Glass. 
 Book 
 
 
>^z^ s /L^ &£** 
 
 
 THE APOLOGY OF PATRIOTS, 
 
 O R 
 
 "The heresy of the friends of the Washington and 
 
 peace policy defended. 
 
 SERMON, 
 
 I M W) » ■ ■ « .. 
 
 PRFACHED IN 
 
 WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 ON THE DAY OF THE 
 
 NATIONAL FAST, 
 
 THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1812, 
 
 OBSERVED IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE RECOMMENDATION OF 
 
 JAMES MADISON, 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES; 
 
 AND IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE DECLARATION OF W \H 
 
 AGAINST GREAT-BRITAIN, 
 
 ■»«e» -■:- <2£ -::.-■ *?c3*e- 
 
 BY SAMUEL AUSTIN, IX D. 
 
 ■■■» W>-*IC- €& -.'.'- «fii!S=« 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 PRINTED AT WORCESTER, BY ISAAC sWrTZVANT. 
 
 1812, 
 
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 * -«^v ,' ' 
 
 L. 
 
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 CHRISTIAN ITY was a heresy in the estimate of the 
 Jewish Doctors ; and, according 1 to their decisions, its adherents 
 were liable to a capital punishment. The federal policy is a 
 heresy in the estimate of our JVational Rulers, and obnoxious, if 
 not to legal penalties, to their severe animadversio?i. It would 
 be no small gratification of curiosity to trace the analogy be- 
 tween these reputed heresies and their opposites. The reader 
 will ao it, if he filease, in his own mind. Christianity is but a 
 dev elopement, or farther exposition, and execution, of the re- 
 ligion contained in the Old Testament Scriptures. Judaism, 
 which entirely excluded the doctrine of a Saviour, and which con- 
 sisted in a course of external observances, founded principally 
 in a traditionary law, of mere human authority, was a corruption 
 of that religion, and the real heresy. Hence, for the defence of 
 Christianity, the Apostles constantly appealed, when they had 
 before them Jewish auditors, to the Law, and the Prophets ; and 
 it was a leading object with them to subvert Judaism^ as the 
 grand obstacle to the progress of the Gospel. 
 
i 
 
 SERMON, 
 
 ACTS, xxiv. 14. 
 
 BUT THIS X CONFESS UNTO THEE, THAT AFTER THE WAT 
 WHICH THEY CALL HERESY, SO WORSHIP I THE GOD OF 
 MY FATHERS ; BELIEVING ALL THINGS WHICH ARE WRIT- 
 TEN IN THE LAW AND IN THE PROPHETS. 
 
 MY BRETHREN, 
 
 JL HE grand heresy of our Country, at the pre- 
 sent time, is disagreement with the administration of our 
 government, in the character it has chosen to assume, in the 
 course it has taken, since it went into operation, in its re- 
 strictive measures, and, particularly, in regard to the war in- 
 to which it has recently plunged the nation. This heresy is 
 denounced by the administration and by all its zealous adher- 
 ents. It seems to be determined to overwhelm it, either by 
 law, or without law ; either by an organized force, or by put- 
 ting in motion desperate, and unprincipled individuals, who, 
 from the little interest they have in the publick welfare, and 
 from habits of licentiousness, are prepared for outrage and 
 massacre. The machinery of compulsion has begun to act, 
 and how far it will proceed it is impossible for any man to 
 say. But as the spirit of Paul could not languish, while he 
 had so great a charge from his omnipotent Redeemer, as 
 the propagation of his religion among the Gentiles, notwith- 
 standing it was a fact, that, in every city, bonds and afflictions 
 attended him ; so it is not probable that that love to God, and 
 virtue, and the general happiness of our Country which pos- 
 
sesses the minds of a considerable portion of the American 
 people, will shrink from those persevering efforts which may 
 seem to promise to dissipate the delusion, and to change the 
 measures, which threaten our national destruction. The he- 
 resy mentioned has an extensive and increasing acceptation 
 all over our Country ; but is most prevalent in these northern 
 res, where, we flatter ourselves, the Christian doctrine has 
 most influence, and the principles and measures of genuine 
 Republicanism are best understood. This heresy is the 
 crime of almost all the professors of religion in New-En- 
 gland, I mean those whose religion,in the doctrines and modes 
 of it, corresponds with that of our pious forefathers. It is the 
 crime of almost the whole body of congregational ministers in 
 this section of the United States ; and it is the crime of 
 thousands of prudent and stable patriots, who were the 
 most active in council, and the most valiant in arms, 
 in achieving the grand object of the revolution. With 
 this crime I stand charged, by, it is probable, a majori- 
 ty of my parishioners, and fellow-townsmen ; and to this 
 charge I frankly plead guilty. With the unreservedness of 
 the Apostle to the Gentiles, and I hope with a little of his 
 consciousness of right, when he stood before Felix as his 
 judge, and in presence of his accusers, who had come down 
 from Jerusalem to Cesarea to follow up a prosecution against 
 him, this I confess unto you, " that, after the way which they 
 call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing 
 all things that are written in the law and in the prophets." As 
 Paul was permitted to make his apology before Felix, and 
 was attentively heard by him through the whole of his dis- 
 course, notwithstanding he was of a religion which it was the 
 design and tendency of Paul's heresy to extirpate ; so I hope 
 you will permit me to make my apology* before you, for my- 
 self, my fellow Christians, and fellow Countrymen, with 
 whom 1 have the honor to agree in what concerns the safety 
 
 * The careless reader must not take the term apology here in the sense 
 of concession, as it is more commonly used, for no concession is intended ; 
 but in the sense of defence, which is the proper ecclesiastical sense, as we 
 speak of th? apology of Justin Martyr. 
 
and prosperty of the nation, through the whole of what it shall 
 seem to me proper, and rsasonable to say on the subject. 
 The apology which will be offered to your attention will go, 
 in the whole of it, to the defence of this heresy, Thisl hope 
 will not be thought unsuitable to the occasion ; especially 
 when it is considered what kind of a fast it is that God hath 
 chosen, which he expressly tells us is this, that we " loose 
 the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the op- 
 pressed go free, and that we break every yoke ; that wc deal 
 our bread to the hungry, that we bring the poor that are cast 
 out to our house ; that when we see the naked we cover him, 
 and that we hide not ourselves from our own flesh ;" and 
 when it is considered, that if the apology shall appear to be 
 founded in truth and evidence, abundant causes of peni- 
 tent reflection and prayer will be presented. It muse be 
 obvious besides, that this will perfectly coincide with ihe pro- 
 clamation which has called us together, so far as the senti- 
 ments expressed in it coincide with evidence and fact. 
 This apology will be 
 
 I. Personal. 
 
 II. It will respect the body of Congregational ministers, 
 and the greater body of American patriots, who stand charged 
 with the heresy mentioned, in a personal view. 
 
 III. It will respect the nature of this heresy ; and 
 
 IV. It will shew what will be the salutary and benign ef- 
 fects, should this heresy triumph in our country, and super- 
 cede) by a general influence, that philosophic and political or- 
 thodoxy, which, to our eye, is a mere system of infidelity, in- 
 fatuation and ruin. 
 
 In the first place then you will permit me, that this apolo- 
 gy should be a little personal. It is not indeed, in ordinary 
 cases, very decorous for a speaker to discourse to his auditors 
 respecting himself. But on some occasions it is warrantable, 
 and even necessary ; and we have many examples of it in the 
 sacred scripture, and particularly wc have one in the very a- 
 pology of Paul which is, at this time, before us. He says to 
 Felix, ' ; And they neither found me in the temple disputing 
 with any man, fieithei la the synagogue, nor in the city • 
 
t 
 
 8 
 
 neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse 
 me." As prejudices are known to exist against me, found- 
 ed partly in religious, partly, perhaps most, in political, con- 
 sideration ; and some have carried their most unfounded re- 
 sentments so far, as, for a time at least, to leave my congre- 
 gation, a short personal apology will not be deemed improper. 
 
 I came among you, my friends, not obtrusively, but in com- 
 pliance with request. My settlement here, as a minister, 
 was not in consequence of any solicitation of mine, but in sub- 
 mission to the almost unanimous and repeated call of the 
 Church and Congregation. 
 
 It is nearly twenty two years since my installation took 
 place : almost the whole of the Church, who united in this 
 transaction, are in their graves. But a single, now acting, and 
 resident, male member survives. A large proportion of what 
 was then the congregation are also gone to the house of si- 
 lence. During the time that has elapsed since my installa- 
 tion, according to the maturity of your years, and the period of 
 your residence in the town, I have been in the midistof you, 
 going in and out, in the pulpit, at conferences, in your houses, 
 at the bedside of sickness and death, and attending your fu- 
 nerals. You have heard my doctrine and prayers, and you 
 have seen my conversation. Certainly a thousand weaknesses, 
 and deiiciences have attended them ; but you are witnesses, 
 and God also, that my doctrine has been according to his 
 word ; that in prayer I have sought with some apparent de- 
 sire to draw down spiritual and everlasting blessings upon 
 you. In regard to my moral walk, it is but justice to say, that 
 I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel ; ye, you 
 yourselves know, that, forabout eighteen years I have patiently 
 borne the reduction of my stipulated salary to about half its 
 original value, and that these hands have ministered to my 
 necessities and to them that have been with me. 
 
 In regard to political subjects the personal apology is per- 
 haps more important. My being a disciple of Christ and a 
 minister of his Gospel, docs not separate me from civil socic- 
 ly, strip me of civil privileges, or make it proper for me to 
 be indifferent to the safetv and welfare of the nation. I have 
 
9 
 
 a right with other citizens to the elective franchise) and to 
 the protection of law, to form opinions of public men and 
 measures, and, on all suitable occasions, to declare them ; 
 to use the little influence I possess to promote the good, and 
 prevent the evil. At the same time you perfectly know, 
 the appeal may be made to all my people with safety on this 
 point, that my conversation with them has not been upon polit- 
 ical subjects j that my preaching has never been of that char- 
 acter, except one or two fast sermons, which some have 
 chosen to understand as partaking somewhat of that descrip- 
 tion; and that almost as little has been done by me to proselyte, 
 as if no political controversy existed. Never have I voted. Pa- 
 tiently have I given up my rights in this respect, to keep in a 
 little quiet, that political prejudice,that strong party zeal, which 
 can endure nothing but what is promotive of its own designs. 
 I had my birth and education in a State more perfectly re- 
 publican than any other. When the revolutionary war began, 
 I was too young to be obliged, by law, to perform military du- 
 ty, and never was liable to any coercion of that kind. Yet I 
 repeatedly volunteered in arms, and was with the army at the 
 most perilous periods, and in the most perilous situations. 
 My life was spared to permit me to see the war auspiciously 
 terminated, and to partake in the general joy, which the es- 
 tablishment of the independence of the country, and the res- 
 toration of peace, produced. Certainly my acquaintance with 
 political subjects was then, and ever has been, limited and im- 
 perfect. A little attention however I have bestowed on these 
 matters ; and have endeavoured to form my judgement, im- 
 partially and upon evidence.* Of the desirableness and 
 
 * It is true that religion is the proper business of the Gospel minister. Yet 
 it is not to be forgotten that a prosperous civil government is intimately con- 
 nected with the progress of religion — else, Why is civil government an or- 
 dinance of God ? And do not political convulsions, and especially a state of 
 war, create great obstacles to the progrels of religion ? The same benevoleno: 
 then, which will induce a minister, to seek, with zeal the spiritual good oC 
 his fellow men, will lead him to give some attention to political subjects, 
 and to seek the preservation, and welfare of the government under which he 
 lives. And there is no situation in life, more exempt from thofe siniste; 
 fluences which blind the understanding, and pervert the judgement. 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 right of our independence, as a people, which was achieved 
 by this war ; of the preferableness of a republican form of 
 government to that of any other imagined, or put in practice 
 by man ; cf the excellency of our Constitution generally con- 
 sidered ; and of the wisdom of the administration of it, contem- 
 plated on a like general scale, and with very few and trifling 
 exceptions, during the first twelve years it was in operation, 
 I have had but one opinion. My political creed has been in- 
 variable, as that of my religion. Some improvements and 
 additions mav have been made to each ; but the ground-work 
 has been unalterably the same. And, lest I should be tedious, 
 in protracting this personal apology, I will take leave only in 
 this serious and public manner to declare, that the utmost of 
 my wishes, at present, is, to see the prudent and systemat- 
 ic, the impartial, energetic and effectual policy, of Washing- 
 ton, and his adherents, return ; and that I deliberately, and as 
 much as ever, prefer a republican form of government, to any 
 aristocracy, monarchy, or despotism, that the restlessness 
 and ambition of individuals would introduce. I declare my- 
 self a friend of liberty and of the people ; and to be opposed, 
 mostheartily,to every thing oppressive,in Church and in State. 
 Do not these fundamental sentiments accord with your own ? 
 If not,on which side has the aberration been ? Where does the 
 real political heresy stick I If they do, Is there so great a dif- 
 ference, at bottom, as you imagined I And why these resent- 
 ments, and these unkind and indignant expressions of them ? 
 Have any of you gone to the school of French atheism and 
 revolution, the hot-bed of faction and massacre, faction and 
 massacre inevitably terminating in anarchy or despotism ? I 
 I have not gone with you, and never will go* Have you con- 
 jured up, by the aid of political magicians, new-fangled no- 
 tions of liberty and the rights of man, with which your forefa- 
 thers had no acquaintance ? And have you entered upon the 
 philosophic /irojet of extirpating Christianity ; prostrating the 
 most useful religious institutions, which it has been the glory 
 of New England to have so carefully cherished ; levelling all 
 distinctions in civil society ; equalizing property, and opening- 
 
11 
 
 the flood-gates of lawless licentiousness ? Then we are funda- 
 mentally at disagreement ; and I declare to you plainly that 1 
 will have no part in your crimes or your fullies. 
 
 2. The apology now presented is to have respect to t! > 
 great body of Congregational ministers, and the greyer b 
 of Washingtonian patriots, through the country, in a petsonal 
 view. This apology is not to regard their conchi I ; s men ; 
 still less is it to go to prove that they arc all of them religious 
 men; but to rebut those most unjust imputations, and the 
 force of those reproachful epithets, which are designed to 
 spread an inveterate prejudice against them, and t:> weak 
 and disappoint all their efforts to save the sinking nation. 
 
 It is a fact, perfectly known to all who were of an age ad- 
 mitting of their acquaintance with the state of things at the 
 Revolution, that the. congregational clergy were, almost to a 
 man, in favour of what was called the cause of the countrv. 
 It is a fact that, with an admirable consistencv and uniform it v, 
 which has distinguished them from all other classes of men, 
 they have, during the intervening period, retained the same 
 principles and attachments, and held the same ground. It is 
 a fact that, at the present moment, they hold the same ground, 
 and feel and act from the same views. The exceptions I be- 
 lieve, and I have had an opportunity to know them, much be- 
 yond what is ordinary, are not more than one to fifty. 
 
 It is a fact, that the far greater body of Washingtonian 
 patriots, who now constitute the peace party, are, with a few 
 exceptions, either those who stood boldly forward and hazard- 
 ed their lives in the revolutionary cause, and had a leading and 
 influential agency in forming and adopting, and, when formed 
 and adopted, in maintaining, the constitution of government 
 which we still enjoy ; or, having come upon the stage at a 
 later period, have received their political belief and impres- 
 sions, justified, as they imagine, by strong evidence, from 
 them. 
 
 It is well known that great efforts have been made a few 
 years past, by spreading infidel books and forming infidel so« 
 cieties ; by encouraging sectaries and strengthening their in • 
 lerest ; by attempting to change the laws and annul the co- 
 
12 
 
 pacts,* which provide for their subsistence ; and by publishing 
 libels, destructive of their reputation, to bear down the former 
 class of men, the congregational ministers. The love of 
 monarchy, and the design of imposing upon the people a 
 pompous and an oppressive hierarchy,' that some of them, at 
 least, might rise to deaneries and bishopricks ; a resistance of 
 the just will of the people, toryism Sec. have been imputed to 
 them. They have been represented as, I know not how, 
 combined, with the leaders of a reputed aristocracy, to over- 
 turn republican freedom, and either to throw the people back 
 under the power of Great-Britain, or to sink them undera gov- 
 ernment equally oppressive. They have been denounced in 
 publications, one of them domestic and very celebrated, and 
 which, that the fame of its author might lose nothing by age, 
 has recently had the honor of a new edition, threatening them 
 with being shortly silenced, and given over, with their 
 families, to want and penury, if they did not submit quietly to 
 the triumphs of an administration which they verily believed 
 was detroying their country.f The most of these Christian 
 ministers I personally know, their sentiments and their 
 course of action. With most of them I have been coversant 
 in ministerial duty and acts of fellowship. They are my 
 brethren. With pleasure I give my attestation in their fa- 
 vour. With alacrity will I goto martyrdom with them here, if 
 Providence call to it, as I hope to go with them to glory here- 
 after. Where is the evidence which supports the justness of 
 these imputations ? Nothing like evidence has ever been pro- 
 duced or can be produced. These insinuations I know to be 
 false. A word savoring of monarchy has never polluted their 
 lips. Not a thought of it has entered their hearts. To all 
 hierarchies, which admit of honorable and lucrative Ecclesi- 
 astical preferments, they are decidedly opposed. They are 
 so opposed to them as almost to think it an abandonment of 
 their everlasting hopes to commune with an Episcoplian. 
 They are friends of the people, firm and ardent. They are 
 not monarchists. In politicks they are genuine republicans. 
 When they go into the ministry, I speak of the main body 
 
 * Note [4.] + Note [#.] 
 
13 
 
 of them, their object is to serve their fellow men in regard to 
 to their best interests, and this is their conscientious and 
 prayerful endeavour through their ministry. This is their 
 profession, and of the sincerity of their profession, you have a 
 thousand proofs. This you ought to believe till you have 
 some evidence to the contrary. 
 
 It is equally well known that the greater body of Wash- 
 ingtonian patriots and republicans, because they were not 
 for going all the lengths of a tumultuous and foolish demo- 
 cracy, have been denounced as tories and monarchists, trai- 
 tors and tyrants,* A design to bring on a monarchy, or to 
 get the nation back again under the power of Great-Britain 
 has been imputed to them. Under the force of these repre- 
 sentations and odious epithets, daring individuals have been 
 excited to treat them with oppressive, and injurious violence, 
 and, in some recent instances, with outrage and murder. 
 Where is the evidence of the truth of these imputations ? 
 Is it in the self-consistency of their principles, and their zeal 
 for the preservation of the Constitution and of the Independ- 
 ence of their Country ? Is it in their attachment to the per- 
 son, and sentiments, and policy of Washington ? Is it in 
 their preference of the neutrality he endeavoured to main- 
 lain, to all alliances with foreign governments ? Is it in their 
 wish to secure to the American people such a profitable com- 
 mercial intercourse with Great-Britain as \vill take your 
 surplus produce off your hands, which is useless to you, and 
 give you, in return for it, their valuable manufactures, which, 
 
 while it feeds the families of thousands of poor manufactorers 
 in their dominions, would give a spring to industry, and 
 
 multiply improvements in your own Country ? Is it in their 
 abstinence from every thing like insurrection anxl rebellion, 
 and their adherence to the laws, and their obedience 
 to them, when, in their judgment, they are partial and 
 oppressive ? Is it in the zeal with which they generally 
 countenance and support those valuable literary and reli- 
 gious institutions, which have been transmitted to us by 
 our ancestors, and without the maintenance and influence 
 
 *Note [C] 
 
14 
 
 of which we roust inevitably revert back to barbarous igno- 
 rance, and all the stupidity of heathenism ? Is it in their pre- 
 ference of peace to the confusions and desolations of war ? 
 Or is it in the fifty thousand dollars' worth expositions of 
 Henry ? Miserable evidence ! Poor support to the mere 
 clamour of words ! Depend upon it, my hearers, these are 
 all scarish tales, invented and propagated to answer a pur- 
 pose. These people are as far from being tories and mon- 
 archists ; as far from whatever partakes of subjugation to a 
 foreign power, or national suicide ; they are as far from wish- 
 ing to introduce any measures which shall impede the public 
 prosperity, as Warren, or Montgomery, or Mercer, or any 
 of the brave heroes were, whom you have been accustomed 
 to eulogize in your annual republican festivals. 
 
 They deplore indeed that moral declension, which has 
 turned us away from the sober habits of the first planters 
 of New-England. They deplore, and it is confessed that, 
 keeping themselves within their constitutional rights, they do 
 resist, that mistaken policy which began wrong, and has been 
 perpetually going from bad to worse ; which has sunk your 
 national character in the eyes of all mankind ; which has de- 
 nied bread to poor and suffering foreigners, when we had 
 abundance of it to spare, and oppressed a large proportion 
 of your fellow-citizens ; which has destroyed your revenues, 
 exhausted your treasury, and palsied your arm ; which has 
 almost annihilated your commerce, and is about to press 
 you down with a heavy direct taxation ; a policy, which, 
 in their judgments, was bringing, and which a leading mem- 
 ber of the majority in Congress explicitly acknowledged had 
 brought, you into that situation, that the cord put about your 
 neck had only to be drawn a little tighter, and you would ex- 
 pire. They labour to wrest the Country from this thraldom ; 
 and to restore it to its former independence and prosperity. 
 Is this wrong ? No, it is right. Then it is a serious and 
 solemn question, which you are called upon this day to re- 
 solve, whether you are not sacredly bound to recal these foul 
 aspersions, and take off these restraints ; to loose these 
 bands of wickedness, and undo these heavy burdens ; to let 
 
15 
 
 your oppressed fellow- citizens and Country go free, and 
 and break every yoke ; to deal your bread to the hungry, 
 and hide not yourselves from your own flesh. — This apolo- 
 gy is > 
 
 III. To respect the nature of the heresy denounced. — 
 
 We will remember it is, disagreement with the admin- 
 istration of our government in the character it has chosen 
 to assume, in the course it has taken since it went into ojicra- 
 Hon, in its restrictive measures, and fiarticularly in regard 
 to the war into which it has recently plunged the nation. This, 
 which they call heresy, we contend is legitimate and sound 
 doctrine j and while the evidence lies before us as it does, 
 and especially as it is so incontrovertibly founded in all things 
 which are written in the law, and the prophets, we frankly 
 declare, that we must, according to it, worship the God of 
 our fathers. Our prayers and adorations must be in coinci- 
 dence with, and cannot be opposed to, it. To defend this 
 heresy it is not necessary that we should go back to the origi- 
 nal character of the administration, or trace its winding pro- 
 gress through the twelve tedious years that are past. It is 
 not necessary to look after the effects of the restrictive sys- 
 tem, which, whatever was its intention with respect to 
 France, was, in fact, perfectly coincident with that new 
 species of warfare, which her relentless and aspiring Em- 
 peror, had undertaken to prosecute against a rival govern- 
 ment, which he determined, by fair or by foul, to overwhelm, 
 and thus open his way to universal empire ; and which was 
 designed to coerce Great-Britain, by augmenting the miseries 
 of thousands of its poor manufacturers, and thus forcing them 
 into insurrections. Something of this effect this system could 
 not but have. But it could not produce such an effect upon 
 so extensive a scale, as to warrant it, even if it were just ; 
 because many of its former advocates have, upon experiment, 
 frankly acknowledged its inefficacy and folly ; and be- 
 cause, while it scourged Great-Britain with whips, it scourg- 
 ed our own Country with scorpions. It is not necessary, I 
 say, to trace the effects of these measures inasmuch as their 
 character is more distinctly exDosed in that thev have result- 
 
16 
 
 ed in the far more interesting event of war ; an event more 
 closely connected with religious considerations ; an event in 
 which conscience is deeply concerned, and in regard to 
 which we have a high responsibility- to God. The heresy al- 
 leged against us is denounced by the administration and its 
 adherents on this account principally, that it is opposed to this 
 war. We lament the war, and wish its termination as speedi- 
 ly as possible. We are for peace, and would worship the 
 God of our fathers, in the spirit, in the security, in the 
 practice of all the attendant virtues, and in the enjoy- 
 ment of all the attendant comforts, of peace. With 
 this desire, and with benevolent regards to the country 
 against which we are called upon to lift the hand of slaughter, 
 which we consider as maintaining, at an immense expense, a 
 noble struggle with a power,treading, as fast as it can proceed, 
 upon all the governments of the world, and which embosoms 
 thousands and thousands of our Christian brethren, we op- 
 pose the war. This opposition is the peculiarly offensive 
 feature of the heresy. And here we are ready with our de- 
 fence. This defence cannot, because the occasion would not 
 justify it, and it need not, go into those minute points of con- 
 troversy which relate to national law, to treaties, and ques- 
 tions of right, which perhaps are not perfectly understood, 
 even by many learned civilians, and which properly belong to 
 diplomatic discussion. Surely no disagreement upon these 
 points ought to draw a reasonable people into a war, and espe- 
 cially an offensive one. The defence will be general, and in 
 views which will probably be plain to the most of my auditors. 
 In the first place, we are not bound to acquiese in this war, 
 and cooperate with the administration in prosecuting it mere- 
 ly because it is declared by the government. To say that we 
 ought to approve of the war and unite with its advocates in 
 prosecuting it, merely because it is an act of the government, 
 is to say, that the rights of judgment, and of conscience are all 
 absorbed in its will ; that passive obedience and non-resistance 
 only belong to us ; that we are to make no enquiries, and nev- 
 er utter a word expressive of our opinions ; and that, though 
 the determinations of government are counter to the express 
 
17 
 
 Requirements of God, and so founded in moral wrong as 
 to impel us forward to mere scenes of plunder and butchery ; 
 or so absurd as to require us to shut ourselves up in our res- 
 pective dwellings until we bring on disease and famine, and 
 expire in one promiscuous death, they must nevertheless be 
 obeyed. We appeal to the scripture, which expressly de- 
 clares, that " we ought to obey God rather than men." We 
 appeal to the pious, and independently heroic resolutions of 
 the three captive Jews, whose example is evidently put down 
 for our imitation, and who boldly said to the proud monarch 
 of Babylon, " But if not, be it known unto thee O king, that 
 we will not serve thy God, nor worship the golden image 
 thou hast set up." We appeal to all the martyrdoms which a«- 
 dornthe Christian history, which have been submitted to rath* 
 er than obey commands counter to the spirit, the objects, and 
 the precepts of Christianity. We appeal to the examples of 
 our ancestors ;and we ask, Where, upon the principle of such 
 a profound submission to arbitrary will, is to be found the de- 
 fence of our Revolution ? 
 
 In the second place, this opposition is defensible, in that it 
 is in the exercise of those rights which the Constitution guar- 
 antees, and does not operate in tumult, insurrection, rebellion 
 and outrage. It is merely an expression of sentiment, an or- 
 derly cooperation, in pursuing such measures as are supposed 
 to have the most direct and powerful tendency to restore 
 peace, and a declining to do those things which might be pro- 
 motive of the war, but which neither the constitution nor the 
 laws require. This orderly appearance of the opposition is 
 an index of its nature, especially when contrasted with the 
 usurpations, the tumults, the insurrections and scenes of out- 
 rage there have been on the other side ; and presents a strong 
 presumptive argument, at least, that it is right Let us not be 
 highly criminated till we attempt to force dovvn the constitu- 
 tion, or violate the laws.* 
 
 3. This opposition is defensible upon the ground ''oat the 
 war is most plainly repugnant to the entire spirit, and the ex- 
 press precepts of our holy religion. This is not a defensive 
 
 * Ncte[ZX] 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 war. It cannot, with any propriety, be pretended to be so. A 
 defensive war is one which repels an invading enemy, and 
 whose life you take away merely to save your own. . A sim- 
 ple pretext of injury, in property or some other way, does not 
 make a war defensive. What offensive war has there ever 
 been, which was not ostensibly grounded upon such a pre- 
 text ? Real injury, affecting partially the minor interests of 
 society, and which is short of an attempt upon the independ- 
 ence of a community or an invasion of its territory, cannot 
 give to a war, on the part of those who declare it, and who are 
 first in warlike operations, the character of defensive.* — 
 Where and when have you been invaded ? What part of your 
 country has been overrun by the British forces ? Nothing; 
 like this appears. 
 
 It is said indeed that the savages have been instigated to 
 make war upon our frontiers. This is said ; but no evidence 
 of it appears. But suppose it could be proved that this has 
 been done by some unprincipled individuals, or even some 
 subordinate officers of the British government — Does it fol- 
 low that it has been done by the government itself ? Is it not 
 to be supposed that there are many cases, on both sides, in 
 which individuals do wrong, without any authority whatever 
 from the government to do so, and against both its interest and 
 its will I And will you rush on the master, and put him and 
 all his family to death, because one of his apprentices has done 
 you an injury ? And have you remonstrated to the govern- 
 ment, respecting this supposed covert attack upon the inhabi- 
 tants of your frontiers, and waited for a reply to this remon- 
 strance? Has not the minister and representative of this gov- 
 ernment near your own, come forward, without being asked 
 for explanation, and, with an apparent earnest desire to shield 
 his government from every such aspersion, and to inspire the 
 American people with confidence that it is utterly without 
 foundation, disavowed every kind and measure of such insti- 
 gation ? But there is a reason which is paramount to all others 
 and perfectly conclusive, in my mind, against this, and many 
 other similar allegations, that it has been decidedly the policy, 
 
 » Note [£.] 
 
19 
 
 and the evidently strong desire, of the British .government to 
 be at peace with us. There are powerful reasons for this, 
 which it is plain, they have very sensibly felt, and which, to a 
 person of the least observation, are obvious. They had a po- 
 tent and determined enemy to resist, who threatened them 
 with invasion and destruction ; and to withstand whom, it re- 
 quired all their national energies to be brought into action. — 
 And never has there been a moment when it was safe fur 
 them to intermit these exertions. They never could wish to 
 add to the resistance they had to overcome the hostile, land 
 and naval, armaments of this country. They had nothing to 
 gain by a war with us. For the few captures the}- could make 
 of our privateers and merchantships, would not probably ex- 
 ceed the number they would lose ; or, at best, the excess of 
 captures must be worth less to them, beyond all comparison, 
 than our trade ; and the subjugation of the country has ever 
 been entirely out of the question. Our trade has been of 
 great importance to them, not only for the nett profit of it, but 
 to keep their numerous manufacturers in employment and 
 satisfied, and they have studiously endeavoured to preserve it. 
 Farther proof we have in the protection often extended to 
 our merchant vessels ; in their readiness to negotiate ; their 
 missions of public agents to this country in succession, and 
 notwithstanding some of them have been treated with indigni- 
 ty ; the liberality of several public acts in favor of our com- 
 merce ; and, last of all, which is a very recent event,thc prompt, 
 and unconditional manner in which they have revoked their de- 
 crees in Council, as soon as they became possessed of a proper 
 revocation of the decrees of Berlin and Milan, by the F rench 
 Emperor ; and their furnishing our ships, laden with valua- 
 ble cargoes and leaving their dominions, with passports, se- 
 curing them from capture by their ships of war, -in confidence 
 that our non-importation laws would be repealed, yet without 
 the knowledge that they certainly would. With these things 
 in view, it seems to me that no man in his sober benses caii 
 question, but that, as it has been certainly the policy so it has 
 in fact been the strong desire,of the British government to re- 
 main at peace with us. And this ought to go far with us, and 
 
20 
 
 indeed to be conclusive, unless we have very clear and indubi- 
 table evidence to the contrary, that these allegations are not 
 founded in truth. 
 
 As to the impressment of our native seamen, which has 
 been so long a subject of controversy, and interested the pub- 
 lic feeling so deeply, there have been undoubtedly wrongs. 
 But the evidence seems to be that they are reciprocal, the 
 most aggravated,and perhaps the most numerous on their side. 
 But this is a matter of negotiation. It has been once, at least, 
 in a course of amicable adjustment, and would in fact have 
 been adjusted, upon terms satisfactory to our own public min- 
 isters, if we had chosen to have it so. Their t overnment 
 have disclaimed the right of impressing native Americans, 
 and of retaining them when impressed. And their public 
 minister, Mr. Foster, has formally assured our goverment, 
 that upon proper information and evidence, every such per- 
 son should be sought out and released. We shall find noth- 
 ing here then to prove that this war is a defensive war. 
 
 As to the other source of complaint, the blockade of a part 
 of the coast of France, lining the English Channel ; that is a 
 point of doubtful disputation, and to us of trivial consequence, 
 unless we choose to take part with the French Emperor in all 
 his quarrels, and assist him,to the utmost of our ability ,to sub- 
 jugate the world. We then have declared this war against 
 Great-Britain, and invaded their territories, when they gave 
 us strong proofs of their reluctance to enter into the combat. 
 Nor is it to be forgotten, if we would be impartial in our en- 
 quiries, that they have their complaints and pleas as well as 
 we. If we complain that some of our seamen have been un- 
 justly impressed ; they complain that we ha\e encouraged 
 
 the desertion of their seamen, by holding out to them the 
 prospect of high wages, and that personal liberty and safety 
 
 which our laws of naturalization extend to them ; and 
 that we have in fact detached multitudes of them from 
 their allegiance, and decoyed them into our mercantile ser- 
 vice, to the great reduction of their physical means of de- 
 fence* 
 
 • Note[F.] 
 
21 
 
 They have captured some of our vessels in execution ot 
 their decrees in Council. But they plead that these decrees 
 are altogether defensive, and that the execution of them is es- 
 sential to their existence, as a maritime and commercial na- 
 tion, whose destruction their enemy was seeking by every 
 mean in his power. Are we sure that this plea is not well 
 founded, and that we ought not to have submitted to such a 
 small reduction of our commercial profits rather than 
 strengthen the hands of this cruel foe ? The question then 
 comes really to this ; Have I a right to become the open ene- 
 my of my unoffending neighbour, who wishes to live peacea- 
 bly by me, and to maintain an intercourse which shall be 
 mutually advantageous ? Have I a right to rise upon him, 
 and to kill him, because he declines to submit to certain terms 
 of doubtful equity which I prescribe to him ? It appears to 
 me that the conscience of every man, who has not a pretty 
 strong inclination to shed the blood of his fellow creature, 
 must determine instantly in the negative. And, What says 
 the Scripture, that infallible authority, to which we are to ap- 
 peal in all questions of moral right ? To the enquiry, 
 " Whence come wars and fightings among you ;" it replies, 
 by the farther enquiry, u Come they not hence, even of your 
 lusts that war in your members V One of its express laws 
 is, " Thou shalt not kill." It tells you that he that hateth 
 his brother is a murderer ; and that no murderer hath 
 eternal life abiding in him. It assures you that u he that 
 doth wrong shall receive for the wrong that he hath done, 
 and that there is no respect of persons." It informs you 
 that " he that taketh the sword shall perish with the sword." 
 It instructs you to recompense no man evil even for evil ; 
 and, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you> to live peacea- 
 bly with all men. It pathetically entreats, " Dearly beloved, 
 avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath ; 
 for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the 
 Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he 
 thirst, give him drink, Be not overcome of evil ; but over- 
 come evil with good." It goes farther : your Redeemer thus 
 addresses you, " Ye have heard that it hath been said, An 
 
22 
 
 eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say untoyou that 
 ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy 
 Tight cheek, turn the other also ; and if any man will sue 
 ihee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy 
 cloak also : And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, 
 <*o with him twain. Ye have heard that it hath been said, 
 Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But 
 I say unto you, love your enemies; bless them that curse 
 you ; do good to them that hate you, and pray for them 
 which despitefully use you and persecute you ; that ye may 
 be the children of your father which is in heaven ; for he 
 maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and 
 sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." 
 
 See then how the Scripture arrays itself, by clear and 
 pathetic instructions, in defence of the heresy according to 
 which we worship the God of our fathers I 
 
 Think, my brethren, of the spirit and effects of war. 
 What malignant and furious passions does it excite ! What 
 tumults and terrors, what disorders and crimes does it pro- 
 duce I What desolations does it spread ! What scenes of 
 horror does it present 1 How opposite, in its nature, and in 
 all its effects, to that charity which is so distinctly delineated 
 by the sacred penmen, and of which our holy Redeemer was 
 a perfect example ; which suffereth long and is kind ; which 
 envieth not, and vaunteth not itself, which is not easily pro- 
 voked, and thinketh no evil ! 
 
 Farther, Our Lord gives us a lesson of wisdom which 
 is particularly apposite to this subject. He asks " For 
 which of you, intending to build a house, sitteth not down 
 first and counteth the cost,, whether he have sufficient to 
 build it ? Lest, haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and 
 is not able to finish it, all that behold him, begin to mock him, 
 saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish. 
 Or, What king, going to make war with another king, sitteth 
 not down first, and consulteth, whether he be able, with ten 
 thousand, to meet him that cometh against him with twenty 
 thousand : Or else, while the other is a great way off, he 
 sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. Upon 
 
23 
 
 the strength of these lessons of a cautionary wisdom, I 
 would therefore remark, 
 
 4. That it is a consideration which goes far indeed in de- 
 fence of the heresy mentioned, that the war is entered upon, 
 in the most inauspicious circumstances, and* with scarce a 
 shadow of a prospect of success, and with the moral certainty, 
 if it proceeds, of extinguishing what remains of our foreign 
 commerce, and bringing upon the nation a debt, and taxation 
 which it will not be able to bear. Has our government sitten 
 down wisely and estimated the strength of the nation they 
 have made their enemy, and their own strength ? Have they 
 not done exactly otherways ? Have they not fitst cut off their 
 own arms, and then, with the bleeding stumps, rushed on 
 the object of their vengeance, shielded in every part, well 
 armed to destroy, and of gigantic strength ? Divided, as we 
 are ; the great majority in the northern sections of the 
 country, where only the power of doing any thing effectually 
 exists, decidedly opposed to the war ; its advocates irreso- 
 lute, at least in the point of quitting their homes, and offering 
 themselves to the battle ; a considerable debt already upon 
 our hands ; our commerce and revenue next to annihilated ; 
 our treasury exhausted, and without a navy, how great is our 
 weakness! And is not the nation we have challenged to this 
 combat shielded in every part, and of gigantic strength ? Is 
 not their ability perpetually on the increase, notwithstanding 
 they have carried on along war with the greatest power in the 
 world, next to themselves ? Are not their dominions, their po- 
 pulation, and their means immense ? Have they not a prodi- 
 gious force on the land, organized in every part of it, and 
 ready for action ? And how very powerful is their marine ? 
 Have they lost a foot of ground for the few years past, o; 
 single battle ? How invariably do they triumph at sea ! Al- 
 ready do their ships of war line our coasts, and spread des- 
 truction among our privateers and merchant vessels. This 
 is in consequence of our declaring war against them. And 
 where will the destruction stop ? We arc to calculate merely 
 upon loss, vast expenditures, and national degradation. Tx- 
 pedience then comes in strongly to the support of ;he henw, 
 
24 
 
 accordtng to which we think it our duty to worship the God 
 of our fathers. 
 
 In the fifth and last place, this opposition is reasonable 
 and just, and even a matter of most imperious necessity, be- 
 cause there are such clear indications of an understanding, 
 and a coalition between our administration, and the imperial 
 despot of Europe ; aiding his nefarious designs, and, in its 
 proper tendency, subjecting us to his will. Not to descend 
 to minute particulars, which have been noticed by writers 
 well acquainted with these subjects, we need only look at 
 the aspect of palpable and undisguised facts. Have we not 
 Frenchmen in office ? Have we not Frenchmen in our cities 
 who are ardent in their national partialities, and who feel 
 themselves under so much countenance here, that they dare 
 to attempt to exasperate the citizens against each other, and 
 to subvert the government ; dare to trample on the laws, 
 stop the course of public information, and tumultuously and 
 murdurously, and by unparalleled barbarities, to take away 
 the lives of our citizens ? Has not the French Emperor told 
 us that he will have no neutrals, and that in fact we were at 
 war with Great-Britain, long before the formal declaration of 
 it ? Have not our restrictive measures been in perfect agree- 
 ment with his continental system ? Has not the declaration of 
 war exactly coincided with his wishes and expectations I 
 Has he not relaxed, and finally revoked, his decrees, in re- 
 spect to us, upon this ground ? Was not the declaration of 
 war a matter of congratulation between its advocates in Con- 
 gress, and the French minister at the elbow of our cabinet ? 
 Does not the war operate in favour of the Emperor's designs, 
 just as though it was in fact in obedience to his will ? Then, if 
 the evidence falls something short of conclusively proving a 
 coalition which amounts to a proper alliance, or rather a vas- 
 sal subjection, it is of such an aspect as to be greatly alarming, 
 and as furnishes abundant cause to deplore this war, and to in- 
 duce us to make every practicable effort to bring it to a clos» 
 as soon as possible. 
 
 Could a greater calamity befal the country than for it to be 
 completely caught in the toils of this relentless oppressor of 
 
25 
 
 the human family ? What an abject condition should we be 
 in I How great would be our fall ! How irretrievable our ruin ! 
 What a melancholy contrast to that manly independence and un- 
 exampled prosperity which we enjoyed under the first admin- 
 istrations of our government ! Look over the interior ofConti- 
 tental Europe, where not long ago kingdoms and republics 
 stood and prospered ; where deliberative assemblies acted 
 with independence and effect, and the voice of numerous au- 
 thorities was heard. A death-like silence now reigns over 
 all. Not a motion but what is in obedience to individual 
 will. Not one dares pour his complaints into the bosom of an- 
 other. The deep-drawn sigh is half suppressed. The sun- 
 burnt female, whose hands draw from the soil the means of 
 her subsistence, dares not audibly express her grief to theen- 
 quiring traveller, that her brothers have been torn away from 
 her afflicted parents to serve in the armies.* Are we prepar- 
 ed to precipitate ourselves into a state of degradation and mis- 
 ery bordering upon this ? II we would not, let us, as fast as wc 
 can, get back again to peace, impartiality, and independence. 
 
 In a very few words the apology is to shew, 
 
 IV. What will be the salutary and benign effects, should 
 this heresy triumph over our country, and supersede, by a 
 general influence, that philosophic and political orthodoxy,. 
 which, to our eye, is a mere system of infidelity, infatuation 
 and ruin. These effects are obvious. From past experience 
 and the nature of the case we may conclude, that our divisions 
 would be removed, and union would be r d to us, 
 
 people ; that cabal, and tumult and riot would cease- ; that I 
 wounds inflicted on our country would be healed tfeatpe 
 would immediately take place upon feonorabh i ;ns ; tJ 
 commerce would be restored to its full vigoy ; that the ] fo- 
 lic credit would be raised ; that a new spring would b< 
 to useful improvements ; that religion would be cUsemb 
 sed of many of its present impediments ; that the frej 
 debate and of the press would be recovered ; that ami 
 demagogues, and office-seekers, and men of mere party, 
 
 This is not mere painting. Such cases have actually come under th< 
 riew of travellers. 
 
 D 
 
26 
 
 would cease to mislead the public mind, by their misrepre- 
 sentations and falsehoods ; that the elective franchise would 
 be unlimitediy enjoyed and rightly exercised; and that, in 
 consequence, men of integrity and talents would be raised 
 to office ; that dignity, independence and wisdom, would 
 characterize our public councils ; and that the nation would 
 live in prosperity at least a little longer. "If thou take away 
 from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the fin- 
 ger, and speaking vanity ; if thou draw out thy soul to the 
 hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul * then shall thy light rise 
 in obscurity, and thy darkness shall be as the noon day. And 
 the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in 
 drought, and make fat thy bones ; and thou shaft be like a 
 watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail 
 not." Isaiah lviii, 10. 
 
 Then let us be penitently humble, for everything, in res- 
 pect to our God, our country, and one another, wherein our 
 consciences convict us of wrong, particularly in regard to the 
 calamitious war, in which, not " the injustice of a foreign 
 power ;"* but our own misguided policy and folly have in- 
 volved us. Let us worship God, according to righteousness, 
 and pray for the success of our arms so far as, and no farther 
 than, they are employed in support of a cause which he him- 
 self can approve. Let us mingle with our penitential contri- 
 tions and acknowledgements, grateful praise to God that he 
 has disposed the government of Great-Britain, with such a 
 promptitude and unconditionally, as soon as they had informa- 
 tion of the revocation of the decrees of Berlin and Milan, in 
 respect to American vessels, and before they had any knowl- 
 edge of our declaration of war, to annul their orders in coun- 
 cil ; and, by thus removing, what some influential advocates 
 of the administration have acknowledged to be, the only prop- 
 er ground of the war, rendering the restoration of a speedy 
 peace. amaUerof the fairest calulation, if not of inevitable 
 necessity. 
 
 And if there be those present who still choose to consider 
 and treat our opposition to this war, as a dangerous heresy, 
 
 * Proclamation. 
 
 \ 
 
27 
 
 let them be intreated to give us at least that liberty cf think- 
 ing, speaking and acting which they claim ; and I will con- 
 clude by only saying to them in this regard, in the words of 
 St. Paul, which he uttered on the occasion of making a subse- 
 quent apology before another civil magistrate, " Would to 
 God 1 that not only ye, but that all who arepn the same judg- 
 ment, were not only almost, but altogether, such as we are, 
 except these bonds." 
 
 FINIS. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 NOTE [>*.]— Page 12. 
 
 LIBERTY of conscience is a dear privilege. It has full 
 scope in this Country, and the clamor of sectarians is utterly with- 
 out ground. To build upon this claim, doctrines and measures 
 which leave nothing permanent j which, in effect, annul solemn 
 covenants, and contradict our commonest notions of honesty, is 
 merely to use liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, or covetous- 
 ness, or licentiousness. Instead of strengthening civil govern- 
 ment, it subverts it. It is directly in the face of the constitution 
 of this Commonwealth, which declares that, " the legislature shall, 
 from time to time, authorize and require, the several towns, par- 
 ishes, precincts, and other bodies politic or religious, to make sui- 
 table provision at their own expence, for the institution of the 
 public worship of God, and for the support and maintenance of 
 public protestant teachers of piety and religion." How idle are 
 all laws to this purpose, if they undo themselves by provisionsal 
 relaxations ; if they warrant the individuals, who have de- 
 deliberately acted in forming a contract for the support of such a 
 teacher, to break away, at any moment, from the obligations of the 
 contract, and deny the support they promised to furnish ! Better 
 have no legislation than to have it so extravagantly absurd. The 
 Baptists are the most clamorous for such a prostration of constitu- 
 tion and law. And alas ! they have not clamored without effect. It 
 is hoped and believed that the Judiciary will stand firm in defence 
 of the Constitution, and treat as mere nullities, as the mere 
 offspring of a disorganizing democracy, all laws evidently subver- 
 sive of it. Let us have full-grown liberty, but no dwarfish 
 licentiousness. 
 
 NOTE [£.]— Page 12. 
 
 A Farmer : No. 10. Such is the strain of malediction in this 
 prudent disclosure of feeling. " In this liberty (the voluntary 
 election and support of ministers) and in the political causes which 
 have and are every day disgusting it, if they are continued, we fore- 
 see the downfall of federal clergymen. — Already has the forgiving 
 spirit plead for clergymen seventy times seven. — Adverse combi- 
 nations, oppugnations, disrespect, reproach, and systematic revil- 
 
29 
 
 ings are (in the essence and nature of the crimes) sedition, trea- 
 son, and rebellion. — Justice, duty, religion and patriotism, would 
 not hesitate to denounce such an individual an outrageous offender, 
 and to treat him as an outlaw. — If an individual, obligated by pro- 
 fessional ties, holding the keys, and dispensing the seals of the 
 Old and New Covenant, should do this, he would be considered 
 as deserving every thing that the injured could take, or the insult- 
 ed and betrayed could inflict." Thus, in exact coincidence with 
 the infidel hatreds, and revolutionary projects of the philosopher 
 of Ferney, this writer spread the watchword of the downfall and 
 slaughter of all the federal congregational ministers of New-En- 
 gland, who were forty-nine out of fifty. It was this downfall 
 which his prophetic eye foresaw (for, he knew they were con- 
 scientious men, and would continue in the same course of fidelity 
 to God and their Country) and which he revealed, therefore 
 which he gave his voice to have effected. He gave the watch- 
 ward of their slaughter, I say j for this is the fair construction of 
 his words ; nay, they admit of no other meaning. For he who 
 is an outlaw is put beyond the protection of the law, and any body 
 may kill him with impunity. He who would justly be considered 
 as deserving every thing that the injured could take, or the insult- 
 ed and betrayed could inflict, would certainly be obnoxious to a 
 violent death. The proceeding is to be without trial, summary, 
 and popular. And what is the crime which is of this malignant 
 character, and which this temperate writer denominates sedition, 
 treason, and rebellion ? Why, it is receiving the Palladium, when 
 sent to them gratuitously, and expressing, with some independence 
 of thought, occasionally, their opinions of public men and mea- 
 sures. We forgive this writer. We pity him. We wish him 
 well with all our heart. But we are ashamed that such an ebulli- 
 tion of despotism and malignity should ever have emanated from 
 a press in New-England. And we are constrained to say, that if 
 he remains of the some dispositions, towards honest clergymen, 
 who dare to follow evidence and conscience, he ought to have been 
 sent for to act as lieutenant to the French Apothecary at Mob- 
 town. 
 
 With this may be joined, as a kindred effusion, the anathama 
 found in the string of Resolutions passed by the Middlesex As- 
 semblage of Republican Delegates, in Concord, Samuel Hoar, 
 Esq. Moderator, and, as is supposed, the Honorable, the Presi- 
 sident of the Senate, amanuensis. 
 
 " Resolved that those professed teachers of religion, who have 
 perverted their vocations to party purposes, and have become the 
 
30 
 
 apostles of sedition, the priests of discord and the ministers of 
 faction, calumniating their rulers, and speaking evil of dignities, 
 are rebels against Heaven and traitors to their Country, and, as they 
 have withdrawn from the duties of their calling, from their obli- 
 gations, as Christians and citizens, so citizens and Christians should 
 withdraw from their employment and support." Reader, Would 
 you not imagine from the aspect of this resolution, that a large 
 proportion of ihe Congregational Clergy in the County of Middle- 
 sex had abandoned their pulpits, and their professional duties, and 
 gone up and down the Country, like Peter the Hermit, preaching 
 a crusade against the government, causelessly vilifying its public 
 agents, for the mere purpose of spreading the flame of a civil war ? 
 Whereas, they are all quietly at their homes, and discharging, as 
 ever, their pastoral functions ; and no such character exists in the 
 Commonwealth, unless in the precincts of Dracut. Would you 
 not imagine that these exclusive patriots were warranted by the 
 Supreme Being to act as his vicars in the great affair of judging the 
 world I Yet, perhaps, few men would be put to more difficulty to 
 furnish evidence of their participation in his counsels. And how 
 adhesive this is to humanity and honesty ! They object calumny 
 to these ministers. Yet, with the same breath, they impute to 
 them treason against their Country, which is a capital offence. 
 Let Samuel Hoar, Esq. whose name is at the bottom of these 
 resolu< ions, designate the individuals. If he dares not do it, let 
 him acknowledge himself an assassin of clerical reputation. 
 
 NOTE [C]— Page 13. 
 
 As a specimen see another of the Middlesex Resolutions. — 
 11 Resolved i hat we view with destestation the traitorous conspira. 
 tors against the integrity of the Union, the allies of our enemy 
 who remain among us ; that we will observe them with jealous and 
 scrutinizing exactness, until public sentiment shall consign them 
 to a Country and a government, more congenial to their wishes, 
 and more suited to the ignoble temper of slaves." This makes us 
 think of Marcus T. Cicero in exile, and Julius Caesar, after wad- 
 ing through seas of the blood of Roman citizens, adorned with the 
 imperial diadem. Though it behoves not Christians to render 
 threatening for threatening, yet, in point cf prudence, it may be 
 well for these modern Caesars to remember that in Rome there was 
 a Brutus^ 
 
31 
 
 NOTE [D^—Page 17. 
 
 Every friend to the Revolution, and to the liberties of his Coun- 
 try ought to express, on all proper occasions, his abhorrence of 
 those numerous attempts which have been made, by the advocates 
 of the administration, coercively to silence opposition, and, by in- 
 fractions of the Constitution and laws, to perpetuate their power. 
 They have endeavored to destroy majorities by fraudulent imposi- 
 tions and by cabal, and to restrain the freedom of t lie press and 
 of debate. But the plan which was adopted, by the late democra- 
 tic legislature, for districting the Commonwealth, evidently de- 
 signed to perpetuate the power of a party in the Senate, though the 
 voice of the people should be distinctly against that party, and call 
 loud for a relief from their ruinous measures ; is such a specimen of 
 sheer Cromwellism, is such a close imitation of the dexterity, with 
 which their dear fellow-laborer, Bonaparte, threw himself upon 
 the saddle of government, that it ought to be singled out as an ob- 
 ject of peculiar odium. Where is the modesty of the present ma- 
 jority in the Senate, that, in the face of this great Commonwealth, 
 and near where Warren fell, abusing the name and the nature of 
 republicanism, trampling on her precepts, and casting her honors 
 to the ground, they dare to shew themselves in the exercise of 
 power assumed, and not constitutionally given! This is a foul 
 blot upon the history of Massachusetts. Let Hutchinson, and 
 Arnold, and Bidwell, be forgotten. Let all eyes be fixed upon this 
 majority. Let their proceedings be written with the point of a dia- 
 mond, that posterity may read, and learn to distinguish between 
 false and true patriots. 
 
 NOTE \_E.~\—Page 18. 
 
 " Offensive wars are those which are made to constrain others 
 to give us our due, in virtue of a perfect right we have to exact it 
 of them, or to obtain satisfaction for a damage unjustly done us, 
 and to force them to give caution for the future.— We must there- 
 fore affirm, in general, that the first who takes up arms, whether 
 justly or unjustly, commences an offensive war, and he w ho oppo- 
 ses him, whether with, or without reason, begins a defensive war.'* 
 Rurlimaqui on the Principles of Nat. and Pol. Law. 
 
 NOTE [*"•]— Page 22. 
 
 " Much less ought she (the neutral) to complain, if she enti 
 by high rewards, and countenances by fraudulent protections, such 
 seamen of the belligerent, in deserting tj>e standard of their country. 
 
Such is the fact well known to every man on the sea-coast.— Mary- 
 land, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, Georgia, employ three for- 
 eign seamen to one American ! Nor is this all— our government 
 give occasion to the very complaint of which they make so much 
 parade. It is a fact, acknowledged by our marine officers, that a 
 large proportion of the seamen, in some of our national ships, are 
 native British seamen, and it is even asserted that many of the war- 
 rant officers are of that description. Can a government which, at 
 least, does not check such abuses, such an attack upon the resources 
 of the belligerent, such an open inroad upon his rights, legitimate- 
 ly complain of his occasional abuse of the undoubted power of re- 
 claiming his own citizens ?" 
 
 "Mr. Madison's War," by a New-England Farmer, page 12, the 
 production of a fertile and accurate mind, replete with unanswera- 
 ble argument, and profound discussion, which every American cit- 
 izen ought to possess, and again and again to peruse. 
 
 " It must be then that the reason why they (the British) insist 
 upon this right is, that they wouid wish to check the disposition of 
 their own seamen to enter into our service, of whom it is admitted 
 on all hands, we have at least from 30, to 50,000." page 14th, 
 
 JalS 
 
, U !^SS 
 
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