ; 
 he took It lor granted therefore, that the noble lord ad- 
 mitttd the first. That resolution pledged the house to do 
 something efl'ectual in compliance with the petitions of the 
 people. Why then should the house refuse to adopt the 
 present bill, the operation of which in diminishing the in- 
 fluence of the crown, rendered it in his opinion much 
 more valuable than the mere consideration of the saving 
 it would effect? But it had been said, that the saving was 
 immaterial ; it was a matter of trifling consideration, when 
 measured by the necessities or expenses at the time. It 
 proposed to bring no more than 200,000/. a year into the 
 
140 AMERICAN 
 
 public coffers ; and that sum was insignificant in the pub- 
 lic account, when compared with the millions which we 
 spend. This was surely the most singular and unaccount- 
 able species of reasoning that was ever attempted in any- 
 assembly. The calamities of the crisis were too great to 
 be benefited by economy. Our expenses were so enor- 
 mous, that it was ridiculous to attend to little matters of 
 account. We have sptnt so many millions, that thousands 
 are beneath our consideration. We were obliged to spend 
 so much that it was foolish to think of saving any. This 
 was the language of the day, and it was by such reason- 
 ing that the principle of the bill had been disputed. Much 
 argument had been brought to prove the impropriety and 
 the injustice of resuming a parliamentary grant ; and it 
 had been even said," that they had not a right to do so. It 
 would be needless to attempt an answer to such a doctrine. 
 It contained its refutation in its weakness. But it ought 
 to be remembered, that the civil list revenue was granted 
 bv Parliament to his Majesty for other purposes than those 
 of personal gratification. It was granttd to support the 
 power and the interests of the empire, to maintain its 
 grandeur, to pay the judges and the foreign ministers, to 
 maintain justice and support respect ; to pay the great 
 officers that were necessary to the lustre of the crown ; 
 and it was proportioned to die dignity and opulence ot the 
 people. It would be an ungracious task to investigate 
 the great difference that there was between the wealth of 
 the empire when that revenue was granted, and the 
 wealth at the present time. It would serve however to 
 shew, that the sum of revenue, which was necessasy to 
 the support of the common dignity of the crown and 
 people at that time, ought now to be abated, as the ne- 
 cessities had increased. The people who grunted that re- 
 venue under the circumstances of the occasion, were jus- 
 tified in resuming a part of it, under the pressing demand 
 of an altered situation. They clearly felt their right ; 
 but they exercised it with pain and regret. They ap- 
 proached the throne with bleeding hearts, afflicted at the 
 necessity of applying for retrenchment of the royal gra- 
 tifications ; but the request was at once loyal and sub- 
 missive. It was justified by policy, and his Majesty's 
 compliance with the request was inculcated by prudence^ 
 
SPEAKER. 141 
 
 as well as by affection. He confessed, that, when he con- 
 sidered the obligations of the house, he could not cherish 
 the idea that they would dispute the principle of the bill 
 before them. He could not believe it possible that the 
 principle of economy would be condemned, or the means 
 of accomplishing it abandoned. For liis own part, he 
 admired the plan proposed. He felt himself, as a citizen 
 of this country and a member of that house, highly in- 
 debted to the honorable author of it ; and as he consid- 
 ered it as essential to the being and the independence of 
 his country, he would give it the most determined support. 
 
 Extract from a Speech of Mr. Fox, 12th June, 1781, on 
 the receipt of the ?ietvs in England of the Battle of 
 Guildford, 
 
 " I proceed next to the battle of Guildford, where 
 the Gazette asserts, we had obtained a signal victory. 
 This tt:rm I doubt not, was used by lord Cornwallis 
 in a very proper sense ; for he could only attend to the 
 disproportion betw.cn the two armies ; in which point of 
 view, no doubt, that a victory should be gained on our 
 side was very astonishing, and highly honorable to the 
 troops ; but if the consequences of the action were to be 
 regarded, then he must understand the word signal in a 
 very different sense ; and allow the victory to have been 
 sig7ialised, by drawing after it the same identical effects 
 that might have been expected from a defeiir. Flad our 
 army been vanquished, what course could ihey have taken? 
 Certainly they would have abandoned the lit-ld of action^ 
 and flown for refuge to the sea-side : now these are pre- 
 cisely the measurt-s we were obliged to adopt after the 
 action at Guildford, the victorious army leaving the field, 
 abandoning the future object of its expedition, and retir- 
 ing to the fleet. Another term used by lord Cornwallis 
 I must also take notice of; he called his army a little one ; 
 and well indeed might lie give it that appellation, since his 
 whole force did not amount at the utmost to three thousand 
 men. I take that number merely to avoid a contradiction 
 that miglu* divert the current of debate into an improper 
 channel ,• for I am credibly informed the army did not a- 
 
142 AMERICAN 
 
 mount to one half the nunnber ; but taking it at three thou= 
 sand, then on what principle couid ministers even justify 
 confining the operations of this active and spirited general 
 by so scanty a force? Little indeed the army was, compared 
 to the enemy it combated, but still less if compared to the 
 army estimates voted this session ; for it appeared by 
 them, that no less than eighty-three thousand men were 
 employed in America, including a number in the West 
 Indies ; so that, in order to bring three thousand men into 
 the field, the public were to pay for and provide eighty- 
 thousand. I do not mean absolutely to sa)^, that so many 
 were actually in the service, perhaps not a tenth part of 
 them could be produced ; but the account of them was 
 to be seen on the table ; and what language coul<l properly 
 describe the fraudulent conduct of ministers in imposing 
 so grievous a burden on the people without necessity ? 
 I will take, however, if they please the other alterna- 
 tive, I will suppose every man charged in the estimates to 
 be really employed, and that it was necessary to keep 
 eighty thousand on the defensive, that three thousand 
 might be brought into the field ; need there any thing else 
 be urged to prove the ruinous tendency of the American 
 war ? For lord Cornwallis had stated as his opinion, 
 that defensive measures would be certain ruin to our af- 
 fairs ; and yet we could not act offensively without keep- 
 ing about a proportion of twenty-five to one in garrison ; 
 nor did this computation go far enough, as, besides the 
 eighty-three thousand, our friends in America were to be 
 reckoned nine-tenths of the whole j instead of which, 
 however, I am inclined to think a great part of the former 
 number were necessarily employed to watch them, instead 
 of their being anywise serviceable to our cause. From 
 this I deduce the aiisurdity of attempting to contend with 
 ^France in America : we had conquered that power in 
 Germany last war, as it had been said : for my part I ra- 
 ther entertain a different opinion, believing that both pow- 
 ers found that conflict so expensive, that they retired from 
 it mutually esftiausted, and saw it answered to them the 
 end of a war nearer home, by sufficiently weakening each 
 other ; but would that equality of expense exist in the 
 present case ? Certainly not ; for the ministry could not 
 deny, that if we had a hundred thousand men in America, 
 
SPEAKER. 143 
 
 \ 
 
 and France only twenty-five thousand, she could bring 
 more troops into the field than we ; but besides this, allow- 
 ing we each brought the same number, our enemy would 
 not incur one fifth part of our expenses. 
 
 " Though lord Cornwallis had done every thing he 
 proposed by penetrating into North Carolina, though he 
 had been fortunate enough to come up with General 
 Green, engaged, and defeated him, he had found no one 
 good consequence of his success, not being joined by any 
 body of Americans as he expected, nor evtn retaining the 
 ground on which he had conquered. As therefore no un- 
 foreseen obstacles had presented themselves, and no ill 
 conduct had attended the execution of the plan, it was un- 
 deniable, that the project was a vain one, similar to all the 
 other enterprises we had formed during the course of the 
 war ; for inimical as the inhabitants of the country were 
 always found, and defended as they were by natural bar- 
 riers, extensive conquests must ever be impracticable, and 
 no abilities of the general or valor of the troops could avail 
 to any substantial success. This was experienced by ge- 
 neral BuRGOYNE at Bennington ; by general Howe at 
 Long Island; by lord Cornwallis at Guildford; and so 
 it ever must be found while the constitution of things in 
 America remained the same. Ministers had already tried 
 the fortune of war in nearly all the thirteen provinces : 
 they began with Massachusett's Bay, which was in the 
 first commencement of the war supposed the only hostile 
 part of the continent. An insurrection in the province of 
 JVIassachusett's Bay was the general phrase, and formed 
 the preamble in every act of parliament for coercing Ame- 
 rica ; of course, therefore, to suppress that insurrection 
 was the only object of the war, and Boston was then taken 
 possession o^ as the only military operation necessary; but 
 in a short time that town was abandoned again, and with 
 so much avidity, that a great minister of state, now no 
 more [lord Suffolk] had even congratulated parliament 
 on the occasion. We then possessed ourselves of New 
 York finding the flame of rebellion had extended farther 
 southwards, and there continued till this hour, though it 
 seemed it was not a situation for offensive measures. The 
 next enterprise was levelled at the middle colonies, and 
 Philadelphia taken ; which success was preceded by a very 
 
144 AMERICAN 
 
 important victory; yet that place was abandoned also 
 much to our satisfaction, and the retreat from it had eter- 
 nised the name of Clinton. After this, we discovered 
 all at once, that the Southern Colonies were most vulne- > 
 rable and proper for an attack. A noble lord [lord West- 
 cote] proclaimed their inhabitants to be effeminate and 
 enervated by the heat of the sun : his lordship being a 
 scholar reasoned on the topic very scientifically, and his 
 ideas were at once adopted : Charleston in consequence 
 was taken ; and but for extraordinary exertions of bravery, 
 would have turned out a conquest more injurious to our 
 cause than any of the preceding. In short, we had now 
 attempted every province but Virginia and New Hamp- 
 shire, the latter of which I am sorry to find could not be 
 invaded without great difficulty ; but as to the former I 
 1|.understand it is to be the next object of enterj:rise : now 
 ' I should be happy to learn whether after the thirteen colo- 
 nies had been invaded, without advancing our grand ob- 
 ject a single step, ministers would at last consent to relin- 
 quish this most destructive war. If I can only obtain an 
 assurance of that, I will readily consent to an attempt on 
 Virginia, and think I make a good bargain for my consti- 
 tuents. 
 
 Extract from a Speech of the hie Mr, Pitt in the same 
 debate. 
 
 " Some gentlemen had passed the highest eulogiums on 
 the American war. Its justice was defended in the most 
 warm and fervent manner indeed. A noble lord in the 
 heat of his zeal had called it a holy war. For my part, 
 though the honorable gentleman who made the motion, 
 and some other gentlemen, had been more than once in the 
 course of the debate severely reprehended for calling it a 
 wicked and accursed war, I am persuaded, and will affirm, 
 that it was a most cursed, wicked, barbarous, cruel, unna- 
 tural, unjust, and diabolical war. It was conceived in in- 
 justice : it was nurtured and brought forth in folly : its 
 footsteps were marked with blood, slaughter, persecution, 
 and devastation: in truth, every thing which went to con- 
 stitute moral depravity and human turpitude, was to be 
 
SPEAKER. us 
 
 found in it. It was pregnant with misery of every kind. 
 The mischiefs, however, recoiled on the unhappy people 
 of ihis country who were made the instruments, by vvhiuh 
 the wicked purposes of its authors were effectecL^ The 
 nation was drained of its best blood and of its vital re- 
 sources of men and money. The expense of it was en- 
 ormous, much beyond any former experience ; and yet, 
 what had the British nation received in return ? Nothing 
 
 but a series of im fFective victories, or severe defeats 
 
 victories celebrated only by a temporary triumph over our 
 brethren, whom we would trample down and destroy ; 
 %vhich filled the land with mourning for the loss of dear 
 and valuable relations, slain in the impious cause of en- 
 forcing unconditional submission; or with narrati es of 
 the glorious exertions of men, struggling in the holv cause 
 of liberty, though struggling under all the difficulties and 
 disadvantages which in general are deemed ihc necessary 
 concomitants of victory and success. Where was the 
 Englishman, on reading the narratives of those bloody 
 and well-fought contests, who could refrain from lament- 
 ing the loss of so much British blood, spilt in such a cause ? 
 or from weeping on whatever side victorv might be de- 
 clared ? Add to this melancholy consideration, that on 
 which ever side we looked, we could perceive nothing but 
 nur natural and powerful enemies, or luke-warm and faith- 
 less friends, rejoicing in our calamities, or meditating our 
 •iltimate downfall." 
 
 Extract fr 0771 Mr, Fox's Speech in Kovember 1781, mmc- 
 duitely after the news had arrived of the surrender of 
 Lord Connvallis. 
 
 " I had expected, and I know it has been expected by 
 many others, to hear on this occasion his Majesty declare 
 from the throne, that he had been deceived and imposed 
 upon by misinformation and misrepresentation ,• that in 
 consequence of his delusion, the parhament had been de- 
 luded ; but that now the deception was at an end ; and 
 requesting of his parliamtint to devise the most speedy and 
 efficacious means of putting an end to the public calami- 
 ties ; instead^of which they had heard a speech breathing 
 
146 AMERICAN 
 
 little else than vengeance, misery, and blood. Those ivho 
 ivere ignorant of the personal character of the Sovereign^ 
 and vho imagined this speech to originate with him, 
 might be led to suppose that he was an unfeeling despot, 
 rejoicing in the horrid sacrifice of the hberty and lives of 
 his subjects, who, when all hope of victory was vanished, 
 still thirsted for revenge. The ministers, who advised this 
 speech, are a curse to the country, over the affairs of which 
 thty have too long been suffered to preside. From that 
 unrivalled pre-eminence which we so lately possessed, they 
 have made us the object of ridicule and scorn to the sur- 
 rounding nations. The noble lord in the blue ribband has 
 indeed thought fit to ascribe the American war and all its 
 attendant calamities to the speeches of Opposition. Oh ! 
 wretched and incapable ministry, whose measures are 
 framed with so little foresight, and executed with so little 
 firmness, that because a rash and intemperate invective is 
 uttered against them in the House of Commons, they shall 
 insiantly crumble in pieces, and bring down ruin upon the 
 country ! Miserable statesman ! to allow for no contin- 
 gencies of fortune, no ebullition of passion, no collision 
 of sentiment ! Could he expect the concurrence of every 
 individual in that House ? and was he so weak or wicked, 
 as to contrive plans of government of such a texture, that 
 the intervention of circumstances, obvious and unavoid- 
 able, would occasion their total failure, and hazard the ex- 
 istence of the empire ? Ministers must expect to hear of 
 the calamities in which they had involved the empire, again 
 and again — not merely in that House, but at the tribunal 
 of justice ; for, the time will surely come, when an op- 
 |>ressf d and irritated people will firmly call for signal pun- 
 ishment on those whose counsels have brought the nation 
 so near to the brink of destruction. An indignant nation 
 will surely in the end compel them to make somt- faint a- 
 tonement for the magnitude of their offences 'on a public 
 
 fSCAFFOLD. 
 
 3Irl Burkcy on the right to tax America^ November^ 1781. 
 
 " Oh ! inestimable right. Oh ! wonderful, transcend ant 
 right, the assertion of which has cost this countrj^hirteen 
 
SPEAKER. U7 
 
 provinces, six islands, 100,OvOO lives, and seventy millions 
 of money ! Oh invaluable right ! for the sake of which we 
 have sacrificed our rank among nations, out importance 
 abroad, and our happiness at home ! Oh right ! more dear 
 to us than our existence, which has already cost us so 
 much, and which seems likely to cost us our all. Infa- 
 tuated man!" cried Mr. Burke, fixing his eyes on the 
 minister, *' miserable and undone country! not to know 
 that the claim of right without the power of enforcing it, 
 is nugatory and idle. We had a right to tax America, the 
 noble lord tells us ; therefore we ought to tax America. 
 This is the profound loj:^ic which comprises the whole 
 chain of his reasoning. Not inferior to this was the wis- 
 dom of him who resolved to shear the wolf. What ! shear 
 a wolf! Have you considered the resistance, the difficul- 
 ty, the danger of the attempt ? No, says the madman, I 
 have considered nothing but the right. Man has a right 
 of dominion over the beasts of the forest ; and therefore I 
 will shear the woif. Hov/ v/onderful that a nation could 
 be thus deluded. But the noble lord dealt in cheats and 
 delusions. They were the daily traflic of his invention ; 
 and he would continue to play off his cheats on this 
 House, so long as he thought them necessary to his pur- 
 pose, and so long as he had money enough at command 
 to bribe gentlemen to pretend that they belie^^ed him. 
 But a black and bitter day of reckoning would surely 
 come ; and whenever that day came, he trusted he should 
 be able, by a parliamentary impeachment, to bring 
 upon the heads of the authors of our calamities, the pun- 
 ishment they deserved." 
 
 Speech of 3Ir, Fox, on Mr. Pitt's ^notion, for a reform in 
 the representation of the people^ by a ^^radual extinguish' 
 ment^ by purchase, of the right of sending members to 
 parliament^ possessed by sundry Rotten Boroughs, 
 
 " After the many occasions, on which I have before 
 expressed what my sentiments are on the subject of a_re- 
 form in the repr'sentation of the people in Parliament, I 
 shall n.ot consider myself under any great necessity of trou- 
 bling the house ; but there have been extraordinary cir- 
 
148 AMERICAN 
 
 cumstances attending the introduction of the present ques- 
 tion. That I bnve always bf-en a friend to the principle 
 of the bill is a L.qk which does not require to be now re- 
 peated. Whfcthrr tht means taken to effect that principle 
 are such as are most unexceptionable, must remain for 
 future discussion, but cannot provoke my opposition to 
 the motion. There remain ample opportunities in the 
 future stages of the Bill to examine and correct it ; — op- 
 portunities which in themseivts will be the highest acqui- 
 sitiott. 
 
 ** To that principle which by a diminution of the mem- 
 bers of boroughs tended to encrease the proportion of re- 
 presentatives for counties, I am sincerely and cordially a 
 friend. But while I am thus explicit on the subject of 
 my approbation, it ir^ but just to mention, that there is 
 another point to which I totally disagree. With all re- 
 spect Vt^hich I always pay to the house of commons, I can 
 perceive in it no superlative excellence, no just superiority, 
 which can justify the suspension of the operation of this 
 bill. To defer for a period of years any system of reform, 
 however pnrtial and inadequate, is by no means comply- 
 inp. with the dc dared wishes of the majority of the elec- 
 tors of this country, whose voice, though by no means to 
 be acknowledged as that to which the house of commons 
 must conform, when they are directed by any sudden im- 
 pulse as the opinions of a moment, should always be obey- 
 ed on points which the experience and consideration of 
 years have taught them finally to decide on. The people, 
 iiotwithstanciing all that has been said, have no peculiar 
 obligations to this Parliament for uncommon instances of 
 that propriety of conduct, which would warrant so implicit 
 a reliance in it. No very flattering proofs of extraordi- 
 nary attention to the rights of the people have been given 
 by his jMajesty's present ministers, in their support of 
 that excellent measure the Westminster scrutiny : and no 
 very splendid testimony of their prudence in financial 
 concerns could be drawn from the CGrnmiitation tax. This 
 is a proceeding, the hardship of which they have already 
 felt; and there are some others now in agitation, which 
 are not likely to turn out much more fa\'XDrable. These 
 only are the reasons the people can have for a reliance in 
 their present Parliamento I do not however mean to say 
 
SPEAKER, 149 
 
 any thing which can be construed as invective against 
 them. - I have before been accused of insulting them. 
 I do not know that I did so ; but if heat should have 
 led me at any time to say any thing which could have 
 that appearance, I am exceedingly sorry for it. There 
 was nothing in any of these circumstances which could 
 impress them on my memory ; but I have observed, that 
 nothing I have ever said in my warmest moments has 
 ever drawn forth so much passion and ill temper on the 
 other side of the house, as when 1 have attempted to 
 praise them. The Right Honorable Gentleman has in 
 this instance receded from those opinions which on tv\o 
 former occasions he seemed to maintain ; and the alt- ra- 
 tion which he has now made for the purpose of a specific 
 plan is infinitely for the wofse. It is in vain that he en- 
 deavours to qualify the objections which the idea of inno- 
 vation raises in the minds of some, by diminishing the 
 extent and influence of reformation. From the earliest 
 periods of our government, that principle of innovation, 
 but which should more properly be called amendment, is 
 neither more nor less than the practice of the constitution, 
 in every species of government, for I will put absolute 
 monarchy out of the question, as one which ought never 
 lo take place in any country, democracy and aristocracy 
 are always in a state of graslual improvement, v/hen expe- 
 rience comes to the aid of theory, and speculation. 
 
 '*• In all these the voice of the people, when deliberately 
 and generally collected, is invariably sure to succeed. 
 There nre moments ot periodical impulse and delusion, 
 in which they should not be gratified; but when the views 
 of a* people have been formed and determined on the at- 
 tainment of any object, they must ultimately succeed. Oa 
 this subject the people of this country liave petitioned 
 from time to time, and their applications have been made 
 to their Parliament. In every reason therefore triey should 
 be gratified, lest they may be inclined to sue for redress 
 in another quarter, w^here their application will have every 
 probability of success, from the experience of last year. 
 Failing in their representatives, they may have recourse 
 to their prerogative. It has been urged, that now whilst 
 this business is in agitation, the people of Birminghawi 
 and Manchester have not petitioned to be jfnresentci^* 
 
 2 
 
150 AMERICAN 
 
 This is an argument which at this time of all others can 
 have but Uttle weight ; for while they were alarmed for 
 their trade and their subsistence, it is no time for them to 
 set about making improvements in that constitution, in 
 ivhich they are not certain how long they may have any 
 share. On the eve of emigration, they are to look for 
 this in another country, to which their property and busi- 
 ness are soon to be transferred. The different parts of 
 this plan would certainly in a committee be submitted to 
 modification and amendments : but as it now stands ad- 
 mitting only the first principle, every other part and the 
 means taken jto attain the principle are highly objectiona- 
 ble. I shall not hesitate to declare, that I will never agree 
 to admit the purchasing from a majority of the electors 
 the property of the whole. In this I see so much injus- 
 tice, and 30 much repugnance to the true spirit of our 
 constitution, that I cannot entertain the idea one moment. 
 On the other hand, when the property of a borough is in 
 one man, there is no chance of his disposing of it on the 
 terms this day mentioned ; for when a particular sum is 
 laid down for a certam purchase, and interest suffered to 
 accumulate on that sum, the man must be a fool who could 
 be in haste to get the possession of it. There is some- 
 thing injurious in holding out pecuniary temptations to an 
 Englishman to relinquish his franchise on the one hand, 
 snd a political principle which equally forbids it on ano- 
 ther. I am uniformly of an opinion, which, though not a 
 popular one, I am ready to aver, that the right of govern- 
 ing is not a property, but a trust ; and that whatever is 
 giv.-n for constitutional purposes, should be resumed yhen 
 those purposes shall no longer be carried into effect. There 
 are instances of gentlemen offering to sacrifice the interest 
 ihey may have in boroughs to the public good. It is 
 strange that none of them now come forward, when the 
 occasion has presented itself. I am averse to the idea of 
 eonfinihg parliairtntary situations to men of large fortunes, 
 or those who have distinguished themselves in public pro- 
 fessions. Should this be the case, there is scarcely any 
 man so little acquainted with the histoiy of Parliament, 
 as not to know that the house would lose half its force. It 
 33 not from men of large and easy fortunes that attention, 
 vigilance, energy, and enterprise are to be expected* Hii= 
 
SPEAKER. I5i 
 
 man nature is too fond of gratification not to be some- 
 ^vhat attentive to it, when the means are at hand ; and the 
 best and most meritorious public services have always been 
 performed by persons in circumstances removed froTi 
 opulence. The Right Honorable Gentleman need not be 
 ashamed to take some of those regulations formed in the 
 time of the protector, Oliver Crot-iwell ; ibr though a 
 character too odious ever to be the object of praise or imi- 
 tation, his institutions, confirmed afterwards by his suc- 
 cessor, Charles il., bear strong marks of genius and abi- 
 lity ; for his political disposition was as good as that of his 
 successor, and his genius infinitely more powerful. I shall 
 conclude with earnestly intreating all sides of the house to 
 concur in the question now before them." 
 
 Extract from 3Ir, TloocVs Speech irz trie British House cf 
 Commons in March^ 1790. 
 
 *' This secret of inadequate representation was told the 
 people in thunder in the American war ; which began with 
 virtual representation, and ended in dismemberment. To 
 the inadequacy of representation, I charge that war. 
 
 " Profuse councils, attendant on unconstitutional majori- 
 ties, had left ijpon you a debt, which induced the minister 
 to look to America for taxes. There the war began •, 
 the instinctive selfishness of mankind made the people and 
 Parliament wish that others should be taxed rather than 
 themselves. Ai first, and until America resisted, I agree 
 that this wish was common to the Parliament and people ; 
 but when Airierica resisted, and the measure came to de- 
 liberate judgment, the people were the first to recover 
 their senses ; whilst the minister with his majoritv, went 
 on to ruin. I siiy, that the inadequacy of representation, 
 as it was the cause, so it v/ys the only argument that was 
 attempted in justification of that war. When the Ame- 
 rican exclaimed, thai he was not represented in the 
 British house of Commons, becausr he was not an elector, 
 he was told, that a very small part of the people of Eng- 
 land were electors ; and that therefore he was in the same 
 state in which an infinite majorit) of the people of Eng- 
 land were placed. As they could not call this actual. 
 
152 AMERICAN 
 
 t'ncy invented a new name for it, and called it virtual re- 
 presentation : and gravely concluded that America was re- 
 presented. The argument no doubt was fallacious : it was 
 perfectly sufficient, however, to impose on multitudes in a 
 nation, wishmg that others should be taxed rather than 
 themselves ; and who were in the habit of thinking that the 
 Americans being an inferior species of beings, ought 
 to be contented with their situation, though they did not 
 partake at ail in the elective capacity. The influence of cor- 
 ruption within doors, and of this fraud of argument with- 
 out, continued the American war. 
 
 *' It terminated in a separation, as it began in this empty 
 vision of a virtual representation ; and in its passage from 
 one of these points to the other, it swe^t away part of the 
 glory, and more of the territory of Great Britain, with the 
 loss of forty thousand lives, and one hundred millions of 
 treasure. Virtual Parliaments, and an inadequate repre- 
 sentation, have cost you enough abroad already ; take care 
 they do not cost you more at home, by costing you your 
 
 Extracts from Mr. Fox'^s Speech on Mr, Greifs motion for 
 a Parliamentary Rform^ May 26t/i 1797 » 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " Much and often as this question has been discussed 
 both within these vv'aHs, and without, and late as the hour 
 is, I feel it my duty to make sonic observations, and to 
 deliver my opinion on a measure of high importance at all 
 tim.cs, but which at the present period is become infinitely 
 more interesting than ever. I fear, however, that my 
 conviction on this subject is not common to the house. 
 1 fear, that we are not likely to be agreed as to the impor- 
 tance of the rreasure, nor as to the necessity ; since, by the, 
 mann. r in which it has been discussed this night, I foresee 
 that, so tar from being unanimous on the proposition, we 
 shall not be agree d as to the situation and circumstances 
 of the country itself, much less as to the nature of the mea- 
 sures, which, in my mind, that situation, and those circum- 
 stanc s so imperiously demand. 
 
 " For myself, and according to my vieV of our circum* 
 
SPEAKER. 153 
 
 stnnces, all that part of the argument against reform, which 
 relates to the danger of innovation, is strongly misplaced 
 by those who think with me, that, so far from procuring 
 the mere chance of practical benefits by a reform, it is only 
 by a reform that we can have a chance of rescuing our- 
 selves from a state of extreme peril and distress. Such is 
 my view of our situation. I think it so perilous, so immi- 
 nent, that though I do not feel conscious of despair, an e- 
 motion ^vhich the heart ought not to admit, yet it comes 
 nearer to that state of hazard, when the sentiment of de- 
 spair, rather than of hope, may be supposed to take pos- 
 session of the mind. I feel myself to be the member of 
 a community in which the boldest man, without any impu- 
 tation of cowardice, may dread that we are not merely- 
 approaching to a state of mere peril, but of absolute dis- 
 solution ; and with this conviction, impressed indelibly on 
 my heart, gentlemen will not believe that I disregard all 
 the general arguments that have been used Rgainst the 
 motion on the score of innovation, from any disrespect 
 to the honorable n^em,bers who have urged them, or to the 
 ingenuity with which they have been pressed, but because 
 I am firmly persuaded that th;-y are totally inapplicable 
 to the circumstances under which we come to the discus- 
 sion. With the ideas that I entertain, I cannot listen for 
 a mom', nt to suggestions that are applicable only to other 
 situations and to other times ; for unless we are resolved, 
 in liClplcss pusillanimity, or in a stupid torpor, to succumb, 
 and to wait with resignation the appv-oach of our doom, to 
 lie down and die, we must take bold and decisive mea- 
 sures for our deliverance. We must not be deterred by 
 meaner apprehensions. We must coml)ine all our strength, 
 fortify one another by the commutiion of our courage ; 
 and by a sensonable exertion of national wisdom, patriot- 
 ism, and vigor, take measures for the chance of salvation, 
 and encounter with unappalled hearts all the enemies fo- 
 reign and internal, all the dangers and calamities of every 
 kind, which press so heaviiy upon us. Such is my view 
 of the present emergency of England ; and under this 
 impression, 1 cannot tor a moment listen to the argument 
 of danger arising from innovation, since our ruin is inevi- 
 table, if we pursue the course Vv'hich h.is brought us to the 
 brink of the precipice. 
 
154 AMERICAN 
 
 " I have invariably declared myself a friend to par- 
 liamentary reform by whomsoever proposed ; and though 
 in all the discussions that have heretofore taken place, 
 I have had occasion to express my doubt as to the effica- 
 cy of the particular mode, I have never hesitated to say, 
 that the principle itself was beneficial ; and that, though 
 not called for with the urgency, which some folks, and 
 among others the right honorable gentleman declared to 
 exist, I const.mtly was of opinion that it ought not to 
 be discouraged. Now, however, that all doubt upon 
 the subject s removed by the pressure of our calami- 
 ties, and that no spark of hope remains for the country, 
 and the dreadful alternative seems to be, whether we shall 
 sink into the most abject thraldom on the one side, or 
 continue in the same course until we are driven into the 
 horrors of anarchy on the other, I can have no hesitation 
 in saying, that the plan of recurring to the principle of 
 tneiiorntion- which the constitution points out, is become a 
 desideratum to the people of Great Britain. Between the 
 aliernatives of baoe and degraded slavery on the one side, 
 or of tumultuous though probably short lived anarchy oii 
 the other, thau;.;h no niao would hesitatt to make his choice, 
 yet if there be a course obvious and practicable, which, 
 without either viohncr or innovation, may lead us back 
 to the vigor we have lost, to the energy that has been 
 stifled, to the dependence that has been undermined, 
 and yet preserve every thing in its place, a moment 
 ought not to be lost in embracing the chance which this 
 fortuniUe provision of the British system has made for 
 British safety. 
 
 " Every thing that is dear and urgent to the minds of 
 Englishmen, presses upon us : at the critical moment at 
 which I now address you, a day, an hour ought not to e- 
 lapse, without giving to ourselves the chance of this reco- 
 very. When government is daily presenting itself in the 
 shape of weakness that borders on dissolution — unequal to 
 all the functions of useful strength, and formidable only 
 in pernicious corruption — weak in power, but strong only 
 in influence ; am I to be told, that such a state of things 
 can go on with safety to any branch of the constitution ? 
 If men think, that under the impression of such a system, 
 we can go on without a material recurrence to first princi* 
 
SPEAKER. 155 
 
 pies, they argue in direct opposition to all theory and all 
 practice. These discontents cannot in their nature subside 
 under detected weakness and exposed incapacity. In their 
 progress and increase, as increase they must, who shall 
 say that direction can be given to the torrent, or that hav- 
 ing broken its bounds it can be kept from overwhelming 
 the country ? Sir, it is not the part of statesmen, it is not 
 the part of rational beings, to amuse ourselves with such 
 fallacious dreams : we must not sit down and lament over 
 our hapless situation ; we must not deUver ourselves up 
 to an imbecile despondency, that would paralyse us at the 
 approach of danger; but by a seasonable, alert and vigor- 
 ous measure of wisdom, meet it with what we think a suf- 
 ficient and seasonable remedy. — We may be disappointed 
 — we may fail in the application, for no man can be cer- 
 tain of his footing on ground that is unexplored ; but we 
 shall at least have a chance for success — we shall at least 
 do^hat belongs to legislators, and to rational beings on 
 the occasion ; and I have confidence that our efforts would 
 not be in vain. I say that we should give ourselves a 
 chance, and I may add the best chance for deliverance ; 
 since it would exhibit to the country a proof that we had 
 conquered the first great difficulty that stood in the way 
 of bettering our condition — we had conquc^red ours-^lves. 
 We had given a general triumph to reason over prejudice ; 
 we had given a death-blow to those miserable distinctions 
 of JF/iig- and Tory, under which the warfare had been 
 maintained between pride and privilege ; and through the 
 contention of our rival jealousies, the genuine rights of 
 the many had been gradually undermined and frittered 
 away. I say that this would be giving us the best chance, 
 be^cause, seeing every thing go on from bad to worse — see- 
 ing the progress of the most scandalous waste countenan- 
 ced by the most criminal confidence, and thut the effront- 
 ery of corruption no longer requires the musk of conceal- 
 ment — seeing liberty daily infringed, and the vital springs 
 of the nation insufiicient for the extravagance of a dissi- 
 pated government, I must believe, that, unless the people 
 are mad or stupiu> they will suspect that there is some- 
 thing fundamentally false or vicious in our system, and 
 which no reform would be equal to correct. Then to pre- 
 vent all this, and to try if we can effect a reform, without 
 
156 AMERICAN 
 
 touching the mahi pillars of our constitution — without 
 changing its forms, or disturbing the harmoiiy ot its parts 
 — without putting any thing out of its place, or affecting 
 the securities which we justly hold to be so sacred, I say, 
 that it is the only chance which we have for retrieving our 
 misfortunes by the road of quiet and tranquillity, and by 
 which national strength may be recovered without disturb- 
 ing the property of a single individual. 
 
 *•' An honorable baronet spoke of the instability of de- 
 mocracies, and says, that history does not give us the ex- 
 ample of one that has lasted eighty years. Sir, I am not 
 speaking of pure democracies, and therefore his allusion 
 does not apply to my argument. Eighty years, however, 
 of peace and repose would be pretty well for any people 
 to enjoy, and would be no bad recommendation of a pure 
 democracy. I am very ready, however, to acjree with 
 the honorable baronet, that, according to the experience of 
 history, the ancient democracies of the world were vVcipus, 
 and objectionable on many accounts ; their instability, 
 their injustice, and^many other vices cannot be overlook- 
 er^ ; but siu*ely when we turn to the ancient democracies 
 of Greece, when we see them in all the splendor of arts 
 and of arms, when we see how they aroused and invigo- 
 rated genius, and to what an elevation they carried the 
 powers of man, it cannot be denied that however vicious 
 on the score of ingratitude, or injustice, they were at least., 
 the pregnant and never-l'aiiing source of national strength; 
 and, that, in particular, they brought forth and afforded 
 this strength in a peculiar manner in the moment of diffi- 
 culty, and distress. When we look at the democracies of 
 the ancient world, we are compelled to acknowledge their op- 
 pressions to their dependencies, their horrible acts of injus- 
 tice and of ingratitude to their own citizens ; but they com- 
 pel us also to admiration by their vigor, their constancy, 
 their spiiit, and their exertioris in every great emergency 
 in which the) were called upon to act. We are compelled 
 to o\\n, that it gives a power of which no other form of 
 government is capable. Why i Jiecause it incorporates 
 every m.n with the state — because it arouses every thing 
 that belongs to the soul, as well as to the body of man— 
 because it itiakLS every individual creature feel, that he is 
 fighting for himself, and not for another j that it is his 
 
SPEAKER. 157 
 
 own cause, his own safety, his own concern, his own dig- 
 nity, on the face of the earth, and his own interest on the 
 identical soil which he has to maintain ; and accordingly 
 we find that whatever may be ascribed, that whatever 
 may be objected to them on account of the turbulency of 
 the passions which they engender, their short duration, 
 and their disgusting vices, they have exacted from the 
 common suffrage of mankind the palm of strength and 
 vigor. Who that reads the history of the Persian war, 
 what boy whose heart is warmed by the grand and sub- 
 lime actions which the democratic spirit produced, does 
 not find in this principle the key to all the wonders which 
 were achieved at Thermopylae and elsewhere f He sees 
 that the principle of liberty only could create the sublime 
 and irresistible emotion ; and it is in vain to deny, from 
 the striking illustration that our own times have given, 
 that the principle is eternal, and that it belongs to the 
 heart of man. Shall we then refuse to take the benefit 
 of this invigorating principle ? Shall we refuse to take 
 the benefit which the wisdom of our ancestors resolved 
 that it should confer on the British constitution ? With 
 the knowledge that it can be reinfused into our system 
 without violence, without disturbing any one of its parts, 
 are we become so inert, so terrified, or so stupid, as to 
 hesitate for one hour to restore ourselves to the health 
 which it would be sure to give ? 
 
 " If you wish for power, you must look to liberty. If 
 ever there was a moment when this maxim oughi to be 
 dear to us, it is the present. We have tried all other 
 means : we have had recourse to every stratagem, that 
 
 artifice, that influence, that cunning could suggest we 
 
 have addressed ourselves to all the base passions of the 
 nation : we have addressed ourselves to pride, to avarice 
 to fear : we have awakened ail the interested emotions ; we 
 have employed every thing that flattery, every thing that 
 address, every thing that privilege could efl'ect : we have 
 tried to terrify them into exertion ; and all has been une- 
 qual to our emergency. Let us try them by the only 
 means which experience demonstrates to be invincible : 
 let us address ourselves to their love : let us identify them 
 with ourselves ; let us make it their own cause, as well as 
 ours. To induce them to come forward in support of the 
 
158 AMERICAN 
 
 state, let us make them a part of the state, and this they 
 become the very instant you give them a house of com- 
 mcns that is the faithful organ of their will : then, Sir, 
 when you have made them believe and feel that there can 
 be hut one interest in the country, you will never call up- 
 on them in vain for exertion. 
 
 *' There has been at different times 9 great deal of dis- 
 pute about virtual representation. Sir, I am no great ad- 
 vocate for these nice subtiliiies and special pleadings on 
 the constitution : much depends upon appearance as well 
 as reality. I know well, that a popular body of five hun- 
 dred and fifty-eight gentlemen, if truly independent of 
 the crown, would be a strong barrier to the people j but 
 the house of commons should not only be, but appear to 
 be, the representative of the people : the system should 
 satisfy the prejudices and the pride, as well as the reason 
 of the people ; and you can never expect to give the just 
 impression which a house of commons ought to make on 
 the people, until you derive it unequivocally from them. 
 It is asked, why gentlemen, who were against a parlia- 
 mentary reform on former occasions, should vote for it 
 now ? Ten years ago, men might reasonably object to any 
 reform of the system, who ought now in my opinion, to 
 be governed by motives that are irresistible in its favor. 
 They might look back with something like satisfaction 
 and triumph to former Parliaments, and console them- 
 selves with the reflection, that, though in moments of an 
 ordinary kind, in the common course of human events, 
 Parliament might abate from its vigilance, and give a 
 greater degree of confidence than strictly conformable 
 wiih representative duty ; yet there was a point beyond 
 which no artifice of power, no influence of corruption, 
 could carry them : that there were barriers in the British 
 constitution, over which the house of commons never 
 would leap, and that the moment of danger and alarm 
 would be the sign<il for the return of Parliament to its 
 post. Such might have been the reasoning of gentlemen 
 on the experience of former Parliaments ; and with this 
 rooted trust in the latent (i/ficacy of Parliament, they might 
 have objecteei to any attempt that should give scope to 
 views, or cherish hop; s of a change in the system itself; 
 but what will the said gentlemen say, after the experience 
 
SPEAKER. 159 
 
 of the last and the present Parliament? What depen- 
 dence, what trust, what reliance can they have for one ves- 
 tige of the constitution that is left to us ? Or rather, what 
 privilege, what right, what security, has not been already 
 violated ? 
 
 ^lid intactum nefasti Uquinius f 
 
 And seeing that in no one instance have they hesitated to 
 go the full lengwh of every outrage that was conceived by 
 the minister, that they have been touched by no scruples, 
 deterred by no sense of duty, corrected by no experience 
 of calamity, checked by no admonition, or remonstrance ; 
 that they have never made out a single case of inquiry ; 
 that they have never interposed a single restraint upon 
 abuse ; may not gentlemen consistently feel, that the re- 
 form, which they previously thought unnecessary, is now 
 indispensable ? We have heard to-day. Sir, all the old ar- 
 guments about honor on the one side being as liki^ly as 
 honor on the other, and that there are good men on both 
 sides of the house j that a man may be a member for a 
 close borough upon the one side of the house, as well as 
 upon the other ; and that he may be a good man sit where 
 he may. All this, Sir, is very idle language ; it is not 
 the question at issue : no man disputes the existence of 
 private and individual integrity ; but. Sir, this is not re- 
 presentation : if a man comes here as the proprietor of a 
 burgage tenure, he does not come here as the representa- 
 tive of the people. The whole of this system, as it is 
 now carried on, is as outrageous to morality, as it is 
 pernicious to just government. It gives a scandal to our 
 character, which not merely degrades the house of com- 
 mons in the eyes of the people, but it does more, it un- 
 dermines the very principles of integrity in their hearts, 
 and gives a fashion to dishonesty and imposture. They 
 hear of a person giving or receiving four or five thousand 
 pounds as the purchase -money of a seat for a close bo- 
 rough : and thty hQ«r the very man who received, and 
 put into his pocket the money, make a loud and vehement 
 speech in this house against bribery : and they see him 
 perhaps move for the commitment to prison of a poor 
 nfortunate wretch at your bar, who has been convicted 
 
160 AMERICAN 
 
 in taking a single guinea for his vote in the very bo- 
 rough, perhaps, where he had publicly, and unblushingly 
 sold his influence, though that miserable guinea was ne- 
 cessary to save a family fro;n starving, under the horrors 
 of a war which he had contributed to bring upon the 
 country ! Sir, these are things that paralyse you to the 
 heart: these are the things that vitiate the t^hole system, 
 that spread degeneracy, hypocrisy, and sordid fraud over 
 the country, and take from us the energies of virtue, and 
 sap the foundations of patriotism and spirit. The system 
 that encourages so much vice, ought to be put an end to; 
 and it is no argument, that because it lasted a long time 
 •without mischief, it ought now to be continued, when it 
 is found to be pernicious : it is arisen to a height that 
 defeats the very ends of government; it must sink under 
 its own weakness. And this, Sir, is not a case pecu- 
 liar to itself, but is inseparable from all human institu- 
 tions. All the writers of eminence upon forms of govern- 
 ment have said, that, in order to preserve them, frequent 
 recurrence must be had to their original principle. This 
 is the opinion of MoNTEsquiEU, as well as Machiavel. 
 Gentlemen will not be inchned to dispute the authority 
 of the latter on this point at least ; and he says, that 
 without this recurrence they grow out of shape, and de- 
 viate from their general form. It is only by recurring to 
 former principles that any government can be kept pure 
 and unabused. 
 
 " But, Sir, there is a lumping consideration, if I may 
 be allowed the phrase, which now more than ever ought 
 to make every man a convert to parliamentary reform i 
 there is an annual revenue of twenty-three millions ster- 
 ling collected by the executive government from the 
 people. Here, Sir, is the despot of election ; here is 
 the ntw power that is grown up to magnitude; that 
 bears down before it every defensive barrier established 
 by our ancestors for the protection of the people. They 
 had no such tyrant to control ; they had no such enemy 
 to oppose. Against every thing which v/t.s known, against 
 every thing which was seen, they did provide ; but it did 
 not enter into the contemplation of those who established 
 the checks and barriers of our system, that they would 
 ever have to stand against a revenue of twenty millions a 
 
SPEAKER. 161 
 
 year. The whole landed rental of the kingdom is not 
 estimated at more than twenty-five millions a year ; and 
 this rental is divided and dispersed over a large body who 
 cannot be supposed to act in concert, or to give to their 
 power the force of combination, and unity ; but even if 
 all united, organised, and exerted, has it now to oppose 
 a power nearly equal to itself in one hand, in a hand that 
 has all the means of hostility prepared, and all the re- 
 sources for action in full activity ? But it is said, that 
 though the government is in the receipt of a revenue of 
 twenty-three millions a year, it has not the expenditure 
 .of that sum, and that its influence ought not to be cal- 
 culated from what it receives, but what it has to pay 
 away. I submit, however, to the good sense, and to the 
 personal experience of gentlemen who hear me, if it be 
 not a manifest truth, that influence depends almost as much 
 upon what they have to receive, as upon what they have 
 to pay ; whether it does not proceed as much from the 
 submission of the dependent who has a debt to pay, as on 
 the gratitude of the person whose attachment they re- 
 ward ? And if this be true, in the influence which indi- 
 vWuals derive from the rentals of their estates, and from 
 the expenditure of that rental, how much more so is it 
 true of government, who, both in the receipt and ex- 
 penditure of this enormous revenue, are actuated by one 
 invariable principU-, that of extending or withholding fa- 
 vor in exact proportion to the submission or resistance 
 to their measures which the individuals mv.ke ?- Compare 
 this revenue, then, with that against which our ancestors 
 were so anxious to protect us, and compare this revenue 
 with all the buhvarks of our constitution in preceding times.^ 
 and }'ou must acknowledge, that though those bulwarks 
 were sufficient to protect us in the days of King Wil- 
 liam and Queen Anne, they are not equal to the enemy 
 we have now to resist. But it is said, what will this re- 
 form do for us ? Will it be a talisman sufficient to retrieve 
 all the misfortunes which we have incurred ? I am free to 
 say, that it would not be suflicient^ unless it led to re- 
 forms of substantial expense, and to reform of all the abu- 
 ses that have crept into our government. But, at the same 
 time, I think it would do this, I think it would give uo 
 Vne chance, as I said before, of recovery >. It would gire 
 
 P Z 
 
1G2 ^ • AMERICAN 
 
 us, in the first place, a Parliament vigilant and scrupulosis , 
 and that would ensure to us a government active and eco- 
 nomical. It would prepare the way for every rational im- 
 provement, of which, without disturbing the parts, our con- 
 stitution is susceptible. It would do more ; it would open 
 the way for exertions infinitely more extensive than all that 
 wc have hitherto made. 
 
 " It has often been a question, both within and without 
 these walls, how far representatives ought to b^ bound by 
 the instructions of their constituents. It is a question 
 upon which my mind is not altogether made up, though I 
 own I lean to the opinion that having to legislate for the 
 empire, they ought not to be altogether guided by instruc- 
 tions that may be dictated by local interests. I cannot, 
 however, approve of the very ungracious manner in which 
 I sometimes hear expressions of contempt for the opinion 
 of constituents ; they are made with a very bad grace in 
 the first session of a septennial Parliament, particularly if 
 -hey should come from individuals who in the concluding 
 session of a former Parliament did not scruple to court 
 the favor of the very same constituents, by declaring that 
 they voted against their conscience in compliance with 
 their desire, as was the case with an honorable alderman 
 of the city of London. But, Sir, there is one class of 
 constituents, whose instructions it is considered as the im- 
 plicit duty of members to obey. When gentlemen repre- 
 sent populous towns and cities, then it is disputable, whe- 
 ther they ought to obey their voice, or follow the dictates 
 of their own conscience ; but if they represent a noble 
 Lord, or a noble Duke, then it becomes no longer a ques- 
 tion of doubt; he is not considered as a man of honor 
 who does not implicitly obey the orders of his single con- 
 stituent. He is to have no conscience, no liberty, no dis- 
 cretion of his own ; he is sent here by my Lord this, or 
 the Duke of that; and if he does not obey the instruc- 
 tions he receives, he is not to be considered as a man of 
 honor and a gentleman. Such is the mode of reasoning 
 that prevails in this house. Is this fair? Is there any 
 reciprocity in this conduct ? Is a gentleman to be per- 
 mitted, without dishonor, to act in opposition to the sen- 
 tim.ents of the city of London, of the city of Westmins- 
 ter, or of Bristol : but if he dares to disagree with the 
 
SPEAKER. 163 
 
 Duke or Lonl, or Baronet, whose representative he if, 
 than he nnust be considered as unfit for the society of men 
 of honor ? 
 
 '* This, Sir, is the chicane and t)ranny of corruption; 
 and this, at the same time is called representation. In a 
 very great degree the county members are held in the 
 same sc^t of thraldom. A number of peers possess an 
 overweening interest in the county, and a gentleman is no 
 longer permitted to hold his situation than as he acts agree- 
 , able to the dictates of those powerful f.imilies. Let us see 
 ' how ^he whole of this stream of corruption has been di- 
 verted from the side of the people to that of the crown ; 
 with what a constant persevering art, every man who is 
 possessed of influence in counties, corporations, or bo- 
 roughs, that will yield to the solicitations of the court, is 
 drawn over to that phalanx which is opposed to the small 
 remnant of popular election. I hare looked. Sir, to the 
 machinations of the present minister in that way, and I 
 find that including the number of additional titles, the 
 right honorable gentleman has made no fewer than one 
 hundred and fifteen peers in the course of his administra- 
 tion ; that is to say, he has bestowed no fewer than one 
 hundred and fifteen titles, including new creations and 
 elevations from one rank to another. How many of these 
 are to be ascribed to national services, and how many to 
 parliamentary interest, I leave the house to inquire. The 
 country is not blind to these arts of influence, and it is 
 impossible that we can expect tlitm to continue to endure 
 them. 
 
 <* When we look to the kingdom of Scotland, we see 
 a state of representation so monstrous and absurd, so 
 ridiculous and revolting, that it is good for nothing ex- 
 cept perhaps to be placed by the side of the English, in 
 order to set off our defective system, by the comparison 
 of one still more defective. In Scotland there is no sha- 
 dow even of representation ; there is neither a representa- 
 tion of property for the counties, nor of population for 
 the towns. It is not what we understand in England by 
 freeholders, that el ct in the counties : the right is vested 
 in what is called the superiorities ; and it might so hap- 
 pen that all the members for the counties of Scotland 
 might come here without having the vote of a single per- 
 
164 AMERICAN 
 
 son \vho had a foot of property in the land. This is an 
 extreme case ; but it is within the limits of their system. 
 In the boroughs, their magistrates are self elected, and 
 therefore the members have nothing to do with the popu- 
 lation of the towns. 
 
 " Now, Sir, having shewn this to be the state of the 
 country, and the state of our representation, I ask you 
 what remedy there can be other than reform ? miat can 
 we expect, as the necessary result of a system so defec- 
 tive and vicious in all its parts, but increased and increas- 
 ing calamities, until we shall be driven to a convulsion 
 that would overthrow every thing ? If we do not apply 
 this remedy in time, our fate is inevitable. Our most il- 
 lustrious patriots, and the men whose memories are the 
 dearest to Englishmen, have long ago pointed out to us 
 parliamentary reform as the only means of redressing 
 national grievance. I need not inform you, that Sir 
 George Saville was its most strenuous advocate : I 
 need not tell -you that the venerable and illustrious Cam- 
 ben was through life a steady adviser of seasonable re- 
 form : nay, Sir, to a certain degree we have the authority 
 of Mr. Burke himself for the propriety of correcting the 
 abuses of our system : for gentlemen will remember the 
 memorable answer that he gave to the argument that was 
 used for our right of taxing America, on the score of their 
 being virtually represented ; and that they were in the 
 same situation as Manchester, Birmingham, and Sheffield. 
 %Vhat ! said Mr. Burke, when the people of America 
 look up to you with the eyes of fi>ial love and affection, 
 will you turn to them the shameful parts of the- constitu- 
 tion ? With, then, the concurrivig testimony of so many 
 authorities for correcting our abuses, why do we hesitate I 
 Can we do any harm by experimtut ? Can we possibly put 
 ourselves into a worse condition than we are ? What ad- 
 vantages we shall gain, I know not : I think we shall gain 
 many : I think we shall gam at least the chance of warding 
 off the evil of confusion growing out of accumulated dis- 
 cotitent : I think that we shall save ourselves from the evil 
 that has fallen upon Ireland: I think that we shall satisfy 
 the n.oderatt, and take even from the violent, if any such 
 there be, the powers of increasing their numbers, and of 
 making converts to their schemes. This, Sir, is my solema 
 
SPEAKER. 165 
 
 opinion, and upon this ground it is that I recommend, 
 with earnestness and solicitude, the proposition of my ho- 
 norable friend. 
 
 " Sir, I have done ! I have given my advice. I pro- 
 pose the remedy, and fatal will it be for England, if pride 
 and prejudice much longer continue to oppose it. The 
 remedy, which is proposed, is simple, easy, and practica- 
 ble ; it does not touch the vitals of the constitution, and 
 I sincerely believe it will restore us to peace and harmo- 
 ny. Do you think that you must not come to parliamen- 
 tary reform soon ? And is it not better to come to it now, 
 when you have the power of deliberation, than when per- 
 b.aps it may be extorted from you by convulsion ? There 
 is as yet time to frame it with freedom and discussion ; 
 it will even yet go to the people with the grace and favor 
 of a spontaneous act. What will it be, when it is extort- 
 ed from you with indignation and violence ? God forbid 
 that this should be the case j but now is the moment to pre- 
 vent it ; and now, I say, wisdom and policy recommend 
 it to you, when you may enter into all the considerations to 
 which it leads, rather than to postpone it to a time, when 
 you will have nothing to consider, but the number and 
 force of those who demand it." 
 
 Extract from the Speech of Mr, Beaufoy^ on his 7noti07i 
 for repealing the Corporation and Test Laws^ Jllay 8thy 
 '^1789. 
 
 " A foreigner, would naturally ask, what are these Dis- 
 senters that their right to the common privileges of citi- 
 zens should be disputed ? Are they slaves to the rest of 
 the community ; or are they offenders who have forfeited 
 their privileges by their crimes ; or are they persons who 
 from their religious tenets are unable, or from disaffection 
 to the state are unwilling, to give the necessary pledges of 
 obedience ? Not as slaves to the rest of the community, 
 do we deny them the usual privileges of citizens ; for 
 thanks to the spirit of our ancestors, there is in Great 
 Britain no such description of men. Not as criminals do 
 we exclude them from the enjoyment of their rights; for 
 of the millions of subjects who inhabit the kingdom, there 
 
.166 AMERICAN 
 
 are none of more untainted integritj', or of more unques 
 tionable honor. Neither as persons who are unable, or 
 unwilling to give sufficient pledge of their obedience to the 
 state, do we reject them ; for such is the satisfaction which 
 we feel in the pledges they give of their attachment, — 
 such is our reliance upon the oa-hs which they are at all 
 times willing to take, that without hesitation or reserve we 
 admit them to the highest of all trusts, that of legislative 
 power ; but the ground on which we do refuse them the 
 rights and privileges which their fellow-citizens enjoy, is 
 their presuming to believe, that in those concerns of reli- 
 gion which relate not to actions but opinions, it is every 
 man's duty, as it is every man's right, to follow the dic- 
 tates of his own understanding. To be convinced by the 
 evidence of another man's judgment, in opposition to the 
 evidence of their own, they conceive to be as impossible 
 as to credit the testimony of another man's sight in oppo- 
 sition to the evidence of their own eyes. It is this adhe- 
 rence to a necessary conclusion from self-evident premises; 
 it is this attachment to an unavoidable inference from ax- 
 ion^s which no man living disputes ; it is this uniform re- 
 gard for the right of private judgment in matters of reli- 
 gion, which, in the contemplation of the law, outweighs all 
 sense of their virtues as men, all esteem of their patriot- 
 ism as citizens, all respect for their loyalty as subjects ; it 
 is this which has induced us to Impose on them civil dis- 
 abilities, without the commission of any offence. It is 
 this \\ hich has impelled us to subject them, as far as the 
 law can subject them, to the same disabilities, the' same 
 dishonor, with those who have been publicly convicted of 
 wilful, corrupt, and deliberate perjury. Because you will 
 not consent to be hypocrites, therefore, say the laws, you 
 shall be treated as if you were perjured. No office under 
 the crown, though your sovereign may invite you to his. 
 service; no commission in the army, though the enemy 
 may be marching to the capital ; no share in the manage- 
 ment of any of the commercial companies of the kingdom, 
 though your whole fortunes maybe vested in their stocks, 
 shall be yours : from the direction of the bank of England, 
 from the direction of the East India Company, from that 
 of Russia, the Turkish and South Sea companies, you are 
 entirely debarred ] for if you should accept of any share 
 
SPEAKER. ler 
 
 in the management of these Companies, cr of any office 
 under the crown, or of any military employment, you are 
 within the penalties of the statutes. In the first place, yoii 
 forfeit to the informer the sum of 500/. if you cannot pay 
 that sum without delay, the penalty is imprisonment; if 
 you cannot pay it at all, as may be the case with many a 
 brave officer, who has offended against the law by fighting 
 the battles of his country, the penalty is imprisonment for 
 life. In the next place, you are incapable of suing for any 
 debt. Does any one owe you money ? Have you entrust- 
 ed him with your whole fortune? It is in his power to can- 
 cel that debt, by annulling your means of recovering it ; 
 and for that act of dishonesty, of consummate fraud, of 
 treachery in the extreme, the parliament assigns him a re- 
 ward of 500/. to be bequeathed from the wreck of your 
 fortune. In the next place, the law denies you its protec- 
 tion : for the wrongs which he has done you, and for the 
 insults and the injuries, however atrocious, which you 
 have experienced from him, you shall have no redress : to 
 the complaints of others against you, the ear of the magis- 
 trate is open ; but to your supplications, to your prayers, 
 to your complaints, it is from this time forward inexora- 
 bly shut. You are condemned to wretchedness and beg- 
 gary for life. In the next place, you are incapable of re- 
 ceiving any legacy ; the inheritance bequeathed by your 
 parents you cannot take ; your rights as sons are cancell- 
 ed. In the last place, your are also incapable of being 
 guardian to any child, even to your own. A former pe- 
 nalty annihilated your right as a child ; this abrogates your 
 privileges as a parent. Such are the strong coercions by 
 which the Dissenters are excluded from the enjoyment, 
 not only of their most valuable privileges as citizens, but 
 of rights which they hold by a higher title, and claim by 
 a superior authority to any which civil governments bes- 
 tow. How hard, then, is the situation of a Dissenter? If 
 he should disobey the laws, which exclude him from civil 
 and military employments, and should accept of any office 
 to which the choice of his sovereign, or the confidence 
 of his fellow-citizens may invite him, he is robbed of his 
 fortune, stripped of his inheritance, d'. prived of his per- 
 sonal security, and bereaved of his priviKi^cs which result 
 from a natural relation of a father to his child ! If, on the 
 
168 AMERICAN 
 
 other hand, he should acquiesce in the law, and pursue 
 no employments in the army, in the state, or in the com- 
 mercial companies of the kingdom, he submits to the 
 same disability, and acquiesces in the same degradation 
 which belongs to those who are convicted of wilful, cor- < 
 rupt, and deliberate perjury ; he is loaded with the same 
 punishments which are inflicted on those who have tramp- 
 led on the first principles of religion, broken down the 
 strongest fences of civil government, and violated the 
 most solemn obligations of human society. Such disa- 
 bilities, so imposed, are naked and undissembled wrongs ; 
 and, inflicted for religious opinions, nearly constitute per- 
 secution ; for what is persecution, but injuries inflicted 
 for religious belief? It is its true definition, its just and 
 accurate description. What then are the consequences 
 which follow from these melancholy facts ? Injurious, and 
 perhaps unexpected as the conclusion is, we are compell- 
 ed, by the evidence of truths which we cannot dispute, 
 to acknowledge that the pretended toleration of the Dis- 
 senters is a real persecution — a persecution which de- 
 prives them of a part of their civil rights, and which, with 
 the same justice, and on the same plea, might equally de- 
 prive them of the rest — a persecution which denies them 
 the management of their property, and which, with the 
 same justice, and on the same plea, might equally take 
 from them the property itself — a persecution which de- 
 prives them of the right of defending their liberties and 
 lives, and which, with the same justice, and precisely on 
 the same plea, might equally deprive them both of liberty 
 and life. If one degree of persecution may be justified, 
 another degree of it, under different circumstances, may 
 be justified also. Let but the principle be once admitted, 
 and the Inquisition of Portugal and Spain cease to be ob- 
 jects either of ridicule, or of abhorrence. 
 
 " Does the voice of a sovereign in a fearful and peril- 
 ous season, call the Dissenters to his service, or does the 
 strong impulse of affection for their native land urge them 
 to oppose their strength to the invading enemy, and to 
 shew him that his sword must pass through their breast, 
 before it can reach that of their country ? Presumptuous 
 men ! what shall be your fate ? From this time forward 
 you shall be treated as outcasts from the community ! The 
 
SPEAKER. 169 
 
 law shall with-hold from you the guards with which it pro* 
 tects the personal security of the subject ; and even the 
 rights of inheritance shall be taken from you. Do you 
 complain that, guiltless of any offence, except the offence 
 of having bled for your country, you are subjected to pe- 
 nalties so severe ? It is but the lightest part of your pun- 
 ishment ; a higher scourge remains. It is on your feel- 
 ings as parents that the 1j!w shall inflict its deepest wound. 
 Tainted in the eyes of your offspring as unfit to be trust- 
 ed with the care of their education, or the superintendance 
 of their morals, your natural affection shall be made the in- 
 striiment of your severest anguish. O most incomparable 
 system of ingenious cruelty ! A considerable part of the 
 be'bt subjects of the kingdom cannot indulge their attach- 
 ment to their native land, but at the expense of their at- 
 tachment to their offspring. The passion of the father for 
 his child is opposed to his passion for the country. The 
 barbarian, of whom we read in the papers on your table 
 that African tyrant who has carried the science of despo- 
 tism to a perfection which Nero never knew, even he as- 
 pires at nothing more than to destroy the family attach- 
 ment, and to annihilate the parental feeling. He does not 
 attempt to oppose the attachment of the father to the duty 
 of the citizen ; but the British law is founded in deeper 
 cruelty. Its object is to create a war of attachments, and 
 to establish a conflict of passions. It is to make virtue 
 inconsistent with virtue, duty irreconcilable to duty, af- 
 fection incompatable with uffection. Can such laws be con- 
 sistent with the interests of the state ? When the king- 
 dom, a few years sinqe, was assailed by the adherents to 
 another claimant of the crown ; when the faith of a large 
 proportion of people was dubious ; when the loyalty of 
 many of those who were near the person of the king was 
 thought to be tainted, and terror had palsied even more 
 than corruption had seduced, what was then the conduct 
 of the Protestant Dlssentors of England? To say, that of 
 the multitudes which composed that varied society there 
 was not one man, not a single individual, who joined the 
 enemy of his Majesty's house, (unexampled as this proof 
 of their loyalty was) is, however, but to speak the small- 
 est part of their praise ; for at the very time when the ar 
 mies of the state had been repeatedly discomfited ; at the 
 
iro AMERICAN - 
 
 very time that those uho reached at his Majesty's crown 
 were actually in possession of the center of the kingdom ; 
 at the very time when Britain, unable to rely on her na- 
 tive strength, and hourly trembling for her safety, had re- 
 course to foreign aid ; at that very time, the Dissenters, 
 regardless of the dreadful penalties of the law, and anxious 
 for their country alone, eagerly took up arms. And what 
 was the return which they received ? As soon as the dan- 
 ger was passed by, they were compelled to solicit protec- 
 tion of that general mercy which was extended to the very 
 rebels against whom they fought j they were obliged to shel- 
 ter themselves under that act of grace which was granted 
 to the very traitors, from whose arms they had defended 
 the cro^vn, and the life of the sovereign. It was thus only 
 that they escaped those dreadful penalties which they in- 
 curred by their loyalty, and which the irritated friends of 
 the rebellion were impatient to bring down upon them. To 
 the disgrace of our statutes, to the dishonor of the British 
 name, to thereproach of humanity, these persecuting sta- 
 tutes are still unrepealed. 
 
 " As yet, I have spoken as an advocate for a numerous 
 description of my fellow-subjects, whose moral virtues I 
 esteem, whose patriotism I revere, whose situation, as ' 
 muth injured men, has strongly attached me to their cause, 
 but to whose religious persuasion I myself do not belong. 
 Permit me now, for a few moments, before I conclude, to 
 speak of interests, in which I have a more immediate and 
 personal concern, the interest of the church of England. 
 From all testimonies, ancient and modern, I have ever 
 understood, that the worst practice^ of which a legislature 
 can be guilty, is that of employing the laws of a country 
 to degrade and make contemptible the religion of the 
 countrv» For what man is so little acquainted with the 
 motives of the human heart, or knows so little of the his- 
 tory of nations, as not to be aware, 'that in proportion as 
 he Weakens in the people thejr respect for religion, he 
 corrupts their manners, and in proportion as he corrupts 
 their manners, he renders all laws ineffectual. Now, of 
 all the solemn rites and sacred ordinances of her taith, 
 there is not one so guarded round with terrors, and over i 
 which the avenging sword of the Almighty appears so 
 distinctly to the view, as the ordinance of the holy sacra- 
 
SPEAKER. in 
 
 nietit ; for, * he who presumes to eat of that bread, ancl to 
 drink of that cup unworthily, eateth, and drinkcth his own 
 damnation ; he is guilty of the body and blood of Christ, 
 and provokes the Almighty to plague him with divers dis- 
 eases, and sundry kinds of death.' That these terrible de- 
 nunciations may not be lightly and unthinkingly incurred, 
 the minister is directed, when he stands at the holy altar, 
 to prohibit the approach of all persons of abandoned mo- 
 rals and of a profligate life. Such are the injunctions of 
 his religion ; but the law tells him, that to those very per- 
 sons, abandoned and profligate as they are, if by any means 
 they have found their way to office, he must administer 
 the sacrament. Is he informed, that the man who demands 
 it, is covered with crimes ; a smuggler perhaps (for such 
 appointments have been at no time unfrequent) who h is 
 obtained his employment as a reward for having betrayed 
 his associates, and for having added private treachery to 
 a long course of public fraud ? Is he also told, that thTs man, 
 new as he is to office, is already supposed to have violated 
 his oath, and that the weight of accumulated perjury is 
 already on his head ? Still however, the clergyman must 
 comply with his demand ; for perjured as he is, the Test 
 act has given him a legal right to the sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper. Should the minister refuse, the expanse 
 of a ruinous suit would devour his scanty means, and con- 
 sign him for life to a prison. Thus circumstanced, the 
 minister has no choice ; yet he cannot but know that in 
 taking it unworthily he eats, and drinks his own damna- 
 tion ! Such is the task which the Test act has assigned to 
 these v'.-ry men, whose particular duty it is to guard their 
 fellow-subjects froni perdition, and to guide them in their 
 road to happiness. If in the records of human extrava- 
 gance, or of human guilt, there can be found a law more 
 presumptuous than this, I will give up the cause. And to 
 what purpose is this debasement of religion ? If it be 
 thought requisite that Dissenters he excluded from the 
 common privileges of citizens, why must the sacrament, 
 be made the instrument of the wrong ? Why must the pu- 
 rity of the temple be polluted i Why must the sanctity of 
 the altar be defiled? Why must the most sacred ordinance 
 of her faith be exposed to such gross, such unnecessary 
 prostitution ? If there be persons who are too little attach- 
 
172 AMERICAN 
 
 ed to the theory of the Christian faith, to be shocked at 
 the impiety, ihey must at least be astonished at the folly 
 of such a conduct. 
 
 " The Saviour of the world instituted the Eucharist in 
 commemoration of his death, an event so tremendous that 
 nature afflicted hid herself in Ularkncss ; but the British 
 legislature has made it a qualification for guaging beer- 
 barrels and soap-borlers's tubs ; for writing Custom-house 
 cockets and debentures, and for seizing smuggled tea ! 
 The mind is oppressed with ideas so mis-shapen and mon- 
 strous ! Sacrilege, hateful as it always is, never before as- 
 sumed an appearance so hideous and deformed. Endea- 
 vours have been often used to justify the legal establish- 
 ment of this impious profanation, by comparing it with 
 those provisions of our law, which enjoined the sanction 
 of an oath : but the argument equally insults the integrity 
 ani understanding of every man to whom it is addressed ; 
 for though it be, indeed, true, that the legislature by com- 
 peltirg every petty-officer of the revenue, and every col- 
 icttor of a turnpike toll, to swear deeply on his admission 
 into office, and has madt the crime of perjury more fre- 
 quent than it ever before was in any age or country, yet 
 how does tiie frequent commission of this crime against 
 law justify the establishment of a religious profanation by 
 law ? But without commenting on the folly of pleading for 
 a legislative debasement of religion in one way, by shew- 
 ing that the legislature has contributed to its debasement 
 in another, what resemblance does the saciament of the 
 Lord's Supper, which is merely a religious institution, 
 bear to the ceremony of an oath, which is an institution 
 entirely political ? An oath answers none of the purposes 
 of religion i it neither promotes any of her interests, nor 
 forms any prirt of her establishment. It belongs to the 
 Je\y, the Mahometan, and the idolator of every descrip- 
 tion, as much as it belongs to the Christian ; but such are 
 the arguments b) which the Test and Corporation acts 
 have ever been defended." 
 
SPEAKER. 
 
 Ertract from a Speech of Mr. Fox^ on the same subject^ 
 May 2d, 1790. 
 
 « Were we to recur to first principles, and observe the 
 progress of the Christian religion in the first stages of its 
 propagation, we should perceive that no vice, evil, or de- 
 triment had ever sprung from toleration. Persecution had 
 always been a fertile source of much evil : perfidy, cruel- 
 ty, and murder had often been the co .sequence of intole- 
 rant principles. The massacres at Paris, the martyrdom 
 at Smithfield, and the executions of the Inquisition, were 
 among the many horrid and detestable crimes which had 
 at different times originated solely from persecution. To 
 suppose a man wicked, or immoral, merely on account of 
 any difference of religious opinion, was as false as it was 
 absurd ; yet this was the original principle of persecution* 
 Morality was thought to be most efiectually enforced and 
 propagated, by insisting on a general luiity of religious sen- 
 timents \ the dogmas of men in power were to be substitut- 
 ed in the room of every other religious opinion, as it might 
 best answer the ends of policy and ambition ; it proceeded 
 entirely on this grand fundamental error, that one man 
 could better judge of the religious opinions of another than 
 the man himself could. Upon this absurd principle, per- 
 secution might be consistent ; but in this it resembled mad= 
 ness ; the characteristic of which v;as, acting consistently 
 upon wrong principles. The doctrines of Christianity 
 might h.ivc been expected to possess sufficient influence to- 
 counteract this great error : but the reverse had proved to 
 be the case. Torture and death had been the auxiliaries of 
 persecution — ihe grand engines used in support of one 
 particular system of religious opinion, to the extero.^i nation 
 of every other. Toleration proceeded on direct contrary 
 principles. Its doctrines, he was sorry to say, even ia 
 this enlightened age, were but of a modern date in any 
 part of the world. Before the reign of king V/iLLiAirr^ 
 it had not a footing in England* The celebrated act of 
 toleration of that reign, notwithstanding the boasted Iibe?- 
 lality of its prmciple^ was narrow, confined, and inconx- 
 plcte. What was it, but a toleration of thirty-four arti- 
 cles, out of thirty-nine prescxibed as the standard of be-' 
 Q 2 
 
ir4 AMERICAN 
 
 lief in matters of religion ? Was any tolerated who did not 
 subscribe to the thirty-four articles in question ? No ! 
 Strict and implicit conformity to these was enjoined on ac- 
 cepting any civil employment. Persecution indeed origi- 
 nally might be allowed to proceed on this principle of kind- 
 ness — to promote an union of religious opinion, and to pre- 
 vent error in the important matters of Christian belief. 
 But did persecution ever succeed .in this truly humane 
 and charitable design ? Never — Toleration, on the other 
 hand, was founded on the broad and liberal basis of rea- 
 son and philosophy. It consisted in a just diffidence of 
 our own particular opinion, and recommended universal 
 charity and forbearance to the world around us. The true 
 friend of toleration ought never to impute evil intentions 
 to another, whose opinions might, in his apprehensions, be 
 {attended with dangerous consequences. The man pro- 
 fessing such opinions might not be aware of any evil a:- 
 tached to his principles ; and therefore to ascribe to such 
 a person any hostile intention, when his opinions only 
 might be liable to exception, was but the height of illibe- 
 rality and uncharitableness. Thus much obloquy and un^ 
 founded calumny had been used to asperse the character 
 of the Roman Catholics, on account of the supposed ten- 
 dency of their religious tenets to the commission of mur- 
 der, treason, and every other species of horrid crimes, from 
 a principle of conscience ! What was this, but a base im- 
 putation of evil intentions, from the uncharitable opinions 
 entertained of that profession as a sect ? He lamented their 
 errors ; rejected their opinions, which appeared danger- 
 ous ; was ready to confide in liieir good professions ; and 
 v/as v/iiling to appeal to the experience of this enlightened 
 agt-, if they had not been accused unjustly^ and condemn- 
 td uncharitably. For would any runn say, that every duly 
 of inocality was not practised in those countries, in which 
 the Koman Catholic religion was established and profess- 
 ed I Would it not be an im.putation as palpably false, as 
 it would be illiberal, for any one to utter such a foul, un- 
 Tiici ited, and indiscriminate calumny ? But tiiis v/as always 
 Jiie haughry> arrogant, and illiberal language of persecu- 
 tior\^, which led men to judge uncharitably, and to act with 
 bitter intolerance.. Persecution always said, ' I knovy the 
 vi'i'^ec^ueaces of your opinio|i better thap you know them 
 
SPEAKER. 175 
 
 yourselves.' But the language of toleration was always 
 amicable, liberal, and just; it confessed its doubts, and ac- 
 knowledged its ignorance. It said, * Though I dislike 
 your opinions, because I think them dangerous, yet, since 
 you profess such opinions, I will not believe you can think 
 such dangerous inferences flow from them which strike 
 my attention soibrcibly.' This was truly a just and legi- 
 timate mode of ryasoning, always less liable to error, and 
 more adapted to human affairs. When we argued a pos- 
 teriori^ judging from the fruit to the tree, from the effect 
 to the cause, we were not so subject to deviate into error 
 and falsehood, as when we pursued the contrary method 
 of argument. Yet persecution had always reasoned from 
 cause to effect, frc-m opinion to action, which proved gc- 
 nerallv erroneous ; while toleration led us invariably to 
 form just coiiclusions, by judging from actions, and not 
 from opinions. Hence every polilical and religious test 
 was extremely absurd ; and the only test, in his opinion, 
 to be adopted, ought to be a man's actions. He had the 
 most perfect conviction, that Test laws Irad nothing to do 
 %vith civil aifairs. A view of civil society throughout the 
 world must convince every reasonable person, that specu- 
 lative opinions in religion had liitle or no influence upon 
 the moral conduct, without which all religion were vain. 
 Such was the great absurdily of the present Test laws, that 
 a man who favoured arbitrary power in his sentiments; 
 ^\ho should consider the abolition of trial by jury as no 
 violation of liberty, nor the invasion of the freedom, and 
 law of .parliitmcnt any infraction of the constitution; yet 
 such a nvan, in defiance of the present Test laws, might ea- 
 sily pave the way to the very first situations in the state* 
 Ihcre was no political test to bind him ; the custom of the 
 country had destrvcdly explodetl such absurd rtstraintSc 
 No alarm was excited by political speculations; the law 
 considered no man's opinions either hostile or injurious to 
 the state, until such opinions were reduced into action. 
 Then, and then only, was th<i law armed with competent 
 authority to punish the offender* 
 
 " The opir.ions of another, in nvatters of religion, ought 
 always to be sui)posed to be founds d on good intentions. 
 As unjust would it be to deprive a single individual 
 whose conduct had always been meritorious, of any of his 
 
176 AMERICAN 
 
 civil rights, on account of any exceptionable conduct in 
 the general body to which he belonged. All merit, or de- 
 merit, therefore, in the body of Dissenters was quite out 
 of the question ; and the House had only to decide on ge- 
 neral principles. Indisposed, however, as he was, to al- 
 low merit or demerit any weight in the discussion of the 
 present question, yet he could not forbear observing, that 
 the conduct of the Dissenters had not only bep n unexcep- 
 tionable, but also highly meritorious. They had deserved 
 well of their country. When plots had been concerted, 
 combinations formed, and insurrections raised against the 
 state; when the whole country was in a state of alarm, 
 distraction and trouble ; when the constitution, both civil 
 and ecclesiastical, was in immediate danger of subversion; 
 when the monarch trembled for the safety of his throne, 
 crown, and dianitj^ the Dissenters instead of being con- 
 cerned in the dangerous machinations forming against the 
 government, pioved themselves, in the hour of peril and 
 emergency, the firmest support of the state. During the 
 rebellions of 1715 and 1745, they cheerfully had exposed 
 their persons, liyes^, and property, in defence of ih/iv king 
 and country ; and by their noble exertions, our enemies 
 W'ere defeated, our constitution preserved, and the Bruns- 
 wic family contmued in possession of the throne. They 
 were then, as they are now, incapacitated from holding 
 commissions, ci\ il or military, in the service of their 
 country. Did they plead the r incapacity, or the penalties 
 to which they were subject ? No — they freely drew their 
 swords ; they nobly transgressed the laws which proscrib- 
 ed them ; and successfully fought the battles of our consti- 
 tdlion. For this gallant behaviour all they ever obtained 
 was an act c;£indemnity — a pardon for doing their duty as 
 good citizens, in rescuing their country in the hour of dan- 
 ger and distress. Such were the absurdities of the laws 
 framed on the monstrous principles of persecution* 
 
SPEAKER. 177 
 
 Extract froin a Speech of Mr. Fox, on the Affairs of Ire- 
 land, 1797. 
 
 I know there are persons in the country who suppose 
 that the prejudices of the Roman Catholics and the Dis- 
 senters will prevent them from forming an union ; but 
 how is this effect likely to be prevented, when you are de- 
 claring every day so many districts out of the king's peace, 
 and in a state of disturbance ; and instead of conciliating 
 the minds of the Catholics, are telling them that they have 
 nothing more to expect. And now. Sir, a few words upon 
 the grievances of the Catholics and Dissenters. I know 
 an opinion has gone forth, that the Catholics have now no 
 substantial grievances to complain of; that the Presbyte- 
 rians have still less. It is said that the Catholics have had 
 ceded to them all the privileges of the most importance : 
 that they can vote for members of parliament, and that 
 they are not distinguished from the Protestants but by be- 
 ing excluded from the high offices of state, and from be- 
 ing members of Parliament. If this were all, I should 
 still say that they have a right to all the privilege's possess- 
 ed by the Protestants. Upon what principle ought they 
 to be excluded? On what grounds of justice ? Sir, upon 
 no grounds of justice ; the only reason, th; refore, must be 
 a reason of policy, which is a sufficient proof of a hostile 
 mind against them ; but let us consider it in other points 
 of view. Is it nothing to have no share in the govern- 
 ment, and to be excluded from the .higher offices of the 
 state \ but it is invidiously objected by the Government, 
 to the Catholics that it is not civil liberty which they wish, 
 but it is power and emolument which they pursue. To this 
 I would answer for the Catholics, yts: nor is it any dis- 
 credit that they should be actuated by such desire. I 
 would say, that civil liberty can have no security without 
 political power. To ask civil liberty without political poW" 
 er, would be to act like weak men, and to ask the posses- 
 sion of a right {^.-^i- the enjoyment of which they could have 
 no security. I know that distinctions h.U'e been made be- 
 tween civil and political liberty, and I r,dmit that it is pos- 
 sible for whole classes, whole casts And descriptions of 
 men to enjoy the one without possessing the ether. Still, 
 
178 AMERICAN 
 
 however, I assert, that it can be only by sufferance. I ad- 
 mit, that civil liberty is of a higher kind ; but this I con- 
 tend, that political power is the only security for the en- 
 joyment of the other. The Catholics may justly say, 
 therefore, that it is not this or that concession that will sa- 
 tisfy us, but give us that which alone can give us securi- 
 ty for its continuance. It is objected also that the Catho- 
 lics are not merely ambitious of power, but actuated by 
 views of private emolument. But if this were true, is it 
 improper that the Catholics, contributing so largely to the 
 support of Government, should be desirous to share the 
 emolument which it bestows, as a compensation for what 
 they sacrifice ? The compensation indeed is trifling : but 
 still, should they in point of right be excluded from their 
 proportion ? Yet, how strongly wnll their claim be felt, 
 when it is consider d who are the disputants? Are the 
 C 'tholics to be told by a few monopolizing politicians, 
 who engross all places, all reversions, all emoluments, all 
 patronages. " Oh, you base Catholics you think of no- 
 thing but your private emolument. You perverse gene- 
 ration, who have already been p- rmitted to vote for mem- 
 bers of parliament, are you so base as to urge the dis- 
 graceful demand of a share in personal emoluments !" 
 The Catholics are men, and art to be governed. The 
 expense of maintaining all governments must be consider- 
 able, and that of Ireland is certainly not a model of eco- 
 nomy. Of the emoluments arising out of the establish- 
 melits of government, the Catholics have a just right to 
 participate ; and for a small and interested minority to 
 imagine that they can monopolize all these advantages to 
 themselves, is a pretension which will not be admitted : 
 mankind are not to be treated in this manner, and it is 
 not now a-days that such claims will pass current in the 
 world. The loyalty and activity of the Catholics upon 
 the late attempted invasion, is now the theme of the high- 
 est paneyric ; but it is empty, unavailing praise : laudatitf 
 et al^et is the situation of the Catholic loyalty. The qua- 
 lities Vv'hicch are so much extolled, ought to be rewarded 
 by conferring upon their possessors those just claims 
 which are yet denied them, tfie total abolition of all dis- 
 tinction : to remove every mark by which religious differ- 
 ences could be known, is a condition which a minority, 
 
SPEAKER. 179 
 
 one should think, would be glad to accept with a joy bor- 
 dering on gratitude. I know that the reieaning of the word 
 Protestant is much limited in its signification by some, 
 and that the Presbyterian Dissenters do not receive even 
 the name of Protestants ; still, however, I am desirous to 
 retain the word, as I do not exactly coincide with the zeal- 
 ous distinction of those to whom I allude. What have the 
 Protestant Dissenters to complain of? It is said, they may 
 serve in parliament ; and as the Test act, which here has 
 been held so necessary to the security of the church, and 
 the defence of the monarchy, is no longer thought requi- 
 site, they may hold offices without any obstacle or diffi- 
 culty. JBefore I proceed to consider the situation of the 
 Protestants, there is one point relative to the Catholics 
 which I ought to explain ; it has been said that the Catho- 
 lics are entitled to vote for members of parliament, and 
 the fallacy of this boasted privilege, ought to be be expos- 
 ed ; except in the counties, the representation of Ireland 
 was in what is here known by the name of Close Corpora- 
 tions. The animosities which formerly subsisted are anx- 
 iously kept up by the Executive Government, and they fa- 
 vour the determination to exclude the Catholics from the 
 corporations, so that their privilege is thus almost entirely 
 evaded. They thus confer in theory a power, which they 
 are careful to defeat in practice. Those who esteem this 
 privilege, then, must be very fond of theories upon paper, 
 and very unconcerned about their practical effect : yet 
 however good theorists they may be upon such principles, 
 they are not likely to act in such a manner as to afford 
 much satisfaction, or produce much benefit to mankind. 
 The Presbyterians, consider their grievances to consist in 
 the abuses of the government, which they have not means 
 to remedy. They wish for the substantial blessings of the 
 English constitution; they wish for the political principles 
 on which that constitution is founded. Whoever imagines 
 tliat a practical resemblance existed between the govern- 
 ment of Ireland and the English constitution, would find 
 that the Irish government is u mirror in which the abuses 
 of this constitution are strongly reflected. I will not speak 
 of the abases of which we have been used to complain, but 
 if I wer^: desirous to reconcile any one to the abuses of 
 the British constitution, it would be by a comparison with 
 
180 AMERICAN 
 
 those of Ireland. Whatever may have been thought oi 
 the plans of parliamentary reform which have been agitat- 
 ed here, still it was always admitted that the Heuse of 
 Commons should be at least a virtual representation of the 
 people. It certainly was stating the point of virtual re- 
 presentation very high when it was asserted in this House, 
 that though all the representatives of England were cho- 
 sen by the county of Middlesex, it would be no reason for 
 reform, so long as such a parliament discharged its duty 
 as a parliament. But are the people of Ireland unreason- 
 able when they complain that they have not the advantage 
 even of virtual representation ? when they complain that 
 the jobbing system of influence and patronage, for purpo- 
 ses of personal advantage, is an abuse that totally destroys 
 the spirit of their form of government, and a practical 
 nuisance which cannot be endured? To suppose that a 
 large, industrious, active, and intelligent body of men can 
 be governed against the principles they have imbibed, and 
 the prejudices by which they are guided, is an idea which 
 history and human nature prove to be absurd. What is 
 the situation of affairs with respect to Ireland? You have 
 raised enormous burdens both in England and in Ireland. 
 You have produced, great discontents, and you are reduc- 
 ed to such a point that you must take a decided part. In 
 fact, we now are precisely at the point in which we stood 
 in 1774 with America; and the question is, whether we 
 ,are to attempt to retain Ireland by force, instead of endea- 
 vouring to gain by concessions, and to conciliate by con- 
 ferring the full and substantial blessings of a free consti- 
 tution ? The circumstances in some respects are different, 
 and it may be discovered that the distance of America, 
 and its population, extended ever an immense tract of 
 country, were disadvantages peculiar to that contest. I 
 remember, however, that the extent of the territory of A- 
 merica, was stated as an advantage, as it would prevent 
 sudden collections of people. So favorable were circum- 
 istanccs supposed to be, that an officer boasted that with a 
 single company of grenadiers, or a single regiment, I do 
 not remember \vhich, he would march fro«ii one end of 
 America to the other ; and though he had been able to 
 re I ize his boast, -I know not what mighty advantage it 
 could have produced. I well remember that at that pe- 
 
SPEAKER. 181 
 
 liod to which I allude, the expression of the American 
 war, which I was the first in the House to use, was treat- 
 ed with the utmost ridicule ; and to call some riots at Bos- 
 ton by the appellation of a war, was considered as a great 
 absurdity. Some may treat the idea of a war with Ire- 
 land with the same contempt and ridicule; and I sincere- 
 ly hope that experience will not decide so triumphantly 
 in my favour, as on the former occasion. Whenever I 
 see a government desirous to decide by force against the 
 will of the majority, in these circumstances I see the 
 danger of civil war. There is this difference now in our 
 situation, that the state of our finances may deter us from 
 encountering such hazardous enterprizes. In the other 
 case we were wealthy and prosperous. Stultitiam patiun- 
 tiir opes might then be said of our situation ; but now the 
 critical state of our affairs, and the embarrassed condition 
 of our finances, forbade that prodigality of resource, and 
 similar dangers of experiment. In circumstances like 
 the present, I believe no man who was in His Majesty's 
 councils at the beginning of the American war, would 
 have been mad enough to hn'e embarked in the contest. 
 I hope and trust that the discontents which threaten thq 
 separation of Ireland, will be dissipated without the ne-» 
 cessity of a war. But now the extremity of rigor has 
 been tried, the severity of despotism has been let loose 
 and the government is driven to that state when the laws 
 are not to be -put in execution, but to be superseded. Ire- 
 land is precisely in that state whicji a person well ac- 
 quainted with the subject, defined to be despotism, 
 ••• whtre the executive power is every thing, and the 
 rights of the people nothing." At the beginning of the 
 American contest, the province of Massachusett's Bay 
 was disarmed ; but I do not think that if this province 
 had been left armed, the separation of the American co- 
 ionics would have been accelerated. The people of Ire- 
 land are now in that state when if th y should choose to 
 resist, a contest must ensue, the issue of which must be 
 doubtful. In the commencement of the American war 
 I had made such an observation of the disposition of the 
 regular governments of Europe, that I was convinced 
 France would aid America. In the present there can be 
 no room for doubt that the French would make it a chief 
 
 R 
 
182 AMERICAN 
 
 point of their policy to give assistance to the insurgents. 
 But suppose you were to succeed in disarming the whole 
 of the north of Ireland, you must keep them in subjec- 
 tion by force. If you do not allay their discontents, there 
 is no way but force to keep them in obedience. Can you 
 convince them by the musquet that their principles are 
 false ? Can you prove to them by the bayonet that their 
 pretensions are unjust? Can you demonstrate to them by 
 martial law that they enjoy the blessings of a free consti- 
 tution ? No : it is said, but they may be deterred from 
 the prosecution of the objects which you have determin- 
 ed to refuse. But on what history is this founded ? — on 
 the history of Ireland itself? No ; for the history of Ire- 
 land proves that, though repeatedly subdued, it could not 
 be kept in awe by force ; and the late examples will prove 
 the effect which severity may be expected to produce. 
 The character of the people who inhabit the north uf Ire- 
 land has been severely stigmatized. For my own part, 
 it is not my habit to admit a fixed dislike against any bo- 
 bies of men, nor do I see any thing in these to justify 
 such a dislike. But it is said, these men are of the old 
 leaven. They are, indeed of the old leaven that rescued 
 the country from the tyranny of Charles the first, and 
 James the second ; they are of that leuven which assert- 
 jcd and defended the principles of liberty ; they are of that 
 leaven which fermented, and kneaded together, the free- 
 dom of the British constitution. If these principles were 
 carried to excess, it is an excess to which I am more par- 
 tial than to the opposite extreme. The opposition they 
 have suffered is some apology. I am told that the mode 
 riow adopted is this — to declare a country out of the kmg's 
 ,peace, it is necessary that there should be a certificate from 
 the magistrates. Many of the magistrates are not natives 
 of Ireland, or resident there, but Englishmen and officers 
 of the Fencible corps. Are the people to be told that 
 these magistrates are acting only in a civil capacity? But 
 have they not been provoked to violence ? Several of the 
 principal people of Belfast were taken up. The law is in 
 that state, that men may be kept in prison without trial ; 
 is that any iiiierence of their guilt ? I have seen the wan- 
 ton prosecutions of goverpment in this country, which ju- 
 tie,s happily checked. I have seen too much of these prQ- 
 
SPEAKER. 183 
 
 seditions to make me draw an inference of guilt from the 
 circumstance of a man's being taken' up. I have heard in 
 Ireland of men being ignominiously arrested and carried 
 to Dublin, who, in their trials were found to be perfectiv" 
 innocent, and ought no^ to have been suspected. The 
 people of the north attached to these men, were determin- 
 ed that they should not suffer in their propcrtv. The 
 people worked for nothing ; they reaped their harvests, oa 
 purpose to shew either their good- will to the parties, or 
 their detestation poss'ibly of the conduct of Government. 
 This, however, was construed to be a heinous' otT^nce j the 
 people were dispersed by the military ; and when some 
 were killed, the attending the bodies to the grave was 
 deemed criminal, and the persons assisting were dispers- 
 ed, as if they were doing an act against the state. That 
 these things will goad who can doubt? Is it not possible 
 that they who prefer monarchy may find the exercise of it 
 to be so bad, as almost to doubt the excellence of monar- 
 chical government ? But should the people be even totally 
 subdued, can you do otherwise than keep up a large mili- 
 tary force ? But suppose the people submit — I put the 
 case in that way — can you trust to such a situation? Wiil 
 their submission to laws which they detest, hist longer 
 than your power lasts, and their impotency ? Will you con- 
 tinue to keep up your force ? During the war, I believe 
 you will ; but can Ireland afford to maintain it during 
 peace ? Is it the way to persuade the Catholics to assist 
 you, to refuse to accord to their demands ? I have heard 
 that a direct application has been made, nor from the Ca- 
 tholic peasantry, but from the Catholic nobilitv, a strong- 
 and urgent application to the government to grant the rt- 
 maindtr of their demands. I have been told, what cer- 
 tainly it was unnecessary to tell me, that these applic.itions 
 have been unsuccessful. Refuse all these demands— de- 
 termine to govern Ireland by military force — risk a civil 
 war, — which of these evils is the worst I know not — I^it 
 it may be said, what is to be done r My general principle 
 is to restore peace on principles of peace, and to make 
 concession on principles of concession. I wish members 
 to read that celebrated speech of Mr. Burke on the sub- 
 ject of such concessions ; let them read that beautiful dis- 
 play of eloquence, and at the same time sound reasoning, 
 
i84, AMERICAN 
 
 and they Will find in that speech all those principles which 
 it is my wish to have adopted. * Liberty, (says Mr. 
 Burke in a passage of some other part of his work,) is any 
 practiciil purpose, is that which the people think soj you 
 must give them that government which they wish; you must 
 give them the British constitution in its substance and spirit.' 
 Apply this to Ireland^ make it such a government as the peo- 
 ple shall conceive to be a free one. But, it is said, it is not 
 possible to satisfy ail persons. It may be so ; but is there 
 one concession that could be made to the Catholics which 
 the people in the north of Ireland could object to ? Is 
 there any p;rievance which could be remedied in the 
 north, to which the Catholics w^ould object ? They have no 
 inconsistent pretensions, no clashing interests. — The con- 
 cessions to be made to the different parties are not incon- 
 sistent ; the one party will not repine at the satisfaction 
 which the other obtains. Who then would be dissatisfied 
 by such concessions ? Not the aristocracy, for 1 will not 
 call it by so respectable a name ; and is that miserable 
 monopolizing minority to be put in the balance with the 
 preservation of the empire and the happiness of a whole 
 people ? The Irish wish to have a reform upon an extend- 
 ed scale ; they desire an extension of popular rights ; but 
 mav there rot be a conciliation and compromise ? In that 
 declaration of the people of Belfast, 1 see that they do 
 most distinctly state, that they conceive all the benefits of 
 fref dom may be enjoyed under a government of King, 
 Lords, and Commons. 
 
 <^ What then is it that the people wish for ? They wish 
 for a different constitution in the House of Commons; I 
 think they are right. They desire a diminution of patron- 
 age, and they may go to the extraordinnry length of say- 
 ing, that it is not right to have a church in all- its splendor, 
 which is applicable only to a small part of the inhabitants. 
 But do not ihtjee things admit of moderate discussion, and 
 satisfactory compromise ? What they ask is a constitution 
 sach as Great Britain has according to some, and such as 
 she ought to have according to others, — a goverment 
 which shall virtually express the will of the people ; and 
 if in treating with them you should fail — you will then 
 have to resort to violent measures^ you will then have to 
 divide the people, as Mr. Bu?.s.e said, not to divide the 
 
SPEAKER. 185 
 
 people of Massachusetts from the people of Virginia — ^not 
 to divide Boston from Carolina — not, I say, to divide 
 Ulster from Connaught, and Leinster from Munster; but 
 you will divide the people who wish for the constitution 
 from those who wish to destroy it. These are the divi- 
 sions which I wish for. But conciliation, it may be said, 
 will not do — if it will not, then only may we have recourse 
 to arms. Is there a worse period for the country in point 
 of credit and resources ^ I know not, but I am sure, that 
 we cannot do worse, than at the end of one war, adopt 
 measures to bring on another. I would therefore concede ; 
 and if I found I had not conceded enough, I would con- 
 cede more. I know of no way of governing mankind but 
 by conciliating them, and, according to the forcible way 
 which the Irish have of expressing their meaning. I know 
 of no mode of governing the people, but by letting them 
 have their own way. And what shall we lose by it ? If 
 Ireland is governed by conceding to all her ways and wish- 
 es, will she be less useful to Great Britain : What is she 
 now? little more than a diversion for the army.— If you 
 keep Ireland by force now, what must you do in all future 
 wars? You must in the ftrst place secure her from insur- 
 rection. I will adopt therefore the Irish expression, and 
 say, that you can only govern Ireland by letting her have 
 her own way. The consequences of a war with Ireland, 
 are dreadful to contemplate; public horrors would be so 
 increased by the laceration of private feelings, as to spread 
 universal misery through both countries ; the connection 
 is so interwoven between the individuals of both coun- 
 tries ; that no rupture can happen without wounding the 
 most t^der frit;nd&hips and the most sacred ties. Rigour 
 has already been attempted ; let concession and concilia- 
 tion then be tried before the last appeal is hazarded. My 
 wish is, that the whole people of Ireland should have the 
 same principles, the same system, the same operation of 
 government, and thou;;h it may be a subordinate consider 
 ration, that all classes should have an equal chance of emo- 
 lument ; in other words, I would have the whole Irish go- 
 vernment regulated by Irish notions, and Irish prejudices^ 
 and I firmly believe, according to another Irish expression, 
 the more she is under Irish governmenti the more will she 
 he bound to English interests. 
 
 R2 
 
186 AMERICAx\ 
 
 Mr. Burke^ on Mr* Fox's India Bill. 
 
 The several irruptions of Arabs, Tartars, and Persians 
 into India were, for the greater part, ferocious and bloody 
 and wasteful in the extreme : our entrance into the domi- 
 nion of that country, was as generally with small compa- 
 rative effusion of blood, being introduced by various frauds 
 and delusions, and by taking advantage of the incurable, 
 blind, and senseless animosity, which the several country 
 powers bear towards each other, rather than by open 
 force. But the difference in favour of the first conquer- 
 ors is this ; the Asiatic conquerors very soon abated of 
 their ferocity, because they made the conquered country 
 tht'ir own. They rose or fell with the rise or fall of the 
 territory they lived in. Fathers there deposited the hopes 
 of their posterity, and children there beheld the monu- 
 ments of their fathers. Here their lot was finally cast, and 
 it is the natural wish of all, that their lot should not be 
 cast in a bad land. Poverty, sterility, and desolation, are 
 not a recreating prospect to the eye of man, and there are 
 very few who can bear to grow pld among the curses of a 
 whole pt opie. If their passion or their avarice drove the 
 Tartar lords to acts of rapacity or tyranny, there was time 
 enoi.gh, I vtn in the short life of man, to bring round the 
 ill effects oi in abuse of power upon the pov/er itself. If 
 hoards verc mvid. by violence, and tyranny, they were 
 still domestit hoards ; and domestic profusion^ or the ra- 
 pine of a mor- powerful and prodigal hand, restored them 
 to the people. With many disorders, and with few poli- 
 tic I chtcks upon power, nature had still fair pl«y ; the 
 sources of acquisition were not dried up, and therefore 
 the trade, the manufactures, and the commerce of the 
 country flourished. Even avarice and usury itself, ope- 
 rated b(;th for the preservation and the employment of na- 
 tional wealth. The husbandman and manufacturer paid 
 heavy interest, but then they augmented the fund from 
 whtnce they were again to borrow. Their resources 
 were dearly bought, but they were sure, and the general 
 stock ol the community gr':W by the general effort. 
 
 £ut undtr tht English government all this order is re- 
 vers'.d. The Tartar invasion was mischievous 5 but it is 
 
SPEAKER, 1ST 
 
 our protection that destroys India. It was their enmity, 
 but it is our friendship : our conquest there, after twenty 
 years, is as crude as it was the first day. The natives 
 scarcely know what is to see the grey head of an English- 
 man. Young men (boys almost) govern there without 
 society, and without sympathy with the natives. They have 
 no more social habits with the people, than if they still re- 
 sided in England, nor indeed any species of intercourse 
 .but that which is necessary to making a sudden fortune 
 with a view to a remote settlement. Animated with all 
 the avarice of age, and all the impetuosity of youth, they 
 roll in one after another, wave after wave, and there is no- 
 thing before the eyes of the natives but an endless, hope- 
 less prospect of new flights of birds of prey and passage, 
 with appetites continually renewing for a food that is con- 
 tinu.illy wasting. Every rupee of profit made by an En- 
 glishman is lost for ever to India. With us are no retri- 
 butory superstitions, by which a foundation of charity 
 compensati. s, through ages, to the poor, for the rapine and 
 injustice of a day. With us no pride erects stately monu- 
 ments which repair the mischiefs which pride had produc- 
 ed, and which adorn a cour/try out of its own spoils, Eng- 
 land has erected no churches, no hospital, no palaces, no 
 schools. England has built no bridges, made no high 
 ro::ds, cut no navigations, dug out no reservoirs. Every 
 other conqueror of every other description has left some 
 monument, either of state or beneficence, behind him. 
 Were we to be driven out of India this day, nothing would 
 remain to tell that it had been possessed, during the inglo- 
 rious period of our dominion, by any thing better than, the 
 ouran outang, or the tiger. 
 
 There is nothing in the boys we send to India, worse 
 than the bo) s whom we are whipping at school, or that 
 we see trailing a pike or bending over a desk at home. 
 Eut as P^nglish youth in India drink the intoxicating 
 draught of authority and dominion before their heads are 
 able to bear it, and as they are full grown in fortune 
 long bef(jre they are ripe in principle, neither nature nor 
 reason have any opportunity to exert themselves for re- 
 medy of the excesses of their premature power. The 
 consequences of their conduct, which in good minds, 
 (and many of theirs are probably such) might produce 
 
188 AMERICAN 
 
 penitence or amendment, are unable to pursue the ra- 
 pidity of their flight. Their prey is lodged in England^ 
 and the cries of India are given to seas and winds, to 
 be blown about in every breaking up of the monsoon, 
 over a remote and unhearing ocean. In India all the. 
 vices operate by which sudden fortune is acquired ; in 
 England are often displayed, by the same persons, the 
 virtues which dispense hereditary wealth. Arrived in j 
 England, the destroyers of the nobility and gentry of a jl 
 whole kingdom, will find the best company in this n'a- « 
 ticn, at a board of elegance and hospitality. Here the 
 manufacturer and husbandman will bless the just and 
 punctual hand, that in India has torn the cloth from 
 the loom, or wrested the scanty portion of rice and salt 
 from the peasant of Bengal, or wrung from him the very 
 opium in which he forgot his oppressions, and his op- 
 pressor. They marry into your families, they enter into 
 your senate, they ease your estates by loans, they raise 
 their value by demand, they cherish and protect your 
 relations which lie heavy on your patronnge ; and there 
 is scarcely a house in the kingdom that does not feel 
 some concern and interest, that makes all reform of 
 our eastern government appear officious and disgusting, 
 and on the whole a most discouraging attempt. In 
 such an attempt you hurt those who are able to return 
 kindness or to resent injury. If you succeed, you save 
 those who cannot so much as give you thanks. All 
 these things shew the difficulty of the work we have on 
 hand : but they shew its necessitv too. Our Indian 
 government is in its best state a grievance ; it is neces- 
 sary that the correctives should be uncommonly vigo- 
 rous, and the work of men sanguine, warm, and even 
 impassioned in the cause. But it is an arduous thing to 
 plead against abuses of a power which originates from 
 our own country, and affects those whom we are used 
 to consider as strangers. 
 
SPEAKER. 189 
 
 Mr. Burke's EuJoghtm oti Mr. Fox^ bevig the conclusion 
 of his Speech on Mr, Fox^s India Bill, 
 
 Having done my duty to the bill, let me say a word to 
 the author. I should leave him to his own noble sentiments, 
 if the unworthy and illiberal language with which he has 
 been treated, beyond all example of parliamentary liberty, 
 did not make a few words necessary ; not so much in jus- 
 tice to him, as to my own feelings. I must say then, that 
 it will be a distinction honorable to the age, that the res« 
 cue of the greatest number of the human race that ever 
 were so grievously oppressed, from the greatest tyranny 
 that was ever exercised, has fallen to the lot of abihties 
 and dispositions equal to the task ; that it has fallen to one 
 who has the enlargement to comprehend, the spirit to un- 
 dertake, and the eloquence to support, so great a measure 
 of hazardous benevolence. His spirit is not owing to liis 
 ignorance of the state of men and things ; he well knows 
 %vhat snares are spread about his path, from personal ani- 
 mosity, from court intrigues, and possibly from popular 
 delusion. But he has put to hazard his ease, his security, 
 his interest, his power, even his darling popularity, for the 
 benefit of a people whom he has never seen. This is the 
 road that all heroes have trod before him. He is traduc- 
 ed and abused for his supposed motives. He will remem- 
 ber, that obloquy is a necessary ingredient in the compo- 
 sition of all true glory : he will remember, that it was not 
 only in the Roman customs, but it is in the nature and 
 constitution of things, that calumny and abuse are essen- 
 tial parts of triumph. These thoughts will support a mind^ 
 which only exists for honor, under the burthen of tempo- 
 rary reproach. He is doing indeed a great good ; such 
 as rarely falls to the lot, and almost as rarely coincides 
 with the desirt s, of any man, I^et him use his time. Let 
 him give the whole length of the reins to his benevolence. 
 He is now on a great eminence, where the eyes of man- 
 kind are turned to him. He may live long, he may do 
 much. But here is the summit. He never can exceed 
 what he does this day. 
 
 He has f; ults ; hut they are faults that, though they may 
 in a small degree tarnish the lustre, and souittiiues iui- 
 
190 AMERICAN 
 
 pede the march of his abilities, having nothing in thenT to 
 extinguish the fire of great virtues. In those faults, there 
 is no mixture of deceit, of hypocrisj^ of pride, of feroci- 
 ty, of complexional despotism, or want of feeling for the 
 distresses of mankind. His are faults which might exist 
 in a descendant of Henry the Fourth of France, as they 
 did exist in that father of his country. Henry the Fourth 
 wished that he might live to see a fowl in the pot of eve- 
 ry peasant in his kingdom. That sentiment of homely 
 benevolence was worth all the splendid sayings that are 
 recorded of kings. But he wished perhaps for more than 
 could be obtained, and the goodness of the man exceeded 
 the power of the king. But this gentleman, a subject, 
 may this day say this at least, with truth, that he secures 
 the rice in his pot to every man in India. A poet of an- 
 tiquity thought it one of the first distinctions to a prince 
 ■whom he meant to celebrate, that through a long succes- 
 sion of generations, he had been the progenitor of an able 
 and virtuous citizen, who by force of the arts of peace, 
 had corrected governments of oppression, and suppressed 
 wars of rapine. 
 
 Indole proh quanta juven is, quantumqne daturiis 
 Aiisonise populis, ventura in sjecula civem.- 
 llle super Gangem, super exauditus et Indos, 
 Jmplebit terras voce ; et fVirialia belia 
 Fulmine compescitling'ux.- 
 
 This was what was said of the predecessor of the only per- 
 son to whose eloquence it does not wrong that of the mo- 
 ver of this bill to be compared. But the Ganges and the 
 Indus are the patrimony of the fame of my honorable 
 friend, and not of Cicero. I confess, I anticipate with joy, 
 the reward of those, whose uhole consequence, power, 
 and authority, exist only for the benefit of mankind ; and 
 I carry my mind to all the people, and all the names and 
 descriptions, that, relieved by this bill, will bless the la- 
 bours of this parliament, and the confidence Vvhich the best 
 house of commons has given to him who the best deserves 
 it. The little cavils of party will not be heard, where 
 freedom and happiness will be felt. There is not a tongue, 
 a nation, or religioain India, whichvvill not bless the pre- 
 siding care and mai:ily beneficence of this house, and of 
 
SPEAKER. 191 
 
 h.v.r) who proposes to you this great work. Your names 
 'vv'ill never be separated before the throne of the Divine 
 Goodness, in whatever language, or with whatever rites, 
 pardon is asked for sin, and reward for those who imitate 
 the Godhead in his universal bounty to his creatures. 
 These honors you deserve, and they will surely be paid, 
 when all the jargon of influence, and party, and patronage, 
 are swept into oblivion. 
 
 I have spoken what I think, and what I feel, of the mo- 
 ver of this bill. An honorable friend of mine, speaking 
 of his merits, w^as charged with having made a studied 
 panegyric. I don't know what his vv^as. IVIine, I am 
 sure, is a studied panegyric ; the fruit of much medita- 
 tion ; the result of the observation of near twenty years* 
 For my own part, I am happy that I have lived to see this 
 day ; I feel myself overpaid for the labours of eighteen 
 years, when, at this late period, I am able to take my share, 
 by one humble vote, in destroying a tyranny that exists to 
 the disgrace of tliis nation, and the destruction of so large 
 a part of the human species. 
 
 Introduclio7i to a Speech of Mr, Fox, on the Goveriiment of 
 India m 1783. 
 
 " The honorable gentleman who opened the debate [Mr. 
 Powis] first demands my attention ; not indeed for the wis- 
 dom of the observations which fell from him this night 
 (though he is acute and judicious on most occasions) but 
 from the natural weight of all such characters in this coun- 
 try, the aggregate of w horn should, in my opinion, always 
 decide upon public measures ; but his ingenuity was never, 
 I think, more effectually exerted, upon more mistaken 
 principles, and more inconsistent with the common tenor 
 of his conduct, than in this debate. 
 
 " He charges me with abandoning that cause, which, 
 he says, in terms of flattery, I had once so successfully as- 
 serted. I tell him, in reply, that if he were to search the 
 history of my life, he would find that the period of it, in 
 which I struggled most for the real, substantial cause cf 
 liberty, is this very moment that I am addressing you. 
 iteedom, according to my conception of it, consists ia the 
 
193 AMERICAN 
 
 safe and sacred possession of a man's property, governed 
 by laws defined and certain ; with many personal privileges, 
 natural, civil, and religious, which he cannot surrender 
 without ruin to himself; and of which to be deprived by 
 any other power, is despotism. This bill, instead of sub- 
 verting, is destined to stabilitate these principles ; instead 
 of narrowing the basis of freedom, it tends to enlarge it ; 
 instead of suppressing, its object is to infuse and circulate 
 the spirit of liberty. 
 
 " What is the most odious species of tyranny ? Pre- 
 cisely that which this bill is meant to annihilate. That a 
 handful of men, free themselves, should execute the most 
 base and abominable despotism over millions of their fel- 
 low creatures ; that innocence should be the victim of op- 
 pression ; that industry should toil for rapine ; that the 
 harmless laborer should sweat, not for his own benefit, but 
 for the luxury and rapacity of tyrannic depredation ; .in a 
 word, that thirty millions of men, gifted by Providence 
 with the ordinary endowments of humanity, should groan 
 under a system of despotism, unmatched in all the histo- 
 ries of the world. 
 
 " What is the end of all Government ? Certainly the 
 happiness of the governed. Others may hold other opi- 
 nions ; but this is mine, and I proclaim it. What are we 
 to think of a government, whose good fortune is supposed 
 to spring from the calamities of its subjects ; whose ag- 
 grandizement grows out of the miseries of mankind ! 
 This is the kind of government exercised under the East 
 India Company upon the natives of Indostan ; and the 
 subversion of that infamous government is the main ob- 
 ject of the Bill in question. But in the progress of ac- 
 complishing this end, it is objected that the charter of the 
 company, should not be violated ; and upon this point. Sir, 
 I shall deliver my opinion without disguise. A charter 
 is a trust. to one or more persons for some given benefit. 
 If this trust be abused ; if the benefit be not obtained, 
 and that its failure arises from palpable guilt (or what, in 
 this case, is full as bad) from palpable ignorance or mis- 
 management ; will any man gravely say, that trust should 
 not be resumed, and delivered to other hands ; more espe- 
 cially in the case of the East India Company, whose man- 
 ner of executing this trust, whose laxity and languor pro- 
 
SPEAKER. 193 
 
 diiced, and tend to produce, consequences diametrically 
 opposite to the ends of confiding that trust, and of the in- 
 stitution for which it was granted ! I beg of gentlemen 
 to be aware of the lengths to which their arguments upon 
 the intangibility of this charter may be carried. Every 
 syllable virtually impeaches the establishment by which 
 we sit in this house, in the enjoyment of this freedom, 
 and of every other blessing of our government. These 
 kind of arguments are batteries against the main pillar of 
 the British constitution. Some men are consistent with 
 their own private opinions, and discover the inheritance 
 of family maxims, when they question the principles of 
 the Revolution ; but I have no scruple in subscribing to 
 the articles of that creed which produced it. Sovereigns 
 are sacred, and reverence is due to every king : yet, with 
 all my attachments to the person of a first magistrate, had 
 i lived in the reign of James the Second, I should most 
 certainly have contributed my efforts, and borne part in 
 those illustrious struggles, which vindicated an empire from 
 hereditary servitude, and recorded this valuable doctrine 
 that * trust abused was revocable, "* 
 
 " No man will tell me, that a trust to a company of mer- 
 chants stands upon the solemn and sanctified ground bv 
 which a trust is committed to a monarch ; and I am at a 
 loss to reconcile the conduct of men, who approve that 
 resumption of violated trust, which rescued and re-esta- 
 blished our unparalleled and admirable constitution, with 
 a thousand valuable improvements and advantages, at the 
 Revolution ; and who, at this moment, rise up the cham- 
 pions of the East-India Company's charter, although the 
 incapacity and incompetence of 'that Company to a due 
 and adequate discharge of the trust deposited in them by 
 charter, are themes of ridicule and contempt to all the 
 world J and although, in consequence of their mismanage- 
 ment, connivance, and imbecility, combined with the wick- 
 edness of their servants, the very name of an Englishman 
 is detested, even to a proverb, through all Asia ; .,;nd the 
 national character is become degraded and dishunored 
 To rescue that name from odium, and redeem this cha- 
 racter from disgrace, are some of the objects of the pre- 
 sent bill J and gentlemen should indeed gravely weigh 
 
19** AMERICAN 
 
 their opposition to a measure, which, with a thousand 
 other points, not less valuable, aims at the attainment of 
 these objects. 
 
 Extract from a Speech of Mr. Burke^ on the Kahoh of Ar- 
 cofs debts^ February 28th, 1785. 
 
 When at length Hyder Ali found that he had to do with 
 men who either would sign no convention, or whom no 
 treaty, and no signature could bind, and who were the de- 
 termined enemies of human intercourse itself, he decreed 
 to make the country possessed by these incorrigible and 
 predestinated criminals a memorable example to mankind. 
 He resolved, in the gloomy recesses of a mind capacious 
 of such things, to leave the whole Carnatick an everlasting 
 monument of vengeance, and to put perpetual desolation 
 as a barrier between him and those, against whom the 
 faith which holds the moral elements of the world toge- 
 ther, was no protection. He became at length so confi- 
 dent of his force, so collected in his might, that he made 
 no secret whatsoever of his dreadful resolution. Having 
 terminated his disputes with every enemy, and every ri- 
 val, who buried their mutual animosities in their common 
 detestation against the creditors of the nabob of Arcot, he 
 drew from every quarter whatever a savage ferocity could 
 add to his new rudiments in the arts of destruction ; and 
 compounding all the materials of fury, havock, and deso- 
 lation, into one black cloud, he hung for a while on the 
 declivities of the mountains. Whilst the authors of all 
 these evils were idly and stupidly gazing on this menacing 
 meteor, which blackened all their horizon, it suddenly- 
 burst, and poured down the whole of its contents upon the 
 plains of the Carnatick — Then ensued a scene of woe, the 
 like of which no eye had seen, no heart conceived, and 
 which no tongue can adequately tell. All the horrors of 
 war before known or heard of, were mercy to that new ha- 
 voc. A storm of universal fire blasted every field, con- 
 sumed every house, destroyed every temple. The miser- 
 able inhabitants flying from their flaming villages, in part 
 were slaughtered ; others, without regard to sex, to age, 
 
; SPEAKER. 195 
 
 '. to the respect of rank, or sacredness of function, fathers 
 torn from children, husbands from wives, enveloped in a 
 whirlwind of cavalry, and amidst the goading spears of 
 drivers, and the trampling of pursuing horses, were swept 
 
 I into captivity, in an unknown and hostile land. Those who 
 
 j were able to evade this tempest, fled to the walled cities. 
 
 I But escaping from fire, sword, and exile, they fell into the 
 jaws of famine. 
 
 The alms of the settlement, in this dreadful exigency, 
 were certainly liberal ; and all was done by charity that 
 private charity could do : but it was a people in beggary ; 
 it was a nation which stretched out its hands for food. For 
 months together, these creatures of sulTcrance, whose very 
 
 I excess and luxury in their most plenteous days, had fall- 
 en short of the allowance of our austerest fasts, silent, pa- 
 tient, resigned, without sedition or disturbance, almost 
 without complaint, perished by an hundred a day in the 
 streets of Madras ; every day seventy at least laid their 
 bodies in the streets, or on the glacis of Tanjore, and ex- 
 pired of famine in the granary of India. I was going to 
 awake your justice towards this unhappy part of our fel- 
 low citizens, by bringing before you some of the circum- 
 stances of this plague of hunger. Of all the calamities 
 which beset and waylay the life of man, this comes the 
 nearest to our heart, and is that wherein the proudest of 
 us all feels himself to be nothing more than he is ; but I 
 find myself unable to manage it with decorum ; these de- 
 tails are of a species of horror so nauseous and disgust- 
 ing ; they are so degrading to the sufferers and to the 
 hearers ; they are so humiliating to human nature itself, 
 that, on better thoughts, I find it more adviseable to throv/ 
 a pall over this hideous object, and to leave it to your ge- 
 neral conceptions. 
 
 For eighteen months, without intermission, this de:- 
 truction raged from the gates of Madras to the gates 
 of Tanjore ; and so completely did these masters in their 
 art, Hyder Ali, and his more ferocious son, absolve 
 themselves of their impious vow, that when the British 
 armies traversed, as they did, the Carnatick for hundreds 
 of miles in all directions, through the whole line of their 
 inarch they did not see one man, not one woman, not one 
 
196 AMERICAN 
 
 child, not one four-footed beast of any description what- 
 ever. One dead uniform silence reigned over the whole 
 region. 
 
 Extract from a Speech of Mr, Grattan, in the Irish Par- 
 liainent on some Commercial Propositions^ 1785. 
 
 This arrangement establishes a principle of lUi posside- 
 tis^ that is, Great Britain shall retain all her advantages, 
 and Ireland shall retain all her disadvantages. But I leave 
 this part of the adjustment where reciprocity is disclaim- 
 ed in the outset of treaty and the rudiment of manufac- 
 ture ; I come to instances of more striking inequality, and 
 iirsr, your situation in the East. You are to give a mo- 
 nopoly to the present or any future East India Company 
 during its existence, and' to the British nation for ever af- 
 ter. It has been said that the Irishman in this is in the 
 same situation as the Englishman, but there is this differ- 
 ence, the diiference between having and not having the 
 xrade ; the British Parliament has judged it most expedi- 
 ent for Great Britain to carry on her trade to the East, by 
 an exclusive company ; the Irish Parliament is now to de- 
 termine it most expedient for Ireland to have no trade at 
 all in these parts. This is not a surrender of the political 
 rights of the constitution, but of the natural rights of man ; 
 not of the privileges of Parliament, but of the rights of 
 rations, — not to sail beyond the Cape of Good Hope and 
 the Straits of Magellan, — an awful interdict I Not only 
 European settlements, but neutral countries excluded, and 
 God^s providence shut out in the most opulent boundaries 
 of creation ; other interdicts go to particular places for 
 local reasons, because they belong to certain European 
 states ; but here are neutral regions forbidden, and a path 
 prescribed to the Irishman on open sea. Other interdicts 
 go to a determinate period of time, but here is an eterni- 
 ty of restraint ; you are to have no trade at all during the 
 existence of any company, and no free trade to those coun- 
 tries after its expiration ; this resembles rather a judgment 
 of God than an act of the Legislature, whether you mea- 
 sure it by immensity of space or infinity of duration, and 
 has nothing human about it except itr> pr«^'^.umption. 
 
SPEAKER. 197 
 
 But if gentlemen can entertain a doubt of the mischief 
 of these propositions, are they convinced of their safety ? 
 the safety of giving up the government of your trade ? 
 No ! the mischief is prominent, but the advantage is of a 
 most enigmatical nature. Have gentlemen considered the 
 subject, have they traced even the map of the countries, 
 the power or freedom of trading with whom they are to 
 surrender for evei ? Have they traced the map of Asia, 
 Africa, and America f Do they know the French, Dutch, 
 Portuguese, and Spanish settlements ? Do they know the 
 neutral powers of those countries, their produce, aptitudes 
 and dispositions ? Have they considered the state of North 
 America ? its prefient state, future groxvth^ and every op' 
 portunity in the endless succession of time attending that 
 nurse of commerce^ and asylum of mankind? Are they 
 now competent to declare, on the part of themselves and 
 all their posterity, that a free trade to those regions will 
 never, in the efflux of time, be of any service to the king- 
 dom of Ireland ? If they have information on this sub- 
 ject, it must be by a communication with God, for they 
 have none with man: it must be inspiration, for it cannot 
 be knowledge. 
 
 The Speech of Lord Erskine in the House of Lords in Eng- 
 land^ on cruelty to Animals. 
 
 INIy Lords, 
 
 I am now to propose to the humane consideration of thf) 
 House, a subject which has long occupied my attention^ 
 and which I own to your Lordsships is very near my 
 heart. 
 
 It would be a painful and disgusting detail, if I were 
 to endeavour to bring before you the almost innumerable 
 instp '^es of cruelty to animals, which are daily occurring 
 in this country, and which, unfortunately, only gather 
 strength by any efforts of humanity in individuals to re 
 press them, without the aid of the law* 
 
 These unmanly and disgusting outrages are mo3t fre- 
 quendy perpetrated by the basest and most worthless .; in- 
 capable, for the most part, of any reproof which can raach. 
 the mindj and who know no more of th<» hw, than that z$: 
 
 S 2. 
 
 
198 AMERICAN 
 
 suffers them to indulge their savage dispositions with im- 
 punity. 
 
 Nothing is more notorious, than that it is not only use- 
 less, but dangerous, to poor suffering animals, to reprove 
 their oppressors, or to threaten them with punishment. 
 The general answer, with the addition of bitter oaths and 
 increased cruelty, is, " What is that to you ?" 
 
 If the offender be a servant, he curses you, and asks if 
 you are his master ? and if he be the master himself, he 
 tells you that the animal is his own. Every one of your 
 Lordships must have witnessed scenes like this. A noble 
 Duke, whom I do not see in his place, told me only two 
 days ago, that he had lately received this very answer, 
 i'he validity of this most infamous and stupid defence, a- 
 nses from that defect in the law which I seek to remedy. 
 Animals are considered as property only — To destroy or 
 to abuse them, from malice to the proprietor, or with an 
 intention injurious to his interest in them, is criminal ; but 
 the animals themsehes are xvithout protection — the law re- 
 gards them not $iibsta?2tiveli/—ihcy have no rights ! 
 
 I will not stop to examine, whether public cruelty to 
 animals may not be, under many circumstances, an indict- 
 able offence : I think it is, and if it be, it is so much the 
 better for the argument I am about to submit to your 
 Lordships. But if even this were clearly so, it would fall 
 very short of the principle which I mean anxiously and 
 earnestly to invite the House to adopt. I am to usk your 
 Lordships, in the name of that God who gave to man his 
 dominion over the lower world, to acknowledge and re- 
 oognize that dominion to be a Moral Trust. It is a pro- 
 position which no man living can deny, without denying 
 the whole foundation of our duties, and every thing tlie 
 Bill proposes will be found to be absolutely corollary to 
 Its establishment ; except, indeed, that from circumstances 
 inevitable, the enacting part v/iil fall short of that which 
 the indisputable principle of the preamble would warrant* 
 
 Nothing, my Lords, is, in my opinion, more interest- 
 ing, than to contemplate the helpless condition of Man, 
 with all his godlike faculties, when stripped of the aids 
 which he receives from the numerous classes of inferior 
 beings, whose qualities, and pov.ers, and instincts, are ad- 
 mirably and wondcxluUy eonstrucud for his use* If, in 
 
SPEAKER. 199 
 
 the examination of these qualities, powers, and instincts, 
 i we could discover nothing else, but that admirable and 
 ! wonderful construction for man*s assistance ; if we found 
 I no organs in the animals for their own gratification and 
 happiness — no sensibility to pain or pleasure — no grateful 
 sense of kindness, nor suffering from neglect or injury — 
 I no senses analogous, though inferior to our own : if we 
 i' discovered, in short, nothing but mere animated matter, 
 obviously and exclusively subservient to human purposes, 
 j it would be difficult to maintain that the dominion over 
 them was a trust ; in any other sense, at least, than to make 
 I the best use for ourselves of the property in them which 
 Providence "had given us. But, my Lords, it calls for no 
 deep or extended skill in natural history, to know that the 
 very reverse of this is the case, and that God is the bene- 
 volent and impartial author of all that he has created. P'or 
 every animul which comes in contact with mnn, and whose 
 powers, and qualities, and instincts, are obviously con- 
 structed for his use, Nature has taken the same care to 
 provide, and as carefully and bountifully as for man him- 
 self, organs and feelings for its own enj »yment and happi- 
 ness. Almost every sense bestowed upon man, is equally 
 bestowed upon then. — seeing, hearing, feeling, thinking, 
 the sense of pain and pleasure, the passions of love and 
 anger, sensibility to kindness, and pangs from unkindness 
 and neglect, are inseparable characterisiics of their natures, 
 ns much as of our own. Add to this, my Lords, that the 
 justest and tenderest consideration of this benevolent sys- 
 tem of Nature, is not only consistent with the fullest do- 
 minion of man over the animal world, but establishes and 
 improves it. In this, as in every thing else, the whole 
 iv.oral systtm is inculciUed by the pursuit of our own hap- 
 piness. In this, as in all other things, our duties and our 
 interests are inseparable. I defy any man to point out any 
 cu>e abuse of a brute which is property, by its owner, which 
 is not directly against his own interest. Is it posssible, 
 then, my Lords, to contemplate this wonderful arrange- 
 ment, and to doubt, for a single moment, that our domi- 
 nion over animals is a trust? They are creattd indeed for 
 our use, but not for our abuse : their freedom and «: njoy- 
 ments, when they cease to be consistent with our just do- 
 minion and enjoyments, can be no part of their natures ; 
 
200 AMERICAN 
 
 but whilst they are consistent, their rights, subservient as 
 they are, ought to be as sacred as our own. And ahhough 
 certainly, my lords, there can be no law for man in that 
 respect, but such as he makes for himself, yet I canaot 
 conceive any thing more sublime, or interesting, more 
 greateful to heaven, or more beneficial to the world, than 
 to see such a spontaneous restraint imposed by man upon 
 himself. 
 
 This subject is most justly treated by one of the best 
 poets in our language. 
 
 Mr. Cowper, in the Task, says: — 
 
 The sum is this- 
 
 If man's convenienct^ health, or s:ifety 
 Interfere, his rights and chtims are paramount, 
 And must extinguish their's, else they are all"— — 
 
 Every other branch of our duties, when subject to fre= 
 quent violation, has been recognized and inculcated by 
 our laws, and the breaches of them repressed by punish- 
 ments ; and why not in this, where our duties are so im- 
 portant, so universally extendi d, and the breaches- of them 
 so frequent and so abominc hie ? 
 
 But in what I am propcsmg to your Lordships, disin- 
 terested virtue, as in ail o:her cases, will have its own cer- 
 tain reward. The humaniiyyou shall extend to the low- 
 er creation will come abundantly round in its consequences 
 to the whole human race. The moral sense which this 
 law will awaken and inculcate, cannot but have a most 
 powerful effect upon our feelings and sympathies for one 
 another. The violences and outrages committed by the 
 k)v-er orders of the people, are offences more owing to 
 want of thought and reflection, than to any malignant prin- 
 ciple ; and v^'hatever, therefore, sets them a-thinking upon 
 the duties of humanity, more especially where they have 
 no rivalries nor resentments, and where there is a peculiar 
 generosity in forbearance and compassion, has an evident 
 tendency to soften their natures, and to moderate their 
 passions, in their dealings with one another. 
 
 The effect of laws which promulgate a sound moral 
 principle, is incalculable ; I have traced it in a thousand 
 instances, and it is impossible to describe its value. 
 
SPEAKER. 201 
 
 My Lords, it was in consequence of these simple views, 
 and on those indisputable principles, that I have framed 
 ihe preamble of the vary short Bill which I now present 
 for a second reading to the House. I might without pre- 
 amble or preface, have proposed at once to enact, if not to 
 declare wilful and wanton cruelty to the animals compre- 
 ficnded in it to be a misdemeanor, looking, as I now do, 
 to the Commons to enforce the sanction of the law by pe- 
 cuniary penalties. But then the grand efficacious princi- 
 ple would have been obscured ; which, if fortunately 
 adopted by your Lordships, will enact this law as a spon- 
 taneous rule in the mind of every man who reads it — • 
 which will make every human bosom a sanctuary against 
 cruelty — which will extend the influence of a British sta- 
 tute beyond even the vast bounds of British jurisdiction ; 
 and consecrate, perhaps, in all nations, and in all ages, that 
 just and eternal principle, which binds the whole living 
 world in one harmonious chain, under the dominion of en- 
 lightened man, the lord and governor of all. 
 
 I will now read to your Lordships, the preamble as I 
 have framed it. 
 
 " Whereas it has pleased Almighty God to subdue to 
 the dominion, use, and comfort of man, the strength and 
 faculties of many useful animals, and to provide others for 
 his food ; and whereas the abuse of that dominion, by cru- 
 el and oppressive treatment of such animals, is not only 
 highly unjust and immoral, but most pernicious in its ex- 
 ample, having an evident tendency to harden the heart a- 
 gainst the natural feelings of humanity." 
 
 This preamble may be objected to as too solemn and 
 unusual in its language ; but it must be recollected, that 
 the subject of the Bill is most peculiar and unusual ; and 
 it being impossible to give practicable effect to the princi= 
 pie in its full extent, it became the more necessary, in cre- 
 ating a duty of imperfect obligation, u'here legal restraints 
 would be ineffic icious or impossible, to employ language 
 calculated to make the deepest impression upon the hu- 
 man mind, so as to produce, perhups, more than the ef- 
 fect of lav/, where the ordinary sanctions of law v/ere 
 wanting. 
 
 It may be now asked, my Lords, why, if the principle 
 of the Bill be jusily unlolded by this preamble,, the en- 
 
 I 
 
202 AMERICAN 
 
 acting part falls so very short of protecting the whole ani- 
 iTial world, or at all events those parts of it which conie 
 "within the reach of man, and ^vhich may be subject to a- 
 buse. To that I answer — It does protect them to a cer- 
 tain degree, by the very principle which I have been sub- 
 mitting to your consideration, and to protect them further, 
 would be found to be attended with insurmountable diffi- 
 culties, and the whole bill might be wrecked by an imprac- 
 ticable effort to extend it. But I shall be happy to follow 
 others in the attempt. The Bill, however, as it regards 
 all animals, creates a duty of imperfect obligation; and your 
 Lordships are very well aware, that there are very many 
 and most manifest and i<«portant moral duties, the breach- 
 es of which human laws cannot practically deal with, and 
 this I fear will be found to be the case in the subject now 
 under consideration. 
 
 Animals living in a state of nature, would soon over- 
 run the earth, and eat up and consume all the sustenance 
 of man, if not kept down by the ordinary pursuits and des- 
 truction of them, by the only means in which they can be 
 kept down and destroyed ; and it is remarkable, that other 
 animals have been formed by Nature, with most manifest 
 instincts to assist us in this necessary exercise of dominion; 
 and, indeed, without the act of man, these animals would 
 themselves prey upon one another, and thus be visited by 
 death, the inevitable lot of all created things, in more pain- 
 ful and frightful shapes. They have, besides, no know- 
 ledge of the future, and their end, when appropriated fit- 
 ly for our food, is without prolonged suffering. This eco- 
 nomy of Providence, as it regards animals, which from 
 age to age have lived in an unreclaimed state, devoted to 
 the use of man and of each other, may serve to reconcile 
 the mind to that mysterious state of things in the present 
 fallen and imperfect condition of the world. 
 
 This str.te of wild animals is further strikingly illustrat- 
 ed, by the view of such of them as have been spared from 
 the human huntsman, or the more numerous tribes of ani- 
 mals of prey. They are swept away by the elements in 
 hard wint-ers, retiring as most of them do, to a solitary, 
 protracted, and painful death. 
 
 Old age, my Lords, even amongst men, is but a rare 
 Llessing ; amongst such brutes, perhaps, never. Old age 
 
 
SPEAKER/ 203 
 
 can only be supported in comfort by that aid and tender- 
 ness from others, arising from the consciousness of those 
 ties of nature, which it has not pleased the Divine Provi- 
 dence to dispense to the lower world ; but which, as the 
 greatest of all blessings, it has communicated to man. — 
 When the brutes have fulfilled their duties to their young 
 for their protection, they know them no more, and die of 
 old age, or cold, or hunger, in view of one another, with- 
 out sympathy or mutual assistance, or comfort. 
 
 It is the same, to a certain extent, with regard to those 
 reclaimed animals devoted to man's use for food, whose 
 faculties, as far as our observation is capable of a just com- 
 parison, approach nearer to human reason The old age 
 even of such animals, for the reasons adverted to, would 
 seldom be satisfactory. When they pass, therefore, from 
 life to death, in a manner which gives them no foretaste of 
 their doom, and consequently no sense of pain or sorrow 
 in the road to it, the ways of God are justified to man. 
 
 The Bill, therefore, as it regards wild animals, could 
 not easily have been framed for practicable operation, ex- 
 cept by sanctioning as it does the principle of the pream- 
 ble, which will, I trust, insensibly extend its influence to 
 the protection of every thing that has life ; by bringing ha- 
 bitually into the view of the mind the duties of imperfect 
 obligation which it inculcates ; and with regard to animals 
 bred by man, or reclaimed for food, it will directly pro- 
 tect them against the cruelties which are generally com- 
 mitted on them, viz. the unmercifully driving them and 
 beating them on thtir passage to fairs and markets, and a- 
 gainst unnecess;:^ry sufferings in the hour of death. 
 
 As to the tendency of barbarous sports of any kind or 
 description whatsoever, to nourish the national character- 
 istic of manliness and courage, the only shadow of argu- 
 ment I ever heard upon such occasions, all I can say is 
 this : that, from the mercenary battles of the lowest of 
 beasts (viz. human boxers) up to those of the highest and 
 noblest tliat are tormented by man for his degradmg pas- 
 time, I enter this public protest against it. I never knew 
 a man remarkable for heroic bravery, whose very aspect 
 was not lighted up by gentleness and humanity ; nor a ktlU 
 him and eat-him countenance, that did not cover the h^aiS 
 of a bully, or a poltron. 
 
204 AMERICAN 
 
 As to other reclaimed animals, which are not devoted 
 to our use as food, but which are most wonderfully orga- 
 nized to assist man in the cultivation of the earth, and by 
 their superior activity and strength, to lessen his labour in 
 the whole circle of his concerns, different protections be- 
 come necessary, and they are also provided for by the Bill, 
 and without the loss or abridgment of any one right of 
 property in such animals. On the contrary, all its provi- 
 sions protect them, as property, from the abuses of those 
 to whose care and government their owners are obliged to 
 commit them. They also reach the owners themselves, if, 
 from an inordinate desire of gain, or other selfish conside- 
 rations, they abuse the animals, their property in which is 
 limited to the use. 
 
 It would by wasting your Lordship's time, if I were to 
 enumerate the probable cases which this part of the Bill 
 will comprehend. It is well observed by an Itahan philo- 
 sopher, " that no man desires to hear what he has already 
 seen." Your Lordships cannot have walked the streets, or 
 travelled on the roads, without being perfectly masters of 
 this part of the subject. You cannot but have been almost 
 daily witnesses to most disgusting cruelties practised upon 
 beasts of carriage and burthen, by the violence and bruta- 
 lity of their drivers. To distinguish, such brutality and 
 criminal violence, from severe, but sometimes necessary 
 discipline, may at first view appear difficult, and on that 
 account a serious objection to the Bill ; but when I come 
 to that part of the subject, I pledge myself to shew that it 
 involves no difficulty whatsoever. But there are other a^ 
 buses far more frequent and important, which will require 
 a more particular consideration. For one act of cruelty in 
 servants, there are an hundred in the owners of beasts of la- 
 bor and burthen, sometimes committed by the owners alone, 
 from a scandalous desire of gain, and sometimes in a most 
 unworthy partnership with their superiors, who are equal- 
 ly guilty, with no gain at all, nor for any motive that it 
 would not be disgraceful to acknowledge. I allude, my 
 Lords, to our unhappy post-horses. It is not my wish, 
 my Lords, to be a fanciful reformer of the world, nor to 
 exact that the manners and customs of a highly-civi- 
 lized nation should be brought to the standard of simplici- 
 ty and virtue, if indeed such a standard ever existed upon 
 
speaker: 205 
 
 earth. I do not seek to appoint inspectors to examine the 
 books of innkeepers, so as to punish any excess in the num- 
 bers of their stages, as you do an excess of outside pas- 
 sengers on the roofs of coaches. I know there are very 
 many cases (which could not be brought strictly within the 
 scope of necessities) where these poor animals must grie- 
 vously suffer, yet where no law can properly reach to pro- 
 tect them. The demands, though not imminent, of hu- 
 man health, and even of convenience ; the occasional exi- 
 gencies of commerce ; the exercise of franchises ; and 
 many other cases which must occur to every body, would 
 furnish obvious exceptions without violation of the prin- 
 ciple, and which every court and magistrate would know 
 how to -distinguish. But the Bill, if properly executed, 
 would expose innkeepers to a reasonable punishment, who 
 will palpably devote an innocent animal to extreme mise- 
 ry, if not to death itself, by a manifest and outrageous ex- 
 cess of labour, rather than disoblige a mere traveller, en- 
 gaged in no extraordinary business, lest in future he should 
 go to the inn opposite — when the law shall give a rule for 
 both sides of the way, this most infamous competition will 
 be at an end. 
 
 For my own part, my Lords, I can say with the greatest 
 sincerity to your Lordships, that nothing has ever excited 
 in my mind greater disgust, than to observe what we all 
 of us are obliged to see every day in our lives, horses 
 panting — what do I say ! literally dying under the scourge; 
 when, on looking into the chaises, we see them carrying 
 to and from London, men and women, to whom, or to 
 others, it can be of no possible signification whether they 
 arrive one day sooner or later, and sometimes indeed 
 whether they ever arrive at all. More than half the 
 post-horses that die from abuse in harness, are killed by 
 people, who, but for the mischief I am complaining of, 
 would fall into the class described by Mr. Sterne, of sim- 
 ple or harmless travellers, galloping over our roads for 
 neither good nor evil, but to till up the dreary blank in un- 
 occupied life. I can see no reason, why all such travel- 
 lers should not endeavour to overcome the ainui of their 
 lives, without killing poor animals, more innocent and 
 more useful than themselves. To speak gravely, my 
 Lords, I maintain, that human idleness ought not to be 
 
 T 
 
206 AMERICAN 
 
 permitted, by the laws of enlightened man, to tax for no- 
 thing, beyond the powers which God has given thvm, the 
 animals which his benevolence has created lor our assist- 
 ance. 
 
 But another abuse exists, not less frequent and much 
 more shocking, because committed under the deliberate 
 calculation of intolerable avarice, I allude to the prac- 
 tice of buying up horses, when past their strength, from 
 old age or disease, upon the computation (I mean to speak 
 literally) of how many days torture and oppression they 
 are capable of living under, so as to return a profit with 
 the addition of the flesh and skin, when brought to one of 
 the numerous houses appropriated for the slaughter of 
 horses. If this practice only extended to carrying on the 
 fair work of horses to the very latest period of labour, in- 
 stead of destroying them when old or disabled, I should 
 approve, instead of condemning it. But it is most noto- 
 rious, that with the value of such animals, all care of them 
 is generally at an end, and you see them (I speak literal- 
 ly, and of a systematic abuse) sinking and dying under 
 loads, which no man living would have set the same horse 
 to, when in the meridian of his strength and youth. 
 
 This horrid abuse, my Lords, which appears at first 
 view to be incapable of aggravation, is nevertheless most 
 shockingly aggravated, when the period arrives at which 
 one would think cruelty must necessarily cease, when ex- 
 hausted nature is ready to bestow the deliverance of death. 
 But even then a new and most atrocious system of tor- 
 ture commences, of which, my Lords, I could myself be 
 a witness in your committee, as it was proved to my own 
 perfect satisfaction, and that of my friend Mr. Jekyll, upon 
 the information of a worthy magistrate, who called our at- 
 tention to the abuse. But, perhaps, my Lords, I shall bet- 
 ter describe it, as it will at the same time afford an addi- 
 tional proof of these hideous practices, and of their exist- 
 ence at this hour, by reading n letter which I received but 
 two days ago, the facts of which I am ready to bring in 
 proof before your Lordships. 
 
 Here Lord Erskine read an extract from a letter, which 
 stated — 
 
 " A very general practice of buying up horses still alive, 
 but not capable of being even further abused by any kind of 
 
SPEAKER. 207 
 
 labour. These horses, it appeared, were carried in great 
 numbers to slaughter-houses, but not killed at once for 
 their flesh and skins, but left without sustenance, and li» 
 terally starved to death, that the market might be gradu- 
 ally fed; — the poor animals, in the mean time, being re- 
 duced to eat their own dung, and frequently gnawing one 
 another's manes in the agonies of hunger." 
 
 Can there be a doubt, my Lords, that all such shocking 
 practices should be considered and punished as misde- 
 mtanors? Here again it may be said that the Bill, in this 
 part of it, will invest magistrates with a novel and danger- 
 ous discretion. I am not yet arrived at that part of the 
 case, though I am fast approaching it; when I do, 1 pledge 
 myself without fear, to maintain the contrary, to the satis- 
 faction of every one of your Lordships, more especially 
 including the learned Lords of the House. No less fre- 
 quent and wicked an abuse, is the manifest overloading of 
 carriages and animals of burthen, particularly asses ; and 
 as far as this poor animal is unjustly considered an emblem 
 of stupidity, the owners who thus oppress him are the 
 greater asses of the two. The same may be said of ke p- 
 ing animals without adequate food to support their strengih, 
 or even their existence — this frequently happens to beasts 
 impounded for trepasses ; I have had complaints of this 
 abuse from all parts of the country. The notice to the 
 owner is seldom served, and thus the poor innocent ani- 
 mal is left to starve in the pound. As far as an animal is 
 considered merely as property, this may be all very well, 
 and the owner must find him out at his peril j but when 
 the animal is looked to upon the principle of this Bill, the 
 i'Tipounder ought to feed him, and charge it to the owner 
 as part of the damages. 
 
 Only one other offence remains, which I think it neces- 
 sary to advert to, which it is diiHcult sufticiently to expose 
 and stigmatize, from the impudence with which it is every 
 day committed ; as if the perpretators of this kind of wick- 
 edness were engaged in something extremely entertaining 
 and innocent, if not meritorious. I allude to those extra- 
 vagant bets for trying the strength and indurance of horses; 
 not those animating races, properly so called, which the" 
 horse really enjoys, and which, though undoubtedly at- 
 tended with collateral evils, has tended greatly to improve 
 
208 AMERICAN 
 
 the breed of that noble and u»»ful animal. The contests 
 \^hich I consider as wilful and wanton cruelty, are of a 
 different kind: I maintain, that no man, without being 
 guilty of that great crime, can put it upon the uncertain 
 and mercenary die, whether in races against time — no — 
 not properly so called, but rather journies of great dis- 
 tances within limited periods, the exertions shall very far 
 exceed the ordmary power which nature has bestowed on 
 the unhappy creature, thus wickedly and inhumanly per- 
 verted from the benevolent purposes of their existence. 
 
 All the observjitions I have just been making to your 
 Lordships, undoubtedly apply to the maliciously torment- 
 ing any animal whatsoever, more especially animals which 
 we have voluntarily reclaimed and domesticated ; and yet 
 I fairly own to your Lordships, that as the Bill was origi- 
 nally drawn, and as it stood until a fev/ days ago, it wbuld 
 not have reached many shameful and degrading practices. 
 The truth is, that I was afraid to run too rapidly and di- 
 rectly against prejudices. But, on conversing with very 
 enlightened and learned men, I took courage in my own 
 original intention, and introduced the concluding clause, 
 which comprehended the wickedly and wantonly torment- 
 ing any reclaimed animal ; the effect of which in practice, 
 1 will explain hereafter, when I con;C ^^ shew the practi- 
 cability of executing the law without trespassing upon the 
 just rights and privileges of mankind. If your Lordships, 
 however, shall ultimately differ from me in this part of the 
 subject, you can strike out this clause in the committee, 
 I have purposely kept it quite distinct and separate fronn 
 the rest of the Bill, as I originally framed it, being resolv- 
 ed to carry an easy sail at first, for fear of oversetting my 
 vessel, in a new and dangerous navigation. 
 
 I now come, my J^ords, to the second part of the case, 
 which will occupy but a small portion of your Lordship's 
 time, on which 1 am afraid I have trespassed but too long 
 already. 
 
 Supposing, now, your Lordships to be desirous of sub- 
 scribing to the principles I have opened to you, and to feel 
 the propriety of endeavouring to prevent, as far as possi- 
 ble, the inhuman cruelties practised upon animals, so ge- 
 neral and so notorious, as to render a more particular state- 
 ment cf them as unnecessary as it would have been dh- 
 
 
SPEAKER. 200 
 
 gusting: the main question will then arise, viz. how the ja- 
 risdiction erected by this Bill, if it shall pass into a law, may 
 be executed by courts and magistrates, without investing 
 them with a new and arbitrary discretion. 
 
 My Lords, I feel the great importance of this conside- 
 ration, and I have no desire to shrink from it ; on the con- 
 trary, I invite your Lordships to the closest investigation 
 of it, and for that purpose I will myself anticipate every 
 possible objection of that description, and give your 
 Lordships, in a very few words, the most decisive answers 
 to them. 
 
 How, it may be first asked, are magistrates to distin- 
 guish between the justifiable labours of the animal, which 
 from man's necessities are often most fatiguing, and appa- 
 rently excessive, and that real excess which the Bill seeks 
 to punish as wilful, wicked, and wanton cruelty? How 
 are they to distinguish between the blows which are ne- 
 cessary, when beasts of labour are lazy or refractory, or 
 even blows of sudden passion and temper, from deliberate, 
 cold-blooded, ferocious cruelty, which we see practised 
 every day we live, and which has a tendency, as the pre- 
 amble recites, to harden the heart against all the impulses 
 C'f humanity ? 
 
 How, m the same manner, are they to distinguish be- 
 tween the fatigues and sufferings of beasts for slaughter, 
 in their melancholy journeys to death in our markets, 
 from unnecessary, and therefore barbarous, aggravations 
 of them ? 
 
 Here, my Lords, I am at home : — here I know my 
 course so completely, that I can scarcely err. I am no 
 speculator upon the effect of the law which I propose to 
 you, as the wisest legislators must often be, who are not 
 practically acquainted with the administration of justice. 
 Having passed my life in our courts of law when filled 
 with the greatest judges, and with the ablest advocates, 
 who from time to time have since added to their number, 
 I know with the utmost precision, the effect of it in prac- 
 tice, and I pledge myself to your Lordships, that the exe- 
 cution of the Bill, if it passes into law, will be found to be 
 most simple and easy ; raising up no new principles of law^ 
 and giving to courts no larger discretion nor more diSicult 
 
 T 2 
 
210 AMERICAN 
 
 subjects for judgment, than they are in the constant course 
 of exercising. 
 
 First of all, my Lords, the law I propose to your Lord- 
 ships is not likely to be attended with abuse in prosecu- 
 tion ; a very great, but I am afraid, an incurable evil in 
 the penal code. I stimulate no mercenary informer*, which 
 I admit often to be necessary to give effect to criminal jus- 
 tice ; I place the lower creation entirely on the genuine 
 unbought sympathies of man. 
 
 No one is likely to prosecute by indictment, or to carry 
 a person before a magistrate, without probable, or rather 
 "without obvious and flagrant cause, when he can derive 
 no personal benefit from the prosecution, nor carry it oa 
 without trouble and expense. The law is, therefore, more 
 open to the charge of inefficacy, than of vexation. 
 
 It can indeed have no operation, except when compas- 
 sionate men (and I trust they will become more numerous 
 from the moral sense which this Bill is calculated to awa- 
 ken) shall set the law in motion against manifest and dis- 
 gusting offenders, to deliver themselves from the pain and 
 horror which the immediate views of wilful and wanton 
 cruelty is capable of exciting, or is rather sure to excite, 
 in a generous nature. 
 
 What possible difficulty then can be imposed upon the 
 magistrate, who has only to judge upon hearing, from his 
 own humane feelings, vvhat such disinterested informers 
 have judged of from having seen and felt. The task is 
 surely most easy, and by no means novel. Indeed, the 
 ^vhole administration of law, in many analogous cases, con- 
 sists in nothing else but in discriminations, generally more 
 difficult in cases of personal wrongs. 
 
 Cruelty to an apprentice, by beating, or over-labour, is 
 judged of daily upon the very principle which this Bill 
 v^ill bring into action in the case of an oppressed animal* 
 
 To distinguish the severest discipline, to command obe- 
 dience, and to enforce activity in such dependents, from 
 brutal ferocity and cruelty, never yet puzzled a judge or 
 a jury, never ?.t least in my very long experience ; and 
 when want of sustenance is the complaint, the most culpa- 
 ble over-frugality is never confounded with a wicked and 
 malicious privation of food. 
 
SPEAKER. 211 
 
 The same distinctions occur frequently upon the plea of 
 moderate chastisement, when any other servant complains 
 of his master, or when it becomes necessary to measure 
 the degree of violence, v/hich is justifiable in repelling vio- 
 lence, or in the preservation of rights. 
 
 In the same manner, the damage from a frivolous as- 
 sault or of a battervi the effect of provocation or sudden 
 temper, is daily distinguished in our courts, from a severe 
 and cold-blooded outrage. A hasty word, which just con- 
 veys matter that is actionable, is, in the same manner, dis- 
 tinguished in a moment from malignant and dangerous 
 slander. Mistakes in the extent of authority, which hap- 
 pen every day in the discharge of the complicated dutits 
 of the magistracy, are never confounded for a moment, 
 even when the)- have trenched severely upon personal lib- 
 erty, with an arbitrary and tyrannous imprisonment. Un- 
 guarded or slight trespasses upon property, real or perso- 
 r.al, are in the same way the daily subjects of distinction 
 from malicious deprivations of rights, or serious interrup- 
 tions of their enjoyment. 
 
 Similar, or rather nicer distinctions, are occurring daily 
 in our courts — when libel or no libel is the question. A 
 line must be drawn between injurious calumny, and fair, 
 though, perhaps, unpleasant animadversion ; but plain good 
 sense, without legal subdety, is sure to settle it v/ith just- 
 ice — so every man mr.y enjoy what is his own, but not to 
 the injury ol his neighbour. What is an injury, or what 
 only a loss, without being injurious, is the question in all 
 cases of nuisance, and they are satisfactorily &«^ttled by the 
 common understandings and feelings of mankind. 
 
 My Lords, there would be no end of these analogies, 
 if I were to pursue them ; I might bring my whole pro- 
 ft-s^ional life, ibr near thirty years, in review before your 
 Lordships. 
 
 I appeal to the learned Lords of the House, whether 
 these distinctions are not of daily occurrence. I appeal 
 to my noble and learned friend on the woolsack, whether^ 
 when he sat as chief justice of the Common Pleas, he 
 found any difBculty in these distinctions. I appeal to my 
 noble and learned friend who sits just by him, whose use- 
 ful and valuable life is wholly occupied amidst these ques- 
 tions, whether they are doul?Lful and dangerous in the deci- 
 
212 AMERICAN 
 
 sion, and whether they are not precisely in point with the 
 difficulties which I have anticipated, or with any others 
 which opponents to the Bill can possibly anticipate. I 
 make a similar appeal to another noble and learned friend, 
 who has filled the highest situation ; I do not see him at 
 this moment in his place, but to him also I might make 
 the same fearless application. 
 
 I cannot, therefore, conceive a case on which a magis- 
 trate would be exposed to any difficulty under this Bill, if 
 it should pass into a law. 
 
 The cruelties which I have already adverted to, are ei- 
 tlier committed by owners, or by servants, charged with 
 the care and government of horses and other cattle. If the 
 owner unmercifully directs them to be driven to most un- 
 reasonable distances, or with burthens manifestly beyond 
 their powers ; if he buys them up when past the age of 
 strength, not for a use correspondent to their condition, 
 but upon the barbarous and wicked computation of how 
 long they can be tortured to profit ; in neither of these 
 cases can the cruelty be imputed to the servant whom you 
 meet upon the road, struggling to perform the unjust com- 
 mands of his employer. The master is the obvious cul- 
 prit — respondent superior — the spectators and the servant 
 are the witnesses — and these are the cases where an in- 
 dictment would operate as a most useful example, without 
 oppression, to those who thus offend systematically against 
 every principle of humanity and justice. 
 
 On the other hand, when no cruel commands are given 
 to the servant, but his own malice offends at once against 
 his master and the unhappy animal which he wickedly a- 
 buses, he of course is alone responsible ; and these are the 
 cases in which a summary jurisdiction would be most ge- 
 nerally resorted to, as more favourable at once to the dis- 
 interested informer and to the offender, who would be thus 
 punished with a small penalty, and be delivered from an 
 expensive prosecution. 
 
 The other House of Parliament will no doubt accom- 
 plish this in the further progress of the Bill. 
 
 But in neither of these cases, which comprehend, indeed, 
 every abuse which the Bill extends to, is there any kind 
 of danger that it will work oppression, or produce unc€r» 
 uinty in decisions 
 
SPEAKER. 213 
 
 A man cannot, if an owner, be the subject of an indict- 
 ment, because he may have been less considerate and mer- 
 ciful than he ought to be ; nor, if a servant, for an unrea- 
 onable blow of temper upon an unmanageable charge. 
 No, my Lords ! Every indictment or information before 
 a magistrate must charge the offence to De committed ma- 
 liciously, and with wanton cruelty, and the proof must 
 correspond with the charge. This Bill makes no act what- 
 ever a misdemeanor that does not plainly indicate to the 
 court or magistrate a malicious and wicked intent ; but 
 this generality is so far from generating uncertainty, that 
 I appeal to every member in our great profession, wheth- 
 er, on the contrary, it is not in favour of the accused, and 
 analogous to our most merciful principles of criminal just- 
 ice ? So far from involving the noagistrate in doubtful dis- 
 criminations, he must be himself shocked and disgusted 
 before he begins to exercise his authority over another. 
 He must find malicious cruelty ; and what that is can ne- 
 ver be a matter of uncertainty or doubt, because nature has 
 erected a standard in the human heart, by which it may 
 be surely ascertaitied. 
 
 This consideration surely removes every difficulty from 
 the last clause, which protects from wiUul, malicious, and 
 wanton cruelty, all reclaimed animals. Whatever m-^y »-« 
 the creatures which, by your own voluntary act,. you chuse 
 to take from the wilds which nature has allotted to them, 
 you must be supposed to exercise this admitted dominion 
 for use, or for pleasure, or from curiosity. If for use, en- 
 joy that use in its plenitude ; if the animal be fit for food, 
 enjoy it decently for food ; if for pleasure, enjoy that plea- 
 sure, by taxing all its faculties for your comfort ; if for cu- 
 riosity, indulge it to the full. The more we mix ourselves 
 with all created matter, animate or inanimate, the more we 
 shall be lifted up to the contemplation of God. But never 
 let it be said, that the law should indulge us in the most 
 atrocious of all propensities, which, when habitually in- 
 dulged in, on beings beneath us, destroy every security of 
 human life, by hardening the heart for the perpetration of 
 all crimes. 
 
 The times in which we live, my Lords, have read us 
 an awful lesson upon the importance of preserving the mo- 
 ral sympathies. We have seen that the highest state of 
 
214 AMEI^ICAN 
 
 refinement and civilization will not secure them. I go- 
 lemnly protest against any allusion to the causes of the 
 revolutions which are yet shaking the world, or to the 
 crimes or mistakes of any individuals in any nation ; but 
 it connects itself with my subject to remark, that even in 
 struggles for human rights and privileges, sincere and lau- 
 dable as they occasionally may have been, all human rights 
 and privileges have been trampled upon, by barbarities far 
 more shocking than those of the most barbarous nations, 
 because they have not merely extinguished natural uncon- 
 nected life, but have destroyed (I trust only for a season) 
 the social happiness and independence of mankind, raising 
 up tyrants to oppress them all in the end, by beginning 
 with the oppression of each other. All this, my Lords, 
 has arisen from neglecting the cultivation of the moral 
 sense, the best security of states, and the greatest conso- 
 lation of the world. 
 
 My Lords, I will trouble your Lordships no longer than 
 with admitting, for the sake of the argument, that there 
 may be cases, especially in the beginning, where the exe- 
 cution of the Bill may call for the exercise of high judi- 
 cial consideration, through the dignity and learning of the 
 supreme court of criminal jurisdiction. And here I can- 
 not help saying, that it adds greatly to the security I feel 
 upon this part of the subject, that when the Bill shall have 
 received the sanction of Parliament, it will be delivered 
 over to my noble and learned friend, who presides so ably 
 in the Court of King's Bench. From his high authority, 
 the inferior magistrates will receive its just interpretation, 
 and, from his manly and expressive eloquence, will be add- 
 ed, a most useful inculcation of its obligations : for I must 
 once again impress upon your Lordships' minds, the great, 
 the incalculable effect of wise laws, when ably administer- 
 ed, upon the feelings and morals of mankind. We may 
 be said, my Lords, to be in a manner new created by them 
 — Under the auspices of religion, in whose steps- they must 
 ever tread, to maintain the character of wisdom, they 
 make all the difference between the savages of the wilder- 
 ness, and the audience I am now addressing. The cruel- 
 ties which we daily deplore, in children and in youth, a- 
 rise from defect in education, and that defect in educa- 
 tioDj from the very defect in the law, which I ask your 
 
SPEAKER. 20 
 
 Lordships to remedy. From the moral sense of the pa- 
 rent re-animated, or rather in this branch created by the 
 law, the next generation will feel, in the first dawn of their 
 ideas, the august relation they stand in to the lower world, 
 and the trust which their station in the universe imposes 
 on them ; and it will not be left to a future Sterne to re- 
 mind us, when we put aside even a harmless insea, that 
 the world is large enough for both. This extension of be- 
 nevolence to objects beneath us, becomes habitual by a sense 
 of duty inculcated by law, will reflect back upon our sym- 
 pathies to one another, so that I may venture to say firm- 
 ly to your Lordships, that the Bill I propose to you, if it 
 shall receive the sanction of Parliament, will not only be 
 an honour to the country, but an aera in the history of the 
 world- 
 
 Extract from Mr* Sheridan^ s Speech on the Trial of JVar" 
 ren Hastings, 
 
 Should a stranger survey the land formerly Sirj ah Dow- 
 lah's, and seek the cause of its calamity — should he ask, 
 what monstrous madness had ravaged thus, with wide- 
 spread war — what desolating foreign foe — what disputed 
 succession — what religious zeal — what fabled monster has 
 stalked abroad, and with malice and mortal enmity to man, 
 has withered with the gripe of death every growth of na- 
 ture and humanity — all the means of delight, and each 
 original, simple principle of bare existence ? the answer 
 will be, if any answer dare be given. No, alas ! not one of 
 these things! no desolating foreign foe ! — no disputed suc- 
 cession ! no religious superserviceable zeal! This damp of 
 death is the mere effusion of British amity — we sink un- 
 der the pressure of their support — we writhe under the 
 gripe of their pestiferous alliance ! 
 
 Thus they suffered — in barren anguish, and ineffectual 
 bewail ings. And, O audacious fallacy ! — says the defence 
 of Mr. Hastings — What cause was there for any inciden- 
 tal ills, but their own resistance ? 
 
 The cause was nature in the first-born principles of man. 
 It grew with his growth ; it strengthened with his strength ! 
 It taught him to understand j it enabled him to feel. For 
 
216 AMERICA]^ 
 
 where there is human fate, can there be a penury of hu- 
 man feeling? — Where there is injury, will there not be re- 
 sentment ? — Is not despair to be followed by courage ? The 
 God of Battles pervades and penetrates the inmost spirit 
 of man, and rousing him to shake off the burthen that is 
 grievous, and the yoke that is galling, will reveal the law- 
 written in his heart, and the duties and privileges of his 
 nature — the grand, universal compact of man with man ! 
 -*-That power is delegated in trust, for the good of all who 
 obey it — That the rights of men must arm against man's 
 oppresssion — for that indifference were treason to human 
 state, and patience nothing less than blasphemy — against 
 the laws which govern the world ! 
 
 It was in some degree observable, that not one of the 
 private letters of Mr. Hastings had been produced at any 
 time. — Even Middleton, when all confidence was broken 
 between them, by the production of his private corres- 
 pondence at Calcutta, either feeling for his own safety or 
 sunk under the fascinating influence of his master, did 
 not dare attempt a retaliation ! — The letters of Middleton, 
 however, were sufficient to prove the situation of the Na- 
 bob, when pressed to the measure of resuming the Jag- 
 hires, in which he had been represented as acting wholly 
 from himself — He was there described as lost in sullen 
 melancholy — with feelings agitated beyond expression, 
 and with every mark of agonized sensibility. To such 
 a degree was this apparent, that even Middleton was mo- 
 ved to interfere for a temporary respite, in which he might 
 be more reconciled to the measure. I am fully of opinion, 
 said he, that the despair of the nabob must impel him to 
 violence ; I know also that the violence must be fatal to 
 himself — but yet I think, that with his present feelings, he 
 will disregard all consequences. — Mr. Johnson also, the 
 assistant Resident, wrote at the same time to Mr. Has- 
 tin'^s to aver to him that the measure was dangerous, that 
 it would require a total reform of the collection, which 
 could not be made without a campaign ! — This was Brit- 
 ish justice ! this was British huiianity ! Mr. Hastings 
 ensures to the allies of the company in the strongest terms 
 their prosperity and his protection ; — the former he secures 
 by seadmg an army to plunder them of their wealth and to 
 desolate their soil! — his protection is fraught with a simi- 
 
SPEAKER. 217 
 
 lar security ; — like that of a vulture to a Iamb — grappling 
 in its vitals! — thirsting for its blood! — scaring off each 
 petty kite that hovers around — and then, with an insulting 
 perversion of terms, calling sacrifice, protection! 
 
 An object for which history searches for any similarity 
 in vain — The deep-searching annals of Tacitus — the lu- 
 minous philosophy of Gibbon — ^11 the records of man's 
 enormity, from Original Sin to this period in which we 
 pronounce it, dwindle into comparative insignificance of 
 enormity — both in aggravations of vile principles, and ex- 
 tent of their consequential ruin ! — The victims of this 
 oppression were confessedly destitute of all power to re- 
 sist their oppressors ; but that debility, which from other 
 bosoms would have claimed some compassion, with res- 
 pect to the mode of suffering, here excited but the inge- 
 nuity of torture ! Even when every feeling of the nabob 
 was subdued, nature made a lingering, feeble stand within 
 his bosom ; but even then that cold unfeeling spirit of ma- 
 lignity, with whom his doom was fixed, returned with 
 double acrimony to its purpose, and compelled him to in- 
 flict on a parent that destruction, of which he was himself 
 reserved but to be the last victim ! 
 
 The counsel in recommending an attention to the public 
 in preference to the private letters, had remarked in par- 
 ticular, that one letter should not be taken as evidence, be- 
 cause it was evidently and abstractedly private, as it con- 
 tained in one part the anxieties of Mr. Middleton for the 
 illness of his son — This was a singular argument indeed. 
 The circumstance undoubtedly merited strict observation 
 though not in the view in which it was placed by the coun- 
 sel. — It went to shew that some at least of those concern- 
 ed in these transactions, felt the force of those ties, which 
 their efforts were directed to tear asunder — that those who 
 could ridicule the respective attachment of a mother and 
 a son — who would prohibit the reverence of the son to 
 the mother who had given him life — who could deny to 
 maternal debility the protection which filial tenderness 
 should afford — were yet sensible of the straining of those 
 chords by which they were connected. Ther» was some- 
 thing in the present business — with all that was horrible to 
 create aversion— :SQ vilely loathsome, as to excite disc-ust. 
 
 U ^ 
 
218 AMERICAN- 
 
 — If it were not a part of my duty, it would be superflu- 
 ous to speak of the sacredness of the ties which those a- 
 liens to feeling. — those apostates to humanity had thus 
 divided. — In such an assembly, as that before which 
 I speak, there is not an eye but must look reproof to 
 this conduct — not a heart but must anticipate its con- 
 demnation—filial piety ! It is the primal bond of socie- 
 ty — It is that instinctive principle, which, panting for 
 its proper good, soothes, unbidden, each sense and sensi- 
 bility of man ! — It now quivers on every lip ! — it now 
 beams from every eye ! — It is that gratitude, which soft- 
 ening under the sense of recollected good, is eager to own 
 the vast countless debt it ne'er, alas ] can pay — for so ma- 
 ny long years of unceasing solicitudes, honourable self 
 denials, life-preserving cares ! — It is that part of our prac- 
 tice, where duty drops its awe ! — where reverence refines 
 into love! — It asks no aid of memory ! — It needs not the 
 deductions of reaso.i I — Pre-existing, paramount over all, , 
 whether law or human rule — few arguments can increase 
 and none can dinunish it ! It is the sacrament of our na- 
 ture — -not only the duty, but the mdulgence of man — It is 
 his first great privilege — It is amongst his last most en- 
 dearing delights ! — when the bosom glows with the idea 
 of reverberated love — when to requite on the visitations 
 of nature, and return the blessings that have been receiv- 
 ed ! when — what was emotion fixed into vital principle — 
 what was instinct habituaiied into a master passion — sways 
 all the sweetest energies of man — hangs over each vicis- 
 situde of all that must pass away — aids the melancholy 
 virtues in their last sad tasks of life — to cheer the languors 
 of decrepitude, and age^ — explore the thought — explain 
 the aching eye !" 
 
 He then proceeded to relate the circumstances of the 
 imprisonment of Bahar Ally Cawn and Jewar Ally Cawn, 
 the ministers of the nabob, on the grounds he had stated : 
 vith them was confined that arch rebel Sumpshire Cawn, 
 by whom every act of hostility that had taken place against 
 the English, was stated to have been committed. — No en- 
 quiry, however, was made concerning his treason, though 
 many had been held respecting the treasure of the o- 
 thers. He was not so far noticed as to be deprived of his 
 
SPEAKER. 219 
 
 food* ; nor was he even complimented with fetters ! and 
 yet when he is on a future day to be informed of the mis- 
 chiefs he was now stated to have done, he must think that 
 on being forgotten, he had a very providc-ntial escape I— 
 The others were, on the contrary> taken from their milder 
 prison at Fyzabad ; and when threats could effect nothing, 
 transferred by the meek humanity of Mr. Middleton to 
 the fortress of Chunargur. There, where the British flag 
 was flying, they were doomed to deeper dungeons, heavier 
 chains, and severer punishments. There where that flag 
 was displayed, which was wont to cheer the depressed, 
 and to dilate the subdued heart of misery — these vene- 
 rable, but unfortunate men were fated to encounter some- 
 thing lower than perdition, and something blacker than 
 despair ! It appeared from the evidence of Mr. Holt and 
 others, that they were both cruelly flogged, though one 
 was above seventy years of age, to extort a confession of the 
 buried wealth of the Begums! Being charged with disaf- 
 fection, they proclaimed their innocence. — *' Tell us where 
 are the remaiwing treasares, (was the reply) — it is only a 
 treachery to your immediate sovereigns: and you will then 
 be fit associates for the representatives of British faiih and 
 British justice in India ! — Oh ! faith. Oh justice ! exclaim- 
 ed Mr. Sheridan, I conjure you by your sacred names to 
 depart for a moment from this place, though it be your pe- 
 culiar residence ; nor hear your names profaned by such 
 a sacrilegious combination, as that which I am now com- 
 pelled to repeat ! where all the fair forms of nature and 
 art, truth and peace, policy and honor, shrunk back aghast 
 from the deleterious shade ; where all existences, nefari- 
 ous and vile, had sway ; where amicjst the black agents on 
 one side, and Middleton with Impey on the other, the 
 toughest bend, the most unfeeling shrink ! — the great fi- 
 gure of the piece ; characteristic m his place ! aloof and 
 iiidependent, from the puny profligacy in his train ! but 
 
 * The following' note from Mr. Middleton to lieutenant Francis Rut- 
 ledg-e dated January 20, 1782, had been read m evidence ; 
 " Sir, 
 _ " When this note is delivered to you by Hoolas Roy, I have to de- 
 sire, that you order the two prisoners to be put in irons, keeping them 
 iVom all food &.c. agreeable to my instructions of yesterday. 
 
 (^'i?»ed) Natu. Miuoueto.n/' 
 
220 AMERICAN 
 
 far from idle and inactive, turning a malignant eye on all 
 mischief that awaits him ! — the multiplied apparatus of 
 temporising expedients, and intimidating instruments ! — 
 now cringing on his prey, and fawning on his vengeance ! 
 —now quickening the limping pace of craft, and forcing 
 every stand that retiring nature can make in the heart ! — 
 the attachments and the decorums of life ! — each emotion 
 of tenderness and honor ! — and all the distinctions of na- 
 tional characteristics ! — with a long catalogue of crimes and 
 aggravations, beyond the reach of thought for human ma- 
 lignity to perpetrate, or human vengeance to punish ! — 
 lower than perdition — blacker than despair ! 
 
 But justice is not this halt and miserable object ! It is 
 not the ineffective bauble of an Indian Pagod ! — It is not 
 the portentous phantom of despair — It is not like any fa- 
 bled monster, formed in the eclipse of reason, and found 
 in some unhallowed grove of superstitious darkness, and 
 political dismay ! No, my lords ! 
 
 In the happy reverse of all this, I turn from this dis- 
 gusting ciiricature to the real imag^^j ! — Justice I have now 
 i;efore nie august and pure ! the abstract idea of all that 
 would be perfect in the spirits and the aspirings of men ! 
 where the mind rises, where the heart expands : — where 
 the countenance is ever placid and benign : where her fa- 
 vorite attitude is to stoop to the unfortunate: — to hear 
 their cry and to help them : — to rescue and relieve, to suc- 
 ^courand save: — majestic, from its mercy: — venerable, 
 from its utility : — uplifted, without pride : — firm, without 
 obduracy: — beneficent in each preference:— lovely, though 
 in her frown ! 
 
 On that justice I rely: — Deliberate and sure, abstract- 
 ed from all party purpose and political speculation ! — not 
 on words, but on facts ! — you, my lords, who hear me, I 
 conjure, by those rights it is your best privilege to pre- 
 serve — by that fame it is your best pleasure to inherit — 
 by all those feelings which refer to the first term in the se- 
 ries of existence, the original compact of our nature — our 
 
 controlling rank in the creation This is the call on all, 
 
 to administer to truth and equity, as they would satisfy 
 the laws and satisfy themselves — iwith the most exalted 
 bliss, possible or conceivable for our nature : — The self- 
 approving consciousness of virtue, when the condemnaUpn 
 
SPEAKER. 221 
 
 we look for will be one of the most ample mercies accom- 
 plished for mankind since the creation of the world ! — My 
 lords, I have done ! 
 
 3It\ Burkes Euloglum on Mr, Sheridaii's Speech against 
 Warren Hastings^ June 5th^ 1798. 
 
 " Mr. Sheridan has this day surprised the thousands, 
 who hung with rapture on his accents, by such an array of 
 talents, such an exhibition of capacity, such a display of 
 powers, as are unparalleled in the annals of oratory ; a dis- 
 play that reflected the highest honor upon himself, lustre 
 upon letters, renown upon parliament, glory upon the coun- 
 try. Of all species ot rhetoric, of every kind of eloquence, 
 that has been witnessed, or recorded, either in ancient, or 
 modern times ; whatever the acuteness of the bar, the dig- 
 nity of the senate, the solidity of the judgment seat, and 
 the sacred morality of the pulpit have hitherto furnished ; 
 nothing has surpassed, nothing has equalled what we have 
 this day heard in Westminster Hall. No holy seer of re- 
 ligion, no sage, no statesman, no orator, no man of any 
 literary description whatever, has come up, in the one in- 
 stance, to the pure sentiments of morality, or in the other, 
 to that of variety of knowledge, force of imagination, 
 propriety and vivacity of allusion, beauty and elegance of 
 diction, strength and copiousness of stile, pathos and sub- 
 limity of conception, to which we have this day listened 
 with ardor and admiration. From poetry up to eloquence, 
 there is not a species of composition of which a complete 
 and perfect specimen might not, from that single speech, 
 be culled and collected." 
 
 Extracts from a Speech of Mr, Grattan concerning Tithes^ 
 in the Irish House of Commons — 1788. 
 
 It has been said, in defence of clerical exactions, that 
 though sometimes exorbitant^ they have never been ille- 
 gal. I deny it i and will produce proof at your bar, that 
 exactions in some of the disturbed parts have been not ex-" 
 orbitant only, but illegal likewise. I v/ill prove that, in 
 U2 
 
222 AMERICAN 
 
 many instances, Tithe has been demanded, and paid for 
 turf ; that Tithe of turf has been assessed at one or two 
 shillings a house like Hearth-money ; and in addition to 
 Hearth-money, with this difference, that in case of Hearth- 
 money, there is an exemption for the poor of a certain des- 
 cription ; but here, it is the poor of the poorest order, that 
 is, the most resistless people, who pay. I will prove to 
 you, that men have been excommunicated by a most illegal 
 sentence, for refusing to pay tithe of turf. I have two de- 
 crees in my hand from the Vicarial Court of Clyne ; the 
 first excommunicating one man, the second excommuni- 
 cating four men, most illegally, most arbitrarily, for re- 
 fusing to pay tithe of turf: nor has tithe of turf, without 
 pretence of law or custom, been a practice only; but in 
 some part of the South, it has been a formed exaction with 
 its own dictinct and facetious appellation, the familiar de- 
 nomination of Smoak-money. A right to tithe of turf has 
 been usurped against law, and a legislative power of com- 
 mutation has been exercised, I suppose for familiarity of 
 appellation and facility of collection. 
 
 The exactions of the Tithe-proctor are another Instance 
 of illegality — he gets, he exacts, he extorts from the pa- 
 rishioners, in some of the disturbed parishes, one, fre- 
 quentl) two shillings in the pound. The clergyman's a- 
 gent is then paid by the parish, and paid extravagantly. 
 Th"" iandiord's agent is not paid in this manner ; your te- 
 raut« don't pay your agent ten per cent, or five per cent, 
 or any per centage at all : What right has the clergyman 
 to ihrow his agent en his parish ? As well might he make 
 them pay the wages of his butler, or his footman, or his 
 coachman, or his postillion, or his cook. 
 
 This demand, palpably illegal, must have commenced 
 in biihtry — an illegal perquisite growing out of the abuse 
 cf powcr-^a bribe for mercy ; — as if the Tithe-proctor was 
 the natural pastoral protector of the property of the pea- 
 sant, against the possible oppressions of the law, and the 
 exactions of the gospel. He was supposed to take less 
 than his employer would exact, or the law would allow ; 
 and was bribed by the sweat of the poor fur his perfidy 
 and mercy. This original bribe has now become a stated 
 'perquisite j and, instead of being payment for moderation. 
 
SPEAKER. 22:, 
 
 it is now a per centage on rapacity. The more he extorts 
 for the parson, the more he shall get for himself. 
 
 Are there any decent Clergyman who will defend such 
 a practice ? Will they allow that the men they employ are 
 ruffians, who would cheat the parson, if they did not plun- 
 der the poor; and that the clerical remedy against conni- 
 vance, is to make the poor pay a premium for the increase 
 of that plunder and exaction, of which they themselves are 
 the objects ? 
 
 I excuse the Tithe-proctor ; the law is in fault, which 
 gives great and summary powers to the indefinite claims 
 of the Church, and suffers both to be vested in the hands, 
 not only of the parson, but of a wretch who follows his 
 own nature, when he converts authority into corruption^, 
 and law into peculation. 
 
 . I have seen a catalogue of some of their charges ; so 
 much for potatoes ; so much for wheat ; so much for oats ; 
 so much for hay — all exorbitant ; and after a long list of 
 unconscionable demands tor the parson, comes in a pecu- 
 lation for the proctor: t^vo shillings in the pound for 
 proctorage — that is, for making a chnrge, for whose ex- 
 cess and extravagance the proctor ought not to have been 
 paid, but punished. 
 
 As to potatoes, the clergyman ought not to proceed with 
 reference to the produce, but the price of labour : in the 
 parts of which I have been speaking, the price of labour, 
 is not more than 5d. a day the year round ; that is, 61. 4s. 
 the year ; supposing the labourer to work every day but 
 Sunday, making an allowance for sickness, broken weather, 
 and holidays, you should strike off more than a sixth : he 
 has not in fact more than 5l. a year by his labour ; his fa- 
 mily average about five persons, nearer six, of whom the 
 wife may make something by spinning (in these parts of 
 the country, there are considerable manufactories.) Five 
 pounds a year with the wife's small earnings, is the capi- 
 tal to support such a family, and pay rent and hearth mo- 
 ney, and in some cases of illegal exaction, smoak-money 
 to the parson. — When a gentleman of the church of Ire=. 
 land comes to a peasant so circumstanced, and demands 
 12 or 16s. an acre for tithe of potatoes-^he demands a 
 child's provision — he exacts contribution from a pauper — 
 he gleans from wretchedness — he leases from penury— 
 
224 AMERICAN 
 
 he fattens on hunger, raggedness, and destitution. In vain 
 shall he state to such a man the proctor's valuation^ and 
 inform him, that an acre of potatoes, well tilled, and m 
 good ground, should produce so many barrels ; that each 
 barrel, at the market price, is worth so many shillings, 
 which, after allowing for digging, tithes at so much. 
 
 The peasant may answer this reasoning by the Bible ; 
 he may set up against the tithe-proctor's valuation, the 
 New Testament — the precepts of Christ against the Cler- 
 gyman's arithmetic ; the parson's spiritual professions a- 
 gainst his temporal exactions, and in the argument, the 
 peasant wouM have the advantage of the parson. It is an 
 odious contest between poverty and luxury ; between the 
 struggles of a pauptr aud the luxury of a priest. 
 
 Such a man making such a demand, may have many 
 good qualities ; may be a good theologian ; an excellen.t 
 controversialist; deeply read in church history ; very r.c- 
 curate in the value of church benefices ; an excellent high 
 priest — but no Christian pastor. He is not the idea of 
 a Christian minister — the Whiteboy is the least of his 
 foes — his great enemy is the precept of the gospel and the 
 example of the apostles. 
 
 A tenth of your land, your labour, and your capital, to 
 those who contribute in no shape whatsoever to the pro- 
 duce, must be oppression ; they only think otherwise, who 
 suppose, that every thing is little which is given to the 
 parson ; that no burden can be heavy, if it is the weight 
 of the parson ; that landlords should give up their rent, 
 and tenants the profits of their labour, and all too little ; 
 but uncertainty aggravates that oppression ; the full tenths 
 ever must be uncertain as well as oppressive, for it is the 
 fixed proportion of a fluctuating quantity, and unless the 
 high priest can give law to the winds, and ascertain the 
 harvest, the Tithe, like that harvest, must be uncertain ; 
 but this uncertainty is aggravated, by the pernicious mo- 
 tives on which Tithe frequently rises and falls. It fre- 
 quently rises on the poor ; it falls in compliment to the 
 rich. It proceeds on principles the reverse of the gospel ; 
 it crouches to the strong, and it encroaches on the feeble ; 
 and is guided by the two worst principles in society, ser- 
 \ ility and avarice united, against the cause of charity, and 
 under the cloak of religion. 
 
SPEAKER. 225 
 
 The Apostles had no Tithe, they did not demand it; 
 thej^ and He whose mission they preached, protested a- 
 gainst the principle on which Tithe is founded ; * Carry 
 neither scrip, nor purse, nor shoes; into whatsoever house 
 ye go, say, Peace.' 
 
 Here is concord, and contempt of riches, not Tithe. 
 ' Tiike no thought what ye shall eat, or whatye shall drink, 
 nor for your bodies, what ye shall put on ;' so said Christ 
 to his Apostles. Does this look like a right in his priest- 
 hood to a tenth of the goods of the community ? 
 
 ' Beware of covetousness ; seek not what ye shall eat, but 
 seek the kingdom of God.' 
 
 ' Give alms ; provide yourselves with bags that wax 
 not old, a treasure in heaven which faileth not.' This 
 does not look like a right in the Christian priesthood to 
 the tenth of the goods of the community exacted from 
 the poor's dividend. 
 
 ' Distribute unto the Poor, and seek treasure in Heaven.' 
 
 * Take care that your hearts be not charged with sur- 
 feiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life.' 
 
 One should not think that our Saviour was laying the 
 foundation of Tithe, but rutting up the roots of the claim, 
 snd prophetically admonishing some of the modern priest* 
 hood. If these precepts are of divine right, tithes cannot 
 be so ; the precept orders a contempt of riches — the claim 
 demands a tenth of the fruits of the earth for the minis- 
 ters of the Gospel. 
 
 The peasantry, in apostolic times, had been the object 
 of charity, not of exaction. Those to whose cabin the 
 Tithe-farmer has gone for tithe of turf, and to whose gar- 
 den he has gone for the tithe potatoes, the Apostles would 
 have visited likewise ; but they would have visited with 
 contribution, not for exaction ; the poor had shared with 
 the Apostles, — they contribute to the Churchman. 
 
 The Gospel is not an argument for, but against the 
 right-divine of Tithe ; so are the first fathers of the 
 Church. 
 
 But there is an authority still higher than the opinions 
 of the Fathers ; there is an authority of a Council ; the 
 Council of Antioch, in the fourth century, which declares 
 that Bishops may distribute the goods of the Church, but 
 mu-st take no part to themselves, nor to the Priests that 
 
226 AMERICAN 
 
 lived with them, unless necessity required them justly; 
 ' Have food and raiment ; be therewith content.' 
 
 This was the state of the Church, in its purity ; in the 
 fifth century, decimation began, and Christianity declined ; 
 then, indeed, the right of Tithe was advanced, and ad- 
 Vimced into a stile that damned it. The preachers who 
 advanced the doctrine, placed all Christian virtue in the 
 payment of Tithe. They said, that the Christian reli- 
 gion, as we say the Protestant religion, depended on it. 
 They said, that those who paid not their Tithes, would be 
 found guilty before God ; and if they did not give the 
 tenth. — that God would reduce the country to a tenth.— 
 Blasphemous preachers ! — gross ignorance of the nature 
 of things — impudent familiarity with the ways of God — 
 audacious, assumed knowledge of his judgments, and a 
 false denunciation of his vengeance. And yet even these 
 rapacious, blasphemous men, did not acknowledge to de- 
 mand Tithe for themselves, but the poor— alms ! — the debt 
 of charity — the poor's patrimony. 
 
 It was not the table of the priest, nor his domestics, nor 
 his apparel, nor his influence, nor his ambition, but a Chris- 
 tian equipage of tender virtues— the widow, the orphan, 
 and the poor ; they did not demand the Tithe as a corpo» 
 ration of Proprietors, like an East-India Company, or a 
 South-Sea Company, with great rights of property annex- 
 ed, distinct from the community, and from religion ; but 
 as trustees, humble trustees to God, and the poor, pointed 
 out, they presumed, by excess of holiness and contempt of 
 riches. Nor did they resort to decimation, even under 
 these plausible pretensions, until forced by depredations 
 committed by themselves on one another. The goods of 
 the church, of whatever kind,^ were at first in common dis- 
 tributed to the support of the church, and the provision of 
 the poor — but at length, the more powerful part, those 
 who attended the courts of princes — they who intermed- 
 dled in state affairs, the busy High priest, and the servile, 
 seditious, clerical politician ; and particularly the abbots 
 who had engaged in war, and h;id that pretence for extor- 
 tion, usurped the fund, left the business of prayer to the 
 inferior ckrgy, and the inferior clergy to tithe and the 
 people. 
 
SPEAKER. 22? 
 
 •♦ 
 
 Let bigotry and schism, the zealot's fire, the high priest's 
 
 intolerance, throngh all their discordancy, tremble, while 
 an enlightened Parliament, with arms of general protec- 
 tion, over- arches the whole community, and roots the 
 Protestant ascendancy in the sovereign mercy of its na- 
 ture. Laws of coercion, perhaps necessary, certainly se- 
 vere, you have put forth already, but your great engine 
 of power you have hitherto kept back ; that engine, which 
 the pride of the bigot, nor the spite of the zealot, nor the 
 ambition of the high, nor the arsenal of the conqueror, nor 
 the inquisition, with its jaded rack and pale criminal, ne- 
 ver thought of: — the engine which, armed with physical 
 and moral blessing, comes forth, and overlays mankind by 
 services ; the engine of redress — this is Government ; and 
 this the only description of Government worth your am- 
 bition. Were I to raise you to a great act, I should not 
 recur to the history of other nations ; I would recite your 
 own acts, and set you in emulation with yourselves. Do 
 you remember that night, when you gave your country a 
 Free Trade, and with your hands opened all her harbours? 
 That night when you gave her a Free Constitution, and 
 broke the chains of a century ; while England, eclipsed 
 at your glory, and your Island, rose as it were from its 
 bed, and got nearer to the sun ? In the arts that polish life ; 
 the inventions that accommodate ; and the manufactures 
 that adorn it ; you will be for many years inferior to some 
 other parts of Europe ; but, to nurse a growing people- 
 to mature a struggling, though hardy community; to mould, 
 to multiply, to consolidate, to inspire, and to exalt a young 
 nation ; be these your barbarous accomplishments ! 
 
 I speak this to you, from a long knowledge of your 
 character, and the various resources of your soul ; and I 
 confide my motion to those principles not only of justice, 
 but of fire ; which I have observed to exist in your com- 
 position, and occasionally to break out in a flame of pub- 
 lic zeal, leaving the Ministers of the Crown in eclipsed 
 degradation. It is therefore I have not come to you fur- 
 nished merely with a cold mechanical plan ; but have sub- 
 mitted to your consideration the living grievances ; con- 
 ceiving that any thing in the shape of oppression made 
 once apparent — oppression too of a people you have set 
 
228 AMERICA 
 
 A^- 
 
 free the evil will catch those warm susceptible proper- 
 ties which abound in your mind, and qualify you for le- 
 gislation. 
 
 J/r. Ciirran^ in the Irish Parliament on a motion to pass 
 a Law to limit the amount of Pensions^ 1786. 
 
 *' Sir, I object to adjourning this Bill \o the first of Au- 
 gust, because I perceive, in the present disposition of the 
 House, that a proper decision will be made upon it this 
 night. We have set out upon our inquiry in a manner so 
 honorable, and so consistent, that we have reason to ex- 
 pect the happiest success, which I would not wish to see 
 baffled by delay. 
 
 " We began with giving the full affirmative of this 
 House, tit at ^^ grievance exists at all ; we considered a 
 simple matter of fact, and adjourned our opinion, or ra- 
 ther we gave sentence on the conclusion, after having ad- 
 journed the premises. But I do begin to see a great deal 
 of argument in what the learned Baronet has said, and I 
 beg gentlemen will acquit me of apostacy if I offer some 
 reasons why the Bill should not be admitted to a second 
 reading. 
 
 " I am surprised that gentlemen have taken up such a 
 foolish opinion, as that our constitution is maintained by 
 its different component parts, mutually checking and con- 
 trolling each other : they seem to think with Hobbes, that 
 a state of nature is a state of warfare ; and that, like Ma- 
 homet's coffin, the constitution is suspended between the 
 attraction of different powers. My friends seem to think 
 that the Crown should be restrained from doing wrong by 
 a physical necessity ; forgetting, that if you take away from 
 a man all power to do wrong, you at the same time take 
 away from him all merit of doing right, and by making it 
 impossible for men to run into slavery, you enslave them 
 most effectually. But if instead of the three different 
 parts of our constitution drawing forcibly in right lines, 
 at opposite directions, they were to unite their power, and 
 draw all one way, in one right Une, how great would be 
 the effect of their force, how happy the direction of this 
 
SPEAKER. 229 
 
 union ! The present system is not only contrary to mathe- 
 matical rectitude, but to public harmony ; but if instead of 
 privilege setting up his back to oppose prerogative, he was 
 to saddle his back, and invite prerogative to ride, how com- 
 fortably might they both jog along ; and therefore it delights 
 me to hear the advocates for the royal bounty flowing free- 
 ly, and spontaneously, and abundantly, as Holywell in 
 Wales. If the Crown grants double the amount of the re- 
 venue in pensions, they approve of their Royal Master, for 
 he is the breath of their nostrils. 
 
 " But we will find that this complaisance, this gentle- 
 ness between the Crown and its true servants, is not con- 
 fined at home j it extends its influence to foreign powers. 
 Our merchants have been insulted in Portugal, our com- 
 merce interdicted ; what did the British Lion do ? Did he 
 whet his tusks I Did he bristle up and shake his mane ? 
 Did he roar ? No ; no such thing — the gentle creature 
 wagged his tail for six years at the court of Lisbon, and 
 now we hear from the Delphic oracle on the Treasury- 
 bench, that he is wagging his tail in London to Chevalier 
 Pinto ; who, he hopes soon to be able to tell us will allow 
 his lady to entertain him as a lap-dog; and when she does, 
 no doubt the British factory will furnish some of their 
 softest woollens to make a cushion for him to lie upon. 
 But though the gentle beast has continued so long fawn- 
 ing and coaching, I believe his vengeance will he great as 
 it is slow, and that that posterity, whose ancestors are yet 
 unborn, will be surprised at the vengeance he will take. 
 
 *' This polyglot of wealth, this museum of curiosities, 
 the Pension List, embraces every link in the human chain' 
 every description of men, women, and children, from the' 
 exalted excellence of a Hawke or a Rodney, to the debas- 
 ed situation of the lady who humbleth herself that she may 
 be exalted. But the lessons it inculcates form its great- 
 est perfection ; — it teacheth, that slowth and vice may eat 
 that bread which virtue and honesty may starve for after 
 they had earned it. It teaches the idle and dissolute to 
 look up for that support which they are too proud to stoop 
 and earn. It directs the minds of men to an entire reli- 
 ance on the ruling power of the State, who feeds the ra- 
 vens of the Royal aviary, that cry continually for food. It 
 teaches them to imitate those Saints on the Pension List 
 
 / 
 
 i 
 
230 AMERICAN 
 
 that are like the lilies of the field ; they toil not, neither 
 do they spin, and yet are arrayed like Solomon in his glo- 
 ry. In fine, it teaches a lesson, which indeed they might 
 have learned from Epictetus — that it is sometimes good, 
 not to be over virtuous : it shews, that in proportion as 
 our distresses increase, the munificence of the Crown in- 
 creases also ; in proportion as our cloaths are rent, the 
 royal mantle is extended over us. 
 
 *' But notwithstanding the Pension List, like charity, 
 covers a multitude of sins, give me leave to consider it as 
 coming home to the members of this House ; give me 
 leave to say, that the Crown, in extending its charity, its 
 liberality, its profusion, is laying a foundation for the in- 
 dependence of Parliament ; for, hereafter, instead of ora- 
 tors or patriots accounting for their conduct to such mean 
 and unworthy persons as freeholders, they will learn to 
 despise them, and look to the first man in the State ; and 
 they will by so doing have this security for their indepen- 
 dence, that while any than in the kingdom has a shilling 
 they will not want one. 
 
 Suppose at any future period of time the boroughs of 
 Ireland should decline from their present flourishing and 
 prosperous state ; suppose they should fall into the hands 
 of men who would wish to drive a profitable commerce, 
 by having Members of Parliament to hire or let ; in such 
 a case a Secretary would find great difficulty, if the pro- 
 prietors of members should enter into a combination |o 
 form a monopoly ; to prevent which in time, the wisest 
 way is to purchase up the raw material, young menribers 
 of Parliament, just rough from the grass, and when they 
 are a htde bitted, and he has got a pretty stud, perhaps of 
 seventy, he may laugh at the slave-merchant ; some of 
 them he may teach to sound through the nose, like a bar- 
 rel organ ; some, in the course of a few months, might be 
 taught to cry hear ! hear I — some, chair ! chaii ! upon oc- 
 casion ; though those latter might create a little confusion, 
 if they were to forget whether they were calling inside or 
 outside of those doors. Again, he might have some so 
 trained that he need only pull a string, and up gets a re- 
 peating member ; and if they were so dull that they could 
 neither speak nor make orations, (for they are different 
 things) he might have them taught to dance pedibus ire in 
 
SPEAKER. 231 
 
 fiententia. This improvement might be extended; he 
 might have them dressed in coats and shirts all of one co- 
 lour, and of a Sunday he might march them to church, 
 two and two, to the great edification of the people and the 
 honor of the Christian religion ; afterwards, like the ancient 
 Spartans, or the fraternity at Kilmainham, they might dine 
 all together in a large hall. Good heaven ! what a sight 
 to see them feeding in public upon public viands, and talk- 
 ing of public subjects for the benefit of the public ! It is a 
 pity they are not immortal ; but I hope they will flourish 
 as a corporation, and that pensioners will beget pensioners 
 to the end of the chapter." 
 
 Extract from a Speech of Mr. Erskvie^ on the trial of Mr, 
 Paine, in which Jie delivers his opinio?! of the American 
 Revolution^ and the Federal Constitution, 
 
 Gentlemen, wc all but too well remember the calami- 
 tous situation in which our country stood but a few yea: s 
 ago ; a situation which no man can look back upon with- 
 out horror, nor feel himself safe from relapsing into again, 
 while the causes remain which produced it. The event I 
 allude to, you must know to be the American war, and 
 the still existing causes of it, the corruptions of this go- 
 vernment. In those days it was not thought virtue by the 
 patriots of England to conceal the existence of them from 
 the people ; but then, as now, authority condemned them 
 as disaffected subjects, and defeated the ends they sought 
 by their promulgation. 
 
 The consequences we have nil seen and felt : America, 
 from an obedient affectionate colony, became an indepen- 
 dent nation ; and two millions of people nursed in the very 
 lap of our monarchy, became the willing subjects of a re- 
 publican constitution. 
 
 Gentlemen, in that great and calamitous conflict, PM- 
 mund Burke and Thomas Paine fought .in the same field 
 of reason together ; but with very different successes. Mr. 
 Burke spoke to a Parliament in England, having no ears 
 but for sounds that flattered its corruptions. Mr. Paine, 
 on the other hand, spoke to a people ; reasoned with 
 them,— -told them that they were bound by no subjection 
 
232 AMERICAN 
 
 to any sovereignty, farther than their own benefit connect-^ 
 ed ihem ; and by these powerful arguments prepared the 
 mifids of th'.^ American pejople for that glorious, just, 
 and HAPPY revolution, 
 
 Gentkmen, I have a right to distinguish it by these e- 
 pithets, because I aver that at this n^on^ent there is as sa- 
 cred a regard to property; as inviohtble a security to all 
 the rights of individuals ; lo\ver taxes ; fewer grievances : 
 less to deplore, and more to admire, m the constitution of 
 America, thun that of any other country under heaven. I 
 wish indeed to except our own, but I cannot even do that, 
 till it shall be purged of those abuses which, though they 
 obscure and deform the surface, have not as yet, thank 
 Cod., destroyed the vital parts. 
 
 The Petition of the wife of Almas AH Caxvn to Warren 
 Hastings* 
 
 May the blessings of thy God wait upon thee, may the 
 sun of Glory -shine round thy head, and may the gates of 
 plenty, honour, and happiness be always open to thee and 
 thine. May no sorrow distress thy days, may no strife 
 disturb thy nights, may the pillow of peace kiss thy cheeks, 
 and the pleasures of imagination attend thy dreams ; and 
 when length of years makes thee tired of earthly joys, and 
 the curtain of death gently closes round the last sleep of 
 hum.an existence, may the angels of God attend thy bed, 
 and take care that the expiring lamp of life shall not receive 
 one rude blast to hasten its extinction. 
 
 O hearken then to the voice of distress, and grant the 
 petition of thy servant ! O spare the father of my children, 
 save the partner of my bed, my husband, my all that is 
 dear ! Consider, O mighty sir ! that he did not become 
 rich by iniquity ; and that what he possessed was the in- 
 heritance of a long line of flourishing ancestors ; who in 
 those smiling days, when the thunder of Great Britain 
 was not heard oil the fertile plains of Hindoostan, reaped 
 their harvests in quiet, and enjoyed their patrimony un- 
 molested. Think, O think ! that the God thou worship- 
 pest, delights not in the blood of the innocent : remember 
 thy owft commandment, thou shall not kill, and by the or- 
 
SPEAKER. 235 
 
 der of heaven give me back my Almas All Cawn, and take 
 all our wealth, strip us of all our precious stones, of all our 
 gold and silver, but take not the life of my husband ; inno- 
 cence is seated on his brow, and the milk of human kind- 
 ness flows round his heart ; let us wander through the de- 
 serts, let us become tillers and labourers in those delight- 
 ful spots of which he was once lord and master. 
 
 But spare, O mighty sir ! spare his life ; let not the in- 
 strument of death be lifted up against him, for he hath not 
 committed any crime ; accept our treasures with gratitude, 
 thou hast them at present by force ; we will remember thee 
 in our prayers and forget that we were ever rich and pow- 
 erful. Mv children, the children of Almas Ali, send up 
 their petition for the life of him who gave them birth, they 
 beseech from thee the author of their existence ; from that 
 humanity which we have been told glows in the hearts of 
 Englishmen, by the honor, the virtue, the honesty, and the 
 maternal feelings of the great queen, whose offspring is so 
 dear to her, the miserable wife of thy prisoner beseeches 
 thee to save the life of her husband, and restore him to her 
 arms ; thy God will reward thee, thy country must thank 
 thee, ond she now petitioning, will ever pray for thee, if 
 thou grantest the prayer of thy 
 
 Humble vassal, 
 
 Almassa Alli Cawn. 
 
 Mr, Erskine on the Liberty of the Press^ being the conclii- 
 ston of his Speech on the trial of 3Ir, Siockclale for a 
 LibeL 
 
 It only now remains to remind you, that another consi- 
 deration has been strongly pressed upon you, and, no 
 doubt, v/ill be insisted on in reply. — You will be told, that 
 the matters which I have been justifying as legal, and 
 even meritorious, have therefore not been made the sub- 
 ject of complaint ; and that \yhatever intrinsic merit parts 
 of the book may be supposed or even admitted to possess, 
 such meri't can afford no justification to the selected passa- 
 ges, some of which, even with the context, carry the mean- 
 ing charged by the information^ and which are indecent 
 animadversions on authority. To this I would answer. 
 
 X. 2: 
 
2^4 AMERICAN 
 
 (still protesting as I do against the application of any one 
 of the innuendos,) that if you are firmly persuaded of the 
 singleness and purity of the author's intentions, you are not 
 bound to subject him to infamy, because, in the zealous 
 eareer of a just and animated composition, he happens to 
 have tripped with his pen into an intemperate expression 
 in one or two instances of a long work". If this severe du- 
 ty were binding on your consciences, the liberty of the 
 press would be an empty sound, and no man could ven- 
 ture to write on any subject, however pure his purpose, 
 v/ithout an attorney at one elbow, and a counsel at the o- 
 ther. — 
 
 From minds thus subdued by the terrors of punishmen% 
 there could issue no works of genius to expand the em- 
 pire of human reason, nor any masterly compositions on 
 the general nature of government, by the help of w^hich 
 the great commonwealth of mankind have founded their 
 establishments ; much less any of those useful applications 
 of them to critical conjunctures, by which, from time to 
 time, our own constitution, by the exertion of patriot ci- 
 tizens, has been brought back to its standard.. — Under 
 such terrors,- all the great lights of science and civilizn- 
 tion must be extiuguished : for men cannot communicate 
 their free thoughts to one another with a lash held over 
 their heads. It is the nature of every thing that is great 
 and useful, both in the animate and inanimate world, to 
 be wild and irregular, — and we must be contented to take 
 them with the alloys which belong to them, or live with- 
 out them. Genius breaks from the fetters of criticism, but 
 its wanderings are sanctioned by its majesty and wisdom, 
 when It advances in its paui ; — subject it to the critic, aud 
 you tame it into dulness. Mighty rivers break dovvn their 
 banks in the winter, sweeping away to death the flocks 
 which are fattened on the soil that they fertilize in the 
 summer : the few may be saved by embankments from 
 drowning, but the fiock must perish for huager. — Tem- 
 pests occasionally shake our dwellings, and dissipate our 
 commerce ; but they scourge before them the lazy ele- 
 ments, which without them would stagnate into pestilence. 
 — In like manner, Liberty herself, the last and best gift 
 of God to his creatures, must be taken jusi as she is :^— 
 you might pare her down iato bas^tful irregularity, and 
 
SPEAKER,. 235 
 
 shape her into a perfect model of severe scrupulous law, 
 but she would then be Liberty no longer; and you must 
 be content to die under the lash of this inexorable justice 
 which you had exchanged for the banners of Freedom. 
 
 If it be asked where the line to this indulgence and im- 
 punity is to be drawn ; the answer is easy. — The liberty 
 of the press on general subjects comprehends and implies 
 as much strict observance of positive law as is consistent 
 with perfect purity of intention, and equal and useful so- 
 ciety ; and what that latitude is, cannot be promulgated ia 
 the abstract, but must, be judged of in the particular ia- 
 stance, and consequendy, upon this occasion, must be judg- 
 ed of by you, without forming any possible precedent for 
 any other case : — and where can the judgment be possibly 
 so safe as with the members of that society which alone can 
 suffer, if the writing is calculated to do mischief to the pub- 
 lic ? You must therefore try the book by that criterion, and 
 say, v/hether the publication was premature and offensive, 
 or, in other words, whether the publisher was bound to 
 have suppressed it until the public ear was anticipated and 
 abused, and every avenue to the human heart or under= 
 standing, secured and blocked up? 
 
 One word more, Gentlemen, and I have done. — Every 
 human tribunal ought to take care to adtninister justice, 
 as we look hereafter, to have justice administered to our- 
 selves. — Upon the principle on which the Attorney Gene- 
 ral prays sentence upon my Qient — God have mercy upon 
 us !^ — Instead of standing before him in judgment with the 
 hopes and consolations of Christians, we must call upon the 
 rneuntains to cover us ; for which of us can present, for om- 
 niscientexamination,apure, unspotted, andfaultless course? 
 But I humbly expect that the benevolent Author of our 
 being will judge us as I have been pointing out for your 
 example. — Holding up the great volume of our lives in his 
 Ivands, and regarding the general scope of them : — if he 
 discovers benevolence, charity, and good will to man beat- 
 ing in the heart, where he alone can look ; — if he finds 
 that our conduct, though often forced out of the path by 
 our infirmities, has been in general well directed ; his all- 
 searching eye will assuredly never pursue us into those 
 little corners of our lives, much less will his justice seleet 
 them for punishment, without the general context of our 
 
256 AMERICAN . 
 
 existence, by which faults may be sometimes found to hate 
 grown out of virtues, and very many of our heaviest of- 
 fences to have been grafted by huTian imperfection upon 
 the best and kindest of our affections. No, Gentlemen, 
 believe me, this is not the course of divine justice, or 
 there is no truth in the Gospels of Heaven. — If the ge- 
 neral tenor of a man's conduct be such as I have repre- 
 sented it, he may walk through the shadow of death, with 
 all his faults about him, with as much cheerfulness as in 
 the common paths of life : because he knows, that in- 
 stead of a stern accuser to expose before the Author of 
 his nature those frail passages, which, like the scored mat- 
 ter in the book before you, chequers the volume of the 
 brightest and best-spent life, his mercy will obscure them 
 from the eye of his purity, and our repentance blot them 
 « U for ever. 
 
 All this would, I admit, be perfectly foreign, and irre- 
 levant, if you were sitting here in a case of property be- 
 tween man and man, where a strict rule of law must ope- 
 rate, or there would be an efid of civil life and society. It 
 would be equally foreign, and still more irrelevant, if ap- 
 plied to those shameful attacks upon private reputation 
 which are the bane asd disgrace of the press ; by which 
 whole families have been rendered unhappy during life, 
 by aspersions cruel, scandalous, and unjust. Let such- 
 libellers remember, that no one of my principles of 
 defence, can at any time, or upon any occasion, ever ap- 
 ply to shield them from punishment ; because such con- 
 duct is not only an infringement of the rights of men, as 
 ihey are defined by strict law, but is absolutely incompa- 
 tible xvith honor^ honesty, or mistaken good intention* On 
 such men let the Attorney General bring forth all. the ar- 
 tillery of his office, and the thanks and blessings of the 
 whole public will follow him. 
 
 Extract from a Speech of 3Ir. Curran, on the Trial of 
 Mr, Rowan. 
 
 Where the press is free, and discussion unrestrained, 
 the mind, by the collision of intercourse, gets rid of its 
 ©wn asperities, a sort of insensible perspiration takes place,. 
 by which those acrimonies, which would otherwise fester 
 
SPEAKER. 237 
 
 and inflame, are quietly dissolved and dissipated. But now, 
 if any aggregate assembly shall meet, they are censured; 
 if a printer publishes their resolutions, he is punished ; 
 rightly to be sure in both cases, for it has been lately done. 
 If the people say. Let us not create tumult, but meet in 
 delegation, they cannot do it ; if they are anxious to pro- 
 mote parliamentary reform in that way, they cannot do it; 
 the law of the last session has for the first time declared 
 such meetings to be a crime. What then remains? Only 
 the liberty of the press, that sacred palladium, which no 
 influence, no power, no minister, no government, which 
 nothing but the depravity, or folly, or corruption of a ju- 
 ry, can ever destroy. And what calamity are the people 
 saved from, by having public communication left open to 
 them ? I will tell you, gentlemen, what they are saved 
 from, and what the government is saved from ; I will tell 
 you also, to what both are exposed by shutting up that 
 communication. In one case sedition speaks aloud, and 
 walks abroad ; the demagogue goes forth, the public eye 
 is upon him, he frets his busy ho«r upon the stage ; but 
 soon either weariness, or bribe, or punishment, or disap- 
 pointment bear him down, or drive him off", and he ap- 
 pears no more. In the other case, how does the work of 
 sedition go forward ? Night after night, the muffled re- 
 bel steals forth in the dark, and casts another and another 
 brand upon the pile, to which, when the hour of fatal ma- 
 turity shall arrive, he will apply the flame. If you doubt 
 of the horrid consequences of suppressing the efl'usion e- 
 ven of indiviuual discontent, look to those enslaved coun- 
 tries where the protection of despotism is supposed to be 
 secured by such restraints, even the person of the despot 
 there is never in safety. Neither the fears of the despot, 
 nor the machinations of the slave, have any slumber, the 
 one anticipating the moment of peril, the other watching 
 the opportunity of aggression. The fatal crisis is equally a 
 surprise upon both; the decisive instant is precipitated with- 
 out warning, by folly on the one side, or by phrensy on the 
 other, and there is no notice of the treason till the traitor 
 acts. In those unfortunate countries (one cannot read it 
 without horror) there are oflicers whose province it is to 
 bave the water, which Is to be drank by their rulers, seal- 
 
23S AMERICAN 
 
 ed up in bottles, lest some wretched miscreant should 
 throw poison into the draught. 
 
 But, gentlemen, if you wish for a nearer and more in- 
 teresting example, yoahave in the history of your own re- 
 volution ; you have it at that memorable period, when the 
 monarch found a servile acquiescence in the ministers of 
 his folly, when the liberty of the press was trodden un- 
 der foot, when venal sheriffs returned packed juries to car- 
 ry into effect those fatal conspiracies of the few against 
 the many, when the devoted benches of public justice 
 were filled by some of those foundlings of fortune, who, 
 overwhelmed in the torrent of corruption at an early pe- 
 riod, lay at the bottom like drowned bodies, while sound- 
 mess or sanity remained in them ; but at length becoming 
 buoyant by putrefaction, they rose as they rotted, and 
 floated to the surface of the polluted stream, where they 
 were drifted along, the objects of terror, and cootagion, 
 and abomination. 
 
 In that awful moment of a nation's travail, of the last 
 gasp of tyranny, and tht first breath of freedom, how preg- 
 nant is the example ? The press extinguished, the people 
 enslaved, and the prince undone. 
 
 As the advocate of society, therefore, af peace, of do- 
 mestic liberty, and the lasting union of the two countries, 
 I conjure you to guard the liberty of the press, that great 
 sentinel of the state, that grand detector of public impos- 
 ture ; guard it, because when it sinks, there sinks with it, 
 in one common grave, the liberty of the subject, and the 
 security of the crown. 
 
 Gentlemen, I am glad that this question has not be«n 
 brought forward earlier ; I rejoice for the sake of the 
 court, of the jury, and of the public repose, that this 
 t[uestion has not been brought forward till now. In Great 
 Britain analogous circumstances have taken place. At the 
 commencement of that unfortunate war which has deluged 
 Europe with blood, the spirit of the English people was 
 tremblingly alive to the terror of French principles ; at that 
 moment of general paroxysm, to accuse was to convict. 
 The danger loomed larger to tke public eye, from the mis- 
 ty medium through which it was surveyed. We measure 
 «inaccessible heights by the shadows which they project ; 
 
. SPEAKER. 239 
 
 'where the lowness and the distance of the light form the 
 length of the shade. 
 
 There is a sort of aspiring and adventurous credulity, 
 which disdains assenting to obvious truths, and delights in 
 catching at the improbability of circumstances, as its best 
 ground of faith. To what other cause, gentlemen, can you 
 ascribe that, in the wise, the reflecting, and the philoso- 
 phic nation of Great Britain, a printer has been gravely 
 found guilty of a libel, for publishing those resolutions to 
 which the present minister of that kingdom had actually 
 subscribed his name ? To what other cause can you as- 
 cribe, what in my mind is still more astonishing, in such a 
 country as Scotland, a nation cast in the happy medium be- 
 tween the spiritless acquieacence of submissive poverty, 
 and the sturdy credulity of pampered wealth ; cool and ar- 
 dent, adventurous and persevering; winning her eagle 
 flight against the blaze of every science, with an eye that 
 never winks, and a wing that never tires : crowned as she 
 is with the spoils of every art, and decked with the wreath 
 of every muse ; from the deep and scrutinizing researches 
 of her Humes, to the sweet and simple, but not less sub- 
 lime and pathetic morality of her Burns — how from the 
 bosom of a country like that, genius and character, and ta- 
 lents, should be banished to a distant barbarous soil ; con- 
 demned to pine under the horrid communion of vulgar 
 vice and base-born profligacy, for twice the period that or- 
 dinary calculation gives to the continuance of human life? 
 But I will not further press any idea that is painful to me, 
 and I am sure must be painful to you ; I will only say, 
 you have now an example, of which neither England nor 
 Scotland had the advantage ; you have the example of the 
 panic, the infatuation, and the contrition of both. It is now 
 for you to decide whether you will profit by their experi- 
 ence of idle panic and idle regret, or whether you mean- 
 ly prefer to palliate a servile imitation of their frailty, by 
 a paltry aftectation of their repentance. It is now for you 
 to shew that you are not carried away by the same hectic 
 delusions, to acts, of which no tears can wash away the'fa- 
 tal consequences, or ti*e indehble reproach. 
 
240 AMERICAN 
 
 Extract from the Speech of Mr. Cur ran in the case of Mas- 
 sy V. Headfort. 
 
 Never so clearly as in the present instance, have I ob- 
 served that safeguard of justice which Providence has 
 placed in the nature of man. Such is the imperious do- 
 minion with which truth and reason wave their sceptre o- 
 ver the human intellect, that no solicitation, however art- 
 ful, no talent, however commanding, can seduce it from 
 its allegiance. In proportion to the humility of our sub- 
 mission to its rule, do we rise into some faint emulation 
 of that ineffable and presiding divinity, whose character- 
 istic attribute it is to be coerced and bound by the inexo- 
 rable laws of its own nature, so as to be all-xvise and all- 
 just from necessity, rather than election. You have seen 
 it in the learned advocate who has preceded me, most pe- 
 culiarly and strikingly illustrated — you have seen even his 
 great talents, perhaps the first in any country, languishing 
 under a cause too weak to carry him, and too heavy to be 
 carried by him. He was forced to dismiss his natural can- 
 dour and sincerity, and, having no merits in his case, to 
 substitute the dignity of his own manner, the resources of 
 his own ingenuity, over the overwhelming difficulties with 
 which he was surrounded. Wretched client ! Unhappy 
 advocate ! What a combination do you form ! But such 
 is the condition of guilt — its commission mean and tremu- 
 lous — its defence artificial and insincere — its prosecution 
 candid and simple — its condemnation dignified and aus- 
 tere. Such has been the defendant's guilt — such his de- 
 fence — such shall be my address — and such, I trust, your 
 verdict. The learned counsel has told you that this un- 
 fortunate woman is not to be estimated at 40,000/. Fatal 
 and unquestionable is the truth of this assertion. Alas ! 
 gentlemen, she is no longer worth any thing — faded, fall- 
 en, degraded and disgraced, she is worth less than nothitig! 
 Biit it is for the honor, the hope, the expectation, the ten- 
 derness, and the comforts, that have been blasted by the 
 defendant, and have fled for ever, that you are to remu- 
 nerate the plaintiff, by the punishment of the defendant. 
 It is not her present value which you are to weigh — but 
 it is her value at that time, when she sat basking in a hus- 
 
SPEAKER. 241 
 
 band's love, with the blessings of heaven on her head, and 
 its purity in her heart — when she sat amongst her family, 
 and administered the morality of the parental board. Es- 
 timate that past value — compare it with its present deplo- 
 rable diminution — and it may lead you to form some judg- 
 ment of the severity of the injury, and the extent of the 
 compensation. 
 
 The Conclusion of 31}\ Erskine's address to the Jury^ on 
 the Trial of Mr. Hardy ^ November oth^ 1794. 
 
 Gentlemen, my whole argument then amounts to no 
 mo^e than this, that before the crime of compassing the 
 king's death can be found bij ijou^ the Jury^ whose pro- 
 vince it is to judge of its existence, it must be believed hy 
 you to have existed in point of fact. Before you can ad- 
 judge A FACT, you must believe it — not suspect it, or ima- 
 gine it or fancy it, — but believe it — and it is impossi- 
 ble to impress the human mind with such a reasonable and 
 certain belief, as is necessary to be impressed, before a 
 Christian man can adjudge his neighbour to the smallest 
 penalty, much less to the pains of death, without having 
 such evidence as a reasonable mind will accept of as the 
 infallible test of truth. And what is that evidence ? — 
 Neither more nor less than tftat which the constitution has 
 established in the Courts for the general administration of 
 justice ; namely, that the evidence convinces the Jury, be- 
 yond all reasonable doubt, that the criminal intention^ con- 
 .stituthig the crime, existed in the mind of the man upon 
 trial, and was the main spring of his conduct. The rules 
 of evidence, as they are settled by law, and adopted in its 
 general administration, are not to be over-ruled or tamper- 
 ed with. They are founded in the charities of religion ; 
 in the philosophy of r.ature ; in the truths of history, and 
 in the experience of common life ; and whoever ventures 
 rashly to depart from them, let him remember that it will 
 be meted to him in the same measure, and that both God 
 and man will judge him accordingly. These are argu- 
 ments addressed to your reasons and consciences, not to 
 be shaken in upright minds by any precedent, for no pre- 
 cedents can sanctify injustice ; if they could, every human 
 
^2 AMERICAN 
 
 right would long ago have been extinct upon the earth. 
 If the State Trials in bad times are to be searched for 
 precedents, what murders may you not commit ; — what 
 law of humanity may you not trample upon ; — what rule 
 of justic'vj may you not violate ; — and what maxim of wise 
 policy may you not abrogate and confound ? — If prece- 
 dents in bad times are to be implicitly followed, why should 
 we have heard any evidence at all ? — -You might have con- 
 victed, without any evidence, for many have been so con- 
 victed, and in this manner murdered, even by acts of Par- 
 liament. If precedents, in bad times are to be followed, 
 why should the Lords and Commons have investigated 
 these charges, and the Crown have put them into this 
 course of judicial trial ? — since, without such a trial, and 
 even after an acquittal upon one, — they might have attaint- 
 ed all the prisoners by act of Parliament ; — they did so in 
 the case of Lord Strafford. — There are precedents, there- 
 fore, for all such things ; — but such precedents as could 
 not for a moment survive the times of madness and dis- 
 traction, which gave them birth, butwhich, as soon as the 
 spurs of the occasions were blunted, were repealed, and 
 execrated even by Parliaments which (little as I may think 
 of the present) ought not to be compared with it : Parlia- 
 ments sitting in the darkness of former times, — in the 
 night of freedom, — before the principles of government 
 were developed, and before the constitution became fixed. 
 The last of these precedents, and all the proceedings upon 
 at, were ordered to be taken off the file and burnt, to the 
 intent that the same might no longer be visible in §fter- 
 ages ; an order dictated, no doubt, by a pious tenderness 
 for national honor, and meant as a charitable covering for* 
 the crimes of our fathers. — But it was a sin against pos- 
 terity ; it was a treason against society, — for, instead of 
 commanding them to be burnt, they should rather have 
 directed them to be blazoned in large letters upon the walls 
 of our Courts of Justice, that, like the characters decy- 
 phered by the prophet of God, to the eastern tyrant, they 
 might enlarge and blacken in your sights, to terrify you 
 from acts of injustice. 
 
 In times, when the whole habitable earth is in a state 
 of change and fluctuation, — when deserts are starting up 
 into civilized empires around you, — and when men, no 
 
SPEAKER. 243 
 
 longer slaves to the prejudices of particular countries, 
 much less to the abuses of particular governments, en- 
 list themselves, like the citizens of an enlightened wc>rld, 
 into whatever communities their civil liberties may be best 
 protected ; it never can be for the advantage of this coun- 
 try to prove, that the strict, unextended letter of her la^vs, 
 is no security to its inhabitants, — On the contrary, when 
 so dangerous a lure is every where holding out to emi- 
 gration, it will be found to be the wisest policy of Great 
 Britain to set up her happy constitution, — the strict letter 
 of her guardian laws, and the proud condition of equal 
 freedom, which her highest and her lowest subjects ought 
 equally to enjoy ; — it will be her wisest policy to set up 
 these first of human blessings against those charms of 
 change and novelty which the varying condition of the 
 world is hourly displaying, and which may deeply affect 
 the population and prosperity of our country. — In times, 
 when the subordination to authority is said to be every- 
 where but too little-felt, it will be found to be the wisest 
 policy of Great Britain, to instil into the governed an al- 
 most superstitious reverence for the strict security of the 
 laws ; which, from their equality of principle, beget no 
 jealousies or discontent ; — which, from their equal admi- 
 nistration, can seldom work injustice : and which, from 
 the reverence growing out of their mildness and antiqui- 
 ty, acquire a stability in the habits and affections of men, 
 far beyond the force of civil obligation : — whereas se- 
 vere penalties, and arbitrary constructions of laws inten- 
 ded for security, lay the foundations of alienation from 
 every human government, and have been the cause of all 
 the calamities that have come, and are coming upon the 
 earth. 
 
 Gentlemen, what we read of in books makes but a faint 
 impression upon us, compared to what we see passing un- 
 der our eyes in the living world. I remember the people 
 of another country, in like manner, contending for a re- 
 novation of their constitution, sometimes illegally and tur- 
 bulently, but still devoted to an honest end : — I myself 
 saw the people of Brabant so contending for the ancient 
 constitution of the good Duke of Burgundy ; — how was 
 this people dealt by ? — All, who were only contending for 
 their own rights and privileges, were supposed to be of 
 
244 AMERICAN 
 
 course disaffected to the Emperor: — they were handed 
 over to courts constituted for .the emergency, as this is, 
 and the Emperor marched his army through the country 
 till all was peace ; — but such peace as there is in Vesuvi- 
 us, or iEtna, the very moment before they vomit forth 
 their lava, and roll their conflagrations over the devoted 
 habitatiOTis of mankind : — when the French approached, 
 the fatal effects were suddenly seen of a government of 
 constraint and terror; — the well-affected were dispirited, 
 and the disaffected inflamed into fury. — At that moment 
 the Archduchess fled from Brussels, and the Duke of 
 Saxe-Teschen was sent express to offer the joyeuse entree 
 so long petitioned for in vain : but the season of concession 
 was past ; — the storm blew from every quarter, — and the 
 throne of Brybant departed for ever from the House of 
 Burgundy. — Gentlemen, I venture to afiirm, that, with o- 
 ther councils, this fatal prelude to the last revolution in 
 that country, might have been averted : — if the Emperor 
 had been advised to make the concessions of justice and 
 affection to his people, they would have risen in a mass to 
 maintain their prince's authority, interwoven with their 
 ov^n liberties ; and the French, the giants of modern 
 times, would, like the giants of antiquity, have been 
 trampled in the mire of their own ambition. In the same 
 manner, a far more splendid and important crown passed 
 away from his Majesty's illustrious brows : — the impe- 
 rial CROWN OF America. — The people of that country 
 too, for a long season, contended as subjects^ and often 
 with irregularity and turbulence, for what they felt to be 
 their rights : and, O Gentlemen ! that the inpiring and im- 
 mortal eloquence of that man, whose name I have so oft- 
 en mentioned, had then been heard with effect ! — what 
 v^as his language to this country when she sought to lay 
 burdens on America,-^not to support the dignity of the 
 Crown, or for the increase of national revenue, but to raise 
 a fund for the purpose of corruption ; — a fund for main- 
 taining those tribes of hireling skipjacks, which Mr. Tooke 
 so well contrasted with the hereditary nobility of England ! 
 —Though America would not bear this imposition, she 
 would have borne any useful or constitutional burden to sup- 
 port the parent state. — *• P'or that service, for all service,' 
 said Mr. Burke, ' whether of revenue, trade, or empire, 
 
SPEAKER. 245 
 
 my trust is in her interest in the British constitution. 
 My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which 
 grows from common names, from kindred blood, from 
 similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties 
 which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. 
 Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights 
 associated with your governments, they will cling and 
 grapple to you, and no force under heaven will be of 
 power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it be 
 once understood, that your government may be one thing, 
 and their privileges another ; that these two things may 
 exist without any mutual relation ; the cement is gone ; 
 the cohesion is loosened ; and every thing hastens to de^ 
 cay and dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom 
 to keep the sovereign authority of this country as the 
 sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our 
 common faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of 
 England worship freedom, they will turn their faces to- 
 ward you. The more they multiply, the more friends 
 you will have ; the more ardently they love liberty, the 
 more perfect will be their obedience. Slavery they can 
 have any where. It is a weed that grows in every soil. 
 They may have it from Spain, tiiey may have it from 
 Prussia. But until you become lost to all feeling of your 
 true interest and your natural dignity, freedom they can 
 have from none but you. This is the commodity of 
 price, of which you have the monopoly. This is the 
 true act of navigation, which binds to you the commerce 
 of the colonies, and through them secures to you the 
 wealth of the world. Is it not the same virtue which 
 does every thing for us here in England r Do you ima- 
 gine then, that it is the land-tax act which raises yqur 
 revenue ? that it is the annual vote in the Committee of 
 Supply, which gives you your army ? Or that it is the 
 Mutiny Bill which inspires it with bravery and disci- 
 pUne ? No ! surely i?o ! It is the love of the people ; it is 
 their attachment to their government, from the sense of 
 the deep stake they have in such a glorious inalitution, 
 which gives you your army and your navy, and infuses 
 into both that liberal obedience, without which your ar- 
 my would be a base rabble, and your navy nothing but 
 rotten timber.' 
 
 Y 3 
 
246 AMERICAN 
 
 GenUemen, to conclude — My fervent wish is that we 
 may not conjure up a spirit to destroy ourselves, nor set 
 the example here of what in another country we deplore. 
 —Let us cherish the old and venerable laws of our fore- 
 fathers. — Let our judicial administration be strict and 
 jxire ; and let the Jury of the larjd preserve the life of a 
 fellow-subject, who only asks it from them upon the same 
 terms under which they hold their own lives, and all that 
 is dear to them and their posterity for ever. — Let me re- 
 peat the wish with which I began my address to you, and 
 which proceeds from the very bottom of my heart ;-— may 
 it please God, who is the Author of all mercies to man- 
 Itind, whose providence, I am persuaded, guides and su- 
 perintends the transactions of the world, and whose guar- 
 dian spirit has for ever hovered over this prosperous is- 
 land, to direct and fortify your judgments. I am awnre, 
 I have not acquitted myself to the unfortunate man, who 
 has put his trust in me, in the manner I could have wished; 
 yet I am unable to proceed any further; exhausted in spirit 
 and strength, but confident in the expectation of justice. — 
 There is one thing more, however, that (if I can) 1 must 
 state to you, namely, that I will show, by as many wit- 
 nesses, as it may be found necessary or convenient for 
 you to hear upon the subject, that the views of the socie- 
 ties were whar I have alleged them to be ; — that whatever 
 irregularities or indiscretions they might have committed, 
 their purposes were honest; — and that P»Ir. Hardy's, above 
 all other men, can be established to have been so. I have 
 indeed, an Honorable Gentleman (Mr. Francis) in my 
 eye, at this moment, to be called hereafter as a witness, 
 who being desirous in his place, as a member of Pariia- 
 ms-nt, to promote an enquiry into the seditious practices 
 complained of, ^Ir. Hardy offered himself voluntarily to 
 come forward, proiTered a sight of all the papers, which 
 v/ere afterwards seized in his custody, and tendered eve- 
 ry possible assistance to give satisfaction to the laws of his 
 country, if found to be offended. I will show likewise his 
 character to be religious, temperate, humane, and mode- 
 rate, and his uniform conduct all that can belong to a 
 <^ood subject, and an honest man. — When you have heard 
 iliis evidence, it will, beyond all doubt, confirm ycu in 
 
SPEAKER, 247 
 
 coming to the conclusion which^ at such great length (for 
 which I entreat your pardon,) I have been endeavouring 
 to support. 
 
 Mr* Fox's Eiiloghim on General Washington^ In the Bri- 
 tish Parliament — 1794. 
 
 How infinitely superior must appear the spirit and prin- 
 ciples of General Washington, in his late address to Con- 
 gress, compared with the policy of modern European 
 courts ! Illustrious man ! deriving honor less from the 
 splendor of his situation than from the dignity of his mind ; 
 before whom all borrowed greatness sinks into insignifi- 
 cance, and all the princes and potentates of Europe (ex- 
 cepting the membersofour own family) become little and 
 contemptible ! He has had no occasion to have recourse 
 to any tricks of policy or arts of alarm ;.his authority has 
 been sufficiendy supported by the same means by which it 
 was acquired, and his conduct has uniformly been charac- 
 terised by wisdom, moderation, and firmness. He, feel- 
 ing gratitude to France for the assistance received from 
 her in that great contest which secured the independence 
 of America, did not choose to give up the system of neu- 
 trality in favour of this country. Having once laid down 
 that line of conduct, which both gratitude and policy point- 
 ed out as most proper to be pursued, not all the insults or 
 provocation of the French minister Genet could at all put 
 him out of his way, or bend him from his purpose. En- 
 trusted with the care of the welfare of a great people, he 
 did not allow the misconduct of another, with respect to 
 himself, for one moment to interrupt the duty which he 
 owed to them, or withdraw, his attention from their inter- 
 ests. He h:id no fear of the Jacobins; he felt no alarm 
 irom their principles, and considered no precaution as ne- 
 cessary in order to stop their progress. The people over 
 whom he presided, he knew to be acquainted v/ith their 
 rights and their duties. He trusted to their own good 
 sense to defeat the effect of those arts which might be em- 
 ployed to inflame or mislead their minds ; and was sensi- 
 ble that a government could be in no danger, while it re- 
 tained the attachment and confidence of its subjects — at- 
 rachmentj in this instaace, not blindly adopted, confidence 
 
243 AMERICAN 
 
 not implicitly given, but arising from the conviction of its 
 excellence, and the experience of its blessings. I cannot 
 indeed help admiring the wisdom and the fortune of this 
 great man ; not that by the phrase for time I mean in the 
 smallest degree to derogate from his merit. But, not- 
 withstanding his extraordinary talents and exalted integri- 
 ty, it must be considered as singularly fortunate, that he 
 should have experienced a lot, which so seldom falls to 
 the portion of humanity, and have passed through such a 
 variety of scenes, without stain and without reproach. It 
 must indeed create astoRishment, that placed in circum- 
 stances so critical, and filling for a series of time, a station 
 so conspicuous, his character should never once have been 
 called in question ; that he should in no one instance have 
 been accused either of improper insolence, or of mean 
 submission, in his transactions with foreign nations. It 
 has been reserved for him to run the race of glory, with- 
 out experiencing the smallest interruption to the brilliancy 
 of his career. The breath of censure has not dared to im- 
 peach the purity of his conduct, nor the eye of envy to 
 raise its malignant glance to the elevation of his virtues. 
 Such has been the transcendant merit and the unparalleled 
 fate of this illustrious man ! But if the maxims now held 
 forth were adopted, he who now ranks as the asserter of his 
 country's freedom, and the guardian of its interests, and 
 honor, would be deemed to have disregarded and betray- 
 ed that country, and to have entailed upon himself indeli- 
 ble reproach. How did he act when insulted by Genet ? 
 Did he consider it as necessary to avenge himself for the 
 misconduct or madness of an individual, by involving a 
 whole continent in the horrors of war ? No ; he contented 
 himself with procuring satisfaction for the insult, by caus- 
 ing Genet to be recalled : and »J:ius at once consulted his 
 own dignity and the interests of his country. Happy A- 
 mericans ! while the whirlwind flies over one quarter of 
 the globe, and spreads every where desolation, you remain 
 protected from its baneful effects, by your own virtues and 
 the wisdom of your government. Separated from Europe 
 by an immense ocean, you feel not the effects of those pre- 
 judices and passions which convert the boasted seats of 
 civilization into scenes of horror and bloodshed. You pro- 
 fit by the folly and madness of the contending nations, and 
 
SPEAKER. 249 
 
 afford in your more congenial clime r.n asylum to those 
 blessings and virtues which they wantonly contemn,. or 
 wickedly exclude from their bosom ! Cultivating the arts 
 of peace under the influence of freedom, you advance by 
 rapid strides to opulence and distinction ; and if by any 
 accident you should be compelled to take part in the 
 present unhappy contest, if you should find it necesary to 
 avenge insult, or repel injury, the world will bear witness 
 to the equity of your sentiments and the moderation of 
 your views, and the success of your arms will, no doubt, 
 be proportioned to the justice of your cause ! 
 
 Extracts of two Speeches delivered by Air. Sheridan to the 
 Electors of Westminster^ on the 18th of September^ and 
 the 22dof October^ I8O6, at the death of Mr. Fox. 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 " Electors of Westminster, in addressing you upon this 
 occasion, I am afraid, that, before I proceed to the few 
 observations which I feel it my duty to submit to you, I 
 shall be obliged to commence with a request which I am 
 almost ashamed to make for your indulgence, if in CQn-* 
 sequence of a short but sharp indisposition, from v/hich I 
 am just recovering, my voice should not be strong enough 
 to be clearly audible to the full extent of this large as- 
 sembly. 
 
 '•'• Upon that subject which must fill all your minds — 
 upon the merits of vbat illustrious man, whose death has 
 occasioned the present mcotjng^ I shall, I can say but little. 
 There must be some interval o.tween the heavy blow thut 
 has been struck, and the considerai\^ri.of i^s effect, before 
 any one, and how many are there of tn^^^ -^yho have re- 
 vered and loved IMr. Fox as I h.ive done, can spcRU of his 
 death with the feeling, but manly composure which be- 
 comes the dignified regret it ought to inspire. To you, 
 however. Gentlemen, it cannot be necessarv to describe 
 him — for you must have known him well. To say any 
 thing to you at this moment, in the first hours of your un- 
 burdened sorrows, must be unnecessary, and almost insult- 
 ing. His image is still present before you — his virtue is ia 
 your hearts — his loss is your despair ! 
 
250 ' AMERICAN 
 
 ** I have seen in one of the Morning papers what ars 
 stated to have been the last words of this great man, — ■ 
 ' I die happy ;' then, turning to the dearest object of his 
 affection, * 1 pity you !' But had another moment been al- 
 lowed him, ajid had the modesty of his great mind per- 
 mitted it, well might he have expressed his compassion, 
 not for his private friends only, but for the world — well 
 might he have said, < I pity you ! I pity England ! I pity 
 Europe ! I pity the human race !' — For to mankind at 
 large his death must be a source of regret, whose life was 
 employed to promote their benefit. He died in the spirit 
 of peace, struggling to extend it to the world. Tranquil 
 in his own mind, he cherished to the last with a parental 
 solicitude, the consoling hope to give tranquillity to na- 
 tions. Let us trust that the stroke of death, which has 
 borne him from us, may not h^vc left peace, and the dig- 
 nified charities of human nature, as it were, orphans upon 
 the world. 
 
 " The hour is not far distant when an awful knell shall 
 tell you that the unburicd remains of your revered patriot 
 are passing through the streets to that sepulchral home, 
 where your kings — your heroes — your sages — and your 
 poets lis, and where they are to be honored by the asso- 
 ciation of his noble remains — that hour, when, however 
 the splendid gaudiness of public pageantry may be avoid- 
 ed, you — you — all of you will be self-marshalled In reve- 
 rential sorrow, mute, and reflecting on your mighty loss. 
 
 *' I have step by step followed Mr. Fox through the 
 whole course of his political career, i>"d, to the best of my 
 poor abilities, supported him 5" every one of those mea- 
 sures and in the maintenap-^ of every one of those princi- 
 ples which originallv recommended him to, and so long 
 contir urd him i«, your confidence and esteem. It is true 
 there b->vcr been occasions upon which I have differed ivith 
 him — -painful recollection of the most painful moments of 
 my political life ! Nor were there wanting those who en- 
 deavoured to represent those differences as a departure 
 from the homage, to which, though unclaimed by him, his 
 superior mind was entitled, and from the allegiance of 
 friendship v;hich our hearts all swore to him ; but never 
 was the genuine and confiding texture of his soul more ma- 
 nifest than on such occasions. He knew that nothing on 
 
SPEAKER. 251 
 
 earth could separate or detach me from him ; and he re- 
 sented insinuations against the sincerity and integrity of 
 a friend, which he would not have noticed had they been 
 pointed against himself. With such a man to have battled 
 in the cause of genuine liberty — with such a man to have 
 struggled against the inroads of oppression and corruption 
 — with such an example before me, to have to boast that 
 I never in my life gave one vote in ParUament that was 
 not on the side of freedom, is the congratulation that at- 
 tends the retrospect of my public life. His friendship was 
 the pride and honor of my days. I never, for one mo- 
 ment, regretted to share with him the difEculties, the ca- 
 lumnies, and sometimes even the dangers that attended an 
 honorable course. And now reviewing my past political 
 life, were the option possible, that I should retread the 
 path, I solemnly and deliberately declare, that I would pre- 
 fer to pursue the same course — to bear up under the same 
 pressure — to abide by the same principles — and remain by 
 his side, an exile from power, distinction and emolument, 
 rather than be, at this moment, a splendid example of suc- 
 cessful servility, or prosperous apostacy — though clothed 
 with powers, honors, titles, and gorged with sinecures and 
 wealth obtained from the plunder of the people. 
 
 " Before I entered Parliament, 1 sought him out, and 
 had the honor to enjoy his cordial friendship ; and that 
 friendbhip 1 have the pride and pleasure to think was ne- 
 ver for a moment interrupted to the latest period of his 
 life. It is upon the same ground which urged me to look 
 'after, and enabled me to enjoy, that friendship, that I ana 
 now induced to solicit your support. An attachment to 
 freedom, and a determination to persevere through life in 
 the principles of Mr. Fox, are the only grounds upon 
 which I can rest a pretension to your confidence. My 
 honorable friend in the chair has talked of supplying the 
 loss of the great man we deplore ; but that is quite impos- 
 sible. For, even in the scale of gradation, all men with 
 regard to him are on a level ; .;nd thus I must pronounce 
 my total disqualification. But yet, 1 vvil! yield to no man in a 
 zealous regard for that sacred liberty, which, however its 
 cause may have been betrayed by treachery, bedewed with 
 blood, or profaned by sacriieg- id other nations, shall ever 
 stand in my estimation as the highest gift which the Great 
 
252 AMERICAN 
 
 Creator ever conferred upon man. In devotion to this 
 principle alone do I presirme to think myself in any degree 
 equal to your late illustrious representative — to that man, 
 who in powers of mind, stood completely unequalled— 
 who, in my judgment, was, as a statesman, superior in in- 
 tellect, not only to any this country has ever produced, but 
 to any the world has ever witnessed." 
 
 Extract from a celebrated Speech of Mr, Curran^ on a mo- 
 tion to release Mr, Justice Johnson from illegal im- 
 prisonme7it. 
 
 My Lords — It has fallen to my lot, either fortunately, 
 or unfortunately, as the event may be, to rise as counsel 
 for my client on this most important and momentous occa- 
 sion. I appear before you, my lords, in consequence of a 
 writ issued by his majesty, commanding that cause be 
 shown to this his court, why his subject has been deprived of 
 his liberty, and upon the cause shown in obedience to this 
 writ, it is my duty to address you on the most awful ques- 
 tion, if awfulness is to be judged by consequences and e- 
 vents, on which you have been ever called upon to decide. 
 — Sorry am I that the task has not been confided to more 
 adequate powers ; but, feeble as they are, they will at least 
 not shrink from it. I move you, therefore, that Mr. Just- 
 ice Johnson be released from illegal imprisonment. 
 
 I cannot but observe the sort of scenic preparation with 
 which this sad drama is sought to be brought forward. — 
 In part I approve it. In part it excites my disgust and in- 
 dignation. 1 am glad to find that the attorney and solici- 
 tor general, the natural and official prosecutors for the state 
 do not appear; and I infer from their absence, that his ex- 
 cellency, the lord lieutenant, disclaims any personal con- 
 cern in this execrable transaction. I think it does him 
 much honor ; it is a coi;duct that equally agrees with the 
 dignity of his character and the feelings of his heart. — To 
 his private virtues, whenever he is left to their influence, 
 I willingly concur in giving the most unqualified tribute 
 of respect. And I do firmly believe, it is with no small 
 regret that he suffers his name to be even formally made 
 use of, in avowing for a return of one of the judges of 
 
SPEAKER. 2^3 
 
 the land with as much indifference and fion chalence as if 
 he were a beast of the plough. I observe too, the dead 
 silence into which the public is frowned, by authority, for 
 the sad occasion. No man dares to mutter ; no newspa- 
 per dares to whisper that such a question is afloat. It 
 seems an inquiry among the tombs, or rather in the shades 
 beyond them. 
 
 Ibant sola sub nocte per umbram 
 
 I am glad it is so — I am glad of this factitious dumb- 
 ness ; for if murmurs dared to become audible, my voice 
 would be too feeble to drown them j but when all is hush- 
 ed — when nature sleeps — 
 
 Cum quies mortalibus aegris 
 
 The weakest voice is heard — the shepherd's whistle 
 shoots across the listening darkness of the interminable 
 heath, and gives notice that the wolf is upon his walk ; and 
 the same gloom and stillness that tempt the monster to 
 come abroad, facilitate the communication of the warning 
 to beware. Yes, through that silence the voice shall be 
 heard ; yes, through th^t silence, the shepherd shall be put 
 upon his guard ; yes, through that silence shall the felon 
 savage be chased into the toil. Yes, my lords, I feel my- 
 self cheered and impressed by the composed and digni- 
 fied attention with which I see you are disposed to hear me 
 on the most important question that has ever been sub- 
 jected to your consideration ; the most important to the 
 dearest rights of the human being ; the most deeply inte- 
 resting and animating that can beat in his heart, or burn 
 upon his tongue — Oh! how recreating is it to feel that oc- 
 casions may arise in which the soul of man may reassume 
 her pretensions ; in which she hears the voice of nature 
 whisper to her, gs homini sublime dcdi conhimque tueri ; 
 in which even I can look up with calm security to the 
 court, and down with the most profound contempt upon 
 the reptile I mean to tread upon ! I say reptile ; because, 
 when the proudest man in society becomes so the dupe of 
 his childish malice, as to wish to inflict on the object of 
 his vengeance the poison of his sting ; to do a reptile's 
 work, he mast shrink into a reptile's dimensions ; and so 
 shrunk, the only way to assail him is to tread upon him* 
 
 Z 
 
254 AMERICAN 
 
 But to the subject ; — this writ of habeas corpus has had 
 a return. Thatreturn states, that lord EUenborough, chief 
 justice of England, issued a warrant reciting the founda- 
 tion of this dismal transaction : that one of the clerks of 
 the crown office had certified to him, that an indictment 
 had been found at Westminster, charging the honorable 
 Robert Johnson, late of Westminster, one of the justices 
 of his majesty's court of common pleas in Ireland, with 
 the publication of certain slanderous libels against the 
 government of that country ; against the person of his 
 excellency lord Hardwicke, lord lieutenant of that coun- 
 try ; against the person of lord Redesdale, the chancellor 
 of Ireland ; and against the person of Mr. Justice Osborne, 
 one of the justices of the court of king's bench in Ireland. 
 One of the clerks of the crown office, it seems, certified 
 all this to his lordship. How many of these there are, or 
 who they are, or which of them so certified, we cannot, 
 presume to guess, because the learned and noble lord is 
 silent as to those circumstances. We are only informed 
 that one of them made that important communication to 
 his lordship. It puts me in mind of the information giv- 
 en to one of Fielding's justices : "did not," says his wor- 
 ship's wife, " the man with the wallet make his fidavy 
 that you was a vagram ?" I suppose it was some such pet- 
 ty bag officer who gave lord EUenborough to understand 
 that Mr. Justice Johnson was indicted. And being thus 
 given to understand, and be informed, he issued his war- 
 rant to a gentleman, no doubt of great respectability, Mr. 
 Williams, his tipstaff, to take the body of Mr. Justice 
 Johnson, ard bring him before a magistrate, for the pur- 
 pose of giving bail to appear within the first eight days of 
 this term, so that there might be a trial within the sittings 
 after ; and if, by the blessing of God, he should be con- 
 victed, then to appear on the return of the postea, to be 
 dealt with according to law. 
 
 Perhaps it may be a question for you to decide, whe- 
 ther that warrant, such as it may be, is not now absolutely 
 spent ; and, if not, how a man can contrive to be hereaf- 
 ter in England on a day that is past ? And high as the o- 
 pinion may be in England of Irish understanding, it will 
 be something beyond even Irish exactness to bind him to 
 appear in England not a fortnight hence, but a fortnight 
 
SPEAKER. 255 
 
 ago. — I wish, my lords, we had the art of giving time 
 this retrogade motion. If possessed of the secret we 
 might possibly be disposed to improve it from fortnights 
 into years. — 
 
 There is something not incurious in the juxtaposition of 
 signatures. The warrant is signed by the chief justice of 
 all England. — In music, the ear is reconciled to strong 
 transitions of key, by a preparatory resolution of the inter- 
 vening discords; but here, alas ! there is nothing to break 
 the fall : the august title of Ellenborough is followed by 
 the unadorned name of brother Bell, the sponsor of his 
 lordship's warrant. Let me not, however, be suffered to 
 deem lightly of the compeer of the noble and learned lord. 
 Mr. Justice Bell ought to be a lawyer ; I remember him 
 myself long a crier,* and I know his credit with the state ; 
 he has had a noli prosequi. I see not therefore why it 
 may not fairly be said *^ fortunati ambo /" It appears by 
 this return, that Mr. Justice Bell indorses this bill of la- 
 ding to another consignee, Mr. Medlicot,a most respecta- 
 ble gentleman ; he describes himself upon the warrant, 
 and he gives a delightful specimen of the administration 
 of justice, and the calendar of saints in ofRce ; he des- 
 cribes himself a justice and a peace officer — that is, a m^= 
 gistrate and a catchpole ; so that he may receive informa- 
 tion as a justice ; if he can v»rite, he may draw them as 
 a clerk ; if not, he can execute the warrant as bailiff; and, 
 if it be a capital offence, you may see the culprit, the jus- 
 tice, the clerk, the bailiff, and the hangman, together in 
 the same cart ; and, though he may not write, he may 
 " ride and tie !" What a pity that their journey should not 
 be further continued together ! I'hat, as they had been 
 ^' lovely in their lives, so in their deaths they might not be 
 divided !'' I find, my lords, I have undesignedly raised a 
 Liugh ; never did I less feel merriment. — let me not be 
 condemned — let not the laugh be mistaken. — Never was 
 Mr. Hume more just than when he says, that ** in many 
 things the extremes are nearer to one another than the 
 means." Few are those events that are produced by vi<:e 
 and folly, that fire the heart with indignation, that do not 
 also shake the sides with laughter. So when the two fa- 
 
 * This g-entleman was formerly criei- to the late baron Hamilton, 
 when, the bcirou went circuit as a judge. 
 
256 AMERICAN 
 
 mous moralists of old beheld the sad spectacle of life, the 
 one burst into laughter, the other melted into tears ; they 
 were each of them right, and equally right. 
 
 Si c red as utrlque 
 Res sunt htamanae flebile ludibrium 
 
 But these laughs are the bitter ireful laughs of honest in- 
 dignation, — or they are the laughs of hectic melancholy 
 and despair, 
 
 Sfieech of Mr, Grattan in the British Parliament on the 
 Catholic ^lestioii— April 22>d, iai2. 
 
 ^ You should t ver beiir in mind the true nature and ori- 
 gm of your connection with Ireland. It arose out of pri- 
 vilege, contract, opportunity, covenant, expediency, specu- 
 lation—any thing but conquest. You never conquered 
 Ireland ; no right of conquest shook the right of property, 
 and if they had a property which they were justified in 
 concluding to be sacred, it was their property in the Gos- 
 P^^* ^.^y^^" God gave man a Revelation, he gave him al- 
 BO a light by which to read it, the conscientious interpre- 
 tation of his own reason. The Irishman applies to his 
 God, without thinking it necessary to have a license from 
 liis king. If Parliament interfere, what can be the result 
 of such interposition ? they might do much in heaping dis- 
 qualification upon disqualification ; they might assert their 
 political omnipotence within the regions of error, but their 
 omnipotence could never make wrong right. In disqua- 
 lifying a British subject on account of his religious opin- 
 ions, they would attack the principle that made them a 
 Parliament, and disqualify themselves. I admit that there 
 may possibly exist circumstances connected with matters 
 of religious opinion, which might call for the regulation of 
 the Legislature ; but those are such only as essentially af- 
 fect the allegiance of the subject. I ask you, will you ar- 
 gue the rights of the Catholics upon that ground? No; 
 because you can have no doubt of their allegiance ; if you 
 will not read the history of past years, you cannot help 
 reading their present history in the Gazette of every pass- 
 ing day. You cannot help knowing that Irishmen arc eve- 
 
SPEAKER, 257 
 
 ry day bleeding to ensure your safety, and dying to ad- 
 vance your glory. The names of the proscribed appear 
 in the honorable nnemorials of every Gazette, to shame the 
 proscription that robs them of nobler distinction, and you 
 of greater strength. This is no new objection, I remem- 
 ber when it was contended, that Irishmen could not bear 
 allegiance to an English government. — I remember when 
 it was contended that no Irishman could feel attachment 
 towards a Prince of the House of Hanover ; but time has 
 done with prejudice what reason never could do. Ireland 
 has proved herself capable of long and patient allegiance. 
 The objection has died in its own folly ; but folly had still 
 other objections to generate and to destroy* — the power of 
 the Pope was called in, and made to teem with phantoms 
 against the peace of Protestantism. Ireland, said these 
 reasoners, can never atnalgamate with England, because of 
 her acknowledgmentof a foreign temporal supremacy, that 
 can at any time arbitrarily interfere with her allegiance to 
 n Protestant king. This has been doubly falsified — falsi- 
 fied by reasoning that proves it never could be 505 falsifi- 
 ed by fact, ihat shews it never has been so : if it had been 
 so, Europe could not have existed for a year — the great 
 fountains of social intercourse must have been broken up, 
 and a moral deluge have covered the face of the nations ; all 
 the communities of the christian world must have crumbled 
 into the ruins of one great moral dissolution ; but the objec- 
 tion has been answered ; answered with a solemnity that no- 
 thing bat the horror of its own virulence could have render- 
 ed necessary ; it has been answered by six Universities, Pa- 
 ris, Louvain, Douay, Salamanca, Padua, Valladolid ; each 
 and all denied the power of the Pope, the dispensing power 5 
 each and all affirmed, that every Catholic was bound irre- 
 vocably by his oath ; this was their answer, and they gave 
 it with all horror of the low, uncharitable, and dark suspi- 
 cion that could have suggested the bad doubt that requir- 
 ed it. Thf re is another answer, the oath which your own 
 Acts of Parliament have required of them. There is yet 
 another, the acknowledgment of their steady faith and un- 
 wavering allegiance in the preambles of your own acts. 
 There is still another, your votes of thanks: there was strong 
 fact against v/eak sophistry. You have voted thanks year af- 
 ter year to armies composed of Catholics, for victories wob 
 
 Z 2 
 
258 AMERICAX 
 
 by the aid of Catholics ! What were all these : Verdicts, so 
 many verdicts, verdicts of acquittal; verdicts found by their 
 accusers. There then stood the legislature, with the pe- 
 nal code in one hand, and honorable acquittal in the other; 
 the one gratefully proclaimed, but the other superstitious- 
 ly and iniquitously adhered to — but the innocence and the 
 merits of the Catholics had now another sanction in evi- 
 dence, less interested and more decisive — this evidence 
 was negatively as well as possitively strong — they had first 
 strong negative testimony: Where I ask, where are those 
 Protestant petitions against their claims, which we were 
 told would have by this time, borne down your table? we 
 were told in the confident tone of prophecy, that England 
 would have poured in her petitions from all counties, 
 towns, and corporations, against the claims of Ireland ; I 
 ask, where are those petitions ? has London, her mighty 
 capital, has the university of Dublin, mocked the calami- 
 ties of your country, by petitioning in favour of those pre- 
 judices that would render us less able to redress them ? 
 Have the people of England raised a voice against their 
 Catholic feilovr-subjects ? No ; they have the wisdom to 
 see the folly of robbing the Empire, at such a time, of 
 one-fourth of its strength on account of speculative doc- 
 trines of faith. They will not risk a kingdom on account of 
 old men's dreams about the prevalence of the Pope. They 
 will not sacrifice an empire because they dislike the sacri- 
 iice of the Mass. The Church too have acted v.ith the 
 same wisdom that the people have, and with a decency 
 worthy her sacred office. We have not seen the ecclesi- 
 astical horn raised to gather together the materials of tu- 
 mult — we have not heard it sounded so as to thrill through 
 the whole sphere of religious prejudice, and rouse it from 
 the centre to the circumference. We no longer see the 
 pulpits of peace hung v/ith the emblems and banners of 
 division — or hear from them the thunders of polemical di- 
 vinity. We no longer witness the procession of a set of 
 dull divines to proclaim their zeal for the Church in their 
 animosity to the Constitution, and their meek attachment 
 to their own faith, in their damnation of every other. I 
 ay then England is not against us. She has put ten thou- 
 and signatures upon you table in our favour. And what 
 ays the Protestant interest in Ireland I Look at their pe- 
 
SPEAKER. 259 
 
 titlon — examine the names — the houses — the families — » 
 ' Look at the list of merchants — of divines. Look, in a 
 word at Protestant Ireland calling to you in a warning 
 voice — telling you that if you are resolved to go on till 
 ruin breaks with a fearful surprise upon your progress, they 
 will go on with you — they must partake your danger, 
 though they will not share your guilt. 
 
 Ireland, with her Imperial Crown, now stands before 
 you. You have taken from her, her Parliament, and she 
 appears in her own porson at your bar. Will you dismiss 
 a kingdom without a hearing ? Is this your answer to her 
 j zeal, to her faith, to the blood that has so profusely graced 
 your march to victory — to the treasures that have decked 
 your strength in peace. Is her name nothing — her fate 
 indifferent — her contributions insignificant — her six mil- 
 lions revenue — her ten millions trade — her two millions ab- 
 sentee — her four millions loan? Is such a country not worth 
 a hearing? Will you, can you dismiss her abruptly from 
 your bar? you cannot do it — the instinct of England is 
 
 against it — we may be outnumbered now and again but 
 
 in calculating the amount of the real sentiments of the peo- 
 ple — the cyphers that swell the evanescent majorities of 
 an evanescent Minister, go for nothing. 
 
 Can Ireland forget the memorable ?era of 1788 ?^ Can 
 others forget the munificent hospitality with which she 
 then freely gave to her ihosen hope all that she had to 
 give ? Can Ireland forget the spontaneous and glowing 
 cordiality wi;h which h;rr favours were then received? 
 Never! Never ! Irishmen grr%v justly proud in the con- 
 sciousness of biring subjects of a gracious predilection a 
 
 predilection that required no apoiogy, and called for no 
 rmuntiatioi) — a predilection that did equal honor to him 
 who felt it, and to those who were the objects of it. It laid 
 the grounds of a great and fervent hope — all a nation's 
 wishes crowdit.g to a point, and looking forward to one 
 I event as the great coming at whieh every wound was 
 to be healed, every tear to be wiped away—the hope of 
 that hour beamed with a cheering warmth and a seduct- 
 ive brilliancy. Ireland followed it with all her heart a 
 
 * Alludin,^ to the Regency— then Ireland offered a power without 
 restraint to the Prince Of Wales, which the British Parliament had 
 lettered. 
 
260 AMERICAN 
 
 leading light through the wilderness, and brighter in ts 
 gloom. She foUowccJ it over a wide and barren waste ; 
 it has charmed her through the desert, and now that it has 
 led her to the confines ot light and darkness, now that she 
 is on the borders of the promised land, is the prospect to 
 be suddenly obscured, and the fair vision of Prmcelij Faith 
 to vanish for ever ? — I will not believe it — I require an 
 act of Parliament to vouch its credibility — nay more, I 
 demand a miracle to convince me that it is possible ! — So 
 much for one disappointment — if you bid Ireland despair 
 — there is another, the Union. I speak not of the precise 
 form of words according to which Ireland covenanted a- 
 way her independence — but I say this, that had it not been 
 for the expectation of the removal of all religious disqua- 
 lifications, Ireland would now have her resident Parlia- 
 mert — Ireland knows this. England cannot doubt it. I 
 come, therefore, to an honorable nation, not to exact the 
 letter of the bond, but the spirit of the covenant — you got 
 tlieir Parliament, because they thought you would grant 
 tncm their ric;hts in exchange — character in trade is wealth, 
 it Is strength in politics — in arms it is the glory that is in- 
 vincible. The name of England has won victories in fo- 
 rcijin cabinets — net up to the principle that made the men- 
 tion of you formidable abroad, and you may long^be Eng- 
 land — If vou refuse, you dissolve the union — you destroy 
 t!ie principles of incorporation — a form of words cannot 
 unite where facts substantially dissever — the two countries 
 have been formally united, but has the mere force of form 
 kept them together? No, the union has been kept togeth- 
 er by expectancy, and must be dissolved by despair — two 
 nations cannot exist together in one union of mere Parlia- 
 ment and power, from v^hich the people of both countries 
 are excluded — We have a union of Parliament — we have 
 a union of Power, but no union of People — It is a union 
 that makes a Parliament more handy to a Minister, but it 
 makes the People nothing — the integrity—the heart of the 
 gigantic whole that could put forth the hundred arms for 
 our safety, cease to beat— -the pulse of life is still— let the 
 Constitution circulate, and we are again an empire. The 
 Irish Catholic asks for rights— the Irish Protestant asks 
 for consolidation— and both ask for the integrity of the 
 empire. On this question Ireland is united. If you re- 
 
SPEAKER. 26t 
 
 fuse — I say dissolve the union — it must end in separation 
 — There are two kinds of separation — separation in fact, 
 and separation in disposition. You are undone by either. 
 If you will have it so, Ireland must descend into the grave ; 
 but depend upon it, that the gorgeous empire of Great Bri- 
 tain must soon follow. — The day on which you decide her 
 doom, you decide your own. — Your common interest is 
 placed in the same balance — throw Ireland out of the 
 scale — weigh England and she will be found wanting. 
 After your folly has thus dug your grave, your historian 
 muy easily write your epitaph. " Htre lies all that re- 
 mains of England — England taxed America and lost her 
 — disqualified Ireland and lost her, and then died the 
 death !" 
 
 You say you disqualify for general good — I deny it — 
 you cannot make laws God cannot make — God cannot 
 make arbitrary laws — you have, I admit a right to regu- 
 late the qualification — and why ? because you are a trus- 
 tee for the privilege that qualifies — but you cannot arm 
 the qualification against the privilege — you cannot make 
 the qualification destroy the privilege — when you attempt 
 to do so — you exceed your power — you say, you legislate 
 for the general good ? what is the modern acceptation of 
 the general good ? — the power of the state opposed to the 
 liberties of the people — for here we have the power of a 
 sect labouring to work the eternal deprivation of a people. 
 There are two species of laws — the laws of municipalities 
 — the laws of God — the former, to be good mast rest on 
 the principles of the latter — but when you would rest your 
 establishments (as you call them) upom the one end oi 
 prescripti\e exclusion, the law of nature must prevail, the 
 State will reel to its due centre of gravit}-, and God will 
 vindicate his own laws — by such laws you exceed your 
 powers, you oppose the Almighty himself, and though 
 you had a host of miires on your side, you strike God 
 out of the ecclesiastical constitution, and liberty out of the 
 political — Nomination is the right of the no.ninator — eli- 
 gibility is the right of the Commons — von have made the 
 Catholics a part of the Commons of the Empire by your 
 own act, and you cannot deny tht-m the constilutional pri- 
 vileges belonging to the rank you have given them iu 
 the Constitution. Nothing m their mere religious creed 
 
262 AMERICAN 
 
 could be gravely supposed to vitiate their claimr The 
 State has nothing to do with their seven Sacraments. Ex- 
 communications have been spoken of as a formidable pow- 
 er; the parishioner excommunicated has his action against 
 the priest — he actually recovered damages recently in Ire- 
 land. But the power of the Pope divides their allegi- 
 ance ! Has it divided their allegiance to any other Catho- 
 lic country ? If it has, why is the Pope, whom the Pe- 
 tition from Cambridge describes as enjoying greater pow- 
 er than ever — why is he now a state prisoner in France ? 
 If the Pope be great in power, how much greater must be 
 the king of Spain who is also a state prisoner. You are 
 paying twenty millions in support of the war in Spain with- 
 out any stipulation about the Pope. Why are you not ap- 
 prehensive that you are fighting for the reversionary in- 
 terests of France in the Peninsula ? Thus did you tread 
 upon this bigotry whenever it stood in your way, and ne- 
 ver stooped to raise it, but you would lift it against the 
 claims of your fellow-subjects. You talk of difficulty. I 
 answer, go into the Committee, and all difficulty vanishes* 
 The only solid obstacle to peace at home and strength a- 
 broad, are the Ministers themselves. You say you tole- 
 rate their religion — I say you pumsh it. What ! am I in 
 an assembly of Englishmen ? Is it in a British Parliament 
 that it is doubted whether civil disabilities be a grievance? 
 Is the right of representation nothing? the right of trial 
 by jury nothing? The Irish Catholic has not the right of 
 trial by his Peers — he has not the privilege of a foreigner 
 - — of the inidiatce lingua: — tried by a jury of Protestants, 
 packed by a partizan Sheriff. I speak of trials aSfecting 
 thtir religious interests. But we were told, that was am- 
 bition of power, not an anxiety for protection. Why, it 
 v/as ambition — the ambition of a man not to be robbed — 
 of a woman not to be ravished — the ambition of life, lib- 
 erty, limbs and property. This was the ambition, and 
 what v/ere we to think of his idea of glory, who could call 
 tliis ambition? W^e who support, and they who opposed 
 these Petitions, alike call for security. We call for secu- 
 rity against civil servitude — against discontent in Ireland, 
 and danger to the Empire. We call for security againot 
 the mad policy that would make the British name in Ire- 
 land odious—the iJritioh faith in Ireland equivocal — that 
 
SPEAKER. 263 
 
 would disinherit Ireland of her hopes and policy, the nerve 
 that binds the two countries together. I call upon them 
 to shew the danger. Let them answer this by fact — by 
 argument, and not by sending out a crowd of ghosts and 
 hobgoblings, fears too shadowy to be grasped at. Is there 
 danger in the Eucharist ? in the adoration of the Virgin 
 Mary ? In the family of the Pretender? in the temporal 
 power of the Pope ? admit that there were, they are but 
 prospective, and we should still go into the Committee. 
 As to the Feto, you might have had it perhaps ; but if you 
 let the time go by, at which alone it might have been ob- 
 tained, you are not to blame those who exhorted you then 
 to take it ; above all, think it not for your safety to teach 
 England to distrust Ireland, or Ireland to hate England. 
 If you persuade the wife that her husband hates her, and 
 the husband that he has lost his wife's affections, what 
 becomes of the marriage ? I respect the Universities of 
 England even in their errors ; I respect, I love, all connect- 
 ed with the city of Dublin, but when they p-^tition for a 
 continuance of the Catholic disabilities however good their 
 intentions, rely upon it they petition for separation. Eng- 
 land has not lent her sanction to this prejudice — I cannot 
 believe she ever will — let her give but her confidence to 
 Ireland, and they may both defy the world — it will be so 
 — it must be so — this stately empire that stood erect a- 
 gainst the shock of the mighty G.tul, and his millions in 
 arms — will never wither and consume away before a phan- 
 tom — will never fall in pieces at the touch of Harlequin's 
 wand — I will as soon believe that the whole British navy 
 could be swept from the surface of the deep it rules, by 
 the blast of a storm raised by witches ! — Let England but 
 be wise, Ireland will be happy, and the empire immortal. 
 In answer to every thing which had been urged against 
 the admission of Roman-Catholics to the Senate, the Bench 
 and the Army, I will tell the House to ask the Admi- 
 rals and Generals under whom they have served, for their 
 character ; to look into the public papers for the numbers 
 who every day die in the service of their country ; to ask 
 how many oliicers at present lie covered with wounds. 
 Ask their country for their character — ask the Noblemen 
 and Gentlemen of Ireland — the Houses of Leinster and 
 Orniond. Ask those men who bear the brunt of the dun- 
 
264 AMERICAN 
 
 ger, and they \vill tell you — Don't hazard the safety of 
 Ireland and England on such arguments. I appeal to the 
 English nation — I appeal to Parlianient — I appeal to the 
 hospitals now filled with wounded Catholics. I appeal to 
 the fields of Spain and Portugal, drenched with their blood 
 
 I appeal to those gallant men who so oft have carried 
 
 the British thunder triumphant over the waters of the deep 
 — I appeal to you against a policy which invites one half 
 the nation to cut the throats of the other — I appeal to you 
 to guard and protect that country against such a disgusting 
 degradation. — you come down here this day to decide an 
 Irish question, and I will tell you that the whole of the 
 case may be comprized in one sentence ; you are both ru- 
 ined unless you unite—and Ireland answers you— We will 
 have our liberties, and our lives are at your service. 
 
 Dr» DocWs Address to the Court before his receivhig- sen- 
 tence of Death— 1777. 
 
 '' My Lord— I now stand before you a dreadful exam- 
 ple of human infirmity. I entered "upon public life with 
 the expectations common to young men whose education 
 has been liberal, and whose abilities have been flattered ; 
 and v/hen 1 became a clergyman, I considered myself as 
 not impairing the dignity of the order. I was not an idle, 
 nor I hope, an useless minister: I taught the truths of 
 Christianity with the zeal of conviction, and the authority 
 of. innocence. My labours were approved— my pulpit 
 became popular ; and, I have reason to believe, that of 
 those who heard me, some have been preserved from sin, 
 and some have been reclaimed.— Condescend, my lord, 
 to think, if these considerations aggravate my crime, how 
 much they must embitter my punishment ! Being distin- 
 guished and elevated by the confidence of mankind, I had 
 too much confidence in myself, and thinking my integrity, 
 %vhat others thought it, established in sincerity, and forti- 
 fied by religion, I did not consider the danger of vanity, 
 nor suspect the deceitfulness of my own heart. The day 
 of conflict came, in which temptation seized and over- 
 whelmed me ! I committed the crime, which I entreat 
 your lordship to believe that my conscience hourly repre- 
 
SPEAKER. 265 
 
 sents to me in Its full bulk of mischief and malignity. — 
 Many have been overpowered by temptation, who are 
 now among the penitent in heaven ! To an act now wait- 
 ing the decision of vindictive justice, I will not presume 
 to oppose the counterbalance of almost thirty years (a 
 great part of the life of man) passed in exciting and ex- 
 ercising charity— in relieving such distresses as I now feel 
 -—in administering those consolations which I now want. 
 I will not otherwise extenuate my offence, than by declar- 
 ing, what I hope will appear to many, and what many cir- 
 cumstances make probable, that I did not intend finally to 
 defraud : nor will it become me to apportion my own 
 punishment, by alleging that my sufferings have been not 
 much less than my guilt. I have fallen from a reputation, 
 which ought to have made me cautious, and from a for- 
 tune, which ought to have given me content. I am sunk 
 at once into poverty and scorn : my name and my crime 
 fill the ballads in the streets ; the sport of the thoughtless 
 and the triumph of the wicked ! It may seem strange, my 
 lord, that, remembering what I have lately been, I should 
 still wish to continue what I am : but contempt of death, 
 how speciously soever it may mingle with heathen virtues, 
 has nothing in it suitable to christian penitence. Many 
 motives impel me to beg earnestly for life. I feel the na- 
 tural horror of a violent death, the universal dread of un- 
 timely dissolution. I am desirous to recompense the inju- 
 ry I have done to the clergy, to the world, and to religion ; 
 and to efface the scandal of my crime, by the example of 
 my repentance : but, above all, I wish to die with thoughts 
 more composed, and calmer preparation.— The gloom and 
 confusion of a prison, the anxiety of a ti'Ial, the horrors of 
 suspense, and the inevitable vicissitudt^s of passion, leave 
 not the mind in due disposition for the holy exercises of 
 prayer, and self examination.— Let not a little life be de- 
 nied me, in which I may, by meditation and contrition, 
 prepare myself to stand at the tribunal of Omnipotence, 
 and support the presence of that judge, who shall distri- 
 bute to all according to their works — who will receive and 
 pardon the repenting sinner, and from whom the merci- 
 ful shall obtain mercy ! For these reasons, my lord, a- 
 midst shame and misery, I yet wish to live j and most 
 
 A A 
 
266 V^MERICAN 
 
 humbly imj^lore, that I may be recommended by your 
 lordship to the clemency of his majesty." 
 
 Speech of Mr, Home on the trial of Mr, Barbot^for kill- 
 mg Mr, Mills hi a Duel— 17 5Z, 
 
 " How is the name of honor prostituted ! Can honor be 
 the savage resolution, the brutal fierceness of a revenge- 
 ful spirit ? True honor is manifested in a steady, uniform 
 train of actions, attended by justice, and directed by pru- 
 dence. Is this the conduct of the duellist ? will justice 
 support him in robbing the community of an able and 
 useful member ? and in depriving the poor of a benefac- 
 tor t will it support him in preparing affliction for the wi- 
 dow's heart ? in filling the orphan's eyes with tears ? Will 
 justice acquit him for enlarging the punishment beyond 
 the offence ? will it permit him, for, perhaps, a rash word 
 that may admit of an apology, an unadvised action that 
 may be retrieved, or an injury that may be compensated, 
 to cut off a man before his days be half numbered, and for 
 a temporary fault inflict an endless punishment ? On the 
 other hand, will prudence bear him out in risking an infa- 
 mous death if he succeeds in the duel? but if he falls, will 
 it plead his pardon at a more awful tribunal, for rushing 
 into the presence of an offended God ? 
 
 " Senseless as this notion of honor is, it unhappily has 
 its advocates among us : but for the prevalence of such a 
 notion, how could the amiable person, whose death has 
 made the solemn business of this day, be lost to his coun- 
 try, his family, and his friends ? Would to God that I was 
 a master of words, and it could be indulged to the tender- 
 ness of a friend to pay a tribute to his memory ! I might 
 then endeavour to set him full before you in the variety of 
 his excellence j but as this would be venturing too far, I 
 can only lament that such virtue had not a longer date : that 
 this good man was cut off in the strength of his age, ere 
 half his glass was run : when his heart was projecting and 
 executing schemes to relieve distress, and by the most sur- 
 prising acts of beneficence, vindicating the bounty of Pro- 
 vidence for heaping wealth upon him. 
 
SPEAKER. 267 
 
 " Duelling seefhs to be an unnatural graft upon genuine 
 courage, and the growth of a barbarous age. The polite 
 nations of Greece and Rome knew nothing of it : they re- 
 served their bravery for the enemies of their countrv, and 
 then were prodigal of their blood. These brave people 
 set Honor up as a guardian genius of the public, to hu- 
 manize their passions, to preserve their truth unblemished, 
 and to teach them to value life only as useful to their coun- 
 try. The modern heroes dress it up like one ol the dte- 
 mons of superstition besmeared with blood, and delight- 
 ing in human sacrifice.'* 
 
 Speech of Mr, Noland on the passage of the BUI to suppress 
 Duellings in the Virginia Legislature, 
 
 " Mr. Speaker — The bill which has been read, is one 
 which claims the serious attention of this house : it is one 
 in which every member of this body, in which every citi- 
 zen of Virginia is deeply interested. The practice of 
 duelling seems to me but an unnatural graft on genuine 
 courage, growing out of a barbarous age ; for we find that 
 it was first introduced by the Goths and Vandals, during 
 the days of their ignorance and barbarism. The polite 
 and polished nations of Greece and Rome, who were ever 
 prodigal of their blood when in defence of their country's 
 rights, knew nothing of this detestable practice, which ap- 
 pears to me to be built on an infinity of absurdities : be- 
 cause while it seems to suppose, that a man's honor 
 ought to be dearer to him than his life, it at the same time 
 supposes, that his honor is in the power of every unprin- 
 cipled villain that can invent or tell a lie, or every careless 
 or ill-bred person that may josde him in his way : it sup- 
 poses that a lie may become true and honorable, provided 
 the person who tells it is willing to fight in support of it ; 
 and that any crime whatever may become honorable, by 
 fighting in its defence; it supposes that the man who is 
 covered with guilt, who has wounded the peace of his 
 friend, by staining the character of his \Mfe, or of his 
 daughter, becomes at once an honorable man, by heroically 
 washing out those stains, in the blood of the husband or 
 the father : it farther supposes, that it is better for a man. 
 
268 AMERICAN 
 
 to be condemned by his own conscience, and by the vir- 
 tuous and rational part of mankind than to suffer one mq*- 
 inent n the opinion of the advocates for duelling ; — final- 
 ly, that stetl and gunpowder are the true diagnosticks of 
 innocence and moral excellency. If, sir, having seized the 
 villain who have violated my wife, I should bring him be- 
 fore a tribunal of justice, what would be your opinion of 
 the judge who should order that I, the innocent, injured 
 man must cast lots with the guilty, which of us must die. 
 —Would not your heart chill at such a sentence ? Would 
 not you pronounce it contrary to reason, to common sense 
 and justice? You surely would. In the case of duelling, 
 the public is the judge. I receive an injury, for which 
 nothing but life can atone, I do not appeal to the public ; 
 no, sir, the public officiously interferes and condemns me, 
 under the penalty of perpetual disgrace, to cast lots with 
 the aggressor which of us must die. Was there ever any 
 thing more preposterous! more abominably absurd ! 
 
 It is the opinion of many, sir, that duelling is an evil, 
 which will correct itself; while others say, it is of little 
 concern to the rational and virtuous part of mankind, in 
 v»'hat manner knaves and fools may think proper to rid the 
 world of each other, as it will not deprive society of one 
 valuable member; but daily experience convinces us, that 
 both these opinions are incorrect ; for while the evil is 
 growing to an alarming height, we find that some of our 
 best citizens have exposed their individual lives, while 
 others have fallen victims, to this abominable practice ; 
 and will the collected wisdom of this commonwealth make 
 no effort to suppress this sanguinary and growing evil ? 
 Will the enlightened legislature of Virginia make no stand 
 against the current of public opinion ? I hope — I trust 
 they will. Sir, so long as it is believed that the practice 
 of duelling is sanctioned by public opinion, there is no 
 man, who is anxious to maintain his social standing, can 
 refuse, what is termed an honorable call. No matter how 
 much his moral and religious principles may be opposed 
 to the practice ; no matter though he may have a wife and 
 children deper.ling on his exertions for their daily bread ; 
 no matter how great claims his country may have on his 
 talents, in critical and trying times, he loses sight of all in 
 the dreadful idea of being stigmatized as a coward.- 
 
SPEAKER, 269 
 
 PiUJusque letho Jlagitium timet — he seizes the f;ital wea- 
 pon — he marches to the combat, receives the mortal 
 wound, and leaves a disconsolate widow and a number o£ 
 helpless orphans to mourn their irreparable loss. This, sir, 
 is not fancy, these are scenes that frequently, very fre- 
 quently pass in review before us. — Pass this bill, sir, and 
 you put a stop to the evil — pass this bill and you place a 
 shield between the man of feeling and the public opiniou 
 — you raise a barrier in the road to honor and prefer- 
 ment, at which the ambitious man will pause and reflect 
 ere he rashly engages in a duel — pass this bill and I will 
 venture to predict, that you will preserve the lives of ma- 
 ny, very mony valuable citizens — Had a similar law passed 
 at your last session, Mr. Speaker, it would have been at- 
 tended with the best of consequences— We should not 
 now be lamenting the loss of a Pope, a Hooe, and a 
 Smith — On us in part rests the blame of robbing society 
 of those able and useful members — on us, sir, in part, 
 rests the blame of preparing aiiliction for the widow's 
 heart, of filling the orphan^s eye with tears, and bringing 
 trouble and misfortune on numerous relatives. As fathers 
 then, as brothers, as men and as legislators, I call on this 
 house to suppress an evil which strikes at you in all these 
 tender relations — -I call on you to raise your hands against 
 a crime, the disgrace of the land and the scourge of our 
 peace — I call on you to set an example worthy of your- 
 selves and of those you represent ; and should this bill not 
 have the desired eflect, you will enjoy the consolation of 
 having performed your duty. Before I sit down, I give 
 notice, I shall call for the ayes and noes. I am anxious 
 to have my name recorded on this question — I wish to 
 enter my protest against duelling. There are some ge:ii- 
 tltmen, Mr. Speaker, far be it from me to insinuate that 
 there are any in this assembly, who though opposed to the 
 principle of' duelling, do not wish to proclaim their senti- 
 nients to the world, lest tliey should be suspected of a want 
 of fortitude : I sir, have no such fears : for I never did sup- 
 pose, the fighting of a duel, a mark of fortitude— No, sir, 
 true fortitude is a cardinal virtue, depending on, and inse- 
 parable from other virtues — it is that firm manly intrepidity 
 of suul, which enables us to meet danger in critical and try- 
 ing situations — it is the virtuous man's shield, by which he 
 
 A A 2. 
 
270 AMERICAN 
 
 defends himself from the evils of the world — it is the an- 
 chor which keeps him steady amidst the storms and hurri- 
 canes of life. The intrepidity or courage of a duellist al- 
 though it seems to imitate, cannot be said to be a virtue. 3 
 because it is not the object of moral virtue.'^ 
 
 Extract from a Speech of Lord Stanhope on Neutral Rights. 
 
 My Lords, — I rise, to bring forward the motion of 
 which I have given previous notice, respecting a resolu- 
 tion that all independent nations should be treated upon 
 the principle of perfect equality and complete reciprority. 
 In proposing this resolution to the house, 1 have not mere- 
 ly in my eye the circumstances in which we now stand, 
 with regard to America : The principle to which I allude 
 should, in my opinion, be extended to all states and na- 
 tions indiscriminately, and I feel the most sanguine hope 
 that the right honorable members of this house are prepar- 
 ed to give it that due attention which its urgency requires 
 and which Great-Britain demands. In the ftrst place, my 
 lords, I cannot help noticing the absence of ministers on 
 this important occasion : but I have already had occasion 
 to observe, that they seem anxious to avoid all discussions 
 on this topic. I will not say that their conduct is impru- 
 dent; but whatever it may be; I feel it incumbent on me 
 to express my sentiments, when the voice of such an im- 
 portant, and imperious duty calls upon me to express them» 
 I must therefore, my lords, most earnestly deprecate a war 
 with America, and I trust the house will as earnestly u- 
 nite with me in deprecating thfit dreadful calamity, when 
 they duly consider the many difficulties and dangers with 
 which we are already he-set. The right honorable mem- 
 bers of this house must recollect, that in times of scarcity, 
 our principal relief was derived first from Poland, next 
 from America. Poland is now shut against us by the 
 influence of our enemy, and shall we also shut against us 
 the pcits of America, by our own folly. If, my lord'i, the 
 .ministers are bent on this dreadful alternative, it needs 
 not the spirit of prophecy, neither need we turn over the 
 leaves of fate's eventful volume, to know what will be the 
 coiisequence. If the Baltic is closed against you, if by the 
 
SPEAKER. 271 
 
 frantic and transient energy of intoxicated rag?, you should 
 shut the ports of America on your commerce, whence are 
 you to derive materials and stores for your naval arsenals, 
 if the north of Europe and North America are to refuse 
 us these supplies. Do you not, my lords, plainly discover, 
 for I trust you have not yet to learn, that your enemy has 
 been carrying on a war against your finances and resourc- 
 es. To what seas will you waft your commerce ; from 
 whence will your resources be derived, what will become 
 of the greatness and security of England, when our navy, 
 the source of our pride, the source of our strength and 
 wealth is gone ? Are not these serious considerations ? Do 
 they not demand your most serious attention ? Do they 
 not require your cool and candid discussion? Where is 
 the minister — who is the minister that will dare to pol- 
 lute the ear of majesty with the name of war with Ameri- 
 ca ? Why are they not here this day to answer for them- 
 selves ; to point out to us their future resources ? I will 
 now only remark, that as all individuals, whether high or 
 low, poor or rich, are the same in the eye of Almighty 
 God ; so nations whether extremely powerful or weak, 
 whether opulent or poor, should be the same in the con- 
 templation of the law of nations. This then, my lords, is 
 the principle upon which my mind rests, and upon which 
 I ground the resolution I h ive now to move, and as I 
 have the pleasing satisfaction to see every attention paid to 
 the few serious and searching remarks that I have just 
 made — I move, my lords, that this day, in the presence of 
 God and man, it be resolved that the principle upon which 
 we shall act towards indi^pendent nations at peace with 
 the British government, shall be a principle of perfect e- 
 quality and complete reciprocity. 
 
 Extract from the Speech qfWiUiam Livingston^ Esq, GoV' 
 ernor ofNexv-Jerseij,^ to the Council^ and General Assem-- 
 bly of the State, 
 
 Gendemen, — Conceiving it my duty to state, ray sen- 
 ments on the present situation of affairs, between Great 
 Britain and America, you will excuse my giving you the 
 trouble'of attending for that purpose* 
 
2rJ AMERICAN 
 
 After deploring with you the desolation spread thi'ough 
 part of this state, by an unrelenting enemy, who have mark- 
 ed their progress with a devastation unknown to civilized 
 nations ; I congratulate you on the success, against them 
 at Trenton and the victory obtained at Princeton, by the 
 gallant troops under Washington. 
 
 The disgust they have given to their ov/n confederates 
 amongst us, by their ravages ; has enabled us to distinguish 
 our friends from i»ur enemies. It has opened the eyes 
 of those who were made to believe that abetting our per- 
 secutors, would exempt them from the common calamity. 
 But as the rapacity of the enemy was boundless, their ra- 
 pine was indiscriminate, and their barbarity unparalleled 
 They have plundered friends and foes. Effects capable of 
 division, they have divided ; such as were not, they have 
 destroyed. They have warred upon decrepid age ; and 
 defenceless youth. 
 
 They have committed hostilities against the professors 
 of literature, and the ministers of religion ; against public 
 records, and private monuments ; against books of im- 
 provement, and papers of curiosity ; and against the arts 
 and sciences. They have butchered the wounded, asking 
 for quarters ; mangled the dying, weltering in their blood ; 
 refused the dead the rights of sepulture : suffered prison- 
 ers to perish for want of sustenance ; violated the chasti- 
 ty of women ; disfigured private dwellings of taste and ele- 
 gance ; and, in the rage of impiety and barbarism, profan- 
 ed edifices dedicated to Almighty God ! 
 
 Yet there are some among us, who, deluded by insidious 
 prop6sitions, — are aiding their machinations, to deprive us 
 of that liberty, without which man is a beast, and govern- 
 ment a curse. 
 
 Besides the baseness of wishing to rise on the ruin of 
 our country ; or to acquire riches at the expense of the li- 
 berties and fortunes of our fellow-citizens, how soon 
 would those delusive dreams, upon the conquest of Ame- 
 rica, be turned into disappointment. Instead of gratuities, 
 these unhappy accomplices in tyranny, would meet with 
 cold disdain ; and, be finally told, by their haughty mas- 
 ters, that they approved of the treason, but despised the 
 traitor. 
 
SPEAKER. 2r3 
 
 Even the author of this horrid war is incapable of con- 
 cealing his own confusion and distress. Too great to be 
 wholly suppressed, it frequently discovers itself in his 
 speeches, breathing threatenings, and betraying terror ; a 
 motley mixture of magnanimity and consternation ; of 
 grandeur and abasement : with troops invincible, he dreads 
 a defeat, and wants reinforcements ; victorious in Ameri- 
 ca, and triumphant on the ocean, he is an humble depen- 
 dant on a petty prince ; and with full confidence in the 
 friendship and alliance of France, he trembles at her se- 
 cret designs, and open preparations. 
 
 With all this we ought to contrast the numerous and 
 hardy sons of America, inured to toil ; seasoned alike to 
 heat and cold ; hale, robust, patient of fatigue ; and from 
 an ardent love of liberty ready to face danger and death. 
 
 Their remarkable unanimity with the exception of a few 
 apostates and deserters j their unshaken resolution to main- 
 tain their freedom, or perish in the attempt ; the fertility 
 of our soil ; our inexhaustible internal resources ; our eco- 
 nomy in public expenses, add to this, that in a cause so just 
 we have the highest reason to expect the Wr- Qsing of Hea- 
 ven upon our glorious conflict. 
 
 For who can doubt the interposition of the Supremely 
 Just, in favour of a people forced to arms, in defence of 
 every thing dear, against a nation deaf to our complaints, 
 rejoicing in our misery, wantonly aggravating our oppres- 
 sions, determined to divide our substance, and by fire and 
 sword to compel us into submission. 
 
 Let us, however, not presumptuously rely on the inter- 
 position of Providence, without those efforts which it is 
 our duty to exert. 
 
 Let us remember our plighted faith and honor to main- 
 tain the cause with our lives and fortunes. Let those in 
 distinguished stations use all their influence to rouse the 
 supine ; animate the irresolute ; confirm the wavering, and 
 draw from his lurking hole the skulking neutral, who, leav- 
 ing to others the h'-rat and burthen of the day, means, in 
 the final result, to reap the fruits of that victory, for which 
 he will not contend. 
 
 Let us be peculiarly assiduous in bringing to condign 
 punishment, those parricides who have been openly active 
 against their native country ; and may we, in all proceed- 
 
274 AMERICAN 
 
 ings, be directed by the great Arbiter of the fate of ^na- 
 tions, by whom empires rise and fall, and who will in due 
 time avenge an injured peopk on their unfeeling oppres- 
 sor and his bloody instruments* 
 
 Oration of Robert Enunett to Lord Norbury^ one of the 
 Judges before whom he was tried for Treason* 
 
 My Lords,— You ask me what I have to say, why sen- 
 tence of death should not be proiiounced on me, according 
 to law ? I have nothing to say which can alter your pre- 
 determinations, nor that it will become me to say with any 
 view to the mitigation of that sentence, which you are 
 here to pronounce, and I must abide by. But I have that 
 to say, which interests me more than life, and which you 
 have labored (as was necessarily your office in the present 
 circumstances of this oppressed country) to destroy — I 
 have much to say why my reputation should be rescued 
 from the load of false accusations and calumny, which 
 have been heaped upon it. I do not imagine, that seated 
 where you are, your minds can be so free from impurity, 
 as to receive the least impression from what I am going to 
 utter ; I have no hopes that I can anchor my character in 
 the breast of a court constituted and trammelled as this is ; 
 I only wish, and it is the utmost I can expect, that your 
 lordships may suffer it to float down your memories un- 
 tainted by the foul breath of prejudice, until it finds some 
 more hospitable harbor to shelter it from the storm by 
 which it is at present buffeted. Was I only to suffer death 
 after being adjudged guilty by yaur tribunal, I should bow 
 in silence, and meet the fate that awaits me without a mur- 
 mur ; but the sentence of the law which delivers my body 
 to the executioner, will through the ministry of that law, 
 labour in its own vindication, to consign ray character to 
 obloquy ; for there must be guilt somewhere ; whether in 
 the sentence of the court, or in the catastrophe, posterity 
 must determine. A man in my situation, my lords, has 
 not only to encounter the difficulties of fortune, and the 
 force of power over minds which it has corrupted or sub- 
 jugated, by the difficulties of established prejudice — the 
 man dies, but his memory lives : that mine may not per- 
 
SPEAKER. 273 
 
 ish, that it may live in the respect of my countrymen, I 
 seize upon this opportunity to vindicate myself from some 
 of the charges alleged against me. When my spirit shall 
 be wafted to a more friendly port; when my shade shall 
 have joined the bands of those martyred heroes, who have 
 shed their blood on the scaffold and in the field, in defence 
 of their country and of virtue, this is my hope, I wish 
 that my memory and name may animate those who sur- 
 vive me, while I look down with complacency on the des- 
 truction of that perfidious government, which upholds its 
 domination by blasphemy of the Most High; which dis- 
 plays its power over man, as over the beasts of the forest ; 
 which sets man upon his brother, and lifts his hand in the 
 name of God against the throat of his fellow, who believes 
 or doubts a litde more, or a little less than the government 
 standard ; a government, which is steeled to barbarity, by 
 the cries of the orphans and the tears of the widows which 
 it has made. 
 
 (Lord Norbury here interrupted Mr. Emmett, sat/in^ 
 that the mean and -wicked enthusiasts who felt as he did^ 
 xvere not equal to the accomplishment of their wild designs, J 
 
 I appeal to the immaculate God — 1 swear by the throne 
 of Heaven, before which I must shortly appear ; by the 
 blood of the murdered patriots who have gone before me ; 
 tTiat my conduct has been, through all this peril, and through 
 all my purposes, governed only by the convictions which 
 1 have uttered, and by no other view than that of the cure, 
 and the emancipation of my country from the superinhu- 
 man oppression, under which she has too long and too pa- 
 tiently groaned ; and that I confidently and assuredly hope, 
 that wild and chimerical as it may appear, there is still u- 
 nion and strength in Ireland to accomplish this noblest en- 
 terprise — Of this I speak with the confidence of intimate 
 knowledge, and with the consolation that appertains to 
 that confidence. Think not, my lords, I say this for the 
 petty gratification of giving you a transitory uneasiness ; a 
 man who never yet raised his voice to assert a lie, will not 
 hazard his character with posterity, by asserting a false- 
 hood on a subject so important to his country, and on an 
 occasion like this. 
 
 Yes, my lords, a man who does not wish to have his epi- 
 taph written until his country is liberated, will not leave a 
 
276 AMERICAN 
 
 weapon in the power of envy to impeach the probity 
 which he means to preserve even in the grave to which 
 tyranny consigns him. (Here he was again interrupted 
 by the court. J Again I say, that what I have spoken, was 
 not intended for your lordship, whose situation I commise- 
 rate rather than envy — My expressions were for my coun- 
 trymen ; if there is a true Irishman present, let my last 
 words cheer him in the hour of his affliction. (Here hh 
 was again interrupted ; Lord Norbury said he did not sit 
 there to hear treason, J I have always understood it to be 
 the duty of a judge, when a prisoner has been convicted, 
 to pronounce the sentence of the law ; I have also under- 
 stood that judges sometimes think it their duty to hear 
 with patience, and to speak with hurtfanity ; to exhort the 
 victim of the laws, and to offer with tender benignity his 
 opinions of the motives by which he was actuated in the 
 crime, of which he had been found guilty : That a judge 
 has thought it his duty so to have done, I have no doubt 
 = — but where is the boasted freedom of your institutions, 
 where is the vaunted impartiality, clemency and mildness 
 of your courts of justice ; if an unfortunate prisoner, whom 
 your policy, and not justice is about to deliver into the 
 hands of the executioner, is not suffered to explain his mo- 
 tives sincerely and truly, and to vindicate the principles 
 by which he was actuated. My Lords, it may be a part of 
 the system of angry justice, to bow a man's mind by hu- 
 miliation to the purposed ignominy of the scaffold ; but 
 worse to me than the purposed shame of the scaffold's ter- 
 rors would be the tame indurance of charges and ireiputa- 
 tions laid against me in this court : You, my lord, are a 
 judge, I am the supposed culprit ; I am a man, you are a 
 man also ! by a revolution of power, we might change 
 places ; though v/e never could change characters ; if I 
 stand at the bar of this court and dare not vindicate my 
 character, what a farce is your justice ! If I stand at this 
 bar, and dare not vindicate it, how dare you calumniate it ? 
 Does the sentence of death, which your policy inflicts on 
 my body, also condemn my tongue to silence, and my re- 
 putation to reproach ? Your executioner may abridge the 
 period of my existence ; but while I exist I shall not cease 
 to vindicate my character and motives from your asper- 
 sions J and as a man to whom fame is dearer than life, I 
 
SPEAKER. 277 
 
 will make the last use of that life in doing justice to that 
 reputation which is to live after me, and which is the only 
 legacy I can leave to those i honor and love, and for whom 
 I am proud to perish. 
 
 As men, my lord, we must appear on the great day, at 
 one common tribunal, and it will then remain for the 
 searcher of all hearts to shew a collective universe, who 
 was engaged in the most virtuous actions, or attached by 
 the purest motives. (Here he was interrupted and told to 
 listen to the sentence of the law, J 
 
 My lord, will a dying man be denied the legal privilege 
 of exculpating himself, in the eyes of the community, of 
 an undeserved reproach thrown upon him daring his trial, 
 by charging him with ambition, and attempting to cast 
 away, for a paltry consideration, the liberties of his coun- 
 try ? Why did your lordship insult me I Or rather, why 
 insult justice, in demanding of me, why sentence of death 
 should not be pronounced ? I know, my lord, that form 
 prescribes that you should ask the question, the form also 
 presumes a right of answering. This, no doubt, may be 
 dispensed with, and so rwight the whole ceremony of the 
 trial, since sentence was already pronounced at the Castle 
 before your jury was impannelled ; your lordships are but 
 the priests of the oracle, and I submit ; but I insist on the 
 whole of the forms. I am charged with being an emissa- 
 ry to France ! An emissary of France ! And for what end? 
 It is alleged that I wished fo sell the independence of my 
 country ! And for what end ? Was this the object of my 
 ambition ? And is this the mode by which a tribunal of 
 justice reconciles contradictions? No, I am no emissary; 
 and my ambition was to hold, a place among the deliver- 
 ers of my country, not in power, nor in profit, but in the 
 glory of the achievement ! Sell my country's independence 
 to France ! And for what ? Was it for a change of mas- 
 ters ? No ! but for ambition ! O, my country, was it per- 
 sonal ambition that could influence me, had it been the soul 
 of my actions, could I not by my education and fortune, 
 by the rank and consideration of my family, have placed 
 myself among the proudest of my oppressors ? My coun- 
 try was my idol ; to it I sacrifice every selfish, every en- 
 dearing sentiment ; and for it, I now offer up my life O, 
 
 God ! No, my lord, I acted as an Irishman, determined 
 
 B B 
 
^rs AMERICAN 
 
 on delivering my country from the yoke of a foreign and 
 unrelenting tyrant, from a crimson and bloody tyranny, 
 and from the more galling yoke of a domestic faction, 
 which is joint partner and perpetrator in the patricide for 
 the ignominy of existing with an exterior of splendor, and 
 a conscious depravity. It was the wish of my heart to 
 extricate my country from this doubly rivetted despotism. 
 — I wished to place her independence beyond the reach of 
 any power on earth ; I wished to exalt her to that proud 
 station in the world. — Connexion with France was indeed 
 intended ; but only as far as our mutual interest would 
 sanction and require ; were they to assume any authority 
 inconsistent with the purest independence, it would be the 
 signal for their destruction ; we sought aid, and we sought 
 it as we had assurances we should obtain it ; as auxiliaries 
 in war and allies in peace. Were the French to come as in- 
 vaders or enemies; uninvited by the wishes of the people; 
 I should oppose them to the utmost of my strength. Yes, 
 my countrymen, I should advise you to meet them upon 
 the beach, with a sword in one hand, and a torch in the 
 other ; I would meet them with all the destructive fury of 
 war ; and I would animate my countrymen to immolate 
 them in their boats, before they had contaminated the soil 
 of my country. If they succeeded in landing, and if forc- 
 ed to retire before superior discipline, I would dispute ev- 
 ery inch of ground, burn every blade of grass, and the last 
 intrenchment of libery should be my grave. What I could 
 not do myself, if I should fall, I should leave as a last 
 charge to my countrymen to accomplish, because I should 
 feel conscious, that life, any more than death, is un- 
 profitable, when a foreign nation holds my country in 
 subjection. But it was not as an enemy, that the suc- 
 cors of France were lo land ; I looked, indeed, for the 
 assistance of France, but I wished to prove to France and 
 to the world, that Irishmen deserved to be assisted ; that 
 they were indignant at slavery, and ready to assert the in- 
 dependence and liberty of their country. I wished to pro- 
 cure for my country the guarantee which Washington pro- 
 cured for America. To procure an aid, which by its ex- 
 ample, would be as important as its valor, disciplined, and 
 gallant, pregnant with science and with experience; who 
 would perceive the good, and polish the rough points of 
 
 
SPEAKER. 279 
 
 our character ; they would come to us as strangers, and 
 leave us as friends, after sharing our perils and alleviating 
 our burdens — These were my objects, not to receive new 
 task-masters, but to expel old tyrants; these were my 
 views ; and these only became Irishmen. I know your 
 most implacable enemies are in the bosom of your coun- 
 try. I have been charged with that importance in the ef- 
 forts to emancipate my country, as to be ^considered the 
 kev-stone of the combination of Irishmen, or as your 
 lordship expresses it, " the life and blood of the conspi- 
 racy." You do me honor over much, you have given to 
 the subaltern, all the credit of a superior ; there are men 
 engaged in this conspiracy, who are not only superior to 
 me, but even to your own conceptions of yourself, my 
 lord ; men, before the splendor of whose virtues and ge- 
 nius, I should bow with respectful deference, and who 
 would think themselves dishonored to be called your friend; 
 who would not disgrace themselves by shaking your blood j 
 stained hand. 
 
 Speech delivered by Jacob Henry ^ in the Legislature of 
 North-Carolina^ on a motion to vacate his seaty he being 
 a Jew* 
 
 Mr. Speaker — Though I will not conceal the surprie 
 I felt that the gentleman should have thought proper yes- 
 terday to have moved my expulsion from this house, on 
 the alleged grounds that I '* disbelieve in the divine au- 
 thority of the New-Testament" without considering him- 
 self bound by those rules of politeness, which, according 
 to my sense of propriety, should have led him to give me 
 some previous intimation of his design ; yet since I am 
 brought to the discussion, I feel prepared to meet the ob- 
 ject of his resolution. 
 
 I certainly, IVIr. Speaker, know not the design of the 
 declaration of Rights made by the people of this state in 
 the year '76, if it was not to consecrate certain great and 
 fundanental Rights and Principles, which even tl'-e Con- 
 stitution cannot impair : For the 41th section of the latter 
 instruuieat declares that the declaration of riohts ought 
 never to be violated on any pretence whatever — If there 
 
280 AIMEQtAN 
 
 is any apparent differenfieir merits ? The religion I pro- 
 they ought if possible^uty ^hich man owes to his fellow 
 final repugnance h^\ its votaries the practice of every vir- 
 mustbe conside^tatjon of every vice; it teaches thenn to 
 the Const] tuti^vour of Heaven exactly in proportion as 
 trouls and r/e directed by just, honorable and beneficent 
 a belief LXhis then gentlemen is my creed ; it was im- 
 stitutif upon my infant mind, it has been the director of 
 suc^outh, the monitor of my manhood, and will I trust 
 ? the consolation of my old age. At any rate Mr. Speak- 
 er, I am sure that you cannot see any thing in this reli- 
 gion, to deprive me of my seat in this House. So far as 
 relates to my life and conduct, the examination of these I 
 submit with cheerfulness to your candid and liberal con- 
 struction. What may be the religion of him who made 
 this objection against me, or whether he has any religion 
 cr not I am unable to say. I have never consider- 
 ed it my duty to pry into the belief of other members of 
 this house, if their actions are upright and their conduct 
 just, the rest is for thtir own consideration not for mine> 
 1 do not seek to make convtrts to my faith, whatever it 
 may be esteemed in the eyes of my officious friend, nor 
 do I exclude any man from my esteem or friendship, be- 
 cause he and I differ in that respect — The same charity 
 therefore it is not unreasonable to expect will be extend- 
 ed to myself, because in all things that relate to the State 
 and to the duties of civil life, I am bou:id by the same 
 obligations with my fellow citizens ; nor does any man 
 subscribe more sincerely than myself to the maxim, 
 " whatever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye 
 so even unto them, for such is the Law and the Prophets." 
 
 Speech of General Washington to Congress on accenting his 
 Commission^ June ISth^ 1774U. 
 
 Mr. President — Though I am truly sensible of the high 
 honor done me, in this appointment, yet I feel great dis- 
 tress, from a consciousness that my abihties and military 
 experience may not be equal to the extensive and import- 
 ant trust : However, as the Congress desire it, I will enter 
 upon the momentous duty and exert every power I pos- 
 
SPEAKER. 28.3 
 
 sess in their service, and for support of the glorious cause. 
 I beg they will accept my most cordial thanks for this 
 distinguished testimony of their approbation. 
 
 " But, lest some unlucky event should happen, unfavor- 
 able to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered, by 
 every gentleman in the room, that I, this day, declare with 
 the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the 
 command I am hoaored with. 
 
 " As to pay, sir^ I beg leave to assure the Congress, that 
 as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to 
 accept this arduous employment, at the expense of my do- 
 mestic ease and happiness, 1 do not wish to make any pro- 
 fit from it. I will keep an exact account of my expen- 
 ses. Those, I doubt not, they will discharge, and that is 
 all I desire." 
 
 Gaural IVashlng'ton to the Troops previous to the Battle of 
 Long' Island — 1776. 
 
 *' The time is now near at hand, which must probably 
 determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; 
 whether they are to have any property they can call their 
 own ; whether their houses and firms are to be pillaged 
 and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of 
 wretchedness, from which no human efforts will deliver 
 them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, un- 
 der God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our 
 crtiel and unrelenting enemy, leaves us only the choice of 
 a brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We 
 have therefore to resolve to conqueror to die. Our own, 
 our country's honor, calls upon us for a vigorous and 
 manly exertion ; and if we now shamefully fail, we shall 
 become infamous to the whole world. Let us then rely 
 on the goodness of our cause, and the aid of the Supreme 
 Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encou- 
 rage us to great and noble actions. The eyes of all our 
 countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their bles- 
 sings and praises, if happily we are the instrumer.ts of 
 saving them from the tyranny meditated against them. 
 Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and 
 show the whole world that a freeman contending for liber- 
 
284 AMERICAN 
 
 ty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary 
 on earth. 
 
 *' Liberty, property, life, and honor are all at stake ; 
 upon your courage and conduct, rests the hopes of our 
 bleeding and insulted country; our wives, children, and 
 parents, expect safety from us only ; and they have every 
 reason to believe that Heaven will crown with success so 
 just a cause. 
 
 " The enemy will endeavour to intimidate by show and 
 appearance, but remember they have been repulsed on va- 
 rious occasions by a few brave Americans. Their cause 
 is bad — their men are conscious of it, and if opposed with 
 firmness and coolness on their first onset, with our advan- 
 tage of works, and knowledge of the ground, the victory 
 IS most assuredly ours. Every good soldier will be silent 
 and attentive — wait for orders- — and reserve his fire until 
 he is sure of doing execution : of this the officers are to 
 be particularly careful." 
 
 Speech of General Washington to his troops before attacking^ 
 the Hessians at Trenton^ December ^ 1776. 
 
 My friends, it is not only the liberty of America that 
 depends on your valour and firmness but what ought to be 
 much more dear to you than your lives, your honor! Think 
 of the infamy which will attend you through life, not only 
 here, but through the whole world, if the campaign closes 
 without some instance that the courage with which you 
 stand to your arms, is equal to the justice of the cause 
 which ought to animate your bosoms. For my own part, 
 I will not survive a defeat, if that defeat arises from any 
 inattention to your safety. Wipe out the stains which have 
 been thrown upon your reputations, by seeking an honor- 
 able death ; and give credit to me, that it will be the only 
 means of meeting victory, life and honor. 
 
SPEAKER. 281^ 
 
 General Orders Issued by General Washington^ to the Armi/, 
 Head garters yApril 18?/*, 1783. {^fttfyJim 
 
 The commander in chief orders the cessation of hostili- 
 ties between the United States of America and the king 
 of Great Britain, to be publicly proclaimed to-morrow at 
 twelve o'clock, at the new building : and that the procla- 
 mation which will be communicated herewith be read to- 
 morrow evening at the head of every regiment and corps 
 of the army ; after which the chaplanis, with the several 
 brigades will render thanks to the Almighty God for all 
 his mercies, particularly for his over-ruling the wrath of 
 man to his own glory, and causing the rage of w*ar to cease 
 among the nations. 
 
 Although the proclamation before alluded to, extends 
 only to the prohibition of hostilities, and not to the annun- 
 ciation of a general peace, yet it must afford the most ra- 
 tional and sincere satisfaction to every benevolent mind, 
 as it puts a period to a long and doubtful contest, stops 
 the effusion of human blood, opens the prospect to a more 
 splendid scene, and, like another morning star, promises 
 the approach of brighter day than hath hitherto illuminat- 
 ed the western hemisphere. On such a happy day, which 
 is the harbinger of peace, a day which completes the eighth 
 year of the war, it would be ingratitude not to rejoice ; it 
 would be inseosibility not to participate in the general 
 felicity. 
 
 The commander in chief, far from endeavouring to sti- 
 fle the feelings of joy in his own bosom, offers his most 
 cordial congratulations on the occasion to all the officers 
 of every denomination ; to all the troops of the United 
 States in general ; and in particular to those gallant and 
 persevering men who had resolved to defend the rights of 
 their invaded country, so long as the war should continue. 
 For these are the men who ought to be considered as the 
 pride and boast of the American armv ; and who crowned 
 with well earned laurels, may soon withdraw from the field 
 of glory to the more tranquil walks of civil life. While 
 the commander in chief recollects the al r.ost infinite va- 
 riety of scenes through which we have past, with a mix- 
 ture of pleasure, astonishment, and gratitude ; while he 
 
286 AMERICAN 
 
 contemplates the prospects before us with rapture, he can- 
 not help wishing that all the brave men, of whatever con- 
 did opr th^v may be, who have shared the toils and dangers 
 \"''^^¥ffectmg this glorious revolution ; of rescuing millions 
 from the hand of oppression, and of laying the foundation 
 of a great empire, might be impressed with a proper idea 
 of the dignified part they have been called to act, under 
 the smiles of Providence, on the stage of human affairs ; 
 for happy, thrice happy ! shall they be pronounced hereaf- 
 ter, who have contributed any thing, who have performed 
 the meanest office in erecting this stupendous fabric of 
 freedom and empire on the broad basis of independency ; 
 who have assisted in protecting the rights of human na- 
 ture, and established an asylum for the poor and oppress- 
 ed of all nations and religions. — The glorious task for 
 which we first flew to arms being accomplished — The li- 
 berties of our country being fully acknoivledged and firm- 
 ly secured by the smiles of heaven on the purity of our 
 cause, and the honest exertions of a feeble people, deter- 
 mined to be free, against a powerful nation disposed to 
 oppress them ; and the character of those who have per- 
 severed through every extremity of hardship, suffering, and 
 danger, being immortahzed by the illustrious appellation 
 of the patriot army i nothing now remains but for the act- 
 ors of this mighty scene to preserve a perfect unvarying 
 consistency of character through the very last act, to close 
 the drama with applause ; and to retire from the military 
 theatre with the same approbation of angels and men which 
 have crowned all their former virtuous actions. For this 
 purpose no disorder or licentiousness must be tolerated. — 
 Every considerate and well disposed soldier must remem- 
 ber it will be absolutely necessary to wait with patience 
 until peace shall be declared, or Congress shall be enabled 
 to take proper measures for the security of the public 
 stores, &c. As soon as these arrangements shall be made, 
 the general is confident, there will be no delay in discharg- 
 ing, with every mark of distinction and honor, all the men 
 inlisted for the war, who will then have faithfully perform- 
 ed their engagements with the public. The general has al- 
 ready interested himself in their behalf, and he thinks he 
 need not repeat the assurance of his disposition to be use- 
 ful to them on the present, and every other proper occa- 
 
SPEAKER. 287 
 
 sion. In the mean time, he is determined that no military 
 neglects or excesses shall go unpunished, while he retains 
 the command of the army. 
 
 The adjutant-general will have such working parties 
 detached, to assist in making the preparations for a gen- 
 eral rejoicing, as the chief engineer of the army shall call 
 for ; and the quarter-master-general will, without delay, 
 procure such a number of discharges to be printed as will 
 be sufficient for all the men inlisted for the war — he will 
 please to apply to head quarters for the form. An extra 
 ration of liquor to be issued to every man to-morrow to 
 drink, " Perpetual peace and happiness to the United States 
 of America." 
 
 General Wasklngton's Circular Letter to the Governor of 
 each of the States^ dated Head- ^carter s^ Newburghy 
 June 18, 1783. 
 
 " Sir — The object for which I had the honor to hold 
 an appointment in the service of my country, being accom- 
 plished, I am now preparing to resign it into the hands of 
 Congress, and return to that domestic retirement, which, 
 it is well known, I left with the greatest reluctance ; a re- 
 tirement for which I have never ceased to sigh through a 
 long and painful absence, in which, (remote from the noise 
 and trouble of the world,) I meditate to pass the remain- 
 der of lifo, in a state of undisturbed repose ; but, before 
 I carry this resolution into effect, I think it a duty incum- 
 bent on me to make this my last official communication, to 
 congratulate you on the glorious events which heaven has 
 been pleased to produce in our favour ; to offer my senti- 
 ments respecting some important subjects, which appear to 
 me to be intimately connected with the tranquillity of the 
 United States j to take my leave of your excellency as a 
 public character; and to give my final blessing to that 
 country, in whose service I have spent the prime of my 
 life ; for whose sake I have consumed so many anxious 
 days and watchful nights, and whose happiness, being ex- 
 tremely dear to me, will always constitute no inconsidera- 
 part of my ownr 
 
288 AMERICAN 
 
 " Impressed with the liveliest sensibility on this pleas- 
 ing occasion, I will claim the indulgence of dilating the 
 more copiously on the subject of our mutual felicitation. 
 When we consider the magnitude of the prize we contend- 
 ed for, the doubtful nature of the contest, and the favour- 
 able manner in which it has terminated ; we shall find the 
 greatest possible reason for gratitude and rejoicing. This 
 is a theme that will afford infinite delight to every bene- 
 volent and liberal mind, whether the event in contempla- 
 tion be considered as a source of present enjoyment, or the 
 parent of future happiness ; and we shall have equal occa- 
 sion to felicitate ourselves on the lot which Providence has 
 assigned us, whether we view it in a natural, a political, or 
 moral point of light. 
 
 '* The citizens of America, placed in the most enviable 
 condition, as the sole lords and proprietors of a vast tract 
 of continent, comprehending all the various soils and cli- 
 mates of the world, and abounding with all the necessaries 
 and conveniences of life, are now, by the late satisfactory 
 pacification, acknowledged to be possessed of absolute free- 
 dom and independency : they are from this period to be 
 considered as the actors on a most conspicuous theatre, 
 which seems to be peculiarly designed by Providence for 
 the display of human greatness and felicity. Here they 
 are net only surrounded with every thing that can contri- 
 bute to the completion of private and domestic enjoyment; 
 but heaven has crowned all its other blessings, by giving a 
 surer opportunity for political happiness, than any other 
 nation has ever been favoured with. Nothing can illus- 
 trate these observations more forcibly than a recollection 
 of ihe happv conjuncture of times and circumstances, un- 
 cH^ which our republic assumed its rank among the na- 
 tions. — The foundation of our empire was not laid in a 
 gloomy age of ignorance and superstition, but at an epocha 
 %vhen the rights of mankind were better understood and 
 more clearly defined, than at any former period. Re- 
 searches of the human mind after social happiness have 
 been carried to a great extent ; the treasures of knowledge 
 acquired by the labours (if philosophers, sages, and legis- 
 lators, through a long succession of years, are laid open 
 for us, and their collected wisdom may be happily applied 
 
SPEAKER, 289 
 
 in the establishment of our forms of government. The 
 free cultivation of letters, the unbounded extension of com- 
 merce, the progressive refinement of manners, the grow- 
 ing liberality of sentiment ; and, above all, the pure and 
 benign light of revelation, have had a meliorating influ- 
 ence on mankind, and increased the blessings of society. 
 At this auspicious period, the United States came into ex- 
 istence as a nation ; and if their citizens should not be com- 
 pletely free and happy, the fault will be entirely their own. 
 
 " Such is our situation, and such are our prospects. But 
 notwithstanding the cup of blessing is thus reached out to 
 us ; notwithstanding happiness is ours, if we have a dispo- 
 sition to seize the occasion, and make it our own ; yet it 
 appears to me there is an option still left to the United 
 States of America, whether they will be respectable and 
 prosperous, or contemptible and miserable as a nation. 
 This is the time of their political probation : this is the mo- 
 ment when the eyes of the whole world are turned upon 
 them : this is the time to establish or ruin their national 
 character for ever : this is the favourable moment to give 
 such a tone to the federal government, as will enable it to 
 answer the ends of its institution ; or, this may be the ill- 
 fated moment for relaxing the powers of the union, anni- 
 hilating the cement of the confederation, and exposing us to 
 become the sport of European politics, which may play one 
 state against another, to prevent their growing importance, 
 and to serve their own interested purposes. For, accord- 
 ing to the system of policy the states shall adopt at this 
 moment, they will stand or fall ; and, by their confirma- 
 tion or lapse, it is yet to be decided, whether the revolutiou 
 must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a curse, not 
 to the present age alone, for with our fate will the destiny 
 of unborn millions be involved. 
 
 " With this coDviction of the importance of the pre- 
 sent crisis, silence in me would be a crime j I will there- 
 fore speak to your excellency the language of freedom 
 and sincerity, without disguise. I am aware, however 
 those who differ from me in political sentiments may, per- 
 haps, remark, I am stepping out of the proper line of my 
 duty ; and they may possibly ascribe to arrogance or os- 
 tCHtation, what I know is alone the result of the purest 
 intention. But the rectitude of my own heart, which dis- 
 
 C c 
 
290 AMERICAN 
 
 dain such unworthy motives ; the part I have hitherto act 
 ed in Hfe ; the determination I have formed of not taking 
 any share in public business hereafter ; the ardent desire 
 1 leel, and shall continue to manifest, of quietly enjoying 
 in private life, after all the toils of war, the benefits of a 
 wise and liberal government, will, I flatter myself, sooner 
 or later, convince my countrymen, that I could have no si- 
 nister views in delivering with so little reserve the opinions 
 contained in this address. 
 
 " There are four things which I humbly conceive, are 
 essential to the well being, I may even venture to say to 
 the existence of the United States, as an independent 
 powder, 
 
 " 1st. An indissoluble union of the States under one 
 federal head. 
 
 " 2dly. A sacred regard to public justice. 
 
 " 3dly. The adoption of a proper peace establishment. 
 And, 
 
 " 4thly. The prevalence of that pacific and friendly dis- 
 position among the people of the United States, which 
 will induce them to forget their local prejudices and poli- 
 cies ; to make those mutual concessions which are requi- 
 site to the general prosperity; and, in some instances, to 
 sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest of the 
 community. 
 
 " These are the pillars on which the glorious fabric of 
 our independency and national character must be support- 
 ed. Liberty is the basis — and whoever would dare to sap 
 the foundation, or overturn the structure, under whatever 
 specious pretext he may attem.pt it, will merit the bitterest 
 execration, and the severest punishment, which can be in- 
 flicted by his injured country. 
 
 " On the three first articles I will make a few observa- 
 tions; leaving the last to the good sense and serious consi- 
 deration of those immediately concerned. 
 
 *' Under the first head, although it may not be necessa- 
 ry or proper for me in this place to enter into a particular 
 disquisition of the principles of the union, and to take up 
 the great question which has been frequently agitated, 
 whether it be expedient and requisite for the states to de-t 
 legate a larger proportion of power to Congress, or not ; 
 yet it will be a part of my duty, and thert of every true 
 
 I 
 
SPEAKER. 29% 
 
 patriot, to assert, without reserve, and to insist upon the 
 following positions :— That unless the states will suffer 
 Congress to exercise those prerogatives they are undoubt- 
 edly invested with by the constitution, every thing must 
 very rapidly tend to anarchy and confusion : That it is in- 
 dispensable to the happiness of the individual states, that 
 there should be lodged, somewhere, a supreme power to 
 regulate and govern the general concerns of the confede- 
 rated republic, without which the union cannot be of lon^ 
 duration : That there must be a faithful and pointed com- 
 pliance on the part of every state with the late proposals 
 and demands of Congress, or the most fatal consequences 
 will ensue : That whatever measures have a tendency to 
 dissolve the union, or contribute to violate or lessen the 
 sovereign authority, ought to be cortsidered as hostile to 
 the liberty and independence of America, and the authors 
 of them treated accordingly. And, lastly, that unless w^; 
 can be enabled by the concurrence of the states to partici- 
 pate of the fruits of the revolution, and enjoy the essen- 
 tial benefits of civil society, under a form of governmer t 
 so free and uncorrupted, so happily guarded against Vm: 
 danger of oppression, as has been devised and adopted by 
 the articles of confederation, it will be a subject ot regret, 
 that so much blood and treasure have been lavished for no 
 purpose ; that so many sufferings have been encountered 
 without a compensation, and that so many sacrifices have 
 been made in vain. Many other consideraiions might here 
 be adduced to prove, that without an entire conformity to 
 the spirit of the union, we cannot exist as an independent 
 power. It will be sufHcient for my purpose to mention 
 lout one or two, which seem to me of the greatest impor:- 
 ance. It is only in our united character as an empire, that 
 our independence is acknowledged, that our power can be 
 regarded, or our credit supported among foreign nations. 
 The treaties of the European powers with the United 
 States of America, will have no validity on a dissolution 
 of the union. We shall be left nearly in a state of nature; 
 or we may find, by our own unhappy experience, that there 
 is a natural and necessary progression from the extreme 
 of anarchy to the extreme of t) ranny ; and that arbitrary 
 power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty a- 
 bused to licentiousness. 
 
292 AMERICAN 
 
 " As to the second article, which respects the perform- 
 ance of public justice, Congress have, in their late address 
 to the United States, almost exhausted the subject ; they 
 have explained their ideas so fully, and have enforced the 
 obligations the states are under to render complete justice 
 to all the public creditors, with so much dignity and ener- 
 gy, that, in my opinion, no real friend to the' honor and 
 independency of America can hesitate a single moment 
 respecting the propriety of complying with the just and 
 honorable measures proposed. If their argaments do not 
 produce conviction, I know of nothing that will have 
 greater influence, especially when we reflect that the sys- 
 tem referred to, being the result of the collected wisdom 
 of the continent, must be esteemed, if not perfect, certain- 
 ly the least objectionable, of any that could be devised j 
 and that, if it should not be carried into immediate exe- 
 cution, a national bankruptcy, with all its deplorable con- 
 sequences, will take place before any different plan can 
 possibly be proposed or adopted ; so pressing are the pre- 
 sent circumstances, and such is the alternative now offer- 
 ed to the states. 
 
 " The ability of the country to discharge the debts 
 which have been incurred in its defence, is not to be doubt- 
 ed ; and inclination, I flatter myself, will not be wanting. 
 The path of our duty is plain before us ; honesty will be 
 found, on every experiment, to be the best and only true 
 policy. Let us then, as a nation be just ; let us fulfil the 
 public contracts which Congress had undoubtedly a right 
 to make for the purpose of carrying on the war, with the 
 same good faith we suppose ourselves bound to perform 
 our private engagements. In the mean time, let an atten- 
 tion to the cheerful performance of their proper business, 
 as individuals, and as members of society, be earnestly in- 
 culcated on the citizens of America; then will they strength- 
 en the bands of government, and be happy under its pro- 
 tection. Every one will reap the fruit of his labours: 
 every one will enjoy his own acquisitions, without moles- 
 tation and without danger. 
 
 «' In this state of absolute freedom and perfect security, 
 W'ho will grudge to yield a very little of his property to 
 support the common interests of society, aod ensure the 
 
SPEAKER. 293 
 
 protection of government ? Who does not remember the 
 frequent declarations at the commencement of the war. 
 That we should be completely satisfied, if, at the expense 
 of one half, we could defend the remainder of our pos- 
 sessions ? Where is the man to be found, who wishes to 
 remain in debt, for the defence of his own person and pro- 
 perty, to the exertions, the bravery, and the blood of o- 
 tliers, without making one generous effort to pay the debt 
 of honor aiid of gratitude? In what part of the continent 
 shall we find any man, or body of men, who would not 
 blush to stand up and propose measures purposely calcu- 
 lated to rob the soldier of his stipend, and the public cre- 
 ditor of his due ? And were it possible that such a flagrant 
 instance of injustice could ever happen, would it not ex- 
 cite the general indignation, and tend to bring down upon 
 the authors of such measures the aggravated vengeance 
 of heaven ? If, after all, a spirit of disunion, or a temper 
 of obstinacy and perverseness should manifest itself in any 
 of the states ; if such an ungracious disposition should at- 
 tempt to frustrate all the happy effects that might be ex- 
 pected to flow from the union ; if there should be a refu- 
 sal to comply with requisitions for funds to discharge the 
 annual interest of the public debts ; and if that refusal 
 should revive all those jealousies, and produce all those e- 
 vils, which are now happily removed, Congress, who have 
 in all their transactions .,hown a great degree of magnani- 
 mity and justice, will stand justified in the sight of God 
 r^nd man ! and that state alone, which puts itself in oppo- 
 sition to the aggregate wisdom of the continent, and fol- 
 lows such mistaken and pernicious councils, will be respon- 
 sible for all the consequences. 
 
 " For my own part, conscious of having acted while a 
 servant of the public, in the manner I conceived best suit- 
 ed to promote the real interests of my country ; having in 
 consequence of my fixed belief, in some measure pledged 
 myself to the army, that their country would finally do 
 them complete and ample justice ; and not wishing to con- 
 ceal any instance of my official conduct from the eyes of 
 the world, I have thought proper to transmit to your ex- 
 cellency the enclosed collection of papers, relative to the 
 half pay and commutation granted by Congress, to the of- 
 ficers of the army. From these communications my de- 
 
 C c 2 
 
294 AMERICAN 
 
 cided sentiment will be clearly comprehended, together 
 with the conclusive reasons which induced me, at an ear- 
 ly period to recommend the adoption of this measure in 
 the most earnest and serious manner. As the proceedings 
 of Congress, the army, and myself, are open to all, and 
 contain, in my opinion, sufficient information to remove 
 the prejudices and errors which may have been entertain- 
 ed by any, I think it unnecessary to say any thing more 
 than just to observe, that the resolutions of Congress, now 
 alluded to, are as undoubtedly and absolutely binding up- 
 on the United States, as the most solemn acts of confede- 
 ration or legislation. 
 
 " As to the idea which, I am informed, has in some in- 
 stances prevailed, that the half-pay and commutation are 
 to be regarded merely in the odious light of a pension, it 
 uught to be exploded for ever ; that provision should be 
 viewed, as it really was, a reasonable compensation offered 
 by Congress, at a time when they had nothing else to give 
 to officers of the army, for services then to be performed. 
 It WHS the only means to prevent a total dereliction of the 
 service. It was a part of their hire ; I may be allowed to 
 say, it was the price of their blood, and of your indepen- 
 dei.c.y. It is therefore more than a common debt; it is a 
 debi of honor ; it can never be considered as a pension, or 
 gratuity, nor cancelled until it is fairly discharged. 
 
 "With reg:»rd to the distinc/.jn between officers and 
 soldiers, it is sufficient that the uniform experience of ev- 
 er)' nation of the world combined with our ov/n, proves the 
 litility 'ind propriety of the discrimination. Rewards in 
 proportion to the aid the public draws from them are un- 
 question ;bly due to all its servants. In some lines, the 
 solniers have perhiips, generally, had as ample compensa- 
 tion for their services, by the large bounties which have 
 been paid ihem, as their officers will receive in the pro- 
 posed commutation j in others, if, besides the donation of 
 land, the paj inent of arrearages of clothing and wages, 
 (in which articles all the component parts of the army 
 muGi be put upon the same footing,) we take into the esti- 
 mate the bounties m.any of the soldiers have received, and 
 the gratuity of one year's full pay, which is promised to 
 all, possibly their situation, (every circumstance being duly 
 ijonsidered,) will not be deemed less eligible than that of 
 
SPEAKER. 295 
 
 the officers. Should a farther reward, however, be judged 
 equitable, I will venture to assert, no mail will enjoy great- 
 er satisfaction than myself, in an exemption from taxes for 
 a limited time, (which has been petitioned for in some in- 
 stances,) or any other adequate immunity or compensation 
 granted to the brave defenders of their country's cause. 
 But neither the adoption or rejection of this proposition 
 will, in any manner, affect, much less militate against, the 
 act of Congress, by which they have offered five years full 
 pay, in lieu of the half-pay for life, which had been before 
 promised to the officers of the army. 
 
 " Before I conclude the subject on public justice, I can- 
 not omit to mention the obligations tliis country is under 
 to that meritorious class of veterans, the non-commission- 
 ed officers and privates, who have been discharged for in- 
 ability, in consequence of the resolution of Congress, of 
 the 23d of April, 1782, on an annual pension for life. 
 Their peculiar sufferings, their singular merits and claims 
 to that provision, need only to be known, to interest the 
 feelings of humanity in their behalf. Nothing but a punc- 
 tual payment of their annual allowance, can rescue them 
 from the most complicated misery ; and nothing could be 
 a more melancholy and distressing sight, than to behold 
 those who have shed their blood, or lost their limbs in the 
 service of their country, without a shelter, without a friend, 
 and without the means of obtaining any of the comforts or 
 necessaries of life, compelled to beg their bread daily from 
 door to door. Suffer me to recommend those of this des- 
 cription, belonging to your state, to the warmest patronage 
 of your excellency and your legislature. 
 
 " It is necessary to say but a few words on the third 
 topic which was proposed, and which regards particularly 
 the defence of the republic — as there can be little doubt 
 but Congress will recommend a proper peace establishment 
 for the United States, in which a due attention will be paid 
 to the importance of placing the militia of the union upon 
 a regular and respectable footing. If this should be the 
 case, I should beg leave to urge the great advantage of it 
 in the strongest terms. 
 
 " The militia of this country must be considered as the 
 p?.lladium of our security, and the first effectual resort in 
 case of hostility. It is essential, therefore, that the same 
 
295 AMERICAN 
 
 system should pervade the whole ; that the formation and 
 discipline of the militia of the continent should be abso- 
 lutely uniform ; and that the same species of arms, accou- 
 trements, and military apparatus, should be introduced in 
 every part of the United States. No one, who has not 
 * learned it from experience^ can conceive the difficulty, ex- 
 pense, and confusion, which result from n contrary system, 
 or the vague arrangements which have hitherto prevailed. 
 " If, in treating of political points, a greater latitude 
 than usual has been taken in the course of the address ; 
 the importance of the crisis, and the magnitude of the ob- 
 jects in discussion, must be my apology. It is, however, 
 neither my wish nor expectation, that the preceding obser- 
 vations should claim any regard, except so far as they shall 
 appear to be dictated by a good intention, consonant to the 
 immutable rules of justice ; calculated to produce a libe- 
 ral system of policy, and founded on whatever experience 
 may have been acquired, by a long and close attention to 
 public business. Here I might speak with more confi- 
 dence, from my actual observations ; and if it would not 
 swell this letter, (already too prolix,) beyond the bounds I 
 had prescribed myself, I could demonstrate to every mind 
 open to conviction, that in less time, and with much less 
 expense than has been incurred, the war might have been 
 brought to the same happy conclusion, if the resources of 
 the continent could have been properly called forth ; that 
 the distresses and disappointments which have very often 
 occurred, have, in too many instances, resulted more from 
 a want of energy in the continental government, than a de- 
 ficiency of means in the particular states ; that the ineffica- 
 cy of the me-asures, arising from the want of an adequate 
 authority in the supreme power, from a partial compliance 
 with the requisitions of Congress, in some of the states, 
 and from a failure of punctuality in others, while they 
 tended to damp the zeal of those who were more wiUing 
 to exert themselves, served also to accumulate the expenses 
 of the war, and to frustrate the best concerted plans; and 
 that the discouragement occasioned by the complicated 
 difficulties and embarrassments, in which our affairs were 
 by this means involved, would have long ago produced the 
 dissolution of any army, less patient, less virtuous, and 
 less persevering, than that which I have had the honor to 
 
SPEAKER. 29r 
 
 command. But while I mention those things which are no- 
 torious facts, as the defects of our federal constitution, par- 
 ticularly in the prosecution of a war, I beg it may be un- 
 derstood, that as I have ever taken a pleasure in gratefully 
 acknowledging the assistance and support I have derived 
 from every class of citizens ; so I shall always be happy to 
 do justice to the unparalleled exertions of the individual 
 states, on many interesting occasions. 
 
 " I have thus freely disclosed what I wished to make 
 known, before I surrendered up my public trust to those 
 who committed it to me. The task is now accomplished ; 
 I now bid adieu to your excellency, as the chief magistrate 
 of your state ; at the same time I bid a last farewel to the 
 cares of office, and all the employments of public life. 
 
 " It remains, then, to be my final and only request, that 
 your excellenc}^ will communicate these sentiments to your 
 legislature, at their next meeting; and that they may be 
 considered as the legacy of one who has ardently wished, 
 on all occasions to be useful to his country, and who, even 
 in the shade of retirement, will not fail to implore the di- 
 vine benediction upon it. 
 
 " I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would 
 have you, and the state over which you preside, in his holy 
 protection ; that he would incline the hearts of the citi- 
 zens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to 
 government ; to entertain a brotherly affection and love for 
 one another ; for their fellow-citizens of the United States 
 at large, and particularly for their brethren who have serv- 
 ed in the field ; and, finally, that he would most graciously 
 be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, 
 and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and 
 pacific temper of the mind, which were the characteristics 
 of the divine author of our blessed religion ; without an 
 humble imitation of whose example, in these things we 
 can never hope to be a happy nation, 
 
 " I have the honor to be, 
 
 " with much esteem and repect, 
 " Sir, 
 " Your excellency's most obedient, 
 " And most humble servant, 
 
 " GEO: WASHINGTON.'^ 
 
298 AMERICAN 
 
 Speech of General Washington to the Anny^ on the 15 th of 
 JIarch, ir83, in consequence of an ano72ymous appeal to 
 the Army, 
 
 Gentlemen — By an anonymous summons, an attempt has 
 been made to convene you together. How inconsistent 
 with the rules of propriety, how unmilitary and how sub- 
 versive of all order and discipline, let the good sense of 
 the army decide. 
 
 In the moment of this summons, another anonymous 
 production was sent into circulation, addressed more to the 
 feelings and passions than to the reason and judgment of 
 the army. The author of the piece is entitled to much 
 credit for the goodness of his pen ; and I could wish he 
 had as much credit for the rectitude of his heart ; for, as 
 men see through different optics, and are induced by the 
 reflecting faculties of the mind, to use different means to 
 attain the same end, the author of the address should have 
 had more charity than to mark for suspicion the man who 
 should recommend moderation and longer forbearance, or, 
 in other words, who should not think as he thinks, and act 
 as he advises. But he had another plan in view, in which 
 candor and liberality of sentim.ent, regard to justice and 
 love of country, have no part: and he was right to insi- 
 nuate the darkest suspicion to effect the blackest designs. 
 That the address is drawn with great art, and is designed 
 to ansv/er the most insidious purposes ; that it is calculat- 
 ed to impress the mind with an idea of premeditated in- 
 justice in the sovereign power of the United States, and 
 rouse all those resentments which must unavoidably flow 
 from such a belief; that the secret mover of this scheme, 
 whoever he may be, intended to take advantage of the pas- 
 sions, while they were warmed by the recollection of past 
 distresses, without giving time for cool, deliberative think- 
 ing ; and that composure of mind which is so necessary to 
 give dignity and stability to measures, is rendered too ob- 
 vious, by the mode of conducting the business, to need o- 
 ther proof than a reference to the proceeding. 
 
 Thus much, gentlemen, I have thought it incumbent on 
 me to observe to you, to shew upon what principles I op- 
 
SPEAKER. 299 
 
 posed the irregular and hasty meeting which was propos- 
 ed to have been held on Tuesday last, and not because I 
 wanted a disposition to give you every opportunity, con- 
 sistent with your own honor, and the dignity of the army, 
 to make known your grievances. If my conduct hereto- 
 fore has not evinced to you, that I have been a faithful 
 friend to the army, my declaration of it at this time would 
 be equally unavailing and improper. But as I was among 
 the first who embarked in the cause of our common coun- 
 try ; as I have never left your side one moment, but when 
 called from you on public duty ; as I have been the constant 
 companion and witness of your distresses, and not among 
 the last to feel and acknowledge your merits ; as I have 
 ever considered my own military reputation as insepara- 
 bly connected with that of the army ; as my heart has ever 
 expanded with joy when I have heard its praises, and my 
 indignation has arisen when the mouth of detraction has 
 been opened against it, it can scarcely be supposed, at this 
 last stage of the war, that I am indifferent to its interests. 
 But how are they to be promoted ? The way is plain, says 
 the anonymous addresser. " If war continues, remove 
 into the unsettled country ; there establish yourselves and 
 leavt an ungrateful country to defend itself." — But who 
 are they to defend ? Our wives, our children, our farms 
 and other property which we leave behind us ? or, in this 
 state of hostile separation, are we to take the two first, 
 (the latter cannot be removed) to perish in a wilderness 
 with hunger, cold and nakedness? " If peace takes place, 
 never sheath your swords," says he, " until you have ob- 
 tained full and ample justice." This dreadful alternative 
 of either deserting our country in the extremest hour of 
 her distress, or turning our arms against it, which is the 
 apparent object, unless Congress can be compelled into in- 
 stant compliance, has something so shocking it it, that hu- 
 manity revolts at the idea. My God ; v- hat can this wri- 
 ter have in view, by recommending such measures ? Can 
 he be a friend to the army ? Can he be a friend to this 
 country ? Rather is he not an insidious foe ? Some emissa- 
 ry perhaps, from New-York, plotting the ruin of both, by 
 sowing the seeds of discord and separation between the 
 civil and military powers of the continent ? and what a 
 compliment does he pay to our understandings, when he; 
 
300 AMERICAN 
 
 recommends measures in either alternative, impracticable 
 in their nature ? But, here, gentlemen, I will drop the cur- 
 tain; because it would be as imprudent in me to assign my 
 reasons for this opinion, as it would be insulting to your 
 conception to suppose you stood in need of them. A mo- 
 ment's reflection will convince every dispassionate mind of 
 the physical impossibility of carrying either proposal into 
 execution. There might, gentlemen, be an impropriety 
 in my taking notice, in this address to you, of an anony- 
 mous production ; — but the manner in which that per- 
 formance has been introduced to the army, the effect it 
 was intended to have, together with some other circum- 
 stances, will amply justify my observation on the tendency 
 of that writing. 
 
 With respect to the advice given by the author, to sus- 
 pect the man who shall recommend moderate measures 
 and longer forbearance, I spurn it, as every man who re- 
 gards that liberty and reveres that justice for which we 
 contend, undoubtedly must ; for, if men are to be preclud- 
 ed from offering their sentiments on a matter which may 
 involve the most serious and alarming consequences that 
 can ftivite the consideration of mankind, reason is of no 
 use to us. The freedom of speech may be taken away, 
 and, dumb and silent, we may be led, like sheep, to the 
 slaughter. I cannot, in justice to my own belief, and what 
 I have great reason to conceive is the intention of Con- 
 gress, conclude this address, without giving it as my de- 
 cided opinion, that, that honorable body entertain exalted 
 sentiments of the services of the army, and from a full con- 
 viction of its merits and sufferings, will do it complete 
 justice : That their endeavours to discover and establish 
 funds for this purpose have been unwearied, and will not 
 cease till they have succeeded, I have not a doubt. 
 
 But, like all other large bodies, where there is a variety 
 of different interests to reconcile, their determinations are 
 slow. Why then should we distrust them ? And in con- 
 sequence of that distrust, adopt measures which may cast 
 a shade over that glory which has been so justly acquired, 
 and tarnish the reputation of an army which is celebrated 
 through all Europe for its fortitude and patriotism? And 
 for what is this done ? To bring the object we seek near- 
 er ? No, most certainly in my opinion, it will cast it at a 
 
SPEAKER. ciOl 
 
 greater distance. For myself, and I take no merit in giv- 
 ing the assurance, being induced to it from principles of 
 gratitude, veracity and justice, a grateful sense of the con- 
 fidence you have ever placed in me, a recollection of the 
 cheerful assistance and prompt obedience I have experi- 
 enced from you, under every vicissitude of fortune, and 
 the sincere affection I feel for an army I have so long had 
 the honor to command, will oblige me to declare, in this 
 public and solemn manner, that in the attainment of com- 
 plete justice for all your toils and dangers, and in the gra- 
 tification of every wish, so far as may be done consistent- 
 ly with the great duty I owe my country, and those pow- 
 ers we are bound to respect, you may freely command ray 
 services to the utmost extent of my abilities. 
 
 "While I give you these assurances, and pledge myself, 
 in the most unequivocal manner, to exert whatever ability 
 I am possessed of in your favour, let me entreat you gen- 
 tlemen, on your part, not to take any measures, which, 
 viewed in the calm light of reason, will lessen the dignity, 
 ar.d sully the glory you have hitherto maintained. — Let 
 me request you to rely on the plighted faith of your ^un- 
 tr\', and place a full confidence in the purity of the inten- 
 tions of Congress ; that, previous to your dissolution as an 
 army, they will cause all our accounts to be fairly liqui- 
 dated, as directed in the resolutions which were published 
 to you two days ago ; and that they will adopt the most 
 effectual measures in their power to render ample justice 
 to you for your faithful and meritorious services. And let 
 me conjure you, in the name of our common country, as 
 you value your own sacred honor, as you respect the rights 
 of humi'.iiity, and as you regard the miiitvuy and national 
 character of America, to express your utmost horror and 
 detestation of the man, who wishes, under any specious 
 pretences, to overturn the liberties of our c-mntry ; and 
 who wickedly attempts to open the flood, -gates of civil dis- 
 cord, and deluge our rising empire in blood. 
 
 By thus determining, and thus acting, you will pursuQ 
 the plain and direct road to the attainment of your wish- 
 es ; you will defeat the insidious designs of your enemies, 
 who are compelled to resort from open force to secret arti- 
 fice. You will give one more distinguished proof of un- 
 exampled patriotism and patient virtue, rising superior to 
 
 D D 
 
S02 AMERICAN 
 
 the pressure of the most complicated sufferings : And you 
 will, by the dignity of your conduct, afford occasion for 
 posterity to say, vhen speaking of the glorious example 
 you have exhibited to mankind — " had this day been 
 wanting, the world had never seen the last stage of per- 
 fection to which human nature is capable of attaining." 
 
 GeneralWashington to the President of Congress on resign* 
 ing his Commission — 1783. 
 
 " Mr. President — The great events on which my resig- 
 nation depended, having at length taken place, I have now 
 the honor of offering my sincere congratulations to Con- 
 gress, and of presenting myself before them to surrender 
 into their hands the trust committed to me, and to claim 
 the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country. 
 " Happy in the confirmation of our independence and 
 sovereignty, and pleased with the opportunity afforded the 
 United States of becoming a respectable nation, I resign 
 with satisfaction the appointment I accepted with diffi- 
 dence; a diffidence in my abilities to accomplish so ardu- 
 ous a task, which however, was superseded by a confi- 
 dence in the rectitude of our cause, the support of the su- 
 preme power of the union, and the patronage of Heaven. 
 
 " The successful termination of the war has verified the 
 most sanguine expectations ; aud my gratitude for the in- 
 terposition of Providence, and the assistance I have receiv- 
 ed from my countr)men, increases with every review of 
 the momentous contest. 
 
 " While I repeat my obligations to the army in general, 
 I should do injustice to my own feelings, not to acknow- 
 ledge in this place, the peculiar services and distinguished 
 merits of the persons who have been attached to my per- 
 son during the war. It was impossible the choice of con- 
 fidential officers to compose my family could have been 
 more fortunate. Permit me. Sir, to recommend in par- 
 ticular, those who have continued in the service to the pre- 
 sent moment, as worthy of the favourable notice and pa- 
 tronage of Congress. 
 
 ••'• I consider it as an indispensable duty to close this last 
 solf^mn act of my official life, by commending the interests 
 
SPEAKER. 303 
 
 of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God, 
 and those who have the superintendence of them to his 
 holy keeping. 
 
 " Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire 
 from the great theatre of action ; and, bidding an aSection- 
 ate farewolto this august body, under whose orders I have 
 long acted, I here offer my commision, and take my leave 
 of ail the employments of public life.*' 
 
 The Answer of General Mijflin^ the President of Congress^ 
 to the foregoing' Speech, 
 
 « Sir — The United States in Congress assembled, re- 
 ceive with emotions too affecting for utterance, the solemn 
 resip;nation of the authorities under which you have led • j 
 their troops with success, through a perilous and doubtful 
 war. 
 
 " Called upon by your country to defend its invaded ^ . j 
 rights, you accepted the sacred charge before it had form-'" ■•>' | 
 ed alliances, and whilst it was without friends or a govern- 
 ment to support you. 
 
 " You have conducted the great military contest with 
 wisdom and fortitude, invariably regarding the rights of 
 the civil power through all disasters and changes. You 
 have by the love and confidence of your fellow-citizens, 
 enabled them to display their martial genius, and transmit 
 their fame to posterity : you have persevered till th^ise 
 United States, aided by a magnanimous king and nation, 
 have been enabled under a just Providence, to close the 
 war in safety, freedom, and independence ; on which hap- 
 py event we sincerely join you in congratulations. 
 
 *^ Having defended the standard of libert}- in this new 
 world; havmg t \ught a It-sson useful to those ^mcJio in fiict, 
 and to those who ieei oppression, you retire from the great 
 theatre of action with the blessings of your fellow-citi- 
 zens: but the giory ol your virtues will not terminate with 
 your military command, it will continue to ^mimate re- 
 motest ages. We ft tl with you our o'oligations to the ar- 
 my in g.ncral, and will particularly chiirg.- ourselves with 
 the intm-st of those ronfidtntial oiiitxrs wtio have attend- 
 ed your person to this affecting moment. 
 
S04 AMERICAN 
 
 " We join you in commending the interests of our dear- 
 est country to the protection of Ahnighty God, beseeching 
 him tc- dispose the ht arts and nunds of its citizens to im- 
 prove the opportunity afforded them of becoming a happy 
 snd respect&ble nation ; and for you, we address to Him 
 onr earnest prayers, that a life so beloved, may be foster- 
 ed with all his care ; that your days may be happy as 
 they have been illustrious, and that he will finally give you 
 that reward which this world cannot give." 
 
 Farewel Address of General Washzngton^ to the Armies 
 of the United States, 
 
 Rocky-Uill, near Princeton, November 2, 1783. 
 
 " The United States in Congress assembled, after giv- 
 ing the most honorable testimony to the merits of the fe- 
 deral armies, and presenting them with the thanks of their 
 country, for their long, eminent, and faithful service, hav- 
 ing thought proper, by their proclamation, bearing date 
 i\\Q 18th of October last, to discharge such part of the 
 •roops as were engaged for the war, and to permit the of- 
 ficers on furlough to retire from service, from and after 
 to-morrow ; which proclamation havmg been communica- 
 ted in the public papers, for the information and govern- 
 ment of all concerned, it only remains lor the commander 
 in chief to address himself once more, and that for the 
 last time, to the armies of the United States, (however 
 widely dispersed individuals who compose them may be,) 
 and to bid them an affectionate— a long farewel. 
 
 " But before the commander in chief takes his final 
 Jeavt of those he holds most dear, he wishes to indulge 
 himself a few moments in calling to mind a slight view of 
 the past : — he will then take the liberty of exploring, with 
 his military friends, their future prospects ; of advising 
 the general line of conduct, which, in his opinion, ought 
 to be pursued ; and he will conclude the address, by ex* 
 pressing the obligations he feels himself under for the spi- 
 rited and able assistance he has experienced from them, 
 in the ptrlormance of an arduous office. 
 
 A lonitu p ation of the complete attainment, (at a pe- 
 riod earlier than could have been expected,) of the object 
 
SPEAKER. 305 
 
 for which we contended, against so formidable a powt-r, 
 cannot, but inspire us with astonishment and gratitude. 
 The disadvantageous circumstances on our part, under 
 which the war was undertaken, can never be- for^iotten. 
 The signal interpositions of Providence, in our feeble con- 
 dition, were such as could scarcely escape the attention of 
 the mostunobserving; while the unparalleled perseverance 
 of the armies of the United States, through . Imost every 
 possit)le suffering and dis< ouragement, for the sp-^ce of eight 
 long years, was little short of a standing miracle 
 
 It is not the meaning, nor within the compass of this 
 address, to detail the hardships peculiarly incident to our 
 service, or to describe the distresses which, in several in- 
 stances, have resulted from the extremes of hunger and 
 nakedness, combined with the ri^^ours of an inclement sea- 
 son : nor is it necessary to dwell on the dark sid? of our 
 past affairs. 
 
 Every American officer and soldier must now console 
 himself for any unpleasant circumstance which may have 
 occurred, by a recollection of the uncommon scenes in 
 which he has been called to act no inglorious part, and the 
 astonishing events of which he has been a witness — events 
 which have seldom, if ever before, taken place on the 
 stage of human action ; nor can they probably ever hap- 
 pen again. For who has before seen a disciplined army 
 formed at once from such raw materials ? Who that wa?5 
 not a witness, could imagine that the most violent local, 
 prejudices would cease so s«;on, and that men who came 
 from the different parts of the continent, strongly disposed 
 by the habits of education to despise and quarrel v/ith 
 each other, would instantly become but one patriotic band 
 of brothers ? Or who that was not on the spot, can tracex 
 the steps by which such a wonderful revolution has beef» 
 effected, and such a glorious period put to all oar warlike 
 toils ? 
 
 It is universally acknowledged, that the enlarged pros- 
 pects of happiness, opened by the confirmation of our in- 
 dependence and sovereignty, almost exceed the power of 
 description: and shall not the brave men who have con- 
 tributed so essentially to these inestimable acquisitions, 
 retiring victorious from the field of war to the field of a- 
 gricukure, participate in all the blessing&whicbto&lkem 
 
 D D 2 
 
206 AMERICAN 
 
 obtained ? In such a republic, who will exclude them from 
 the rights of citizens, and the fruits of their labours ? In 
 such a country, so happily circumstanced, the pursuits of 
 commerce, and the cultivation of the soil, will unfold to 
 industry the certain road to competence. To those hardy 
 soldiers who are actuated by the spirit of adventure, the 
 fisheries will afford ample and profitable employment ; and 
 the extensive and fertile regions of the west, will yield a 
 most happy asylum to those who, fond of domestic enjoy- 
 ment, are seeking personal independence. Nor is it pos- 
 sible to conceive that any one of the United States will 
 prefer a national bankruptcy, and the dissolution of the u- 
 nion, to a compliance with the requisitions of Congress, 
 and the payment of its just debts ; so that the officers "and 
 soldiers may expect considerable assistance, in recommen- 
 cing their civil occupations, from the sums due to them 
 from the public, which must and will most inevitably be 
 paid. 
 
 In order to effect this desirable purpose, and remove 
 the prejudices v/hich may have taken possession of the 
 minds of any of the good people of the states, it is ear- 
 nestly recommended to all the troops, that, with strong at- 
 tachment to the union, they should carry with them into 
 civil society the most conciliating dispositions, and that 
 they should prove themselves not less virtuous and useful 
 as citizens, than they have been victorious as soldiers. 
 What though there should be some envious individuals, 
 who are unwilling to pay the debt the public has contract- 
 ed, or to yield the tribute due to merit ; yet, let such un- 
 worthy treatment produce no invective, or any instance of 
 inttn-iperate conduct. Let it be remembered, that the un- 
 biassed voice of the free citi;3ens of the United States, 
 has promised the just reward, a^d given the merited ap- 
 plause. Let it be known and remembered, that therepu- 
 tati^^n of the federal armies is estijblished beyond the 
 reach of malevolence ; and let a consciousness of their 
 achirvements and fame, still excite the men who composed 
 them to honorable actions, under the persuc^ion that the 
 private virtues of economy, prudence, and industry, will 
 not be less amiable in civil life, than the more splendid 
 qualities of valour^ perseverance, and" enterprise, vv^ere m 
 ihe field. Every one may rest assiured, that much, very 
 
SPEAKER. SO? 
 
 mucii of the future happiness of the officers and men, will 
 depend upon the ^ise and nianly conduct which shall be 
 adopted by them, when they are mingled with the great 
 body of the community. And, although the general has 
 so frequently given it as his opinion, in the most public 
 and explicit manner, that unless the principles of the fede- 
 ral government were properly supported, and the powers 
 of the union increased, the honor, dignity, and justice of 
 the nation would be lost for ever ; yet he cannot help re- 
 peating, on this occasion, so interesting a sentiment, and 
 leaving it as his last injunction to every officer and every 
 soldier, who may view the subject in the same serious point 
 of light, to add his best endeavours to those of his worthy 
 fellow-citizens, towards effecting these great and valuable 
 purposes, on which our very existence as a nation so ma- 
 terially depends. 
 
 The commander in chief conceives little is now wanting 
 to enable the soldier to change the military character into 
 that of the citizen, but that steady, decent tenour of beha- 
 viour, which has generally distinguished not only the ar- 
 my under his immediate command, but the different de- 
 tachments and armies, through the course of the war. 
 From their good sense and prudence, he anticipates the 
 happiest consequences ; and while he congratulates them 
 on the glorious occasion which renders their services in the 
 field no longer necessary, he wishes to express the strong 
 obligations he feels hinnself under, for the assistance he 
 has received from every class, and in every instance. He 
 presents his thanks in the most serious and affectionate 
 manner, to the general officers, as well for their counsels 
 on many interesting occasions, as for their ardour in pro- 
 moting the success of the plans he had adopted — to the 
 commandants of regiments, and corps, and to the other 
 officers, for their zeal and attention m carrying his orders 
 promptly into execution — to the staff, tor their alacrit) and 
 exactness in performing tht duties of their several dei art- 
 ments ; and to the non-commissioned officers and prvate 
 soldiers, for their extraordinary patience and sufferi;;g, as 
 well as their invnicible fortitude in action. To the vari- 
 ous branches of the army, the general takes this last and 
 solemn opportunity of professing his inviolable attachment 
 and friendship. He wishes more than bare professions 
 
308 AMERICAN 
 
 were in his pow^r, that he was really able to be useful to 
 them all in future life. He flatters himself, however, they 
 will do him the justice to believe, that whatever could 
 with propriety be attempted by him, has been done. 
 
 And being now to conclude these his last public orders, 
 to take his ultimate leave in a short time of the military 
 character, and to bid a final adieu to the armies he has so 
 long had the honor to command, he can only again offer 
 in their behalf, his recommendations to their grateful 
 country, and his prayers to the God of armies. May am- 
 ple justice be done ihem here, and may the choicest of 
 heaven's favours, boih here and hereafter, attend those 
 who, under the divine anspices, have secured innumerable 
 blessings for others. With these wishes, and this bene- 
 diction, the commander in chief is about to retire from 
 service. The curtain of separation will soon be drawn^ 
 and the military scene to him will be closed forever." 
 
 The Mayor of Alexandria to General Washington on his 
 leaving that neighbourhood to take on him the office of 
 President of the United States — 1789. 
 
 *' Again }our lountry commands your care. Obedient 
 to its wishes, un'rti'idful of your ease, we see you again 
 relipqui&hing the bliss of retirement, and ihis too, at a pe- 
 riod ot life, when nature itself seems to authorise a pre- 
 ference of repose. 
 
 "Not to extol your glory as a soldier ; not to pour forth 
 our gratitude for past services ; not to acknowicdg; the 
 justice of the unexampled honor whirh has been confer- 
 red upon you by the spontaneous and unanimous suffrage 
 of three millions of freemen, in your election to ihe su- 
 preme magistracy, nor to admire the patriotism which di- 
 rects >our conduct, do your neighbours and friends now 
 address you. Themes less splendid, but more endearing, 
 impress our minds. The first and best of citizens must 
 leave us ; our aged must lose their ornament ; our youth 
 their model ; our agriculture its improver ; our commerce 
 its friend ; our infant academy its protector ; our poor 
 their benefactor ; and the interior navigation of the Poto- 
 mac, (an event replete with the most extensive utility, al- 
 
SPEAKER. 209 
 
 ready by your unremitted exertions brought into partial 
 use,) its institutor and promoter. 
 
 " Farewel. Go, and make a grateful people happy — a 
 people who will be doubly grateful when they contemplate 
 this recent sacrifice for their interest. 
 
 ** To that Being who maketh and unmaketh at his will, 
 we commend you ; and after the accomplishment of the 
 arduous business to which you are called, may he restore 
 to us again the best of men, and the most beloved fellow- 
 
 Cencral Washmgtoij^s Ansxver to the foregoing, 
 
 " Gentlemen — Although I ought not to conceal, yet I 
 cannot describe the painful emotions which I felt, in being 
 called upon to determine whether I would accept or re- 
 fuse the Presidency of the United States. The unanimi- 
 ty in the choice j the opinion of my friends communicated 
 from different parts of Europe as well as from /imerica ; 
 the apparent wish of those who were not entirely satisfied 
 with the constitution in its present form, and an ardent 
 desire on my own part to be instrumental in connecting the 
 good will of my countrymen towards each other, have in- 
 duced an acceptance. Those who know me best, (and 
 you, my fellow-citizens, are, from your situation, in that 
 number,) know better than any others, n^y love o'< retire- 
 ment is so great, that no earthly consider uion, short of a 
 conviction of duiy, could have prevailed upon me to de- 
 part from my resolution '* never more to take any share 
 in transactions of a public nciture ;" lor at u\\ age, and in 
 my circumstances, what prospects or advantages could I 
 propose to myself from embarking igain on the tempest- 
 uous and uncertain ocean of public life ? 
 
 " I do not feel myself under the necessity of majcing 
 public declarations in order to convince you, gentlemen, of 
 my attachment to yourselves, and regard for your interests. 
 The whole tenour of my life has been open to your inspec- 
 tion, and my past actions, r:sther than my present declara- 
 tions, must be the pledge of my future conduct. 
 
 " In the mean time, I thank you most sincerely for the 
 expressions of kindness contained in your valedictory ad- 
 
SIO AMERICAN 
 
 dress* It is true, just after having bade adieu to my do- 
 mest connexions, this tender proof of your friendship is 
 but too well calculated still farther to awaken my sensibi- 
 lity, and increase my regret at parting from the enjoyments 
 of private life. 
 
 ** All that now remains for me, is to commit myself and 
 you to the protection of that beneficent Being, who, on a 
 former occasion hath happily brought us together, after a 
 long and distressing separation. Perhaps the same gra- 
 cious Providence will again indulge me. Unutterable sen- 
 sations must then be left to more expressive silence, while 
 from an aching heart 1 bid all my affectionate friends and 
 kind neighbours farewel." 
 
 Preside7it Washington!' s Speech to thejirst Congress^ April 
 30th, 1789. 
 
 Fellow'.Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives. 
 
 Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could 
 have filled me v/lth greater anxieties than that of which 
 the notification was transmitted by your order, and re- 
 ceivtd on the lith day of the present month. On the one 
 hand, I was summoned by my country, whose \'oice I can 
 never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat 
 which I had chosen with the fondest predcliction, and, in 
 my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision as the 
 asylum of my declining years : A retreat which was ren- 
 dered every day more necessary as well as more dear to 
 me, by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent 
 interruptions in my health to ihe gradual waste committed 
 on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and diffi- 
 culty of the trust to which the voice of my country called 
 ii:ie, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most ex- 
 perienced of her citizens, a distrustful scrutiny into his 
 qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence 
 one, who, inheriting inferior endowments from nature, and 
 unpractised in the duties of civil administration, ought to 
 be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiences. In this 
 conflict of emotions, all I dare aver is, that it has been my 
 faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation 
 of every circumstance by which it might be affected. Ail I 
 
SPEAKER. 311 
 
 dare hope is, that if in executing this task I have been too 
 much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instan- 
 ces, or by an affectionate sensibiHty to this transcendant 
 proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens ; and have 
 thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disin- 
 clination for the weighty and untried cares before me ; my 
 error will be palliated by the motives which misled me, 
 and its consequences be judged by my country, with some 
 share of the partiality in which they originated. 
 
 Such being the impressions under which I have, in obe- 
 dience to the public summons, repaired to the present sta- 
 tion, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first 
 official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Be- 
 ing, who rules over the universe, who presides in the coun- 
 cils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply ev- 
 ery human defect, that his benediction may consecrate to 
 the liberties and happiness of the people of the United 
 States, a government instituted by themselves for these 
 essential purposes, and may enable every instrument em- 
 ployed in its administration, to execute with success, the 
 functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage 
 to the great Author of every public and private good, I 
 assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less ^ 
 than my own ; nor those of my fellow-citizens at large 
 less than either. No people can be bound to acknowlt^dge 
 and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs or 
 men, more than the people of the United States. Every 
 step, oy which they have advanced to the character of an 
 independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by 
 some token of providential agency. And in the important 
 revolution just accomplished in the system of their united 
 government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary con- 
 sent of so many distinct communities, from which the event 
 has resulted, cannot be compared with the means by which 
 most governments have been est;.bljshtd, without s )me 
 return ot pious gratitude along w th an humble anticipa- 
 tion of the future blessings which the past seem to pre- 
 sage. These reflections, arising out of the present cri- 
 sis, have forced themselves too strongly on ,my mind to 
 be suppressed. Yuu will join wiUi ;Yit , I trust, in thinking 
 that there are none under the influence of which, the pro- 
 
S12 AMERICAN 
 
 ceedings of a new and free government can more auspici- 
 ously commence. 
 
 By the article establishing the executive department, it 
 ia made the duty of the president *' to recommend to 
 your consideration, such measures as he shall judge neces- 
 sary and expedient." The circumstances under which I 
 now meet you, will acquit me from entering into that sub- 
 ject farther than to refer you to the great constitutional 
 charter under which we are assembled ; and which, in de- 
 fining your powers, designates the objects to which your 
 attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with 
 those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feel- 
 ings which actuate me, to substitute in place of a recom- 
 mendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due 
 to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which a- 
 dorn the ch*iracters selected to devise and adopt them. In 
 these honorable qualifications, I behold the surest pledges, 
 that as on one side, no local prejudices or attachments, no 
 separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the 
 comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over 
 this great assemblage of communities and interests : So, 
 on another, that the foundations of our national policy will 
 be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private 
 morality ; and the pre-eminence of a free government be 
 exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affec- 
 tions of its citizens, and command the respect of the world. 
 
 1 dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which 
 an ardent love for my country can inspire ; since there is 
 no truth more thoroughly established than that there ex- 
 ists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble 
 union between virtue and happiness — between duty and ad- 
 vantage — between the genuine maxims of an honest and 
 magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public pros- 
 perity and felicity. Since we ought to be no less persua- 
 ded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be ex- 
 pected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of or- 
 der and right which Heaven itself has ordained. And since 
 the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the des- 
 tiny,of the ri pubhcan model of government, are justly con- 
 sidered as deeply, perhaps, as finally staked, on the expe- 
 riment entrusted to the hands of the American people. 
 
SPEAKER. 313 
 
 Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it 
 will remain with your judgment to decide how far an ex- 
 ercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth arti- 
 cle of the constitution is rendered expedient at the pre- 
 sent juncture by the nature of objections which have been 
 urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude 
 which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking 
 particular recommendations on this subject, in which I 
 could be guided by no lights derived from official oppor- 
 tunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in 
 your discernment and pursuit of the public good : For I 
 assure myself, that whilst you carefully avoid every al- 
 teration which might endanger the benefits of an united 
 and effective government, or which ought to await the fu- 
 ture lessons of experience ; a reverence for the charac- 
 teristic rights of freemen, and a regard for the public 
 harmony, will sufficiently influence your deliberations on 
 the question, how far the former can be more impregnably 
 fortified, or the latter be safely and more advantageously 
 promoted. 
 
 To the preceding observations I have one to add, which 
 will be most properly addressed to the house of represen- 
 tatives. It concerns myself, anc^will therefore be as brief 
 as possible. When I was first honored with a call into the 
 service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous strug- 
 gle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my 
 duty, required that I should renounce every pecuniary com- 
 pensation. From this resolution I have in no instance de- 
 parted. And being still under the impressions which pro- 
 duced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself, any share 
 in the personal emoluments, which may be indispensibly in- 
 cluded in a permanent provision for the executive depart- 
 ment ; and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary esti- 
 mates for the station in which 1 am placed, may, ouring 
 my continuation in it, be limited to such actual expendi- 
 tures as the public good m^ be thought to require. 
 
 Having thus imparted to you my sentiments, as they 
 have beea awakened by the occasion which brings us to- 
 gether, I shall take my present leave j but not without re- 
 sorting once more to the benign Parent of the human race, 
 in humble supplication, that since he has been pleased.to 
 favour the American people with opportunities for delifc 
 
 Ee 
 
014 AMERICAN 
 
 crating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding 
 with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for 
 the security of their union, and the advancement of their 
 happiness ; so his divine blessing may be equally conspicu- 
 ous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and 
 the wise measures on which the success of this govern- 
 ment must depend. 
 
 Presidejit Washington's Speech on opening the third Con- 
 gress of the United States^ December 3d, 1793. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives, 
 
 Since the commencement of the term, for which I have 
 been again called to office, no fit occasion has arisen for ex- 
 pressing to my fellow-citizens at large, the deep and res- 
 pectful sense, which I feel, of the renewed testimony of 
 public approbation. While on the one hand, it awakened 
 my gratitude for all those instances of affectionate partia- 
 lity, with which I have been honored by my country; on 
 the other, it could not prevent an earnest wish for that re- 
 tirement, from which RQ private consideration should ever 
 have torn me. Butiafllienced by the belief, that my con- 
 duct would be estimated according to its real motives ; 
 and that the people, and the authorities derived from thf m, 
 would support exertions, having nothing personal for their 
 object, I have obeyed the suffrage which commanded me 
 to resume the executive power ; and I humbly implore that 
 Being, on whose will the fate of nations depends, to crown 
 with success our mutual endeavours for the general happi- 
 ness. 
 
 As soon as the war in Europe had embraced those 
 powers with whom the United States have the most ex- 
 tensive relation ; there was reason to apprehend that our 
 intercourse with them might be interrupted, and our dis- 
 position for peace, drawn into question, by the suspicions 
 too often entertained by beUigerent nations. It seemed 
 therefore to be my duty, to admonish our citizens of the 
 consequences of a contraband trade, and of hostile acts to 
 any of the parties ; and to obtain, by a declaration of the 
 existing legal stat^ of things, an easier admission of ou* 
 rights to the immuRities, belonging to our situation. Un- 
 
SPEAKER. 3i3 
 
 der these impressions, the proclamation, which will be laid 
 before vou was issued. 
 
 In this posture of af^iirs, both new and delicate, I re- 
 solved to adopt general rules which should conform to the 
 treaties, and assert the privileges of the United States. 
 These were reduced into a system, which will i>e commu- 
 nicated to you. Although I have not thought myself at 
 liberty to forbid the sale of the prizes, permitted by our 
 treaty of commerce with France to be brought into our 
 ports ; I have not refused to cause them to be restored, 
 when they were taken within the protection of our territo- 
 ry; or by vessels commissioned or equipped in a warlike 
 form within the limits of the United States. 
 
 It rests with the wisdom of Congress to correct, im- 
 prove or enforce this plan of procedure, and it will proba- 
 bly be found expedient to extend the legal code, and the 
 jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, to m;my 
 cases which, though dependent on principles already re- 
 cognized, demand some further provisions. 
 
 When individuals shall, within the United States, array 
 themselves in hostility against any of the powers at war ; 
 or enter upon military expeditions, or enterprises within 
 the jurisdiction of the United States; or usurp and exer- 
 cise judicial authority within the United States ; or where 
 the penalties on violations of the law of nations ma\' have 
 been indistinctly marked, or are inadequate ; these offt ices 
 cannot receive too early and close an attention, and require 
 prompt and decisive remedies. 
 
 Whatsoever those remedies may be, they will be well 
 administered by the judiciary, who possess a long estab- 
 lished course of investigation, effectual process, and offi- 
 cers in the habit of executing it. In like manner, as se- 
 veral of the courts have doubted^ under particular circum- 
 stances, their power to liberate the vessels of a nation at 
 peace, and even of a citizen of the United States, although 
 seized under a false colour of being hostile property ; and 
 have denied their power to liberate certain captures within 
 the protection of our territory ; it would seem proper to 
 regulate their jurisdiction in these points. But if the Ex- 
 ecutive is to be the resort in either of the two last men- 
 tioned cases, it is hoped, that he will be authorised by lawj 
 
316 AMERICAN 
 
 to have facts ascertained by the courts, when, for his own 
 information he shall request it. 
 
 I cannot recommend to your notice measures for the 
 fulfilment of our duties to the rest of thvi world, without 
 again pressinguponyou the necessity of placing ourselves in 
 a condition of complete defence, and of exacting from them 
 the iulfilment of their dutits towards us. The United States 
 ought not to indulge a persu.^sion, that, contrary to the or- 
 dtr of human events, they will forever keep at a distance 
 those painful appeals to arms with which the history of 
 every othtr nation abounds. There is a rank due to the 
 United Slates among nations ; which will be withheld, if 
 not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we 
 desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it j if we de- 
 sire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments 
 of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at 
 all times ready for war. 
 
 The documents which will be presented to you, will 
 shew the amount, and kinds of arms and military stores 
 now in our magazines and arsenals ; and yet an addition 
 even to these supplies cannot with prudence be neglected; 
 as it would leave nothing to the uncertainty of procuring 
 a warlike apparatus in the moment of public danger. Nop 
 can such arrangements, with such objects, be exposed to the 
 censure or jealousy of the warmest friends of republican go- 
 vernment. They are incapable of abuse in the hands of the 
 militia, who ought to possess a pride in being the deposi- 
 tory of the force of the Republic, and may be trained to a 
 degree of energy, equal to every military exigency of the 
 United States. But it is an inquiry, which cannot be too 
 solemnly pursued, whether the act, " more effectually to 
 provide for the national defence by establishing an uniform 
 militia throughout the United States," has organized them 
 so as to produce their full effect ; whether your own ex- 
 perience in the several States has not detected some im- 
 perfections in the scheme ; and whether a material feature 
 ia an improvement of it, ought not to be to afford an op- 
 portunity for the study of those branches of the military 
 art, which can scarcely ever be attained by practice alone ? 
 The connexion of the United States with Europe, has 
 become extremely interesting. — The occurrence^ which 
 
SPEAKER, 317 
 
 relate to it, and have passed under the knowledge of the 
 Executive^ will be exhibited to Congress in a subsequent 
 communication. 
 
 When we contemplate the war on our frontiers, it ma)" 
 be truly affirmed that every reasonable effort has been made 
 to adjust the causes of dissension with the Indians, north 
 of the Ohio. The instructions given to the commission- 
 ers evince a moderation and equity, proceeding from a sin- 
 cere love of peace, and a liberality having no restriction 
 but the essential interests and dignity of the United States, 
 The attempt, however, of an amicable negociation having 
 been frustrated, the troops have marched to act offensive- 
 ly. Although the proposed treaty did not arrest the pro- 
 gress of military preparation, it is doubtful, how far the 
 advance of the season, before good faith justified active 
 movements, may retard them during the remainder of the 
 year. From the papers and intelligence which relate to 
 this important subject, you will determine, whether the 
 deficiency in the number of troops, granted by law, shall 
 be compensated by succours of militia j or additional en- 
 couragements shall be proposed to recruits. An anxiety 
 has been also demonstrated by the Executive, for peace 
 with the Creeks and the Cherokees. The former have beea 
 relieved with corn and with cloathing, and offensive mea- 
 sures against them prohibited, during the recess of Coi^- 
 gress. To satisfy the complaints of the latter, prosecu- 
 tions have been instituted for the violences committed up- 
 on them. But the papers which v/iil be delivered to you, 
 disclose the critical footing on which we stand in regard 
 to both those tribes, and it is v/ith Congress to pronouncs 
 what shall be done. 
 
 After they shall have provided for the present enr^er- 
 gcncvj it will merit their most serious labours, to render 
 tranquility Vv'ith thti savages, permanent, by creating ties 
 of interest. Next to a rigorous execution of justice on the 
 violators of peace, the establishment of commerce with the 
 Indian nations in behalf of the United States, is most }\kc- 
 ly to conciliiAte their attachment. But it ought to be con- 
 ducted without fraud, without extortion, v/ith constant and 
 plentiful supplies, with a ready market for the commodi= 
 ties of the Indians, and .a stated price for what they give 
 in payment^ and receive . in exchange^ Individuals vs^i^'IL 
 E £ 2 
 
318 AMERICAN 
 
 not pursue such a traffic, unless they be allured by the 
 hope of profit j but it will be enough for the United States 
 to be reimbursed only. Should this recommendation ac- 
 cord with the opinion of Congress, they will recollect, that 
 It cannot be accomplished by any means yet in the hands 
 of the Executive. 
 
 President Washingtori* s Address to the People of the United 
 States^ announcing his intention of retiring from Public 
 Service, 
 
 Friends and Fellow Citizens. 
 
 The period for a new election of a citizen to adminis- 
 ter the executive government of the United States, being 
 not far distant, and the time actually arrived, when your 
 thoughts must be employed in designating the person, who 
 is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to 
 me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct 
 expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise 
 you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being con- 
 sidered among the number of those, out of whom a choice 
 is to be made, 
 
 I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be 
 assured, that this resolution has not been taken, without 
 a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the 
 relation, which binds a dutiful citizen to his country ; 
 and that, in withdrawing the tender of service which si- 
 lence in my situation might imply, 1 am influenced by no 
 diminution of zeal for your future interest ; no deficiency 
 of grateful respect for your past kindness ; but am sup- 
 ported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with 
 both. 
 
 The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in the of- 
 fice to which your suffrages have twice called me, have 
 been « uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of 
 duty, and to a deference for what appeared to be your de- 
 sire. I constantly hoped, that it would have been much 
 earlier in my power, consistently with motives, which I 
 v/as not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement, 
 from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength 
 of my inclination to do this, previous to the last electionj 
 
SPEAKER. 31^ 
 
 had even led to the preparation of an address to declare 
 it to you ; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and 
 critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the 
 unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, im- 
 pelled me to abandon the idea. 
 
 I rejoice, that the state of your concerns, external as 
 well as internal, no longer renders the pursuits of inclina- 
 tion incompatible with the sentiment of duty, or proprie- 
 ty ; and am persuaded whatever partiality may be retain- 
 ed for my services, that in the present circumstances of 
 our country, you will not disapprove my determination to 
 retire. 
 
 The impressions with which I first undertook the ardu- 
 ous trust, were explained on the proper occasion. In the 
 discharge of this trust, I will only say, that I have with good 
 intentions, contributed towards the organization and admi- 
 nistration of the government, the best exertions of which 
 a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious, in 
 the outset, of the inferiority of my qualifications, experi- 
 ence in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of o- 
 thers, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of my- 
 self ; and every day the increasing weight of years admo- 
 nishes me more and more, that the shade of retirement is 
 as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that i£ 
 any circumstances have given peculiar value to my ser- 
 vices they were temporary, I have the consolation to be- 
 lieve, that while choice and prudence invite me to quit the 
 political scene, patriotism does not forbid it. 
 
 In looking forward to the moment, which is intended 
 to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do 
 not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of 
 that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country, 
 for the many honors it has conferred upon me ; still more 
 for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported 
 me ; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of 
 manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful 
 and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. 
 If benefits have resulted to our country from these ser- 
 vices, let it always be remembered to your praise, as an in- 
 structive example in our annals, that under circumstances 
 in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were li- 
 able to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious,— 
 
320 AMERICAN 
 
 vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, — in situations 
 in which not unfrequently want of success has countenanc- 
 ed the spirit of criticism — the constancy of your support 
 was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of 
 the plans by which they were effected. — Profoundly pene- 
 trated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as 
 a strong incitement to unceasing prayers that Heaven may 
 continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence — 
 that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual — 
 that the free constitution, which is the work of your hands, 
 may be sacredly maintained — that its administration in 
 every department may be stamped with wisdom and vir- 
 tue — that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States 
 under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so 
 careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this bless- 
 ing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it 
 to the applause, the affection and adoption of every nation 
 which is yet a stranger to it. 
 
 Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for 
 your welfare, which, cannot end but with my life, and the 
 apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me 
 on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn 
 contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent re- 
 view, some sentiments, which are the result of much re- 
 flection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which ap- 
 pear to me all-importani to the permanency of your felici- 
 ty as a people. These will be offered to you with the more 
 freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested 
 warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no 
 personal motive to bias his council* Nor can I forget, as 
 an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my 
 sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion. 
 
 Interwoven as is the iove of liberty v.'ith every ligament 
 of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary 
 to fortify or confirm the attachment. 
 
 The unity of government which constitutes you one peo- 
 ple is also now dear to you. It is justly so ; for it is a 
 main pillar in ihe edifice of your real independence, the 
 support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad j 
 of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty 
 which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee, 
 that from different causes and from different quarters^ 
 
SPEAKER. 321 
 
 much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weak- 
 en in your minds the conviction of this truth ; as this is the 
 point in your political fortress against which the batteries 
 of iniernal and external enemies will be most constantly 
 and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) direct- 
 ed, it is of infinite moment, that you should property esti- 
 mate the immense value of your national union to your 
 collective and individual happiness ; that you should che- 
 rish a cordial, habitual and immovable attachment to it; 
 accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as the pal- 
 ladium of your political safety and prosperity ; watching 
 for its preservation with jealous anxiety ; discountenancing 
 whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any 
 event be abandoned ; and indignantly frowning upon the 
 first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of 
 our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties 
 which now link together the various parts. 
 
 For this you have every inducement of sympathy and 
 interest. Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, 
 that country has a right to concentrate your affections. 
 The name of American, which belongs to you, in your na- 
 tional capacity, mj»st always exalt the just pride of patriot- 
 ism, more than any appellation derived from local discri- 
 minations. With slight shades of difference, you have the 
 same religion, manners, habits and political principles. You 
 have in a common cause fought and triumphed together ; 
 the independence and liberty you possess are the work of 
 joint councils, and joint efforts, of common danger, suffer- 
 ings and successes. 
 
 But these considerations, however powerfully they ad- 
 dress themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweigh- 
 ed by those which apply more immediately to your inte- 
 rest. — Here every portion of our country finds the most 
 commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving 
 the union of the whole. 
 
 The norths in an unrestrained intercourse with the 
 souths protected by the equal laws of a common govern- 
 ment, finds in the productions of the latter, great additional 
 resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and pre- 
 cious materials of manufacturing industry. — The south in 
 the same intercourse, benefitting by the agency of the north^ 
 sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Tprn- 
 
a^2 AMERICAN 
 
 ing partly into its own channels the seamen of the norths 
 it finds its particular ciavigation invigorated ; and while it 
 contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the 
 general mass of the national narigation, it looks forward to 
 the protection of a maritime strength, to which itself is un- 
 equally adapted. — The east, in alike intercourse with the 
 west, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of 
 interior communications by land and water, will more and 
 more find a valuable vent for the commodities which it 
 brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. — The west 
 derives from the east, supplies requisite to its growth and 
 comfort — and what is perhaps of still greater consequence, 
 it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indis- 
 pensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, in- 
 fluence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic 
 side of the union, directed by an indissoluble community 
 of interest as one nation, — Any other tenure by which the 
 west can hold this essential advantage, whether derived 
 from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and un- 
 natural connection with any foreign power, must be intrin- 
 sically precarious. 
 
 While then every part of pur country thus feels an im- 
 mediate and particular interest in union, all the parts com- 
 bined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and 
 efforts, greater strength, greater resource, proportionably 
 greater security from external danger, a less frequent in- 
 terruption of their peace by foreign nations ; — and what is 
 of inestimable value, they must derive from union an ex- 
 emption from those broils and wars between themselves^ 
 which so frequently afflict neighbouring countries, not tied 
 together by the same government ; which their own rival- 
 ships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which oppo- 
 site foreign alliances, attachments and intrigues would 
 stimulate and embitter. — Hence likewise they will avoid 
 the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, 
 which under any form of government arc inauspicious to 
 liberty, imd which are to be regarded as particularly hostile 
 to republican liberty; in this sense it is, that your union 
 ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and 
 that che love ol the one ought to endear to you the preser- 
 \ ation of the other* 
 
 
SPEAKER. 325 
 
 These considerations speak a persuasive language to 
 every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the con- 
 tinuance of the union as a primary object of patriotic 
 desire. — Is there a doubt, whether a common government 
 can embrace so large a sphere ? — Let experience solve it. 
 To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. 
 We are authorised to hope that a proper organization of the 
 whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments for the 
 respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the ex- 
 periment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. 
 With such powerful and obvious motives to union, affect- 
 ing all parts of our country, while experience shall not 
 have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always 
 be reason to distrust the patriotism of those, who in any 
 quarter may endeavour to weaken its bands. 
 
 In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union, 
 it occurs as matter of serious concern, that any ground 
 should have been furnished for characterizing parties by 
 geographical discriminations — northern and souther?! — at' 
 lant'ic aud western; whence designing men may endeavour 
 to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local in- 
 terests and views. One of the expedients of party to ac- 
 quire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepre- 
 sent the opinions and ai rss of other districts. You cannot 
 shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and 
 heart burnings which spring from these misrepresenta- 
 tions ; they tend to render alien to each other those who 
 ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The in- 
 habitants of our western country have lately had a useful 
 lesson on this head : they have seen, in the negociation by 
 the executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Se- 
 nate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satis- 
 faction at that event, throughout the United States, a de- 
 cisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propogat- 
 ed among them of the policy in the general government, 
 and in the Atlantic states, unfriendly to their interests in 
 regard of the Mississippi : they have been witnesses to the 
 formation of two treaties, that with Great Britain and that 
 with Spain, which secure to them every thing they could 
 desire, in respect to our foreign relations j towards con- 
 firm sing their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to 
 rely for the preservation of these advantages on the unioa 
 
324 AMERICAN 
 
 by which they were procured ? Will they not henceforth 
 be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would 
 sever them from their brethren, and connect them with 
 aliens ? 
 
 To the efficacy and permanency of your union, a go- 
 vernment for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, 
 however strict, between the parts can be an adequate sub- 
 stitute ; they must inevitably experience the infractions 
 and interruptions which all alliances in all times have ex- 
 perienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have 
 improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a con- 
 stitution of government, better calculated than your for- 
 mer, for an intimate union, and for the efficacious manage- 
 ment of your common concerns. This government, the 
 offspring of your own choice, uninfluenced and unawed ; 
 adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation ; 
 completely free in its principles ; in the distribution of its 
 powers uniting security with energy, and containing with- 
 in itself a provision for its own amendments, has a just 
 claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for 
 its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its 
 measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims 
 of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the 
 right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions 
 pf government, — But the constitution which at any time 
 exists, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the 
 •whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very 
 idea of the power and the right of the people to establish 
 a government, presupposes the duty of every individual to 
 obey the established government. 
 
 All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all com- 
 binations and associations, under whatever plausible cha- 
 racter, with the real design to direct, controul, counteract, 
 or awe the regular deliberations and actions of the consti- 
 tuted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental prin- 
 ciple, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize fac- 
 tion ; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force ; to 
 put in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the 
 will of a party, often a small, but artful and enterprising 
 minority of the community ; and according to the alter- 
 nate triumphs of different parties, to make the public ad- 
 ministration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongru- 
 
SPEAKER. 325 
 
 ous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent 
 and wholesome plans, digested by common councils, and 
 modified by mutual interests. 
 
 However combinations or associations of the above 
 description may now and then answer popular ends, they 
 are likely, in the course of time and things, to become po- 
 tent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprinci- 
 pled men, will be enabled to subvert the power of the peo- 
 ple, and to usurp for themselves the reigns of government ; 
 destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted 
 them to unjust dominion. 
 
 Towards the preservation of your government, and the 
 permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite 
 not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppo- 
 sitions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you re- 
 sist with care the spirit of innovation upon its prmciples, 
 however specious the pretexts. One method of assault 
 may be to effect in the forms of the constitution altera- 
 tions which will impair the energy of the system, and thus 
 to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all 
 the changes to which you may be invited, remember that 
 time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true cha- 
 racter of governments, as of other human institutions 
 
 that experience is the surest standard, by which to test the 
 real tendency of the existing constitution of a country— 
 that facility in changes upon the credit of mere hypothesis 
 and opinion, exposes to perpetual change from the endless 
 variety of hypothesis and opinion : and remember, espe- 
 cially, that from the efficient management of your common 
 interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government 
 of as much vigour as is consistent with the perfect secu- 
 rity of liberty, is iiadispensable. Liberty itself will find 
 in such a government, with powers properly distributed 
 and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else 
 than a name, where the government is too feeble to with- 
 stand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member 
 of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, 
 and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment 
 of the rights of persons and property. 
 
 1 have already intimated to you the danger of parties 
 in the state, with particular reference to the founding of 
 them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take 
 
 Ff 
 
32^6 AMERICAN 
 
 a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most 
 soltmn manner, against the baneful effects of the spirit of 
 party, generally. 
 
 This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our na- 
 ture, having its root in the strongest passions of the hu- 
 man mind. It exists under different shapes in all govern- 
 ments,* more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed ; but 
 in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rank- 
 ness, and is truly their worst enemy. 
 
 The alternate domination of one faction over another, 
 sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dis- 
 sention, which in different ages and countries has perpe- 
 trated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful des- 
 potism. But this leads at length to a more formal and 
 permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which 
 result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security 
 and repose in the absolute pov/er of an individual ; and 
 sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more 
 able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this dis- 
 position to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins 
 of public liberty. 
 
 Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, 
 (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), 
 the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party, 
 are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise 
 people to discourage and restrain it. 
 
 It serves always to distract the public councils, and en- 
 feeble the public administration. It agitates the commu- 
 nity with ill founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles 
 the animosity of one part against another ; foments occa- 
 sionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign 
 influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to 
 the government itself, through the channels of party pas- 
 sions. Thus the policy and the w;ll of one country, are 
 subjected to the policy and will of another. 
 
 There is an opinion that parties in fr^e countries are use- 
 ful checks upon the administration of the government, and 
 serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, withm cer- 
 tain limits, is probably true ; and in governments of a 
 monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if 
 not with favour, upon the spirit of party. But in those of 
 the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is 
 
SPEAKER. 32^ 
 
 a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tenden- 
 cy, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit 
 for every salutary purpose. And there being constant 
 danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of pub- 
 lic opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be 
 quenched, it demands an uniform vigilance to prevent its 
 bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should 
 consume. 
 
 It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking, in 
 a free country, should inspire caution in those intrusted 
 with its administration, to confine themselves within their 
 respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise 
 of the powers of one department to encroach upon ano- 
 ther. — The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate 
 the powers of all the departm(;nts in one, and thus to cre- 
 ate, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. 
 A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to 
 abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is suffi- 
 cient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The ne- 
 cessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political 
 power, by dividing and distributing it into different de- 
 positories, and constituting each the guardian of the pub- 
 lic weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced 
 by experiments ancient and modern ; some of them in our 
 country and under our ov;n eyes. To preserve them must 
 be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of 
 the people, the distribution or modification of the consti- 
 tutional powers, be in any particular wrong, let it be cor- 
 rected by an amendment m the v/ay which the constitution 
 designates. Bat let there be no change by usurpation ; 
 for though this, in one instance, may be th- instrument of 
 good, it is the customary weapon by which free govern- 
 ments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly 
 overbalance in permanent evil, any partial or transient be- 
 nefit which the use can at any time yield. 
 
 Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political 
 prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable sup- 
 ports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of pa- 
 triotism, who should labour to subvert these great pillars 
 of human happiness — these firmest props of the duties of 
 men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the 
 pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A vo- 
 
328 AMERICAN 
 
 lume could not trace all their connexions with private and 
 public felicity. Let it simply be asked, where is the se- 
 curity for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of 
 religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instru- 
 ments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us 
 with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be 
 maintained without religion. Whatever may be conced- 
 ed to the influence of refined education on minds of pe- 
 culiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to 
 expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of 
 religious principles. 
 
 It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a ne- 
 cessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed 
 exttnds v/ith more or less force to every species of free go- 
 vernment. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look 
 v/ith indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of 
 the fabric ? 
 
 Promote then, as an object of primary importance, in- 
 stitutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In pro- 
 portion as the structure of a government gives force to 
 public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be 
 enlightened. 
 
 As a very important source of strength and securityj 
 cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to 
 use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of ex- 
 pense by cultivating peace ; but remembering also, that 
 timely disbursetiients to prepare for danger, frequently 
 prevent much greater disbursements to repel it ; avoiding 
 likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning 
 occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of 
 peace, to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may 
 have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posteri- 
 ty the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The 
 execution of these maxims belongs to your representa- 
 tives ; but it is necessary that public opinion should co- 
 operate. To fecilitate to them the performance of their 
 duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in 
 mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be 
 revenue ; that to have revenue there must be taxes ; that 
 jio taxes can be devised which are not more or less incon- 
 venient and unplerisant ; that the intrinsic embarrassment 
 inseparable from the selection of the proper ©bjects, (which 
 
SPEAKER. 329 
 
 IS always a choice of difficulties,) ought to be a decisive 
 motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the go- 
 vernment in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in 
 the measures for obtaining revenue which the public exi- 
 gencies may at any time dictate. 
 
 Observe good faith and justice towards all nations ; cul- 
 tivate peace and harmony with all : religion and morality 
 enjoin this conduct ; and can it be that good policy does 
 not equally enjoin it ? It will be worthy of a free, enlight- 
 ened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to 
 mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a 
 people always guided by an exalted justice and benevo- 
 lence. — Who can doubt that in the course of lime and 
 things the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any 
 temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady ad- 
 iierence to it ? Can it be, that Providence has not connect- 
 ed the peamanent felicity of a nation with its virtue ? The 
 experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment 
 which ennobles human nature. Alas ! is it rendered im- 
 possible by its vices ? 
 
 In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essen- 
 tial than that permanent inveterate antipathies against par- 
 ticular nations, and passionate attachments for others, 
 should be excluded ; and that in place of them, just and 
 amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The 
 nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, 
 or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is 
 a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which 
 is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. 
 —Antipathy in one nation against another, disposes each 
 more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight 
 causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, 
 ■when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. 
 
 Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and 
 bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and re- 
 sentment, sometimes impels to war the government, con- 
 trary to the best calculations of policy. The government 
 sometimes participates in the national propensity, and a- 
 dopts through passion, what reason would reject ; at other 
 times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to 
 projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambitioHj and 0= 
 
530 AMERICAN 
 
 ther sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, some- 
 times perhaps the liberty of nations, has been the victim. 
 
 So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for 
 another, produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the 
 favourite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary 
 common interest in cases where no real common interest 
 exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, be- 
 trays the former into a participation in the quarrels and 
 •wars of the latter, without adequate inducaments or justi- 
 fication. It leads also to concessions to the favourite na- 
 tion, of privileges denied to others, which are apt doubly 
 to injure the nation making the concessions, by unneces- 
 sarily parting with what ought to have been retained ; and 
 by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, 
 in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld ; 
 and it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, 
 (who devote themselves to the favourite nation), facility 
 to betray, or sacrifice the interests of their own country, 
 without odium, sometimes even with popularity : gilding 
 with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a 
 cominendable deference* for public opinion, or a laudable 
 zeM for public good, the base or foolish compliances of 
 ambition, corruption, or infatuation. 
 
 As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, 
 such attachments are paticularly alarming to the truly en- 
 lightened and independent patriot. How many opportu- 
 nities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to 
 pihtcice the j.rts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to 
 iniiuf-nce or awe the public councils ! Such an attachment 
 ot i» small or weak, towards a gre^t and powerful nation, 
 dooms the former to be the satttllite of the latter. 
 
 Agi'inst the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I con- 
 jure ycu to believe me, fellew-ciiizens) the jealousy of a 
 free r eople ought to l;>e constantly awake ; since history 
 and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the 
 nit.st baneful foes of republican government. But that 
 ^,e.' U'usy to be useful must be impartial, else it becomes the 
 instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of 
 a (»t fence against it.— -Excessive partiality for one foreign 
 natiun, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom 
 ihey actuate to see danger only oa one sid?, and serve tQ> 
 
SPEAKER. ^331 
 
 veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. — 
 Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favourite, 
 are liable to become suspected and odious j while its tools 
 and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, 
 to surrender their interests. 
 
 The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign 
 nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have 
 with them as little political connexion as possible. So far 
 as we have already formed engagements, let them be ful- 
 filled with perfect good faith. — Here let us stop. 
 
 Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have 
 none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be en- 
 gaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are 
 tssentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it 
 must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial 
 ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the or- 
 dinary combinations and collisions of her friendships, or 
 enmities. 
 
 Our detached and distant situation invites and enables 
 us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people, 
 under an efficient government, the period is not far off, 
 when we may defy material injury from external annoy- 
 ance : when we may take such an attitude as will cause 
 the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, to be 
 scrupulously respected ; when belligerent nations under 
 the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not 
 lightly hazard the giving us provocation -, when we may 
 choose peace or war, as our mterest, guided by justice, 
 shall counsel. 
 
 Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation ? 
 Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground ? Why 
 by interweaving our destiny with that of any pc)rt of Eu- 
 rope, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of Eu- 
 ropean ambition, rivalship, interest, humour or caprice ? 
 
 It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances 
 with any portion of the foreign world ; so far, 1 mean, as 
 we are now at liberty to do it ; for let me not be understood 
 US capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements, 
 I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to pri- 
 vate afiairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I re- 
 peat it therefore, let those engagements be observed ijQ 
 
S32 AMERICAN 
 
 their genuine sense. But in my opinion, it is unnecessary 
 and would be unwise to extend them. 
 
 Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable es- 
 tablishments, in a respectable defensive posture, we may 
 safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emer- 
 gencies. 
 
 Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with all nations, are 
 recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even 
 our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial 
 hand ; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favours or 
 preferences: consulting the natural course of things ; dif- 
 fusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of 
 commerce, but forcing nothing ; establishing, with powers 
 so disposed in order to give trade a stable course, to de- 
 fine the rights of our merchants, and to enable the govern- 
 ment to support them, conventional rules of intercourse, 
 tht: best that present circnmstances and mutual opinion 
 will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to 
 time abandoned or varied as experience and circumstances 
 shall dictate ; constantly keeping in view, that it is folly 
 in one nation to look for disinterested favours from ano- 
 ther ; that it must pay with a portion of its independence 
 for whatever it may accept under that character ; that by 
 such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of hav- 
 ing given equivalents for nominal favours, and yet of be- 
 ing reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. 
 There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate 
 upon real favours from nation to nation. It is an illusion 
 which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to 
 discard. 
 
 In offering to you my countrymen, these councils of an 
 old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make 
 the strong and lasting impression I could wish ; that they 
 will controul the usual current of the passions, or prevent 
 our nation from running the course which has hitherto 
 marked the destiny of nations : But if I may even flatter 
 myself, that they may be productive of some partial bene- 
 fit, some occasional good ; that they may nov/ and then re- 
 cur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against 
 the mischiefs of foreign intrigue ; to guard 3gainst the im- 
 postures of pretended patriotism ; this hope will be a full 
 
SPEAKER. 333 
 
 recompense for the solicitude of your welfare, by which 
 they have been dictated. 
 
 How far in the discharge of my official duties, I have 
 been guided by the principles that have been delineated, 
 the public records and other evidences of my conduct must 
 witness to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance 
 of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed my- 
 self to be guided by them. 
 
 In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my 
 proclamation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to 
 my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that 
 of your representatives in both houses of Congress, the 
 spirit of that measure has continually governed me ; un- 
 influenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it. 
 
 After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best 
 lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, 
 under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, 
 and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral po- 
 sition. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should de- 
 pend upon me, to maintain it with moderation, persever- 
 ance, and firmness. 
 
 The considerations which respect the right to hold this 
 conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I 
 will only observe, that according to my understanding of 
 the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of 
 the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all. 
 
 The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, 
 without anything more, from the obligation which justice 
 and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it 
 is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace 
 and amity towards other nations. 
 
 The inducements of interest for observing that conduct 
 will best be referred to your own reflections and experi- 
 ence. With me, a predominant motive has been to en- 
 deavour to gain time to our country to settle and mature 
 its yet recent institutions, and to progress, without inter- 
 ruption to that degree of strength and consistency, which 
 is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of 
 its own fortunes. 
 
 Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration, 
 I am unconscious of intentional error ; 1 am nevertheless 
 too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I 
 
334 AMERICAN 
 
 may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, 
 I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the 
 evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me 
 the hope that my country will never cease to view them 
 with indulgence ; and that after forty-five years of my life 
 dedicated to its service, with an upright zeal, the faults of 
 incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as my- 
 self must soon be to the mansions of rest. 
 
 Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and 
 actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natu- 
 ral to a man who views it in the native soil of himself and 
 his progenitors for several generations ; I anticipate with 
 pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I promise my- 
 self to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of par- 
 taking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign in- 
 fluence of good laws under a free government — the ever 
 favourite object of my heart, and the happy reward as I 
 trust, of our mutual cares, labours, and dangers. 
 
 United States^ Septe7nber 17th, 1796. 
 
 General^ noxv Chief Justice MarshaWs Speech in Congress, 
 announcing the death of Washington, December, 1799. 
 
 *' Mr. Speaker — The melancholy event which was yes- 
 terday announced with doubt, has been rendered but too 
 certain. Our Washington is no more. The hero, the pa- 
 triot, and the sage of America ; the man on whom in times 
 of danger every eye was turned, and all hopes were placed, 
 lives now only in his own great actions, and in the hearts 
 of an afTectionate and afflicted people. 
 
 If, sir, it had even not been usual openly to testify re- 
 spect for the memory of those whom Heaven has select- 
 ed as its instruments for dispensing good to man, yet such 
 has been the uncommon worth, and such the extraordinary 
 incidents which have marked the life of him whose loss 
 we all deplore, that the whole American nation, impelled 
 by the same feelings, would call with one voice for a pub- 
 lic manifestation of that sorrow, which is so deep and so 
 universal. 
 
 iviore than any other individual, and as much as to one 
 individual was possible, has he contributed to found this 
 
SPEAKER. 33^ 
 
 «ur wide spreading empire, and to give to the western world, 
 independence and freedom. 
 
 Having effected the great object for which he was placed 
 at the head of our armies, we have seen him convert the 
 sword into the ploughshare, and sink the soldier into the 
 citizen. 
 
 When the debility of our federal system had become 
 manifest, and the bonds which connected this vast conti- 
 nent were dissolving, we have seen him the chief of those 
 patriots who formed for us a constitution, which, by pre- 
 ser^ing the union, will, I trust, substantiate and perpetu- 
 ate those blessings which our revolution had promised to 
 bestow. 
 
 In obedience to the general voice of his country, calling 
 him to preside over a great people, we have seen him once 
 more quit the retirement he loved, and in a season more 
 stormy and tempestuous than war itself, with calm and 
 wise determination pursue the true interests of the nation, 
 and contribute more than any other could contribute, to 
 the establishment of that system of policy which will, I 
 trust, yet preserve our peace, our honor, and our inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 Having been twice unanimously chosen the chief ma- 
 gistrate of a free people, we have seen him, at a time 
 when his re-election with universal suffrage could not be 
 doubted, afford to the world a rare instance of moderation, 
 by withdrawing from his station to the peaceful walks of 
 private life. 
 
 However the public confidence may change, and the 
 public affections fluctuate with respect to others, with re- 
 spect to him they have, in war and in peace, in public and 
 in private life, been as steady as his own firm mind, and 
 as constant as his own exalted virtues. 
 
 Let us then, Mr. Speaker, pay the last tribute of re- 
 spect and affection to our departed friend. Let thi- grand 
 council of the nation display those sentiments which the 
 nation feels. For this purpose I hold in my hand some 
 resolutions which 1 take the liberty of offering to the 
 House. 
 
 Rc8olved^ That this house will wait on the president, in 
 condolence of this mournful event. 
 
336 AMERICAN 
 
 Resolved^ That the speaker's chair be shrouded with 
 black, and that the members and officers of the house wear 
 black during the session. 
 
 Resolved^ That a committee, in conjunction with one 
 from the senate, be appointed to consider on the most 
 suitable manner of paying honor to the memory of the 
 man, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of 
 his fellow-citizens." 
 
 Extract from Major General Lee's funeral Oration on the 
 Death of General Washington^ delivered before both Hou- 
 ses^ at the request of Congress^ December 26^/i, 1799. 
 
 In obedience to your will, I rise your humble organ, 
 with the hope of executing a part of the system of pub- 
 lic mourning, which you have been pleased to adopt, com- 
 memorative of the death of the most illustrious and most 
 beloved personage this country has ever produced ; and 
 which, while it transmits to posterity your sense of the 
 awful event, faintly represents your knowledge of the con- 
 sunimate excellence you so cordially honor. 
 
 Desperate indeed is any attempt on earth to meet cor- 
 respondently this dispensation of heaven ; for, while with 
 pious resignation we submit to the will of an all gracious 
 Providence, we can never cease lamenting in our finite 
 view of omnipotent wisdom, the heart-rending privation 
 for which our nation weeps. When the civilized world 
 shakes to the centre ; when every moment gives birth to 
 strange and momentous changes ; when our peaceful 
 quarter of the globe, exempt as it happily has been from 
 any share in the slaughter of the human race, may yet be 
 compelled to abandon her pacific policy, and to risque the 
 doleful casualties of war : what limit is there to the extent 
 of our loss? — None within the reach of my words to ex- 
 press ; none which our feelings will not disavow. 
 
 The founder of our federal republic — our bulwark in 
 war, our guide in peace, is no more ! Oh that this were 
 but questionable ! Hope, the comforter of the wretched, 
 would pour into our agonizing hearts its balmy dew. But, 
 alas ! there is no hope for us ! Our Washington is remov- 
 
SPEAKER. 537 
 
 ed forever ! Possessing the stoutest frame, and purest mind, 
 he had passed nearly to the age of sixty eight years, in the 
 enjoyment of high health, when, habituated by his care of 
 us to neglect himself,? a slight cold, disregarded, became 
 inconvenient on Friday, oppressive on Saturday, and, de- 
 fying every medical interposition, before the morning of 
 Sunday, put an end to the best of men ! An end did I say ? 
 — his fame survives ! bounded only by the limits of the 
 earth, and by the extent of the human mind. He survives 
 in our hearts, in the growing knowledge of our children, 
 in the affection of the good throughout the world ; and 
 when our monuments shall be done away ; when nations 
 now existing shall be no more ; when even our young and 
 far-spreading empire shall have perished, still will our 
 Washington's glory unfaded shine, and die not, until love 
 of virtue cease on earth, or earth itself sink into chaos. 
 
 How, my fellow-citizens, shall I single out to your 
 grateful hearts his pre-eminent worth ? where shall I begin 
 in opening to your view a character throughout sublime I 
 shall I speak of his warlike achievements, all springing 
 from obedience to his country's will — all directed to his 
 country's good ? 
 
 Moving in his own orbit, he imparted heat and light to 
 his most distant satellites ; and combining the physical and 
 moral force of all within his sphere, with irresistable weight 
 he took his course, commiserating folly, disdaining vice, 
 dismaying treason, and invigorating despondency ; until 
 the auspicious hour arrives, when he brought to submis- 
 sion the since conqueror of India ; thus finishing his lonr?- 
 career of military glory, with a lustre corresponding to his 
 great name, and in this his last act of war, affixing the seal 
 of fate to our nation's birth. 
 
 To the horrid din of battle, sweet peace succeeded ; and 
 our virtuous chief, mindful only of the common good in a 
 moment tempting personal aggrandizement, hushed the 
 discontents of growing sedition ; and, surrendering his 
 power into the hands from which he had received it, con- 
 verted his sword into a ploughshare, teaching an admiring 
 world, that to be truly great you must be truly good. 
 
 Was 1 to stop here, the picture would be incomplete, 
 and the task imposed, unfinished — Great as was our Wash- 
 ington in war, and as much as did that greatness contri- 
 
 G G 
 
338 AMERICAN 
 
 bute to produce the American Republic, it is not in war 
 alone bis pre-eminence stands conspicuous. His various 
 talents, combining all the capacities of a statesman with 
 those of a soldier, fitted him alike to guide the councils, and 
 the armies of our nation. Scarcely had he rested from his 
 martial toils, while his invaluable parental advice was still 
 sounding in our ears, \vhen he who had been our sword and 
 our shield, was called forth to act a less splendid, but more 
 important part. 
 
 Possessing a clear and penetrating mind, a sound and 
 strong judgment, cijlmness and temper for deliberation, 
 with invincible firmness and perseverance in resolutions, 
 maturely formed, drawing information from all, acting from 
 himself, with incorruptible integrity and unvarying pat- 
 riotism ; his own superiority, and the public confidence 
 alike marked him as the man designed by Heaven to lead 
 in the politicrl as well as the military events which have 
 distmguished the era of his Hfe. 
 
 The finger of an over-ruling Providence, pointing at 
 Washington, was neither mistaken nor unobserved ; when, 
 to realize ihe vast hopes to which our revolution hnd giv- 
 en birth, a change of political system became indispensable. 
 How novel, how grand the spectacle ! Independent States 
 stretched over an immense territory, and known only by 
 common difficulty, clinging to their union as the rock of 
 their safety, deciding by frank comparison of their rela- 
 tive condition, to rear on that rock, under the guidance of 
 reason, a common government, thiough whose command- 
 ing protection, liberty and order, with their long train of 
 blessings, should be safe to themselves and the sure inhe- 
 ritance of their posterity. 
 
 This arduous task devolved on citizens selected by the 
 people, from knowledge of their wisdom, and confidence 
 in their virtue. In this august assembly of sages and pa- 
 triots, Washington, of course, was found ; and, as if ac- 
 knowledged to be the most wise, where all were wise, with 
 one voice, he was declared their chief. How well he me- 
 rited this rare distinction, how faithful were the labors of 
 himself and his couipatriots, the work of their hands, and 
 our union, strength and prosperity, the fruit? of that work 
 ^eBt attests. 
 
SPEAKER. 33«i 
 
 But, to have essentially aided in presenting to his coun- 
 try this consummation of her hopes, neither satisfied the 
 claims of his fellow-citizens on his talents, nor those duties 
 which the possession of those talents in^rosed. Heaven 
 had not infused into his mmd such an uncommon shar- of 
 its etherial spirit to remain unemployed, nor bestowed on 
 him his genius, unaccompanied with the correspo iding 
 duty of devoting it to the common good. To have framed 
 a constitution, was shewing only, without realizing, the ge- 
 neral happiness. This great work remained to be done ; 
 and America, stedfast in her preference, with one voice 
 summoned her beloved Washington, unpractised as he was 
 in the duties of civil administration, to execute this last 
 act in the completion of the national felicity. Obedient 
 to her call, he assumed that high office with that self- dis- 
 trust peculiar to his innate modesty, the constant attendant 
 of pre-eminent virtue. 
 
 What was the burst of joy, through our anxious land on 
 this exhilerating event, is known to us all. The aged, the 
 young, the brave, the fair, rivalled each other in demon- 
 strations of gratitude ; and this high wrought, delightful 
 scene was heightened in its effect, by the singubr contest 
 between the zeal of the bestowers and the avoi.ianr.r of 
 the receiver of the honors bestowed. Commencing his 
 administration, what heart is not charmed with the recol- 
 lection of the pure and wise prmciples announced by him- 
 self, as the basis of his political life. He best understood 
 the indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, be- 
 tween duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims 
 of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid re- 
 wards of public prosperity and individual felicity; watch- 
 ing widi equal and comprehensive eye over this great assem- 
 blage of communities and interests, he laid the foundation 
 of our national policy in the unerring, immutable princi- 
 ples of morality, based on religion, exemplifying the pre- 
 eminence of a free government, by all the attributes which 
 win the afl'ections of its citizens, or command the respect 
 :<)l the world. 
 
340 AMERICAN 
 
 Inaugural Speech of President Adams — March 4th, iT9t, 
 
 Fellow-Citizns — When it was first perceived, in early 
 times, that no middle course for America remained, be- 
 tv/een unlimited submission to a foreign legislature, and a 
 total independer.ce of its claims, men of reflection were 
 less apprehensive of danger from the formidable power of 
 fleets and armies they must determine to resist, than from 
 those contests and dissentions which would certainly arise 
 concerning the forms of government to be instituted over 
 the whole and over the parts of this extensive country. 
 Relying, however, on the purity of their mtentions, the 
 justice of their cause, and the integrity and intelligence of 
 the people, under an over-ruling Providence, which had 
 so signally protected this country from the first, the repre- 
 sentatives of this nation, then consisting of little more than 
 half its present numbers, not only broke to pieces the 
 chains which were forging, and the rod of iron that was 
 lifted up, but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound 
 them, and launched into an ocean of uncertainty. 
 
 The zeal and ardour of the people, during the revolu- 
 tionary war, supplying the place of government, command- 
 ed a degree of order, sufficient at least for the temporary 
 preservation of society. The confederation, which was 
 early felt to be necessary, was prepared from the models 
 of the Batavian and Helvetic confederacies, the only ex- 
 amples which remain with any detail and precision, in 
 history, and certainly the only ones which the people at 
 large, had ever considered. But reflecting on the striking 
 difierence, in so many particulars, between this country 
 and those, where a courier may go from the seat of go- 
 vernment to the frontier in a single day, it was then cer- 
 tainly foreseen by some who assisted in congress at the 
 formation of it, that it could not be durable. 
 
 Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its recom- 
 mendations, if not disobedience to its authority, not only 
 in individuals but in states, soon appeared, with their me- 
 lancholy consequences ; universal languor, jealousies and 
 rivalries of states ; decline of navigation and commerce ; 
 discouragement of necessary manuJactures ; universal falf 
 jn the value of lands and their produce j contempt of pub- 
 
SPEAKER. 3^1 
 
 lie and private faith ; loss of consideration and credit with 
 foreign nations ; and at length, in discontents, animosities, 
 combinations, partial conventions, and insurrection, threat- 
 ening some great national calamity. 
 
 In this dangerous crisis, the people of America were not 
 abandoned, by their usual good sense, presence of mind, 
 resolution or integrity. — Measures were pursued to con- 
 cert a plan, to form a more perfect union, estabhsh justice, 
 ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common de- 
 fence, promote the general welfare, and secure the bless- 
 ings of liberty. The public disquisitions, discussions, and 
 deliberations issued in the present happy constitution of 
 government. 
 
 Employed in the service of niy country abroad, during 
 the whole course of these transactions, I first saw the con- 
 stitution of the United States in a foreign country. Irri- 
 tated oy no literary altercation, animated by no public de- 
 bate, heated by no party animosity, I read it with great 
 satisfaction, as a result of good heads, prompted by good 
 hearts ; as an experiment, better adapted to the genius, 
 character, situation and relations of this nation and coun- 
 try^ than any which had ever bt-en proposed or suggested. 
 In its general principles and great outlines, it was con- 
 formable to such a system of government, as I had ever 
 most esteemed, and in some states, my own native state 
 in particular, had contributed to establish. Claiming a 
 right of suffrage, in common with my fellow-citizens, in 
 the adoption or rejection, of a constitution which was to 
 rule me and my posterity, as well as them and theirs, I 
 did not hesitate to express my approbation of it, on all oc- 
 casions, in public and in private. It was not then, nor has 
 been since, any objection to. it, in my mind, that the execu- 
 tive and senate were not more perinanent. Nor have I 
 ever entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in 
 it, but such as the people themselves, in the course of their 
 experience should see and feel to be necessary or expe- 
 dient, and by their representatives in congress and the 
 state legislatures, according to the constitution itself, adopt 
 and ordain. 
 
 Returning ta the bosom of my country, after a painful 
 separation from it, for ten years, I had the honour to be 
 elected to a station under the new order of things, and I 
 
 G G 3 
 
342 AMERICAN 
 
 have repeatedly laid myself under the most serious obli- 
 gations to support the constitution. The operation of it 
 has equalled the most sanguine expectations of its friends; 
 and from an habitual attention to it, satisfaction in its ad- 
 ministration and delight in its effects, upon the peace, or^ 
 der, prosperity and happiness of the nation, I have acquir- 
 ed an habitual attachment to it, and veneration for it. 
 
 What other form of government indeed can so well de- 
 serve our esteem and love ? 
 
 There may be little solidity in an ancient idea, that con- 
 gregations of men into cities and nations, are the most 
 pleasing objects in the sight of superior intelligences ; but 
 this is very certain, that to a benevolent human mind, 
 there can be no spectacle presented by any nation, more 
 pleasing, more noble, majestic or august, than an assem- 
 bly like that which has so often been seen in this and the 
 other chamber of congress, of a government in which the 
 executive authority, as well as that of all the branches of 
 the legislature, are exercised by citizens selectt^d, at regu- 
 lar periods, by their neighbours, to make and execute laws 
 for the general good. Can any thing essential, any thing 
 more than mere ornament and decoration be added to this 
 by robes or diamonds? Can authority be more amiable or 
 respectable, when it descends from accidents, or institu- 
 tions established in remote antiquity, than when it springs 
 fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and en- 
 lightened people ? For it is the people only that are repre- 
 sented : it is their power and majesty that is reflected, and 
 only for their good, in every legitimate government, under 
 whatever form it may appear. The existence of such a 
 government as ours, for any length of time, is a full proof 
 of a generaldisseminationof knowledge and virtue, through- 
 out the whole body of the people. And what object or con- 
 sideration more pleasing than this can be presented to the. 
 human mind I If national pride is ever justifiable or excu- 
 sable, it is when it springs, not from power or riches, gran- 
 deur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, 
 iniormation, and benevolence. 
 
 In the midst of these pleasing ideas, we should be un- 
 fauhiul to ourselves, if we should ever lose sight of the 
 danger to our liberties, if any thing partial or extraneous 
 should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and in- 
 
SPEAKER. 345 
 
 dependent elections. If an election is to be determined 
 by a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured 
 by a party, through artifice or corruption, the government 
 may be the choice of a party, for its own ends, not of the 
 nation, for the national good. If that solitary suffrage can 
 be obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menaces, by 
 fraud or violence, by terror, intrigue or venality, the gov- 
 ernment may not be the choice of the American people^ 
 but of foreign nations. It may be foreign nations who 
 govern us, and not we the people, who govern ourselvesa 
 And candid men will acknowledge, that in such cases 
 choice would have Uttle advantage to boast of, over lot or 
 chance. 
 
 Such is the amiable and interesting system of govern- 
 ment, and such are some of the abuses to which it may be 
 exposed, which the people of America have exhibited to 
 the admiration and anxiety of the wise and virtuous of all 
 nations, for eight years, under the administration of a ci- 
 tizen, who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by 
 prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, conducting* 
 a people, inspired with the same virtues, and animated 
 with the same ardent patriotism and love of liberty, to in- 
 dependence and peace, to increasing wealth and unexam- 
 pled prosperity, has merited the gratitude of his fellojv- 
 citizens, commanded the highest prVises o£ foreign na- 
 tions, and secured immortal glory with posterity. 
 
 In that retirement which is his voluntary choice, may 
 he long live to enjoy the delicious recollection of his ser- 
 vices, the gratitude of mankind; the happy fruits of them 
 to himself and the world, which are daily increasing, and 
 that splendid prospect of the future fortunes of his coun- 
 try, which is opening from year to year. His name may 
 I be still a rampart, and the knowledge that he lives a bul- 
 wark against all open or secret enemies of his country's 
 peace. 
 
 This example has been recommended to the imitation 
 of his successors, by both houses of congress, and by the 
 voice of the legislatures and the people, throughout the 
 nation. 
 
 On this subject it might become me better to be silent 
 or to speak with diffidence 5 but as something may be ex.** 
 
344 AMERICAN 
 
 pected, the occasion, I hope, will be admitted as an apolo- 
 gy, it I venture to say, that 
 
 If, a preference, upon principle, of a free republican go- 
 vernment, formed upon long and serious reflection, after 
 a diligent and impartial inquiry after truth ; if, an attach- 
 ment to the constitution of the United States, and a con- 
 scientious determination to support it, until it shall be al- 
 tered by the judgments and wishes of the people, express- 
 ed in the mode prescribed in it ; — if, a respectful attention 
 to the constitutions ©f the individual states, and a constant 
 caution and delicacy towards the state governments ; if, an 
 equal and impartial regard to the rights, interests, hon- 
 our, and happiness of all the states in the union, without 
 preference or regard to a Northern or Southern, an East- 
 ern or Western position, their various political opinions on 
 unessential points, or their personal attachments ; if a love 
 of virtuous men of all parties and denominations ; if a love 
 of science and letters, and a wish to patronise every ra- 
 tional effort to encourage schools, colleges, universities, 
 academies, and every institution for propagating know- 
 ledge, virtue, and religion among all classes of the people : 
 not only for their benign infiuence on the happiness of life, 
 in all its stages and classes, and of society in all its forms ; 
 hut as the only means of preserving our constitution from 
 hs natural enemies, the spirit of sophistry, the spirit of 
 party, the spirit of intrigue, the profligacy of corruption, 
 and the pestilence of foreign influence, which is the angel 
 of destruction to elective governments ; if a love of equal 
 laws, of justice and humanity, in the interior administra- 
 tion ; if an inclination to improve agriculture, commerce 
 and manufactures lor necessity , convenience and defence ; 
 if a spirit of equity and humanity towards the aboriginal 
 nations of America, and a disposition to meliorate their 
 condition, by inclining them to be more friendly to us, and 
 our citizens to be more friendly to them ; if .m inflexible 
 determination to maintain peace and inviolable faith, with 
 all nations, and that system of neutrality and impartiality 
 among the belligerent powers of Europe, which has been 
 adopted by this government, and so solemnly sanctioned 
 by both houses of congress, and applauded by the legisla- 
 tures of the states and the public opinion, until it shall be 
 ©therwise ordamed by congress j if a personal esteem for 
 
SPEAKER. us 
 
 the French nation, formed in a residence of seven years, 
 chiefly, among them, and a sincere desire to preserve the 
 friendship which has been so much for the honour and in- 
 terest of both nations; if while the conscious honour and 
 integrity of the people of America and the internal senti- 
 ment of their own power and energies must be preserved 
 an earnest endeavour to investigate every just cause, and 
 remove every colourable pretence of complaint; if an in- 
 tention to pursue, by amicable negociation, a reparation 
 for the injuries that have been committed on the com- 
 merce of our fellow-citizens by whatever nation ; and if 
 success cannot be obtained, to lay the facts before the le- 
 gislature, that they may consider, what further measures 
 the honour and interest of the government and its consti- 
 tuents demand ; if a resolution to do justice, as far as may 
 depend upon me, at all times and to all nations, and main- 
 tain peace, friendship and benevolence with all the world ', 
 if an unshaken confidence in the honour, spirit, and re- 
 sources of the American people, on which I have so often 
 hazarded my all, and never been deceived ; if, elevated 
 ideas of the high destinies of this country, and of my owq 
 duties towards it, founded on a knowledge of the moral 
 principles and intellectual improvements of the people, 
 deeply engraven on my mind in early life, and not obscur- 
 ed but exalted by experience and age ; — and with humble 
 reverence 1 feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration 
 for the religion of a people, who profess and call them- 
 selves christians, and a fixed resolution to consider a de- 
 cent respect for Christianity, among the best recommenda- 
 tions for the public service, can enable me, in any degree, 
 to comply with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous en- 
 deavour that this sagacious injunction of the t^vo houses 
 shall not be without effect. 
 
 With this gn at example before me ; with the sense and 
 spirit, the faith and honour, the duty and interest of the 
 same American people, pledged to support the constitu- 
 tion of the United States, I entertain no doubt of its con- 
 tinuance in all its energy, and my mind is prepared, with- 
 out hesitation, to lay myself under the most solemn obli- 
 gations to support it, to the utmost of my power. 
 
 And may that Being, who is supreme over all, the pa- 
 tron of order, the fountain of justice, and the protector, in 
 
546 AMERICAN 
 
 all ages of the world, of virtuous liberty, continue his 
 blessing upon this nation and its government, and give it 
 all possible success and duration, consistent with the ends 
 of his Providence. 
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 
 Washmgton^ March Uh^ 1 797. 
 
 Inaugural Speech of President Jefferson^ March 4th ^ 1801: 
 
 Friends and Fellow-citizens, — Called upon to undertake 
 the duties of the first executive office of our country, I avail 
 myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow-citi- 
 zens, which is here assembled, to express my grateful 
 thanks, for the favour with which they have been please.d 
 to look towards me ; to declare a sincere consciousness, 
 that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it 
 with those anxious and awful presentiments, which the 
 greatness of the charge and the weakness of my powers, 
 so justly inspire. 
 
 A rising nation spread over a wide and fruitful land — 
 traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their 
 industry — engaged in commerce with nations who feel pow- 
 er and forget right — advancing rapidly to destinies beyond 
 the reach of mortal eye : When I contemplate these tran- 
 scendent objects, and see the honour, the happiness, and 
 the hopes of" this beloved country, committed to the issue 
 and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contempla- 
 tion, and humble myself before the magnitude of the un- 
 dertaking. Utterly, indeed, should I despair, did not the 
 presence of many whom I here see, remind me that in the 
 other high authorities provided by our constitution, I shall 
 find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal, on which 
 to rely under all difficulties. To you, then, gendemen, wht) 
 are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and 
 to those associated with you, I look with encouragement 
 for that guidance and support, which may enable us to 
 Steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked, 
 amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled world. 
 
 During the contest of opinion through which we have 
 past, the animation of discussion, and of exertions, has 
 sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers, 
 unused to think freely, and to write what they think ; but 
 
SPEAKER. 34r 
 
 this being now decided by the voice of the union, announ- 
 ced according to the rules of the constitution, all will, of 
 course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and 
 unite in common efforts for the common good. All, too, 
 will bear in mind this sacred principle— that though the 
 will of the majority is, in all cases to prevail, that will to 
 be rightful, must be reasonable — that the minority possess 
 their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to 
 violate would be oppression. Let us then, fellow-citizens, 
 unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to so- 
 cial intercourse, that harmony and affection without which, 
 liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things. And 
 let us reflect, that having banished from our land, that re- 
 ligious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and 
 suffered, we have yet gained little, if we countenance a po- 
 litical intolerance, as despotic as wicked, and capable of 
 as bitter and bloody persecutions. 
 
 During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, 
 — during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking, 
 through blood and slaughter, his long-lost liberty, it was 
 not wonderful that the agitation of the billows, should re.tch 
 even this distant and peaceful shore — that this should be 
 more ftlt and feared by some, and less hy others — and 
 should divide opinions as to measures of safety. But every 
 diflerence of opinion, is not a diff rence of principle. We 
 have called by ditTcrent names, brethren of the same prin- 
 ciple-. We are all republicans : we are all federalists. 
 If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this 
 union, or to change its republican form, let them stand un- 
 disturbed, as monuments of the safety with which error 
 of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to 
 combat it. I know, indeed, that seme honest men fear a 
 republican government catmot be strong — that this govern- 
 ment is not strong enough. But would the honest patriot 
 in the full tide of successful experipient, abandon a gov- 
 ernment which has so far kept us fiee and firm, on the 
 theoretic and visionary fear, that this government, the 
 world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to pre- 
 serve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary 
 the strongest government on earth. I belifjve it the c^nly 
 one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to 
 the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the 
 
Ub AMERICAN 
 
 public order, as his own personal concern. Sometimes it 
 is said that man cannot bt trusted with the government of 
 himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of 
 others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings, to 
 govern him ? Let history answer this question. 
 
 Let us then with courage and confidence, pursue our 
 own federal and republican principles— our attachment to 
 union and representative government. Kindly separated 
 by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc 
 of one quarter of the globe — too high-minded to endure 
 the degradations of the others — possessing a chosen coun- 
 try, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth 
 and thousandth generation — entertaining a due sense of 
 our equal right to the use of our own faculties — to the ac- 
 quisitions of our own industry — to honour and confidence 
 from our fellow-citizens ; resulting not from birth, but from 
 our actions, and their sense of them, enlightened by a be- 
 nign religion, professed, indeed, and practised in various 
 forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, tempe- 
 rance, gratitude, and the love of man — acknowledging 
 and adoring an over-ruling Providence, which by all its 
 dispensations, proves that it delights in the happiness of 
 man here, and his greater happiness hereafter — with all 
 these blessings what is more necessary to make us a pros- 
 perous and happy people ? Still one thing more, fellow-ci- 
 tizens, a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain 
 men from injuring one another ; shall leave them otherwise 
 free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improve- 
 ment ; and shall not take from the mouth of labour what it 
 has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this 
 is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. 
 
 About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercises of du- 
 ties which comprehend every thing dear and valuable to 
 you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the 
 essential principles of our government, and consequently 
 those which ought to shape its administration. I will com- 
 press them within the narrowest compass they will bear, 
 stating the general priijciple, but not all its limitations. 
 Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or 
 persuasion, religious or political — peace, commerce, and 
 honest Irienuship with all nations — entangling alliances 
 with none— the support of the state governments in all 
 
SPEAKER. 549 
 
 their rights, as the iiiost competent administrations for our 
 domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-re- 
 publican tendencies — the preservation of the general gov- 
 ernment in its whole constitutional vigour, as the sheet an- 
 chor of our peace at home and safety abroad — a zealous 
 care of the right of election by the people — a mild and 
 safe corrective of abuses, which are lopped by the sword 
 of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided — 
 absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the 
 vital principle of republics, from which tiiire is no «»ppea!, 
 but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of 
 despotism — a well disciplined militia, our best reliance in 
 peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars may 
 relieve them — the supremacy of the civil over the military 
 authority— economy in the public expense, that labour may 
 be lightly burthened — the honest payment of our debts, 
 and sacred preservation of public fiath — L-ncoar igement 
 of agriculture and of commerce as its handin iid — the dif- 
 fusion of information, and arraignment of all abuses at the 
 bar of public reason — freedom of religion — freedom of 
 the press — freedom of person under the protection of the 
 habeas corpus ; and trial by juries impartially selected. 
 These principles form the bright constellation which has 
 gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of 
 revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages, 
 and blood of our heroes, have been devoted to their attain- 
 ment. They should be the creed of our political f lith — 
 the text of civic instruction — the touchstone by which to 
 try the services of those we trust: and should we wander 
 from them in the moments of error or alarm, let us hasten 
 to retrace our steps, and to r gain the road which aione 
 leads to peace, liberty, and safety, 
 
 I repair then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have as- 
 signed me, with experience enough in subordinate offices, 
 to have seen the difficulties of this, the gre.itest of ail ; I 
 have learned to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of 
 imperfect man, to retire from this station with the reputa- 
 tion and the favour which bring him into it. VVitnout pre- 
 tensions to that high confidence you reposed in our Hrst 
 and greatest revolutionary character, whose pre-eminent 
 services had entitled him to the first place in his cuunirv's 
 love, and destined for him the fairest page in the volamf 
 
 H H 
 
350 AMERICAN 
 
 of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only, as may 
 give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your 
 affairs. I shall often go wrong, through defect of judgment. 
 When right, I shall often be thought wrong, by those whose 
 positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I 
 ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never 
 be intentional : and your support against the errors of others, 
 who may condemn what they would not, if seen in all its 
 parts. The approbation implied by your suffrage is a great 
 consolation to me for the past : and my future solicitude 
 will be, to retain the good opinion of those who have be- 
 stowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others by doing 
 them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to 
 the happiness and freedom of all. 
 
 Relying then on the patronage of your good will, I ad- 
 vance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it 
 whenever ) ou become sensible how much better choices it 
 is in your power to make. And may that Infinite Power 
 which rules the destinies of the Universe, lead our coun- 
 cils to what is best and give them a favourable issue for 
 your peace and prosperity. 
 
 TH: JEFFERSON. 
 
 Washington, March 4th, 1801. 
 
 Inaugural Speech of Presidmt Madison — March 4th, 1809. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens, — Unwilling to depart from examples, 
 of the most revered authority, I avail myself of the occa- 
 sion now presented, to express the profound impression 
 made on me, by the call of my country to the station, to 
 the duties of which I am about to pledge myself, by the 
 most solemn of sanctir ns. So distinguished a mark of 
 confidence proceeding Irom the deliberate and tranquil 
 suffrage of a free and virtuous nation, would, under any 
 circumstances, command my gratitude and devotion — as 
 well as fill me with an awful sense of the trust to be as- 
 sumed. Under the various circumstances which give pe- 
 culiar solemnity to the existing period, I feel that both the 
 honour and the responsibility allotted to me, are inexpres- 
 sibly enhanced* 
 
SPEAKER. 351 
 
 The present situation of the world is indeed without a 
 parallel, and that of our own country full of difficulties. 
 Th:- pressure of these too, is the more severely felt, because 
 they have fallen upon us at a moment, when national pros- 
 perity being at a height not before attained, the contrast 
 resuming from the change has been rendered the more 
 strikii*>g. Under the benign influence of our republican 
 institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all nations, 
 whilst so many of them were engaged in bloody and waste- 
 ful wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an un- 
 rivalled growth of our faculties and resources. Proofs of 
 this were seen in the improvements of agriculture ; in the 
 successful enterprises of commerce; in the progress of 
 manufactures and useful arts ; in the increase of the pub- 
 lic revenue, and the use made of it in reducing the public 
 debt, and in the valuable works and establishments every 
 where multiplying over the face of our land. 
 
 It is a precious reflection that the transition from this 
 prosperous condition of our country to the scene which 
 has for some time been distressing us, is not chargeable 
 on any unwarrantable views, nor, as I trust, on any invo- 
 luntary errors, in the public councils. Indulging no pas- 
 sions which trespass on the rights or the repose of other na- 
 tions, it has been the true glory of the United States to 
 cultivate peace by observing justice, and to entitle them- 
 selves to the respect of the nations at war, by fulfilling 
 their neutral obligations, with the most scrupulous impar- 
 tiality. If there be candor in the world, the truth of these 
 assertions will not be questioned, Posterity at least will 
 do justice to them. 
 
 This unexceptionable course could not avail against the 
 injustice and violence of the belligerent powers. In their 
 rage against each other, or impelled by more direct motives, 
 principles of retaliation have been introduced, equally con- 
 trary to universal reason and acknowledged law. How 
 long tlieir arbitrary edicts, will be continued in spite of the 
 demonstrations that not even a pretext for them ha^ been 
 given by the United States, and of the fair and liberal at- 
 tempts to induce a relocation of them, cannot be anticipa- 
 ted. Assuring myself ihat, under every vicissitude, the 
 detitrmined spirit and united councils of the nation will be 
 safeguards to its honor and its essential interests, I re- 
 
352 AMERICAN 
 
 pr.ir to the post assigned me, with no other discourage- 
 ment tha. vvhct springs from my own inadequacy to its 
 high di.ties. It I do not sink under the weight of this 
 de< J) conviction, it is because I find some support in a con- 
 sciousness of the purnt^ses, and a confidence in the princi- 
 ples, which I bring with me into this arduous service. 
 
 To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all na- 
 tions, having correspondent dispositions; to maintain sin- 
 cere- neutrality towarus bellig- rent nations; to pre ft r, in 
 aii cases, amicable discussions and reasonable accommoda- 
 tions of diflfertnces, to a decision of them by an appeal to 
 arms ; to exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities, 
 so degrading to all countries and so baneful to free ones ; 
 to foster a spirit of independ-nce, too just to invade the 
 rights of others ; too proud to surrender our own ; too libe- 
 ral to indulge unworihj^ prejudices ourselves ; and too ele- 
 vated not to look down upon them in t)thers ; to hold the 
 union of the states as the basis of their peace and happi- 
 ness ; to support the constitution which is the cement of 
 the union, as well in its limitations, as in its authorities ; 
 to respect the rights and authorities reserved to the states 
 imd to the people, as equally incorporated with, and essen- 
 tial to the success of the general system ; and to avoid the 
 slightest interference with the rights of conscience, or the 
 functions of religion so wisely exempted from civil jurisdic- 
 tion ; to preserve to their full energ)- the other salutary pro- 
 visions in behalf of private and personal rights, and of the 
 freedom of the press ; to observe economy in public expen- 
 ditures ; to liberate the public resources by an honourable 
 discharge of the public debts ; to keep within the requisite 
 limits a standing military force, always remembering that an 
 armed and trained mihtia is the firmest bulwark of repub- 
 lican governments, that without standing armies their liber- 
 ty can never be in danger; nor, with large ones, safe ; to 
 promote by authorized means improvements friendly to 
 agriculture, and to external, as well as internal commerce ; 
 to favour, in like manner the advancement of science and 
 the diffusion of information^ as the best aliment to true 
 liberty; to carry on the benevolent plans vhich has been 
 so meritoriously applied to the conversion of our aborigi- 
 nal neighbours from the degradation and wretchedness <^f 
 savage life to a participation of the improvements of which 
 
SPEAKER. 253 
 
 the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civihzed 
 state. As far as sentiments and intentions such as these 
 can aid the fulfilment of my duty, they will be a resource 
 which cannot fail me. 
 
 It is my good fortune moreover to have the p:Uh in 
 which I am to tread lighted by examples of illustrious ser- 
 vices, successfully rendered in the most trying difficulties 
 by those who have marched before me. Of those of my 
 im mediate predecessor, it might least become me here to 
 speak — I may however be pardoned for not suppressing 
 the sympathy with which my heart is full, in the rich re- 
 ward he enjoys in the benediction of a beloved country, 
 gratefully bestowed for exnited talents, zealously devoted 
 through a long career, to the advancemc;nt of its highest 
 interest and happiness. — But the source to which I look 
 for the aids, which alone can supply my deficiencies, is 
 in the well tried intelligence and virtvte of my fellow-citi- 
 zens and in the care of the national interest. In these my 
 confidence will, under every difficulty, be best placed, next 
 to thca which we have all been encouraged to feel in the 
 guardianship and guidance of that Almi.hty Being, whose 
 ppwer regulates the destiny of nations — whose blessings 
 have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising repub- 
 lic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gra- 
 titude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications andl 
 best hopes for the future. 
 
 JAMES MADISON, 
 
 Washington^ March Athy 1809^ 
 
 Extract from Mr, Ameses Speech on the British Treali/* 
 
 If any, should maintain that the peace with the Indians 
 will lie stabh with(ujt the Posts, to them I will urge ano^ 
 ther repl\. From arguments calculated to produce convic- 
 tion, 1 will appeal directly to th» hv-arts of those who hear 
 me, and ask whether it is not already planted there ? I re- 
 sort especially to the convictions of the western gentlemeng. 
 whether, supposing no posts and no treaty, the settlers 
 will remain in security I Can they take it upon theiiv to 
 say, that an Indian peace under these circumstances, will 
 prove firm I No^ sir^ it will not be peace bvi^, ?, ^wordf i=: 
 
 H k2^ 
 
254 AMERICAN 
 
 will be no belter than a lure to draw victims withm the 
 reach of the tomahawk. 
 
 On this theme, my emotions are unutterable. If I 
 could find words for them, if my powers bore any pro- 
 portion to m\ Zral, I would swell my voice to such a note 
 of renionstranct , it should reach every log-house beyond 
 the mountains. I would say to the inhabitants, wake from 
 your false security. Your cruel dangers, your more cruel 
 apprehensions ar^ soon to be renewed : The wounds, yet 
 unUtaltd, are to be torn open again. In the day time, your 
 path through the woods will be ambushed. The darkness 
 of m dnightwill glitter with the blaze of your dwellings. 
 You are a father — the blood of your sons shall fatten your 
 corn-field. You are a mother — the war whoop shall wake- 
 the sleep of the cradle. 
 
 On this subject you need not suspect any deception on 
 your feelings. It is a spectacle of horror which cannot 
 be overdri'wn. If you have nature in your hearts, they 
 will speak a language compared with which all I have said 
 or can say, will be poor and frigid. 
 
 Will it be whispered that the treaty has made me anew 
 i:hampion for the protection o^ the frontiers ; it is knowji 
 th. I « v voice as well as vote has been uniformly given in 
 cor fi.rnnt) with the ideas I have expressed. Protection is 
 the ight oi the frontiers ; it is our duly to give it. 
 
 V\ bo will accuse me of wandering out of the subject? 
 Wl o will say that I cx;iggerate the tendencies of our mea- 
 sure ?> r Will ny one iinswer by a sneer, that all this is idle 
 prri.ching I Would any one deny that we .;re bound, and I 
 vouio hope to good purpose, by he most solemn sanctions 
 of duty for the vote we give ? Are despots alone to be re- 
 proached for unfeeling indifference to the tears and blood 
 f i-hiir subjects? Are republicans unrt sponsible ! Have the 
 priiiciples on which you ground the r- proach upon cabi- 
 Dtts and kings no practicable influence, no binding force ? 
 Are thty merely themes of idle declamation, introduced 
 to decorate the morality of a newspaper essay, or to furnish 
 pretty topics of harangue from the windows of that state 
 house? I trust it is neither too presumptuous nor too late 
 Tc* ask. Can you put the dearest interest of society at risk, 
 ivithout guilt, and without remorse ? 
 
SPEAKER. 505^ 
 
 It is vain to offer as an excuse, that public men are not 
 to be reproached for the evils that may happen to ensue 
 from their measures. This is very true, where they are 
 unforeseen or inevitable. Those I have depicted are not 
 unforeseen ; they are so far from inevitable, we are going 
 to bring them into being by our vote. We choose the con- 
 sequences, and become as justly answerable for them as for 
 the measure that we know will produce them. 
 
 By rejecting the posts, we light the savage fires, we bind 
 the victims. This day we undertake to render account to 
 the widows and orphans whom our decision will m.)ke, to 
 the wretches that will be roasted at the stake, to our coun- 
 try, and I do not derm it too serious to say, to conscience 
 and to God. We are answerable ; and if duty be any 
 thing more than a word of imposture, if conscience be not 
 a lougbear, we are preparing to make ourselves as wretch- 
 ed as our country. 
 
 There is no mistake in this case, there can be none. — 
 Experience has JiVeady been the prophet of events, and 
 the ;.ries of our future- victims have already reached us. 
 The western i( h »bit mts are not a silent and uncomplain- 
 ing sacrifice. The voice of humanity issues from the 
 shade of the wilderness. It exclaims, that while one 
 hand is held up to reject this treaty, the other grasps a 
 tomahawk. It summons our imagination to the scenes 
 that will open. It is no great effort of the imagination to 
 conceive that events so near are already be^un. I can 
 fancy that I listen to the yells of savage vengeance, and 
 the shrieks of torture. A ready they seem to sigh in the 
 west wind ; already they mingle with every echo from the 
 mountains. 
 
 BURR AND BLENNERHASSEET. 
 
 F.xtractfrom the Speech of Mr. Wirt on the trial of Aaron 
 Burr for High Treason* 
 
 A plain man who knew nothing of the curious transmu- 
 tations which the wit of man can work, would be very apt 
 to wonder by what kind ol legerdemain Aaron Burr had 
 contrived to shuffle himself down to the bottom of the 
 
3J6 AMERICAN 
 
 pack as an accessory, and turn up poor Blennerhassett as 
 principal in this treason. It is an honor, I dare say, for 
 which Mr, Blennt rhassett is by no means anxious ; one 
 which, he has never disputed with colonel Burr, and 
 which I am persuaded, he would be as little inclined to 
 dispute on this occasion, as on any other. Since, however, 
 the modesty of colonrl Burr declines the first rank, and 
 seems disposed to force Mr. Blennerhassett mto it in spite 
 of his hlusht s, let us compare the cases of the two men 
 and settle this question of precedence between them. It 
 mav save a good deal of troublesome ceremony hereafter. 
 
 In m.^king this comparison, sir, I shall speak of the two 
 men and of the part they bore as I believe it to exist and 
 to be substantially capable of proof: although the court 
 has already told us, that as this is a motion to exclude all 
 evidence, generally, we have a right, in resisting it, to sup- 
 pose the evidence which is behind, strong enough to prove 
 any thing and every thing compatible with the fact of 
 Burr's ab'-ence from the isLmd. If it will be more agreea- 
 ble to the feelings of the prisoner to consider the parallel 
 which I m about to run, or rather the contrast which I 
 am about to exhibit, as a fiction, he is at liberty to do so j 
 I Leiieve it to be a fat. 
 
 Who then is Aaron Burr, and what the part which he 
 has borne in this transaction ? He is its author; its pro- 
 jei tor ; its active executor. Bold, ard nt, restless and as- 
 piring, his brain cone ivid it; his h nd brought it into ac- 
 tion. Beginning his (operations in N vv York, he associ- 
 ates with him, men whose wealth ;s to supply the nect.s- 
 Si r\ lunds. Possessed of the main spring, his personal 
 labour contrives nil the machinery. Pervading the conti- 
 nent from Nt w York to New-Orleans, he draws into his 
 plan b\ every allurement which he can contrive, men of 
 all ranks, and all descriptions. To ycuthlul ardour he 
 presents danger and glory ; to ambition, rank and titles 
 and honors ; to avarice the mines of Mexico. To e:tch 
 person whom he addr. sses, he presents the object adapted 
 to his taste : his recruiting officers are appointed ; men 
 are engaged throughout the continent ; civil life is indeed 
 quiet upon its surface ; but in Us bosom this man has con- 
 trived to deposit the m teri.ds which, with the slightest 
 touch of his match produces an explosion to shake the con- 
 
SPEAKER. 3B7 
 
 Wnent. All this his restless ambition has contrived ; and 
 in the autumn of 1806, he goes forth for the last time, to 
 apply this match. — On this excursion he meets with Blen- 
 nerhassett 
 
 Who is Blennerhassett ? A native of Ireland, a man of 
 letters, who fled from the storms of his own country to 
 find quiet in ours. His history shews that war is not the 
 natural element of his mind; if it had been, he would 
 never have exchanged Ireland for America. So far is an 
 army from furnishing the society natural and proper to 
 Mr. Blennerhassett's character, that on his arrival in Ame- 
 rica, he retired even from the population of the Atlantic 
 states, and sought quiet and solitude in the bosom of our 
 Western forests. But he carried with him taste and science 
 and wealth ; and " lo, the desert smiled." Possessing 
 himself of a beautiful island in the Ohio, he rears upon it 
 a palace and decorates it with every romantic embellish- 
 ment of fancy. A shrubbery that Shenstone might have 
 envied, blooms around him; music that might have charm- 
 ed Calypso and her nymphs, is his ; an extensive library 
 spreads its treasures before him ; a philosophical apparatus 
 offers to him all the secrets and mysteries of nature ; p. ace, 
 tranquillity and innocence shed their mingled delights 
 around him ; and to crown the enchantment of the scene, 
 a wife, who is said to be lovely even beyond her sex, and 
 graced with every accomplishment that can render it irre- 
 sistible, had blessed him with her love, and made him the 
 father of her children. The evidence VfowXd convince you, 
 sir, that this is but a faint picture of the real life. Ik\ the 
 midst of all this peace, this innocence, and this tranquilli- 
 ty, this feast of the mind, this pure banquet of the heart-— 
 the destroyer conies — he comes to turn this paradise into 
 a hell — yet the flowers do not wither at his approach and 
 no monitory shuddering through the bosom of their unfor- 
 tunate possessor, warns him of the ruin that is coming up- 
 on him. A stranger presents hin.self. Introduced to their 
 civilities by the high rank Nvhi(h he had lately held in his 
 country, he soon fmds his way to their hearts by the dig- 
 nUy and elegance of his demeanor, the light and beauty 
 of his conversation, and the seductive and fascinating 
 power of his address. The conquest was not a difficult 
 one. Innocence is ever simple and credulous ; conscious 
 
35S AMERICAN 
 
 of no designs itself, it suspects none in others ; it wears 
 no guards before its breast ; every door and portal and 
 avenue of the heart is thrown open, and all who choose 
 it enter. Such was the state of Eden, when the serpent 
 entered its bowers. The prisoner in a more engaging 
 form, winding himself into the open and unpractised heart 
 of the unfortunate Blennerhassett, found but little difficul- 
 ty in changing the native character of that heart and the 
 objects of its affection. By degrees he infuses into it the 
 poison of his own ambition ; he breathes into it the fire of 
 his own courage; a daring and a desperate thirst for glo- 
 ry ; an ardour panting for all the storm and bustle and 
 hurricane of life. In a short time the whole man is chang- 
 ed, and ever} object of his former delight relinquished. 
 No more he enjoys the tranquil scene : it has become flat 
 and insipid to his taste : his books are abandoned : his re- 
 tort and crucible are thrown aside : his shrubbery blooms 
 and breaths its fragranca upon the air in vain — he likes it 
 not: his ear no longer drinks the rich melody of music ; 
 it longs for the trumpet's clangor, and the cannon's roar ; 
 even the prattle of his babes, once so sweet, no longer af- 
 fects him ; and the angel smile of his wife, which hitherto 
 touched his bosom with ecstacy so unspeakable, is now 
 unfelt and unseen. Greater objects have taken possession 
 of his soul— his imagination has been dazzled by visions 
 of diadems, and stars and garters and titles of nobility : 
 he has been taught to burn with restless emulation at the 
 names of Cromwell, Csesar, and Buonaparte. His en- 
 chanted island is destined soon to relapse into a desert ; 
 and in a few months, we find the tender and beautiful 
 partner of his bosom, whom he lately " permitted not the 
 winds of" summer *' to visit too roughly" we find her 
 shivering, at midnight, on the winter banks of the Ohio, 
 and minglmg her tears with the torrents that froze as they 
 fell. Yet this unfortunate man, thus deluded from his in- 
 terest and h.s happiness — thus seduced from the paths of 
 innocence and peace — thus confounded in the toils which 
 were deliberately spread for him, and overwhelmed by 
 the mastering spirit and genius of another — this man, 
 thus ruined and undone, and made to play a subordinate 
 part in this grand drama of guilt and treason — this man is 
 to be called the principle offender; while he, by whOin he 
 
 I 
 
SPEAKER. 5S9 
 
 was thus plunged and steeped in misery, is comparatively 
 innocent — a mere accessory. Sir, neither the human heart 
 nor the human understanding will bear a perversion so 
 monstrous and absurd ; so shocking to the soul ; so revolt- 
 ing to reason. O ! no Sir. There is no man who knows any 
 thing of this affair, who does not know that to every body 
 concerned in it, Aaron Burr was as the sun to the planets 
 which surround him ; he bound them in their respective 
 orbits, and gave them their light, their heat and their mo- 
 tion. Let him not then shrink from the high destination 
 which he has courted ; and having already ruined Blen- 
 nerhassett in fortune, character and happiness forever, at- 
 tempt to finish the tragedy by thrusting that ill-fated man 
 between himself and punishment. 
 
 Extract from a?i Oration delivered by Richard Rush Esqr, 
 at Wash'mgton City^ July Mh^ 1812. 
 
 The seizure of the persons of American citizens under 
 the name and the pretexts of impressment, by the naval of- 
 ficers of Great Britain, is an outrage of that kind which 
 makes it difficult to speak of it m t rms of appropriate des- 
 crip jon ; for this, among other reasons, that the offence it- 
 self is new. It is probable that the most ci^reful research- 
 es into history, where indeed of almost every form of ra- 
 pine between men and between nations is to be found the 
 melancholy record, will yet afford no example of the sys- 
 tematic perpetration of an offence of a similar nature, per- 
 petrated, too, undrr a claim of right. To take a just and 
 no other than a serious illustration, the only parallel to it 
 is to be found in the African slave trade ; and if an emi- 
 nent statesman of England once spoke of the latter, as the 
 greatest practical evil that had ever affl cted mankind, we 
 may be allowed to denominate the former ihe greatest 
 practical offence that has ever been offered to a civilized 
 and mdependent state. 
 
 Under a mere personal view of this outrage, and con- 
 sid ring it on the footing of a moral sin, it is strictly like 
 the African slave trade. Like that it breaks up fami ies 
 and causes hearts lo bleed. Like that it tears th. son irom 
 the father, the father from the son. Like that it tnakes 
 
360 AMERICAN 
 
 orphans and widows, takes the brother from the sister, 
 seizes up the young man in the heaUh of his days and 
 blasts his hopes forever. It is worse than the slavery of 
 the African, for the African is only made to work under 
 the lash of a task master, whereas the citizen of the Unit- 
 ed States, thus enslaved, receives also the lash on the 
 slightest lapses from a rigorous discipline, and is more- 
 over exposed to the bitter fate of fighting against those to- 
 wards whom he has no hostility, perhaps his own coun- 
 trymen — it may be, his own immediate kindred. This is 
 not exaggeration, feilovv-citizens, it is reality and fact. 
 
 But, say the British, we want not your men ; we want 
 only our own. Prove that they are yours and we will 
 surrender them up. Baser outrage ! insolent indignity ! 
 that a free born American must be made to prove his na- 
 tivity to those who have previouly violated his liberty, 
 else he is to be held forever as a slave ! That before a 
 British tribunal — a British boarding officer — a free-born 
 American must be made to seal up the vouchers of his 
 lineage, to exhibit the records of his baptism and his 
 birth, to establish the identity that binds him to his pa- 
 rents, to his blood, to his native land, by setting forth in 
 odious detail his size, his age, the shape of his frame, 
 whether his hair is long or crept — his marks — like an ox 
 or a horse of the monger — that all this must be done as 
 the condition of his escape from the galling thraldom of 
 a British ship! Can we hear it, can we think of it, with 
 any other than indignant feelings at our tarnished name 
 and nation ? And suppose through this degrading pro- 
 cess his deliverance to be effected, where is he to seek re- 
 dress for the intermediate wrong t The unauthorised sci- 
 sure and detention ot any piece of property, a mere tres- 
 pass upon goods, will always lay the foundation for some, 
 often the heaviest retribution, in every well-regulated so- 
 ciety. But to whom, or when, shall our imprisoned ci- 
 tizen, when the privilege of shaking off his fetters has at 
 last been accorded to him, turn for his redress ? where 
 look to rrimburse the stripes, perhaps the wounds he has 
 received — his worn spirit — his long inward agonies ? No, 
 the public > ode of nations recognizes not the penalty, for 
 to the modern rapuciousness of Britain it was reserved to 
 
SPEAKER. 3.61 
 
 add to the dark catalogue of human sufferings, this flagi- 
 tious crime. 
 
 But why be told that, even on such proofs, our citizens 
 will be released from their captivity ? We have long and 
 sorely experienced the impracticable nature of this boon, 
 which, in the imagined relaxation of her deep injustice, 
 she would affect to hold out. Go to the office of the De- 
 partment of State, within sight of where we are assem- 
 bled, and there see the piles of certificates and documents, 
 of affidavits, records and seals, anxiously drawn out and 
 folded up — to show why Americans should not be held 
 as slaves — and see how diey rest, and will forever rest, in 
 hopeless neglect upon the shelves. Some defect in form, 
 some impossibility of filling up all the crevices which Bri- 
 tish exaction insists upon being closed ; the uncertainty, 
 if, after all, they will ever reach their point of destination., 
 the climate or the sea where the hopes of gain or the lust 
 of conquest are impelling, through constant changes, their 
 ships ; the probability that the miserable individual to 
 whom they are intended as the harbinger of liberation 
 from his shackles, may have been translated from the first 
 scene of his incarceration to another, from a seventy-four 
 to a sixty-four, from a sixty-four to a frigate, and thus 
 through rapid, if not designed, mutations, a practice 
 which is known to exist — these are obvious causes of dis- 
 couriigement, by making the issue at all times doubtful, 
 most frequently hopeless. And this Great Britain cannot 
 but know. She does know it, and, v/ith deliberate niockeryj 
 in the composure with which bloated power can scoff at 
 submissive and humble suffering, has she continued to in- 
 crease and protract our humiliation as well as our suffer- 
 ing, by renewals of the visionary offer. 
 
 Again it is said, that our citizens resemble their men, 
 look like them in their persons, speak the same language, 
 that discriminations are difficult ind impracticable, and 
 therefore it is they are unavoidably seized. Most insult- 
 ing excuse ! And will they impeach that God who equal- 
 ly made us both ? who forms our features, moulds our 
 statures and stamps us with a countenance that turns up 
 to his goodness in adoration and love ! Impious as w, .; as 
 insulting ! The leopard cannot change his spois or th • E- 
 thiopian his skin, but xvey ive^ are to put off our bodies 
 
 I I 
 
562 AMERICAN 
 
 and become unlike ourselves as the price of our safety ! 
 Why should similarity of face yoke us exclusively with an 
 Ignominious burden ? why, because we were once descend- 
 ed from them, should we be made at this day, and forev- 
 er, to clank chains ? Suppose one of their subjects landed 
 upon our shores — let us suppose him a prince of their 
 blood — shall we seize upon him to mend our highways, 
 shall we draft hbn for our ranks ? shall we subject him in 
 an instant to all the civil burthens of duty, of taxation, of 
 every species of aid and service that grow out of the alle- 
 giance of the citizen, until he can send across the ocean 
 for the registers of his family and birth ? What has her 
 foul spirit of impressment to answer to this ? Why not e- 
 qually demand on our part that every one of her factors 
 who lands upon our soil should bring a protection in his 
 pocket, or hang one round his neck, as the price of his 
 safety ? If this plea of monstrous outrage be, only for one 
 instant, admitted, remember, fellow citizens, that it be- 
 comes as lasting as monstrous. If our children, and our 
 children's children, and their children, continue to spe^k 
 the same tongue, to hold the same port with their fathers, 
 they also will be liable to this enslavement, and the groan- 
 ing evil be co-existent with British power, British rapa- 
 city, and the maxim that the British navy must have 
 wen ! If our men are like theirs, it should form, to any 
 other than a nation callous to justice, dead to the moral 
 sense, and deliberately bent upon plunder, the very reason 
 why they should give up the practice, seeing that it is in- 
 trinsically liable to these mistakes, and that the exercise 
 of what they call a right on their part necessarily brings 
 with it certain, eternal, and the most high-handed wrongs 
 to us. 
 
 I am a Roman citizen, I am a Roman citizen ! was an 
 exclamation that insured safety, commanded respect, or 
 inspired terror in all parts ol the world. And although 
 the mild temper of our government exacts not all these 
 attributes, we may, at least, be suffered to deplore with 
 hearts of agouy and shame, that while the inhabitants of 
 every other part of the globe enjoy an immunity from the 
 seizure of their peibt^ns, except under the late of war, or 
 by acknov.'iedged pir.ius — even ihe wretched Africans of 
 late-— to be an American citizen has, for five and twenty 
 
SPEAKER. 363 
 
 years, been the signal for insult and the passport to capti- 
 ty. Let it not be replied that the men they take from us 
 are sometimes not of a character or description to attract 
 the concern or interposition of the government. If they 
 were all so^ it lessens in no wise the enormity of the out- 
 rage. It adds indeed a fresh indignity to nention it. The 
 sublime equalitv of justice recognizes no such distinctions, 
 and a government founded upon the great basis of equal 
 right, would forget one of its fundamental duties, if in the 
 exercise of its protecting: power it admits to a foreign na- 
 tion the least distinction between what it owes to the low- 
 est and meanest, and the highest and most exalted of its 
 citizens. 
 
 Sometimes it is said that but Jeiv of our seamen are in 
 reality seized ! Progressive and foul aggravation ! to ad- 
 mit the crime to our faces and seek to screen its atrocity 
 under its limited extent. Whence but from a source hard- 
 ened with long rapine, could such a palliation flow ? It is 
 false. The files of that same department, its melancholy 
 memorials, attest that there are thousands of our country- 
 men at this moment in slavery in their ships. And if 
 there were but one hundred, if there were but fifty, if 
 there were but ten — if there were but one, how dare they 
 insult a sovereign nation with such an answer ? Shall 1 state 
 to you a fact, ftUow-citizens, that will be sufficient to rouse 
 not simply your indignation, but your horror, and would 
 that I could speak it at this moment to the whole nation., 
 that every American who has a heart to be inflamed with 
 honest resentment might hear ; — a fact that shows all the 
 excess of shame that should flush our faces at submission 
 to an outrage so foul. I state to you, upon the highest 
 and most unquestionable authority, that two of the nephews 
 of your immortal Washington have been seized, dragged, 
 made slaves of on board of a British ship ! Will it be cre- 
 dited ? It is nevertheless true. They were kept in slave- 
 ry more than a year, and as the transactions of your go- 
 vernment will show, were restored to their liberty only a 
 few months since.* How, Americans, can you sit down 
 
 * They were the sons of the late Fielding- Lewis, of Virg-inia, who 
 was imme.hate nephew to General Washington: for all which see llie 
 papers on file in llie oiEce of the Secretary, of StiUe. 
 
564 AMERICAN 
 
 under such indigrjities ? To which of their priaces, which 
 of their nobles, to which of their ministers or which of 
 their regents, will you allow, in the just pride of men and 
 of freemen, that those who stand in consanguinity to the 
 illustrious founder of your liberties, are second in all their 
 claims to safety and protection ? But we must leave the 
 odious subject. It swells indeed with ever fruitful ex- 
 pansion, to the indignant view, but while it animates it is 
 loathsome. If the English say it is mertly an abuse inci- 
 dent to a right on their part, besides denying forever the 
 foundation of such right where it goes to the presumptuous 
 entry of our own vessels with their armed men, shall we 
 tolerate its exercise for an instant when manifestly attend- 
 ed with such a practical, unceasing, and enormous oppres- 
 sion upon ourselves ? 
 
 This crime of impressment may justly be considered — 
 posterity will so consider it — as transcending the amount 
 of all the other wrongs we have received. Notwithstand- 
 ing the millions v/hich the cupidity of Britain has wrested 
 from us, the millions which the cupidity of France has 
 v>' rested from us, including the wicked burnings of our 
 ^hips — adding also the wrongs from Spain and Denmark 
 — fhe sum of all should be estimated below this enormity. 
 Ships and merchandise belong to individuals, and may 
 be valued ; may be endured as subjects of negotiation. 
 But mc7i are the property of the nation. In every Ameri- 
 can face a part of our country's sovereignty is written. It 
 is the living emblem — a thousand times more sacred than 
 the nation's flag itself — of its character, its independence 
 Lind its rights — its quick and most dearly cherished insig- 
 nium — towards which the nation should ever demand the 
 most scrupulous and inviolable immunity, being instantly 
 sensitive under the flagrant indignity of the slightest in- 
 fringement of its beaming, vivid, attributes of sovereign- 
 ty ! Man was created in his Maker's own image — " in the 
 image of God created he him." When he is made a slave, 
 where shall there be reimbursement? No, fellow-citizens, 
 under the assistance and protection of the Most High, the 
 evil must be stopped. His own im.age must not be enslaved. 
 It was deservedly the first enumerated of our grievances 
 in the late solemn message from the first magistrate of 
 our land ; on the eighteenth of June of this memorable 
 
SPEAKER. ' 36^ 
 
 year we appealed to the sword and to Heaven against it, and 
 we shall be wanting to ourselves, to our posterit\ — we shall 
 never stand erect in our sovereignty as a nation if we re- 
 turn it to the scabbard until such an infamy and a curse 
 are finally and effectually removed. The blessings of peace 
 itself become a curse, a foul curse, while such a stain is 
 permitted to rest upon our annals, Neve-r, henceforth, 
 must American ships be converted mto worse than butch- 
 er*s shambles for the inspection and seizure of human 
 flesh ! We would appeal to the justice and humanity of 
 their own statesmen, claim the interference of ther Wil- 
 berforces — invoke the spirit of th. ir departed Fox — call 
 upon all among diem who nobly succeeded in th ir l(jng 
 struggles against the African slave trade, to stand up and 
 retrieve the British name from the equal odium of this 
 offence. 
 
 If it be true that injuries long acquiesced in lose the 
 power of exciting sensibility, it may be remarked, in con- 
 clusion of this Kiteful subject how forcibly verified it is in 
 the instance of robbing us of our citiscns. When it hap- 
 pens that some of them are surrendered up, c?i examma- 
 thn and allowance of the proofs^ it is not unusual to advert ta 
 ii as an indication of the justice and generosity of the Bri- 
 tish ! The very act, which, to an abstract judgment, should 
 l)e taken as stamping a seal upon the outrage, by the ac- 
 knowledgment it implies from themselves of the atrocity, 
 because the unhnvfulness of the seizure, is thus converted 
 into a medium of homage and of praise ! Inverted patriot- 
 ism ! drooping, downcctst honor! to derive a pleasurable 
 sensation from the insulting confession of a crime ! 
 
 Next to a just war, fellow-citizens, we wage a defensive 
 one. This is its true and only character. Our fields were 
 not, indeed, invaded, or our towns entered and sacked* 
 But still it is purely a war of defence. It was to stop re- 
 iterated encroachments we took up arms. Persons, pro- 
 perty, rights, character, sovereignty, justice, all these were 
 contumaciously invaded at our hands. Let impartial truth 
 say, if it were for ambition, or conquest, or plunder, or 
 through any false estimate of character, or pride vfe ap- 
 pealecl to the sword. No, Americans ! No ! Republicans,, 
 there will rest no such blot upon your moderate, your pa- 
 cific councils. It is an imperfect view of this c^uestitosa 
 
 1 J 2 
 
366 AMERICAN 
 
 which takes as a defensive war, only that v/hlch is entered 
 upon when the assailant is bursting through your doors 
 and levelling the musket at the bosoms of your women 
 and children. Think how a nation may he abridged, may 
 be- disnuuitled of its rights, may be cut down in its liber- 
 ties, this side of an open attack. The Athenian law pu- 
 nished seduction of female honor more severely than it 
 did force. And the nation that would adopt it as a max- 
 im to lie by under whatever curtailments of its sove- 
 reignty, resolving upon no resistance until the actual in- 
 vestment of its soil, might find itself too fatally trenched 
 upon, too exhausted in resources, or too enfeebled in spirit, 
 to rouse itself when the foe was rushing through the gates. 
 
 The war whoop of the Indian had indeed been heard 
 in the habitations of our frontier; and it is impossible to 
 abstain from imputing to the agency of our enemy this 
 horrid species of invasion. Their hand must be in it. For 
 although it may not be directly instigated by thtir govern- 
 ment on the other side of the water, yet past prools make 
 It to the last degree probable that the intrigues of their 
 sub-agents in the Canadas are instrumental to the wicked- 
 ness. Nor will a rational mind hesitate to infer that the 
 same spirit which, from that quarter at least, could send, 
 for the most nefarious purposes, a polished spy through 
 our cities, would also, varying the form of its iniquity, 
 let loose upon us the hatchet and the scalping knife. 
 Great Britain indeed had not declared war against us in 
 fcrm^ but she had made it upon us infact^ She had plun- 
 dered us of our property, she had imprisoned our citi- 
 zens ; nor can any accommodation nov/ erase from our 
 memories, although it may from our public discussions, 
 the bloodv iriemcrials of her attack upon the Chesapeake- 
 
 Since, fellow-citizens, that through all these motives a 
 war v;ith Britain has been cast upon us, while bearing up 
 against whatever of pressure it may bring with the energy 
 and the hope of our fathers, let us deduce also this of con^ 
 folation ; that it will, more than any thing else, have a ten 
 dcncv to break the sway which that nation is enabled to 
 liokl over us. I v/ould address myself on this point to the 
 candid mKids of our countrymen, and to all such among 
 them as have bosoms penetrated v/ith a genuine love for 
 our republican systems. We form, probably for the firs* 
 
SPEAKER. 367 
 
 time in all history, the instance of a nation descended, and 
 politically detached from another, but still keeping up the 
 most intimate connexions with the original and once pa- 
 rent stock. The similarity of our manners and customs; 
 our language being one, and our religion nearly one ; the 
 entire identity in individual appearance, and in all things 
 else, which is spread before the American and the Eng- 
 lish eye; our boundless social intercommunication; the 
 very personal respectability, in so many instances, of those 
 of that nation who, in such numbers, come to this ; pecu- 
 niary connexions so universal and unlimited ; dependent 
 upon her loom, dependent upon her fashions, dependent 
 upon her judicature, dependent upon her drama — reading 
 none but her books, or scarcely any others; taking up her 
 character and actions chiefly at the hands of her own an- 
 nalists or panegyrists ; nothing in fine that comes from 
 that quarter being regarded as foreign, but as well her in- 
 habitants as her modes of life and all her usagt s, being 
 taken to be as of our own — these complicated similitudes 
 operate like cramps and holdings to bind us insensibly to 
 her sides, yielding to her an easy, an increasing, and an 
 unsuspected ascendenc}'. 
 
 It may be said this is an advantageous ascendency ; that 
 as a young people, we may profit of the Intimacy, have her 
 arts and her manners, copy her many melic^rations of ex- 
 isteiice, eat of her intellectual fod and get stamina the 
 more quickly upon its nourishment. But stop Ameri- 
 cans ! do you not know that this same people are the sub- 
 jects of an old and luxurious monarchy, with all the cor- 
 rupt attachments to which it leads; that if not their duty, 
 it is naturally their practice to breathe the praise and in- 
 culcate the love of their own forms of polity. Do you not 
 know, that if not the correlative dutv, it is, as certainly, 
 their correlative practice, to deal out disapprobation, even 
 contempt for our own, and the habits which alone they 
 should superinduce? And is there not cause for apprehen- 
 sion that the superiority which we so easily, often so slav- 
 ishly, choose tj yield her on all other points — that the mo- 
 ral prostration in which we consent to fall before her foot- 
 3tool — may also trench upon the reverence due to our own 
 public institutions, producing results at which all our fears 
 should startle ? If, fellow-citizens, our freedom, our repub- 
 
368 AMERICAN 
 
 lican freedom, which, to make lasting, we should cherish 
 with uninterrupted constancy and the purt'st love, has a 
 foe more deadly than any other, it is probably this ; this is 
 the destroying spirit which can make its way slowly and 
 unperceived, but surely and fatally. If we stood farther 
 ofl" — much farther off — from Britain, we should still be 
 near enough to derive all that she has valuable, while we 
 should be more safe from the poison of her political touch. 
 Just as, at this day, we can draw upon the repositories of 
 genius and literature among the ancients, while we escape 
 the vices of paganism and the errors of their misleading 
 philosophy. But if Athenian citizens filled our towns; if 
 we spoktt their language, wore their dress, took them to 
 our homes ; if we kept looking up to them with general 
 imitfition and subserviency, the truths of Christianity 
 themselves would be in danger of yielding to the adora- 
 tion of the false gods! 
 
 This wiir may produce, auspiciously and forever the 
 effect of throwmg us at a safer distance from so contami- 
 nating an intimacy, making our liberty thrive more se- 
 curely, and ourselves more independent — privately and 
 politically. Froiu no other nation are we in danger in the 
 same way ; for, with no other nation have we the same 
 affinities, but, on the contrary, numerous points of repul- 
 sion that interpose as our guard. Let us have a shy con- 
 nexicm with them all, for history gives the admonition, 
 that for the last twenty years, every nation of the world 
 that has come too close in friendship with either our pre- 
 sent en<.m}-, or her neighbour, the ferocious giant of the 
 land, has lost its liberties, been prostrated, or been ravag- 
 ed. After the war of our revolution, we ^vere still so 
 much in the feebleness of youth as to take the out- 
 stretched hand of Britain, who could establish our in- 
 dustry, shape our occupations, and give them, involunta- 
 rily to ourselves, the direction advantageous to her views. 
 But, henceforth, we shall stand upon a pedestal whose base 
 is fixed among ourselves, whence we may proudly look 
 around and afar — from the ocean to the mountains, from 
 the mountains to the farthest west, beholding our fruitful 
 fields, listening to the hammer of our work-shops, the 
 cheerful noise of our looms: — where the view, on all 
 sides, of native numbers, opulence and skill, will enable 
 
SPEAKER. 3(59 
 
 us to stamp more at pleasure the future destinies of our 
 happy land. Possibly, also, the sameness of our pursuits 
 in so many things, with Britain, instead of pointing to 
 close connexions with her, as her politicians so steadily 
 hold up, will at length indicate to the foresight of our own 
 statesmen unalteuable reasons to an intercourse more re- 
 strained — it may be the elements of a lasting rivalship. 
 
 Animated by all the motives which demand and justify 
 this contest, let us advance to it with resolute and high 
 beating hearts, supported by the devotion to our beloved 
 country, which wishes for her triumphs cannot fail to kin- 
 dle. Dear to us is this beloved country, far dearer than 
 we can express, for all the true blessings that flourish 
 within her bosom ; the country of our fathers, the country 
 of our children, the scene of our dearest affections — 
 whose rights and liberties have been const crated by the 
 blood whose current runs so fresh in our own veins. Who 
 shall touch such a country, and not fire the patriotism and 
 unsheath the swords of us all? No, Americans ! while you 
 reserve your independent privilege of rendering, at all 
 times, your suffrages as you please, let our proud foe be 
 undeceived. Let her, let tht world learn, now and for- 
 ever, that the voice of our nation, when once legitimately 
 expressed, is holy — is imperious! that it is a summons of 
 duty to every citizen ; that v/hen we strike at a foreign 
 foe, the sacred bond of country becomes the pledge of a 
 concentrated effort ; that in such a cause, and at such a 
 crisis, we feel but one heart and strike with our whole 
 strength ! We are the only nation in the world, fellow-citi- 
 zens, where the people and the government stand, in all 
 things, identified; where all the acts of the latter are im- 
 mediately submitted to the superior revision of the for- 
 mer; where every blow at the general safety becomes the 
 personal concern of each individual. Happy people, hap- 
 py government! will you give up, will 3 ou not defend, 
 such blessings ? We are also perhaps the only genuine re- 
 public which, since the days of the ancients, has taken up 
 arms against a foreign foe in defence of its rights and its 
 liberties. Animating thought ! warmed with the fire of 
 ancient freedom, may we not expect to see the valor of 
 Thermopylae and Marathon again displayed ! The Con- 
 gress of eighteen hundred and tv/elve, here, within these 
 
Sro AMERICAN 
 
 august walls, have proclaimed to the world that other feel- 
 ings than those of servility, avarice, or fear, pervade the 
 American bosom ; that in the hope and purity of youth. 
 We are not debased by the passions of a corrupt old age ; 
 that our sensibilities are other than sordid ; that we are 
 ambitious of the dignified port of freemen ; that while pa- 
 cific we know the value of national rights and national jus- 
 tice, and with the spirit due to our lasting prosperity as a 
 republic, design to repel authenticated outrages upon ei- 
 ther. That we will and dare act as becomes a free, an en- 
 lightened, and a brave people. Illustrious Congress! wor- 
 thy to have your names recounted with the illustrious fa- 
 thers of our revolution ! for what grievances were those 
 that led to the great act which made us a nation, that have 
 not been equalled, shall I say have not been surpassed, by 
 those which moved to your deed ? and what noble hazards 
 did they encounter which you ought not to brave ! 
 
 If we are not fully prepared for war, let the sublime 
 spectacle be soon exhibited, that a free and a valiant na- 
 tion, with our numbers, and a just cause, is always a pow- 
 erful nation ; is always ready to defend its essential rights ! 
 The Congress of '76 declared Independence and hurled de- 
 fiance at this same insatiate foe, six and thirty years ago, 
 with an army of seventeen thousand hostile troops just 
 landed upon our shores ; and shall we no%v hesitate ? shall 
 vre bow our necks in submission, shall we make an igno- 
 minious surrender of our birthright under the plea that 
 we are not prepared to defend it t No, Americans ! Yours 
 has been a pacific republic, and therefore has not exhibit- 
 ed military preparation ; but it is a free republic, and 
 therefore will it now, as before, soon command batta- 
 lions, discipline, courage ! Could a general of old by only 
 stamping on the earth raise up armies, and shall a whole 
 nation ot freemen, at such a time, know not where to look 
 for them ? The soldiers of Bunker's hill, the soldiers of 
 Bennington, the soldiers of the Wabash, the seamen of 
 Tripoli contradict it! 
 
 By one of the surviving patriots of our revolution 
 have been told, that in the Congress of 1774, among other 
 arguments used to prevent a war, and separation from 
 Great Britain, the danger of having our towns battered 
 down ^nd burnt was zealousy urged. The venerable 
 
 I 
 
 
 )f 
 
SPEAKER. sri 
 
 Christopher Gadsden, of South Carolina, rose and replied 
 to it in these memorable words : " Our seaport towns, 
 ♦' Mr. President, are composed of brick and wood. If 
 " they are destroyed, we have clay and timber enough in 
 " our country to rebuild them. But, if the liberties of our 
 •» country are destroyed, where shall we find the materials 
 "to replace them?" Behold in this an example of virtuous 
 sentiment fit to be imitated. 
 
 Indulge me with another illustration of American pa- 
 triotisro, derived from the same source. During the siege 
 of Boston, General Washington consulted Congress upon 
 the propriety of bombarding the town. Mr. Hancock was 
 then President of Congress. After General Washington's 
 letter was read, a solemn silence ensued. This was bro- 
 ken by a member making a motion that the House should 
 resolve itself into a committee of the whole, in order that 
 Mr. Hancock might give his opinion upon the important 
 subject, as ht was so deeply interested Irom having all his 
 estate in Boston. After he left the chair, he addressed the 
 chairman of the committee of the whole in the following 
 words: '' It is true, sir, nearly all the property I have in 
 *•'■ the world is in houses and other real estate in the town 
 " of Boston ; but if the expulsion of the British army from 
 " it, and the liberties of our country require their being 
 *' burnt to ashes — issue the order for that purpose inline- 
 " diatehj:'' 
 
 Whiit has ancient or modern story to boast beyond such 
 elevated specimens ot" public virtue? and what inspiring 
 lessons of duty do they teach to us ? W^ar, fellow-citizens, 
 is not the greatest of evils. Long submission to injustice 
 is worse. Peace, a long peace, a peace purchased by 
 mean and inglorious sacrifices, is worse, is far worse. 
 War takes away a life destined by nature to death. It 
 produces chiefly bodily evils. But when ignoble peace 
 robs us of virtue, debases the mind and chills its best 
 feelings, it renders l.fe a living death, and makes us of- 
 fensive above ground. The evils ot ignoble peace are, 
 an inordinate love of money — rage of party spirit — and a 
 willingness to endure even slavery itself rather than bear 
 pecuniary deprivations or brave manly hazards. Tne states 
 of HolL'ml ; nd of Italy will be found, at several stages of 
 their history, strikingly to exemplify this remark 
 
Sr2 AMERICAN 
 
 War in a just cause produces patriotism : witness the 
 speech of Gadsden ! It produces the most noble disinte- 
 restedness where our country is concerned : witness the 
 speech of Hancock ! It serves to destroy party spirit, 
 which may become worse than war. In war death is pro- 
 duced without personal hatred ; but under the influence of 
 party spirit inflamed by the sordid desires of an inglorious 
 peace, the most malignant passions are generated and we 
 hate with the spirit of murderers. 
 
 Could the departed heroes of the revolution rise from 
 their sleep and behold their descendants hanging content- 
 edly over hoards of money, or casting up British invoices, 
 while so long a list of wrongs still looked them in the face, 
 calling for retribution, what would they say ? would they 
 not hasten back to their tombs, now more welcome than 
 ever, since they would conceal from their view the base 
 conduct of those sons for whom they so gallantly fought, 
 and so gallantly fell ? But stop, return, return, illustrious 
 band ! stay and behold, stay and applaud what we too are 
 doing ! we will not dishonor your noble achievements ! 
 we will defend the inheritance you bequeaihed us, — we 
 will wipe away all past stains, we will maintain our rights 
 at the nvv'ord, or like you, we will die ! Then shall we ren- 
 der our ashes worthy to mingle with yours ! 
 
 Sacred in our celebrations be this day to the end of time ! 
 Revered be the memories of the statesmen and orators 
 whose wisdom led to the act of Independence, and of the 
 gallant soldiers who sealed it with their blood ! May the 
 fires of their genius and courage animate and sustain us 
 in our contest, and bring it to a like glorious result! may 
 it be carried on with singleness to the objects that alone 
 summoned us to it — as a great and imperious duty, irk- 
 some yet necessary ! May there be a willing, a joyful, im- 
 niolation of all selfish passions on the altar of a common 
 country ! may the hearts of our combatants be bold, and, 
 under a propitious heaven, their swords flash victory! 
 mav a speedy peace bless us and the passions of war go 
 off','leaving in their place a stronger love of country and 
 of each other ! Then may pacific giories, accumulating and 
 beaming from the excitement of the national mind, long be 
 
 ours : a roused intellect, a spirit of patriotic improvement 
 
 in whatever can gild the American nam« j — in arts, in lite* 
 
SPEAKER. srs 
 
 rature, in science, in manufactures, in agriculture, in le- 
 gislation, in morals, in imbuing our admirable forms of 
 polity with still more and more perfection — may these 
 then long be ours ! may common perils and common 
 triumphs bind us more clos«tly together ! may the era fur- 
 nish names to our annals ""on whom late time a kindling 
 eye shall turn !" Re\)'ered be the dust of those who fall, 
 sweet their memories ! — their country vindicated, their 
 duty done, an honorable renown, the regrets of a nation, 
 the eulogies of friendship, the slow and moving dirges of 
 the camp, the tears of beauty — all, all, will sanctify their 
 doom !— f-Honored be those who outlive the strife of arms ! 
 — our rights established, justice secured, a haughty foe 
 taught to respect the freemen she had abused and plun- 
 dered — to survive to such recollections and such a con- 
 sciousness, is there, can there be, a nobler reward ! 
 
 An old Indian Chief to an EngTish Officer xvho had been 
 taken Prisoner and become a Sla^e to the Indian, 
 
 " Since you have been my captive, you must acknow- 
 ledge that I have treated you with kmdness : I have taught 
 you to form the swift canoe, to chase the bear, to preprire 
 the beaver's skin, and to speed the shaft. Tell me, is your 
 father living i"" — >' He was alive,'^ the officer replied, 
 " when 1 left my country." The chief returned, *' I was 
 a father once : thy loss, oh valiant son ! like the arrow that 
 put an end to thy existence, drinks the blood that waraiS 
 my heart. No joy, no comfort have I known, since I have 
 felt the absence of him whom I loved Vvith such an affec- 
 tion. Behold that sun ! how bright it shines to you ! Since 
 that sad day it looks to me a cloud ! How cheerfully yon- 
 der roses meet your eye ! To me they seem devoid of every 
 charm. Go, youthful stranger, to your father; go, wipe 
 from his furrowed cheek the stream of parental sorrow : 
 go, bid the sun display to him all its splendour j and bid 
 the rose in all her bloom appear!"^. 
 
 K li 
 
374 AMERICAN 
 
 Ati Indiaji Chief to the Engliah Commissioners at the 
 Treaty of Feace-^175S. 
 
 " Brethren — I have raised my voice, and all the In- 
 dians have heard me as far as the Twightvvees, and have 
 regarded my voice, and are now come to this place. Bre- 
 thren, the cause why the Indians of Ohio left you was 
 owing to yourselves. The governor of Virginia settled 
 in our lands, and disregarded our messages : but, when 
 the French came to us, they traded with our people, used 
 them kindly, and gained their affections. Our cousins the 
 jVlinisinks tell us, they were wronged of a great deal of 
 land, and pushed back by the English settling so fast upon 
 thtm, as not to know whether they have any lands remain- 
 ing in surety. You deal hardly with us ; you claim all 
 the wild animals of the forests, and will not let us come 
 on your lands so much as to hunt after them ; you will not 
 let us peel the bark of a single tree to cover our cubins — 
 surely this is hard ! Our fathers, when they sold the land, 
 did not purpose to deprive themselves of hunting the wild 
 deer, or using a branch of wood. Brethren, we have al- 
 ready acquainted you with our grievances ; and we have 
 referred our cause to the great king. I desire to know if 
 king George has yet decided this matter, and whether jus- 
 tice will be done to the Mioisinks ?" 
 
 Speech of Logan, a Mingo Chief to Lord Dunmore, Gover- 
 nor of Virginia — i7r4. 
 
 " I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered 
 Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat : if ever 
 he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During 
 the course of the last long and bloody war Logan remain- 
 ed idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my 
 love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they 
 passed, and said, ' Logan is the friend of white men.* I 
 had t:ven thought to have lived with you, but for the inju- 
 ries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold 
 blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Lo- 
 gan, not even sparing my women and children. There 
 
SPEAKER. srs 
 
 runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living 
 creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought 
 it : I have killed many : I have fully glutted my ven- 
 geance : for my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. 
 But do not harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear. 
 Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to 
 save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan ? — Not 
 
 Speech of an Indian Chief to the Provincial Congress^ in 
 New England^ April Wth^ 1775, 
 
 Brothers ! we have heard you speak by your letter — we 
 thank you for it — we now make answer. Brothers ! you 
 remember when you first came over the great waters I 
 was great and you was little, very small. I then took you 
 in for a friend, and kept you under my arms, so that no 
 one might injure you ; since that time we have ever been 
 true friends ; there has never been any quarrel between 
 us. — But now our conditions are changed. You are be 
 come great and tall. You reach to the clouds. You are 
 seen all round the world. I am become small, very little. 
 I am not so high as your heel. Now you take care of me, 
 and I look to you for protection. Brothers! I am sorry 
 to hear of this great quarrel between you and Old Eng- 
 land. It appears that blood soon must be shed to end this 
 quarrel. We never till this day understood the foundation 
 of this quarrel between you and the country you came 
 from. Brothers ! Whenever 1 see your blood running, 
 50U will soon find me i^bout you to revenge my brother's 
 blood. — Although I am low and very small, I will gripe 
 hold of your enemy's heel, that he cannot run so fast and 
 so light as if he had nothing at his heels. 
 
 Brothers ! You know I am not so wise as you are, there- 
 fore I ask your advice in what I am now going to say — 
 I have been thinking before you come to action, to take a 
 run to the westward, and feel the mind of my Indian bre- 
 thren the Six Nations, and know how they stand, whether 
 they are on your side or for your enemies. If I find they 
 are against you, I will try to turn their minds. I think 
 they will listen to me for they have always looked this 
 
srs AMERICAN 
 
 %vav for advice concerning all important news that comes 
 from the rising of thfe sun. If they hearken to me, you 
 will not be afraid of any danger from behind you. How- 
 ever their minds are affected, you shall soon know by me. 
 —Now I think I can do you more service in this way, 
 than by marching off immediately to Boston, and staying 
 there ; it may be a great while before blood runs. Now 
 as I said, you are wiser than I, I leave this for your consi- 
 deration, whether I come down immediately or wait till I 
 hear some blood is spilled. 
 
 Brothers ! I would not have you think by this that we 
 are falling back from our engagements. We are ready to 
 do any thing for your relief, and shall be guided by your 
 couasel. 
 
 Brothers ! One thing I ask of you, if you send for me to 
 fight, that 5'ou will let mt- fight in my own Indian way. I 
 aui not used lo fight English fashion, therefore you must 
 not expect I can train like your men. Only point out to 
 me where your enemies keep, and that is all I shall' want 
 to know. 
 
 Speech of the Chiefs of the Seneca nation to the President 
 of the United States — 1 790. 
 
 " Father — the voice of the Seneca nation speaks to^you 
 — the great counsellor, in whose heart the wise men of all 
 the thirteen fires have placed their wisdom ; it may be very 
 small in your ears, and we therefore intreat you to hearken 
 with attention, lor we are about so speak of things which 
 are, to us, very great. 
 
 When your army entered the country of the six nations, 
 ■we called you the town destroyer j and to this day, when 
 your name is heard, our women look behind them and 
 turn pale, and our children cling close to the necks of their 
 mothers. Our counsellors and warriors are men, find can- 
 not be afraid: but their hearts are grieved with the fears 
 of our women and children, and desire that it may be bu- 
 ried so deep, as to be heard no more. 
 
 When you gave us peace, we called you father ; because 
 you promised to secure us in the possession of our lands. 
 
SPEAKER. ' 3T 
 
 Do this, and so long as the land shall remain, that beloved 
 name will he in the heart of every S neca. 
 
 Father — we mean to open our hearts before you, and 
 we earnestly desire that you will let us clearly understand 
 what you resolve to do. 
 
 When our chiefs returned from the treat\ at Fort Stan- 
 wix, and laid before our council what had been done there, 
 our nation was surprised to hear how ;;ref:t a countrv \ou 
 bad compelled them to give up to \ ou, without your d;\v-' 
 ing to us any thing for it. Every one said that vour hearts 
 we'"e yet sv;elled with resentment against us, for what had 
 happened during the war ; but that one dav you would 
 consider it with morr kindness. We ask^d each other, 
 what have we done to di-strve such severe chastisement ? 
 
 F.itht-r — when you kindled your thirteen fin-s separate- 
 ly, the wisr men assembltd at them told us, that y u were 
 
 all l^rothers — the children of one great fath..r ho re- 
 
 g.irded the red people as his childrv n. — i'h v called us 
 brothers, and invited us to his protection. Tiiey told 
 us that he resided beyond th(? great water, where the sunf 
 first rises — that he was a king whose power no people 
 could resist, and that his goodness was bright as the sun 
 —•what they said, went to our hearts. We acceptf-d the 
 invitation, and promised to obey him. What the Seneca 
 nation promises, th^y faithfully perform: and Vv'hen you 
 refused obedience to that king, he commanded us to assist 
 his beloved men in making you sober. — In obeying him, 
 we did no more than yourselves had led us to promise. 
 The men v*ho claimed this promise, told us that you were 
 children and had no guns ; that when they had shaken you, 
 you would submit. We hearkened unto them, and were 
 deci ivrd until \ our army approached our towns. We 
 were deceived ; but \ our people teaching us to confide in 
 that king, h:id helped to deceive us; and we now appeal: 
 to your heart — Is all the blame ours ? 
 
 Father — when we saw that we had been deceived, and 
 heard the invitation which you gave us to draw near to 
 the fire, which 3 ou had kindled, and talk with you con- 
 cerning peace, we made haste toward it. You then told 
 us you could crush us to nothing, and you demanded from 
 us a j^reat country, as the price of that peace which you 
 had offered to us -, as if our want of strength had destroy- 
 
 K K ^ 
 
378 AMERICAN 
 
 ed our rights. Our chiefs had felt your power, and were 
 unable to contend against you, and they therefore gave up 
 that country. What they agreed to, has bound our nation: 
 but your anger against us must, by this time, be cooled, 
 and although our strength has not increased, nor your 
 pou er become less, we ask you to consider calmly —were 
 the terms dictated to us by your commissioners reason- 
 able or just ? 
 
 Father — Hear our case. Many nations inhabited this 
 country j but they had no wisdom ; therefore they warred 
 together — the six nations were powerful, and compelled 
 lliem to peace. The land, for a great extent, was given 
 up to them, but the nations which were not destroyed, all 
 contniued on those lands, and claimed the protection of 
 the six nations, as brothers of their fathers. They were 
 men, and, when at peace, had a right to live upon the 
 earth. 
 
 The French came among us, and built Niagara ; they 
 became our fathers, and took care of us. Sir William 
 Johnson came, and took that fort from the French ; he 
 became our father, and promised to take care of us ; and 
 he did so, until you were too strong for his king. To 
 him we gave four miles round Niagara, as a place of 
 trade. We have already said how we came to join against 
 you; we sav; that we were wrong: we wished for peace; 
 you demandtd a great country to be given up to you; it 
 was surrendered to you, as the price of peace ; and we 
 oup^ht to have peace and possessioaof the little land which 
 you th n left us. 
 
 Father— when that great country was given up to you, 
 there were but few chiefs present ; and they were com- 
 Tselied to give it up. And it is not the six nations only 
 .hat reproach those chiefs with having given up that coun- 
 ;ry. The Chipaways, and all the nations who lived on 
 these lands wettward, call to us, and ask us, brothers of 
 our fathers, where is the place which you htive reserved 
 or us to lie down upon ? 
 
 Father—you have compelled us to do that which makes 
 
 us ashamed ; we have nothing to answer to the children 
 
 ->f the brothers of our fathers. When last spring they 
 
 ailed upon us to go to war, to secure them a bed to lie 
 
 (ewn uDon j the Sjnecas intreated them to be quiet, unti' 
 
SPEAKER. 079 
 
 we had spoken to you ; but on our wr.y down, we heard 
 that your array had gone towards the country which those 
 nations inhabited, and if they meet together, the best 
 blood on both sides will fall to the ground. 
 
 Father — we will not conceal from you, that the Great 
 God, and not men, has preserved the Corn Plant from the 
 hands of his own nation. For they ask continually, where 
 is the land which our children, and their children after 
 them are to lie down upon ? You told us, say ihey, that 
 the line drawn from Pennsylvania to lake Ontario, would 
 mark it forever on the east, and the line running from 
 Beaver creek to Pennsylvania, would mark it on the west';, 
 and we see that it is not so ; for first one und then another 
 come and take it away, by order of that people wiiich you 
 tell us promised to secure it to us. ile is silent j for he 
 has nothing to answer. 
 
 When the sun gots down, he opens his heart before 
 God, and earlier than the sun appears ag.iin upon the hills, 
 he gives thanks for his protection during the night ; for 
 he feels, that among men become desperate by the injuries 
 they sustain, it is God only that can preserve him. He 
 loves peace : and all he had in store he has given to those 
 who have been robbed by your people, lest thev should 
 plunder the innocent to repay ihemstlves. The whole 
 season, which others have employed in providing fvr their 
 families, he has spent in endccwo irs to preserve peace : 
 and this moment his wife and children are lying on the 
 ground, and in want of io^,d ; hs heart is in pain lor ihem ; 
 but he perceives that the Great Spirit will try his firmness 
 in doing what is right. 
 
 Father — The game, which the Great Spirit sent into our 
 country, for us to eat, is going from among us. We thought 
 he intended we should till the ground with the plough, as 
 the white people do ; and we talked to one antnher about 
 it. But before we speak to you concerning this, we must 
 know from you, whether you mean to leave us and oui^ 
 children any land to till. Speak plainly to us, concerning 
 this great buiiness* 
 
380 AMERICAN 
 
 Speech of the Chiefs of the Seneca nation to the President 
 of the United States—Xr^O. 
 
 Father — Your speech, written on the great paper, is to 
 us like the first light of the morning to a sick man, whose 
 pulse beats too strongly in his temples, and prevents him 
 from sleeping, he sees it, and rej(jices ; but is not cured. 
 
 You say, you have spoken plainly on the great point, 
 that you will protect us in our lands secured to us at fort 
 Stanwix, and that we have a right to sell or refuse to sell 
 it. — This is very good. 
 
 But our nation complain, that you compelled us, at that 
 treaty, to give ui- too much of our lands. We confess 
 that our nation WiS ound y wh t was doiv' there, and ac- 
 know;edgt \ our power. Wc have now appealed to your- 
 selves against that treaty, as mtdt while you were too an- 
 gr\' at us, and thircfore unreasonable and unjust. To this 
 you h SVC gi en us no answer, 
 
 F thci — Look at the land we gave you at the treaty, 
 and rhen cast your eyes upon what we now ask you to re- 
 store to us; ad you will see that whit we ask is a very 
 little piec^. By givmg it b sck ag-.in, you will satisfy the 
 whole of our nation. The chiefs, who signed that treatv, 
 Xvill be in salVry ; and peace- between your children and 
 Oiir ( hildren, wdl continue so long as your lands continue 
 t( join ours. Every man of our n.-tion will turn his eyes 
 aw y irom all the other I. aids w inch we then gave up to 
 you, uui forget that our fathers ^ Vcr said that they belong- 
 ed to th'-n-. 
 
 Fuihe; — You say you will appoint an agent to take care 
 of us. Let him come and take care of our trade : but 
 we desire he may not have any thing to do with our lands ; 
 for the agents, who have come among us, and pretended 
 to take care of us, have always deceiv d us whenever we 
 sold lands ; both when the king, and when the separate 
 states have bargained with us. They have, by this means, 
 occasioned many wars ; and we are unwilling to trust them 
 again. 
 
 Father — The blood that was spilt near Pine creek is co- 
 vered^ and we shall never look where it lies. We know 
 that Pennsylvania will satisfy us for that which we speak 
 
SPEAKER. 381 
 
 of to them, before we speak to you. The chain of friend- 
 ship will now, we hope, be made strong:, as you desire it 
 to be — we will hold it fast, and our end of it shall never 
 rust in our hands. 
 
 Father — We told you what advice we gave to the peo- 
 ple you are now at war with ; and we now tell you, they 
 have promised to come again next spring to our towns. 
 ♦We shall not wait for their coming, but set out very early 
 in the season, and show them what you have done for us, 
 which must convince ihem, that you will do for them eve- 
 ry thing that they ought to ask. We think they will hear 
 us, and follow our advice. 
 
 Father — You gave us leave to speak our minds concern- 
 ing tilling of the ground. We ask you to teach us to 
 plough and grind corn, and supply us with broad axes, 
 saws, augers, and other tools, to assist us in building saw- 
 mills, so that we may make our houses more comfortable 
 and durable ; that you will send smiths among us ; and 
 above all, that you will teach our children to read and 
 write, and our women to spin and weave. The manner of 
 doing these things for us, we leave to you who understand 
 them ; but we assure you, we will follow your advice as 
 far as we are able. 
 
 Speech of the Chiefs of the Seneca 7iatton to the President 
 of the United States — 1790. 
 
 Father — No Seneca ever got- s from the fire of his friend 
 until he has said to him, I am going. We therefore fell 
 you that we are now setting out lor our own country. 
 
 Father — We thank you from our hearts tliat we now 
 know that there is a country that we may call our (nvn, 
 and on which we may lie down in peace. We see, th;it 
 there will be peace between our children and your chil- 
 dren ; and our hearts are very glad. We will persuade 
 the Wyandots, and other western n;itions, to open their 
 eyes, and look towards the bed which you have made for 
 us, and to ask of you a bed for themselves and their chil- 
 dren, that will not slide from under them. Wc thank you 
 for your presents to us, and rely on your promise to in- 
 struct us in raising corn as the white people do. The 
 
:^82 AMERICAN 
 
 sooner you do this the better for us ; 'and we thank you 
 for the care which you have taken to prevent bad people 
 coming to trade among us. If any come without your li- 
 cense we will turn them back ; and we hope our nation 
 will determine to spill all the rum that shall hereafter be 
 brought to our towns. 
 
 Father — You have not asked of us any surety for peace 
 on our part; but we have agreed to send nine Seneca boys 
 to be under your care for education. Tell us at what time 
 you will receive thtm, and they shall be sent at that time. 
 This will assure you that we are indeed at peace with you, 
 and determined to continue so. If you can teach them to 
 be wise and good men, we will take care that our nation 
 shall be willing to be instructed by them. 
 
 Speech of Farmer^s Brother. 
 
 [The following Speech was delivered in a public Council at Genesee 
 River, Nov. 21, 1798, by Ho-na-ya-tvuSy commonly called Farmer's 
 Brother, and after being- written as interpreted, it was signed by 
 the principal Chiefs present, and sent to the Legislature of the state 
 of New-York,] 
 
 The Sachems, Chiefs and Warriors of the Seneca Na- 
 tion, to the Sachems and Chiefs assembled about the great 
 Council Fire cf the State of New- York. 
 
 " l-rorhers — As you are once more assembled in coun- 
 cil lor the purpose of doing honor to yourselves, and just- 
 ice to your country; we, your brothers, the Sachems, 
 Chiefs, and Warriors of the Seneca Nation, request you 
 to open your ears, and give attention to our voice and 
 wishes. 
 
 '' Brothers — You will recollect the late contest between 
 you and your father, the great king of England. This 
 contest threw the inhabitants of this whole island into a 
 great tumult and commotion, like a raging whirlwind, 
 which tears up the trees, and tosses to and tro the leaves, 
 so that no one knows from v/hence they come, or where 
 they will fall. 
 
 *^ Brothers — This whirlwind was so directed by the 
 Great Spirit above, as to throw into our arms two of your 
 infunt children, Jasper Parrish, and Horatio Jones. We 
 
SPEAKER. 383 
 
 ndopted them into our families and made them our chil- 
 dren. We loved them and nourished them. They lived 
 with us many years. At length, the Great Spirit spoke 
 to the whirlwind, and it was still. A clear and uninter- 
 rupted sky appeared. The path of peace was opened, 
 and the chain of friendship was once more made bright. 
 Then these our adopted children left us, to seek their re- 
 lations. We wished them to remain among us, and pro- 
 mised, if they would return and live in our country to give 
 each of them a seat of land for them and their children 
 to set down upon. 
 
 " Brothers — They have returned and have for several 
 years past been serviceable to us as interpreters. We still 
 feel our hearts beat with affection for them, and now v/ish 
 to fulfil the promise we made them, and to reward them 
 for their services. We have therefore made up our minds 
 to give them a seat of two square miles of land lying on 
 the outlet of Lake Erie, about three miles below Black. 
 Rock, beginning at the mouth of a creek known by the 
 name of Scoy-gu-quoy-des Creek, running one mile from 
 the river Niagara, up said creek, thence northerly as the 
 river runs two miles, thence westerly one mile to the river, 
 thence up the river as the river runs, two miles to the 
 place of beginning, so as to contain two square miles. 
 
 " Brothers — We have now made known to you our 
 minds. We expect and earnestly request that you will 
 permit our friends to receive this our gift, and will make 
 the same good to them, according to the laws and customs 
 of your nation. 
 
 '^ Brothers— Why should you hesitate to make our 
 minds easy with regard to this our request ? To you it is 
 but a little thing, and have you not complied with the re- 
 quest, and confirmed the gift of our brothers the Oneidas, 
 the Onondagas and Cayugas to their interpreters? And 
 shall we ask and not be heard ? 
 
 " Brothers — We send you this our speech, to which we 
 expect s our answer before the breaking up of your great 
 council fire." 
 
AMERICAN 
 
 Speech of Red Jacket. 
 
 [In the summer of 1805, a number of the principal Chies and War* 
 riors of tlie Six Nations, principally Senecas, assembled at Buffalo 
 Creek, in ihe State of New-York, at the particular request of ihe 
 Rev Mr. Cram, a Missionary from the St'te of Massachusetts. The 
 Mssionary being furnished with an Interpreter, and accompanied 
 by . he Agent of the United States for Indian affairs, met the Indians 
 ill Council, when the following talk took place.] 
 
 FIRST, BY THE AGENT. 
 
 " Brothers of the Six Nations — I rejoice to meet you 
 at this time, and thank the Great Spirit, that he has pre- 
 served you in health, and given me another opportunity of 
 taking you by the hand. 
 
 " Brothers — The person who sits by me, is a friend who 
 has come a great distance to hold a talk with you. He 
 will inform you what his business is, and it is my request 
 that you would listen with attention to his words." 
 
 Missionary. " My friends — I am thankful for the 
 opportunity afforded us of uniting together at this time. 
 I had a great desire to see you, and enquire into your state 
 and welfare; for this purpose I have travelled a great dis- 
 tance, being sent by your only friends, the Boston Mis- 
 sionary Society. You will recollect they formerly sent 
 missionaries among you, to instruct you in religion, and 
 labor for your good. Although they have not heard from 
 you for a long time, yet they have not forgotten their 
 brothers the Six Nations, and are still anxious to do you 
 good. 
 
 '•^ Brothers — I have not come to get your lands or your 
 money, but to enlighten your minds, and to instruct you 
 how to worship the Great Spirit agreeably to his mind 
 and will, and to preach to you the gospel of his son Jesus 
 Christ. There is but one religion, and but one way to ; 
 serve God, and if you do not embrace the right way, you 
 cannot be happy hereafter. You have never worshipped 
 the Great Spirit in a manner acceptable to him ; but have 
 all your lives been in great errors and darkness. To en- 
 deavor to remove these errors, and open your eyes, so that 
 you might see clearly, is my business with you. 
 
SPEAKER. 385 
 
 " Brothers — I wish to talk with you as one friend talks 
 with another ; and if you have any objections to receive 
 the religion which I preach, I wish you to state them ; 
 and I will endeavor to satisfy your minds, and remove the 
 objections. 
 
 " Brothers— I want you to speak your minds freely ; for 
 I wish to reason with you on the subject, and, if possible, 
 remove all doubts, if there be any on your minds. The 
 subject is an important one, and it is of consequence that 
 you give it an early attention while the ofter is made you. 
 Your friends the Boston Missionary Society, will continue 
 to send you good and faithful miulbLcis, to instruct and 
 strengthen you in religion, if, on your part, you are will- 
 ing to receive them. 
 
 " Brothers — Since I have been in this part of the coun- 
 try, I have visited some of your small villages, and talk- 
 ed with your people. They appear willing to receive in- 
 struction, but, as they look up to you as their older bro- 
 thers in council, they want first to know your opinion on 
 the subject. 
 
 " You have now heard what I have to propose at pre- 
 sent. I hope you will take it into consideration, and give 
 me an answer before we part." 
 
 [After about two hours consultation among- themselves, the Chief com- 
 monly called by the white people. Red Jacket, (whose Indian name 
 is Sagu-yu-wha-hah, which interpreted is Keeper aivakej rose and 
 spoke as follows :] 
 
 " Friend and Brother — It was the will of the Great 
 Spirit that we should meet together this day. He orders 
 all things, and has given us a fine day for our Council 
 He has taken his garment from before the sun, and caus- 
 ed it to shine with brightness upon us. Our eyes are o- 
 pened, that we see clearly ; our ears are unstopped, that 
 we have been able to hear distinctly the words you have 
 spoken. For all these favors we thank the Great Spirit ; 
 and Him only, 
 
 " Brother — This council fire was kindled by you. It 
 was at your request that we came together at this time. 
 We have listened with attention to what you have said. 
 You requested us to speak our minds freely. This gives 
 us great joy ; for we now consider that we stand upright 
 beforejjyou, and can speak what we think. All have heard 
 
 L L 
 
6bo AMERICAN 
 
 your voice, and all speak to you now as one man. Our 
 minds are agreed. 
 
 *' Brother — You say you want an answer to your talk 
 before you leave this place. It is right you should have 
 one, as you are a great distance from home, and we do 
 not wish to detain you. But we will first look back a lit- 
 tle, and tell you what our fathers have told us, and what 
 we have heard from the white people. 
 " Brother— Listen to what we say. 
 *' There was a time when our forefathers owned this 
 great island. Their seats extended from the rising to the 
 setting sun. The Great Spirit had made it for the use of 
 Indians. He had created the buffalo, the deer, and 
 other animals for food. He had made the bear and tke 
 beaver. Their skins served us for cloathing. He had 
 scattered them over the country, and taught us how to 
 take them. He had caused the earth to produce corn 
 for bread. All this He had done for his red children, 
 because He loved them. If we had some disputes about 
 our hunting ground, they were generally settled without 
 the shedding of much blood. But an evil day came up- 
 on us. Your forefathers crossed the great water, and 
 landed on this island. Their numbers were small. They 
 found friends and not enemies. They told us they had 
 fled from their own country for fear of wicked men, and 
 had come here to enjoy their religion. They asked for a 
 small seat. We took pity on them, granted their request ; 
 and they sat down amongst us. We gave them corn and 
 meat ; they gave us poison (alluding, it is supposed, to ar- 
 dent spirits) in return. 
 
 •* The white people had now found our country. Tid 
 ings were carried back, and more came amongst us. Yet 
 ^e did not fear them. We took them to be friends. 
 They called us brothers. We believed them, and gave 
 them a larger seat. At length their numbers had greatly 
 increased. They wanted more land; they wanted our 
 country. Our eyes were opened, and our minds became 
 -uneasy. Wars took place. Indians were hired to fight 
 against Indians, and many of our people were destroyed. 
 Tht y also brought strong liquor amongst us. It was strong 
 and powerful, and has slain thousands. 
 
SPEAKER. 3^7 
 
 " Brother — Our seats were once large and yours were 
 small. You have now become a great people, and we 
 have scarcely a place left to spread our blankets. You have 
 got our country, but are not satisfied ; you want to force 
 your religion upon us. 
 
 " Brother — Continue to listen. 
 
 " You say that you are sent to instruct us how to wor- 
 ship the Great Spirit agreeably to his mind, and, if we do 
 not take hold of the religion which you white people teach, 
 we shall be unhappy hereafter. You say that you arc 
 right and we are lost. How do we know this to be true ? 
 We understand that your religion is written in a book. 
 If it was intended for us as well as you, why has not the 
 Great Spirit given to us, and not only to us, but why did 
 he not give to our forefathers, the knowledge of that book, 
 with the means of understanding it rightly ! We only 
 know what you tell us about it. How shall we know 
 when to believe, being so often deceived by the white 
 
 peopl 
 
 " Brother — You say there is but one way to worship 
 and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion ; 
 why do you white people differ so much about it? Why 
 rot all agreed, as you can all read the book ? 
 
 " Brother — We do not understand these things. 
 
 " We are told that your religion was given to your fore- 
 fathers, and has been handed down from father to son. 
 We also have a religion, which was given to our fore- 
 fathers, and has been handed down to us their children. 
 We worship in that way. It teaches us to be thankful 
 for all the favors we receive ; to love each other, and to 
 be united. We never quarrel about religion. 
 
 " Brother — The Great Spirit has made us all, but He 
 has made a great difference between his white and red 
 children. He has given us different complexions and dif- 
 ferent customs. To you He has given the arts. To these 
 He has not opened our eyes. We know these things to 
 be true. Since He has made so great a difference between 
 us in other things ; why may we not conclude that He has 
 given us a different religion according to our understand- 
 ing? The Great Spirit does right. He knoAS what is 
 best for his children j we are satisfied. 
 
388 AMERICAN 
 
 " Brother- — We do not wish to destroy your religion, or 
 take it from you. We only want to enjoy our own. 
 
 " Brother — We are told that you have been preaching 
 to the white people in this place. These people are our 
 neighbours. We are acquainted with them. We will wait 
 a little while, and see what effect your preaching has up- 
 on them. If we find it does them good, makes them hon- 
 est, and less disposed to cheat Indians ; we will then con- 
 sider again of what you have said. 
 
 " Brother — You have now heard our answer to your 
 talk, and this is all we have to say at present. 
 
 " As we are going to part, we will come and take you 
 by the hand, and hope the Great Spirit will protect you 
 on your journey, and return you safe to your friends." 
 
 As the Indians began to approach the missionary, he 
 rose hastily from his seat and replied, that he could not 
 ti^ke them by the hand ; that there was no fellowship be- 
 tween the religion of God and the works of the devil. 
 
 This being interpreted to the Indians, they smiled, and 
 retired in a peaceable manner. 
 
 It being afterwards suggested to the missionary that 
 his reply to the Indians was rather indiscreet; he observ- 
 ed, that he supposed the ceremony of shaking hands would 
 he received by them as a token that he assented to what 
 they had said. Being otherwise informed, he said he was 
 sorry for the expressions. 
 
 Speech of Red Jacket^ caikd by the Indians^ Sa-gu-yii- 
 ivha-ha^ or Keeper azvake. 
 
 In ansv/er to a Speech of the Rev. Mr. Alexander, a missionary from 
 the Missionary Society in New.York, to the Seneca JSTation of Indi- 
 ans, delivered at a Council, held at Buffalo Creek in May, 1811. 
 
 " Brother — We listened to the talk you delivered to us 
 from the Council of black coats^ in New- York. We 
 have fully considered your talk, and the offers you have 
 made us ; we perfectly understand them, and we return 
 an answer, which we wish you also to understand. In 
 
 * The appellation given to clerg-yuien by the Indiana. 
 
SPEAKER. 389 
 
 making up our minds we have looked back, and remem- 
 bered what has been done in our days, and what our fa- 
 thers have told us was done in old times. 
 
 " Brother — Great numbers of black coats have been 
 amongst the Indians, and with sweet voices and smiling 
 faces, have offered to teach theni the religion of the white 
 people. Our brethren in the East listened to the black 
 coats — turned from the religion of their fathers, and took 
 up the religion of the white people. What good has it 
 done them ? Are they more happy and more friendly one 
 to another than we are? No, brother, they are a divided 
 people — we are united — they quarrel about religion — we 
 live in love and friendship — they drink strong water — 
 have learnt how to cheat — and to practice all the vices of 
 the white men, which disgrace Indians, without imitating 
 the virtues of the white men. Brother, if you are our 
 well wisher, keep away and do not disturb us. 
 
 ** Brother — We do not worship the Great Spirit as tlie 
 white men do, but we believe that forms of worship are 
 indifferent to the Great Spirit — it is the offering of a sincere 
 heart that pleases him, and we worship him in this man- 
 ner. According to your religion we must believe in a fa- 
 ther and a son, or we will not be happy hereafter. We 
 have always believed in a father, and we worship him, as 
 we were taught by our fathers. Your book says the son 
 was sent on earth by the father — did all the people who 
 saw the son believe in him ? No, they did not, and the con- 
 sequences must be known to you, if you have read the 
 book. 
 
 " Brother — You wish us to change our religion for 
 yours — we like our religion and do not want another. Our 
 friends (pointing to Mr. Granger, Mr. Parish, and Mr. 
 Taylor) do us great good — they counsel us in our troubles 
 — and instruct us how to make ourselves comfortable* 
 Our friends the Quakers do more than this — they give us 
 ploughs, and show us how to use them. They tell us we 
 are accountable beings, bui do not say we must change 
 our religion. We are satisfied with what they do. 
 
 " Brother — For these reasons we cannot receive your 
 offers — we have other things to do, and beg you to make 
 your mind easy, and not trouble us, lest our heads should 
 be too much loaded, and by and by burst*" 
 
 L l2 
 
390 AMERICAN 
 
 Speech of Red Jacket, 
 
 Jn answer to a Speech of Mr. Richardson, who applied to buy the ^n- 
 dian rights to the reservations lying in the territory commonly call- 
 ed the Holland Purchase. Delivered at a Council held at Buffalo 
 Creek in May, 1811. 
 
 " Brother — We opened our ears to the talk you lately 
 delivered to us, at our Council fire. In doing important 
 business it is best not to tell long stories, but to come to it 
 in a few words. We therefore shall not repeat your talk» 
 which is fresh in our minds. We have well considered it, 
 and the advantages and disadvantages of your offers. We 
 request your attention to our answer, which is not from 
 the speaker alone, but from all the Sachems and Chiefs 
 now around our Council fire. 
 
 <' Brother — We know that great men as well as great 
 nations, having different interests have different minds, 
 and do not see the same subject in the same light — but we 
 hope our answer will be agreeable to you and to your em- 
 ployers. 
 
 " Brother — Your application for the purchase of our 
 lands, is to our minds very extraordinary. It has been made 
 in a crooked manner — you have not walked in the straight 
 path pointed out by the great Council of your nation. You 
 have no writings from our great father the President. 
 
 " Brother — In making up our minds we have looked 
 back, and remembered how the Yorkers purchased our 
 lands in former times. They bought them piece after 
 piece for a little money paid to a few men in our nation, 
 and not to all our brethren ; our planting and hunting 
 grounds have become very small, and if we sell these we 
 know not where to spread our blankets. 
 
 " Brother — You tell us your employers have purchased 
 of the Council of Yorkers a right to buy our lands — we 
 do not understand how this can be — the lands do not be- 
 long to the Yorkers j they are ours, and were given to us 
 by the Great Spirit. 
 
 " Brother — We think it strange that you should jump 
 over the lands of our brethren in the East, to come to our 
 Council fire so far off, to get our lands. When we sold 
 our lands in the East to the white people we determined 
 
SPEAKER. 391 
 
 never to sell those we kept, which are as small as we can 
 live comfortably on. 
 
 " Brother — You want us to travel with you, and look 
 for other lands. If we should sell our lands and move 
 off into a distant country, towards the setting sun — we 
 should be looked upon in the country to which we go as 
 foreigners and strangers, and be despised by the red as 
 well as the white men, and we should soon be surrounded 
 by the white men, who will there also kill our game, come 
 upon our lands, and try to get them from us. 
 
 " Brother — We are determined not to sell our lands, 
 but to continue on them — we like them — they are fruitful 
 and produce us corn in abundance, for the support of our 
 women and children, and grass and herbs for our cattle. 
 
 *< Brother — At the treaties held for the purchase of our 
 lands, the white men with sweet voices and smiling faces 
 told us they loved us, and that they would not cheat us, 
 but that the king's children on the other side of the lake 
 would cheat us. When we go on the other side of the 
 lake, the king's children tell us your people will cheat us, 
 but v/ith sweet voices and smiling faces assure us of their 
 love and that they will not cheat us. These things puzzle 
 our heads, and we believe that the Indians must take care 
 of themselves, and not trust either in your people or in 
 the king's children. 
 
 " Brother — At a late Council we requested our agents 
 to tell you that we would not sell our lands, and we think 
 you have not spoken to our agents, or they would have in- 
 formed you so, and we should not have met you at our 
 Council fire at this time. 
 
 " Brother — The white people buy and sell false rights 
 to our lands ; your employers have you say paid a great 
 price for their right — they must h.ive plenty of money, to 
 spend it in buying false rights to lands belong to Indians 
 — the loss of it will not hurt them, but our lands are of 
 great value to us, and we wish you to go back with your 
 talk to your employers, and to tell them and the Yorkers, 
 that they have no right to buy and sell false rights to our 
 lands. 
 
 '' Brother — We hope you clearly understand the words 
 we have spoken. This is all we have to say." 
 
592 AMERICAN 
 
 Speech of Red Jacket. 
 
 [The occasion of the following speech, was, a white man had beea 
 murdered by an Indian at Buffalo, and the Indians were unwilling to 
 deliver the perpetrator of the crime to our civil authority. Seve- 
 ral meetings were held between them and the people of Canandai- 
 gua, for the purpose of reconciling them to the propriety and just- 
 ice of surrendering him, to which however, they at length reluctant- 
 ly consented.] 
 
 " Brothers — Open your ears, and give your attention. 
 This day is appointed by the Great Spirit to meet our 
 friends at this place. During the many years that we have 
 lived together in this country, good will and harmony have 
 subsisted among us. 
 
 " Brothers — We have now come forward upon an un- 
 happy occasion : — We cannot find words to express our 
 feelings upon it. One of our people has murdered one 
 of your people . So it has been ordered by the Great Spi- 
 rit who controls all events. This has been done: we can- 
 not now help it. At first view, it would seem to have the 
 effect of putting an end to our friendship ; but let us re- 
 flect, and put our minds together. Can't we point out 
 measures whereby our peace and harmony may still be 
 preserved ? W^e have come forward to this place, where 
 we have always had a Superintendant and Friend to re- 
 ceive us, and to make known to him such grievances as 
 lay upon our minds ; but now we have none ; and we have 
 no Guardian — no Protector — no one is now authorised 
 to receive us. 
 
 " Brothers — We therefore now call upon you to take 
 our Speech in writing, and forward our ideas to the Pre- 
 sident of the United States. 
 
 " Brothers — Let us look back to our former situation. 
 While you were under the government of Great-Britain, 
 Sir William Johnston was our Superintendant, appointed 
 by the King. He had powers to settle offences of this 
 kind among all the Indian Nations, without adverting to 
 the laws. But under the British Government you were un- 
 easy — you wanted to change it for a better. General 
 Washington went forward as your leader. From his ex- 
 ertions you gained your independence. Immediately ^f- 
 
SPEAKER. 593 
 
 terwards, a treaty was made between the United States and 
 the Six Nations, whereby a method was pointed out of re- 
 dressing such an accident as the present. Several such 
 accidents did happen, where we were the sufferers. We 
 now crave the same privilege in making restitution to you, 
 that you adoptt^d towards us in a similar situation. 
 
 " Brothers — at the close of our treaty at Philadelphia, 
 General Washington told us that we had formed a chain 
 of friendship which was bright : He hoped it would con- 
 tinue so on our part : That the United States would be 
 equally willing to brighten it, if rusted by any means. A 
 number of murders have been committed on our people — 
 We shall only mention the last of the m. About two years 
 ago, a few of our Warriors were amusing themselves in 
 the woods, to the westward of Fort Pitt : Two white men, 
 coolly and deliberately, took their rifles, travelled nearly 
 three miles to our encampment, fired upon the Indians, 
 killed two men, and wounded two children. We then 
 were the party injured. What did we do ? We flew to 
 the treaty, and thereby obtained redress, perfectly satis- 
 factory to us, and we hope agreeable to you. This was done 
 a short time before President Adams went out of oflice : 
 Complete peace and harmony was restored. We now want 
 the same mtthod of redress to be pursued. 
 
 " Brothers — How did the present accident take place? 
 Did our warriors go from home cool and sober, and com- 
 mit murder on you ? No. Our brother was in liquor, and 
 a quarrel ensued, in whieh the unhappy accident happen- 
 ed. We would not excuse him on account of his being 
 in liquor ; but such a thing was far from his intention in 
 his sober moments. We are all extremely grieved at it, 
 and are willing to come forward and have it settled, as 
 crimes of the same nature have been heretofore done. 
 
 " Brothers — Since this accident has taken place, we 
 have been informed, that by the laws of this state, if a 
 murder is committed within it, the murderer must be tried 
 by the laws of the state, and punished with death. 
 
 " Brothers — When were such laws explained to us ? 
 Did we ever make a treaty with the state of New- York, 
 and agree to conform to its laws i No. We are indepen- 
 dent of the state of New-York. — It was the will of the 
 Great Spirit to create us different in colour : We have 
 
594 AMERICAN 
 
 different laws, habits and customs, from the white people. 
 We will never consent that the government of this state 
 shall try our brother. We appeal to the government of the 
 United States. 
 
 " Brothers — Under the customs and habits of our fore« 
 fathers, we were a happy people ; we had laws of our own ; 
 they were dear to us. The whites came among us and 
 introduced their customs ; they introduced liquor among 
 us, which our forefathers always told us would prove our 
 ruin. 
 
 *• Brothers — In consequence of the introduction of li- 
 quor among us, numbers of our people were killed. A 
 council was held to consider of a remedy, at which it was 
 agreed by us, that no private revenge should take place 
 for any such murder — that it was decreed by the Great 
 Spirit, and that a council should be called, to consider of 
 redress to the friends of the deceased. 
 
 " Brothers — The President of the United States is call- 
 ed a great man, possessing great power — he may do what 
 he pleases — he may turn men out of office — men who held 
 their offices long before he held his. If he can do these 
 things, can he not even control the laws of this state ? Can 
 he not appoint a commissioner to come forward to our 
 country and settle the present difference, as we, on our part, 
 have heretofore often done to him, upon a similar occasion? 
 
 '• We now call upon you. Brothers, to represent these 
 things to the President, and we trust that he will not re- 
 fuse our request, of sending a commissioner to us, with 
 powers to settle the present difference. The consequence 
 of a refusal may be serious. We are determined that our 
 brother shall not be tried by the laws of the state of New- 
 York. Their laws make no difference between a crime 
 -committed in liquor, and one committed coolly and deli- 
 berately. Our laws are different, as we have before stated. 
 If tried here, our brother must be hanged. We cannot 
 submit to that — Has a murder been committed upon our 
 people, when was it punished with death ? 
 
 " Brothers — We have now finished what we had to say 
 on the subject of the murder. We wish to address you 
 upon another, and to have our ideas communicatee! to the 
 President upon it also. 
 
SPEAKER. 395 
 
 ^* Brothers — It was understood at the treaty concluded 
 by Col. Pickering that our superintendant should reside in 
 the town of Canandaigua, and for very good reasons : that 
 situation is the most central to the Six Nations; and by sub- 
 sequent treaties between the state of New- York and the 
 Indians, and there are still stronger reasons why he should 
 reside here, principally on account of the annuities being 
 stipulated to be paid to our superintendant at this place. 
 These treaties are sacred. If their superintendant resides 
 elsewhere, the state may object to sending their money to 
 him at a greater distance; We would therefore wish our 
 superintendant to reside here at all events. 
 
 " Brothers — With regard to the appointment of our 
 present superintendant, we look upon ourselves as much 
 neglected and injured. When general Chapin and captain 
 Chapin were appointed, our wishes were consulted upon 
 the occasion, and we most cordially agreed to the appoint- 
 ments. Captain Chapin has been turned out, however, 
 within these few days. We do not understand that any 
 neglect of duty has been alleged against him. We are told 
 it is because he differs from the President in his sentiments 
 on government matters. He has also been perfectly satis- 
 factory to us ; and had we known of the intention, we 
 should most cordially have united in a petition to the Pre- 
 sident to continue him in oiEce. We feel ourselves injur- 
 ed — we have nobody to look to — nobody to listen to our 
 complaints — none to reconcile any differences among us. 
 We are like a young family without a father. 
 
 " Brothers — we cannot conclude without again urging 
 you to make known all these our sentiments to the Presi- 
 dont* 
 
 THE END, 
 
^ 
 
 I'Vi