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COMMON SENSE; WITH THE WHOLE APPENDIX, THE ADDRESS TO THE QUAKERS; ALSO, THE LARGE ADDITIONS COMPLETE. [PRICE THREE SHILLINGS.]

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Just printed and published, at the desire of several Members of the Honorable the Continental Congress, and some of the Military Officers of the Association, and is now selling by ROBERT BELL, Printer in Third street, (Price Three Dollars, two volumes, in neat bindings.)

THE MILITARY GUIDE FOR YOUNG OFFICERS, by THOMAS SIMES, Esq.This work is a large and valuable compilation from the most cele­brated military writers—Marshal Saxe—General Bland— King of Prussia—Prince Ferdinand, &c. &c. Containing the experience of many brave heroes in critical situations, for the use of young warriors; including an excellent military, historical and explanatory DICTIONARY. To which is now added, extracts from a military essay, contain­ing reflections on the raising, arming, cloathing and dis­cipline of the British infantry and cavalry. By Campbell Dalrymple, Esq Lieutenant Colonel to the King's own regiment of dragoons. The whole is illustrated with Eleven Copper-plates.

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COMMON SENSE; WITH THE WHOLE APPENDIX: THE ADDRESS TO THE QUAKERS: ALSO, THE LARGE ADDITIONS, AND A Dialogue between the Ghost of General Montgomery, just arrived from the Elysian Fields; and an American Delegate in a Wood, near Philadelphia: On the Grand Subject of AMERICAN INDEPENDANCY.

PHILADELPHIA: Printed, and Sold, by R. BELL, in Third-Street. MDCCLXXVI.

COMMON SENSE; ADDRES …
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COMMON SENSE; ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS OF AMERICA, On the following interesting SUBJECTS.

  • I. Of the Origin and Design of Government in general, with concise Remarks on the English Constitution.
  • II. Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession.
  • III. Thoughts on the present State of American Affairs.
  • IV. Of the present Ability of America, with some miscellaneous Reflections.

THE THIRD EDITION.

Man knows no Master save creating HEAVEN,
Or those whom choice and common good ordain.
THOMSON.

PHILADELPHIA; Printed, and Sold, by R. BELL, in Third-Street. MDCCLXXVI.

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INTRODUCTION.

PERHAPS the Sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet suffi­ciently fashionable to procure them general Favor; a long Habit of not think­ing a Thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of Custom. But the Tumult soon subsides. Time makes more Converts than Reason.

As a long and violent abuse of power, is generally the means of calling the right of it in question (and in matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry) and as the King of England hath under­taken in his own Right to suport the Par­liament in what he calls Theirs, and as the good People of this Country are grievously oppressed by the Combination, they have an undoubted privilege to enquire into the Pretensions of both, and equally to reject the Usurpation of either.

In the following Sheets, the Author hath studiously avoided every thing which is per­sonal among ourselves. Compliments as well as censure to individuals make no part there­of. The wise, and the worthy, need not the [Page] triumph of a Pamphlet; and those whose sentiments are injudicious, or unfriendly, will cease of themselves unless too much pains are bestowed upon their conversion.

The cause of America is in a great mea­sure the cause of all mankind. Many cir­cumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the event of which, their affections are interested. The laying a coun­try desolate with fire and sword, declaring war against the natural rights of all man­kind, and extirpating the defenders thereof from the face of the earth, is the concern of of every man to whom nature hath given the power of feeling; of which class, regardless of party censure, is the

AUTHOR.

P. S. The Publication of this new Edition hath been de­layed, with a view of taking notice (had it been neces­sary) of any attempt to refute the Doctrine of Indepen­dance: As no answer hath yet appeared, it is now presum­ed that none will, the time needful for getting such a Per­formance ready for the Public being considerably past.

Who the Author of this Production is, is wholly unne­cessary to the Public, as the Object for Attention is the Doctrine itself, not the Man. Yet it may not be unneces­sary to say, That he is unconnected with any party, and un­der no sort of Influence public or private, but the influ­ence of reason and principle.

Philadelphia, February 14, 1776.
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COMMON SENSE.

Of the Origin and Design of GOVERNMENT in general, with concise Remarks on the ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.

SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas, they are not only different, but have diffe­rent origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness possitively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one en­courages intercourse, the other creates dis­tinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an into­lerable one: for when we suffer, or are ex­posed to the same miseries by a Government, which we might expect in a country without Government, our calamity is heightened by [Page 2] reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government like dress is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of con­science clear, uniform, and irresistibly o­beyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it ne­cessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do, by the same prudence which in every other case ad­vises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswer­ably follows, that whatever form thereof ap­pears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expence and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.

In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some se­questered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest; they will then represent the first peopling of any country; or of the world. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. A thousand motives will excite them thereto, the strength of one [Page 3] man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilder­ness, but one man might labour out the com­mon period of life without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in the mean time would urge him to quit his work, and e­very different want call him a different way. Disease, nay even misfortune would be death; for tho' neither might be mortal, yet either would disable him from living, and reduce him to a state in which he might rather be said to perish, than to die.

Thus necessity like a gravitating power would soon form our newly arrived emi­grants into society, the reciprocal blessings of which, would supersede, and render the obligations of law and goverment unneces­sary while they remained perfectly just to each other: but as nothing but Heaven is impregnable to vice, it will unavoidably happen that in proportion as they surmount the first difficulties of emigration, which [Page 4] bound them together in a common cause, they will begin to relax in their duty and attachment to each other: and this remiss­ness will point out the necessity of establish­ing some form of government to supply the defect of moral virtue.

Some convenient tree will afford them a State House, under the branches of which the whole Colony may assemble to deliberate on public matters. It is more than proba­ble that their first laws will have the title only of REGULATIONS and be enforced by no other penalty than public disesteem. In this first parliament every man by natural right will have a seat.

But as the Colony encreases, the public concerns will encrease likewise, and the distance at which the members may be se­parated, will render it too inconvenient for all of them to meet on every occasion as at first, when their number was small, their habitations near, and the public concerns few and trifling, This will point out the convenience of their consenting to leave the legislative part to be managed by a select number chosen from the whole body, who are supposed to have the same concerns at [Page 5] stake which those have who appointed them, and who will act in the same manner as the whole body would act were they pre­sent. If the colony continues encreasing, it will become necessary to augment the num­ber of the representatives, and that the in­terest of every part of the colony may be attended to, it will be found best to divide the whole into convenient parts, each part sending its proper number: and that the elected might never form to themselves an interest separate from the electors, prudence will point out the propriety of having elec­tions often: because as the elected might by that means return and mix again with the general body of the electors in a few months, their fidelity to the public will be secured by the prudent reflection of not making a rod for themselves. And as this frequent in­terchange will establish a common interest with every part of the community, they will mutually and naturally support each other, and on this (not on the unmeaning name of king) depends the strength of go­vernment; and the happiness of the governed.

Here then is the origin and rise of govern­ment; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the [Page 6] world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears deceived by sound; how­ever prejudice may warp our wills, or in­terest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, 'tis right.

I draw my idea of the form of govern­ment from a principle in nature which no art can overturn, viz. That the more simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disor­dered, and the easier repaired when disorder­ed; and with this maxim in view I offer a few remarks on the so much boasted con­stitution of England. That it was noble for the dark and slavish times in which it was erected, is granted. When the world was over-run with tyranny the least remove there­from was a glorious rescue. But that it is imperfect, subject to convulsions, and inca­pable of producing what it seems to pro­mise is easily demonstrated.

Absolute governments, (tho' the disgrace of human nature) have this advantage with them, that they are simple; if the people suffer, they know the head from which their [Page 7] suffering springs; know likewise the reme­dy; and are not bewildered by a variety of causes and cures. But the constitution of England is so exceedingly complex, that the nation may suffer for years together without being able to discover in which part the fault lies, some will say in one and some in another, and every political physi­cian will advise a different medicine.

I know it is difficult to get over local or long standing prejudices, yet if we will suffer ourselves to examine the component parts of the English constitution, we shall find them to be the base remains of two ancient tyrannies, compounded with some new Republican materials.

First.—The remains of Monarchical ty­ranny in the person of the King.

Secondly.—The remains of Aristocratical tyranny in the persons of the Peers.

Thirdly—The new Republican materials, in the persons of the Commons, on whose virtue depends the freedom of England.

The two first by being hereditary are [Page 8] independent of the People; wherefore in a constitutional sense they contribute nothing towards the freedom of the State.

To say that the constitution of England is an union of three powers reciprocally checking each other, is farcical, either the words have no meaning or they are flat contradic­tions.

To say that the Commons are a check up­on the King, presupposes two things.

First.—That the King is not to be trust­ed without being looked after; or in other words, that a thirst for absolute power is the natural disease of Monarchy.

Secondly.—That the Commons by being appointed for that purpose, are either wiser or more worthy of confidence than the Crown.

But as the same constitution which gives the Commons a power to check the King by with-holding the supplies, gives after­wards the King a power to check the Com­mons by empowering him to reject their other bills; it again supposes that the King is [Page 9] wiser than those whom it has already suppos­ed to be wiser than him. A mere absurdity!

There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of Monarchy; it first ex­cludes a man from the means of informati­on, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required.— The state of a king shuts him from the world yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly: wherefore, the dif­ferent parts by unnaturally opposing and destroying each other, prove the whole character to be absurd and useless.

Some writers have explained the English constitution thus; the King say they is one, the people another; the Peers are an house in behalf of the King; the Commons in be­half of the people; but this hath all the distinctions of an house divided against itself; and tho' the expressions be pleasantly arrang­ed, yet when examined they appear idle and ambiguous: and it will always happen, that the nicest construction that words are capa­ble of, when applied to the description of something which either cannot exist, or is too incomprehensible to be within the com­pass of description, will be words of sound [Page 10] only, and tho' they may amuse the ear, they cannot inform the mind: for this explanation includes a previous question, viz. how came the King by a power which the people are afraid to trust and always obliged to check? Such a power could not be the gift of a wise people, neither can any power which needs checking be from God: yet the provision which the constitution makes, supposes such a power to exist.

But the provision is unequal to the task, the means either cannot, or will not ac­complish the end, and the whole affair is a Felo de se: for as the greater weight will al­ways carry up the less, and as all the wheels of a machine are put in motion by one, it only remains to know which power in the constitution has the most weight, for that will govern: and tho' the others, or a part of them, may clog, or check the rapidity of its motion, yet so long as they cannot stop it, their endeavours will be ineffectual: The first moving power will at last have its way, and what it wants in speed will be supplied by time.

That the crown is this overbearing part in the English constitution needs not be men­tioned, [Page 11] and that it derives its whole conse­quence merely from being the giver of pla­ces and pensions is self evident, wherefore, tho' we have been wise enough to lock the door against absolute Monarchy, we at the same time have been foolish enough to put the Crown in possession of the key.

The prejudice of Englishmen in favour of their own government by King, Lords and Commons, arises as much or more from na­tional pride than reason. Individuals are undoubtedly safer in England than in some other countries: but the will of the King is as much the law of the land in Britain as in France with this difference, that instead of proceeding directly from his mouth, it is handed to the people under the more formidable shape of an act of parliament. For the fate of Charles the First, hath only made kings more subtle—not more just.

Wherefore laying aside all national pride and prejudice in favour of modes and forms, the plain truth is, that it is wholly owing to the constitution of the people, and not to the constitution of the government that the crown is not as oppressive in England as in Turkey.

[Page 12]An enquiry into the constitutional errors in the English form of government, is at this time highly necessary; for as we are never in a proper condition of doing justice to others, while we continue under the in­fluence of some leading partiality, so neither are we capable of doing it to ourselves while we remain fettered by any obstinate preju­dice. And as a man who is attached to a prostitute is unfitted to choose or judge of a wife, so any prepossesion in favour of a rot­ten constitution of government will disable us from discerning a good one.

Of MONARCHY and hereditary succession.

MANKIND being originally equals in the order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent circumstance: the distinctions of rich and poor may in a great measure be ac­counted for, and that without having re­course to the harsh ill-sounding names of oppression and avarice. Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or never the means of riches: and tho' avarice will pre­serve a man from being necessitously poor, it generally makes him too timorous to be wealthy.

[Page 13]But there is another and greater distinction for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is, the distinction of Men into KINGS and SUBJECTS. Male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of Heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some new species, is worth enquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind.

In the early ages of the world according to the scripture chronology there were no kings; the consequence of which was, there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throws mankind into confusion. Holland without a king hath enjoyed more peace for this last century, than any of the monar­chical governments in Europe. Antiquity favours the same remark; for the quiet and rural lives of the first Patriarchs hath a hap­py something in them, which vanishes away when we come to the history of Jewish royalty.

Government by kings was first introduc­ed into the World by the Heathens, from whom the children of Isreal copied the cus­tom [Page 14] It was the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry. The Heathens paid divine ho­nours to their deceased Kings, and the Christian World hath improved on the plan by doing the same to their living ones. How impious is the title of sacred Majesty applied to a worm, who in the midst of his splendor is crumbling into dust.

As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot be justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be defended on the authority of scripture; for the will of the Almighty as declared by Gideon and the Prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by Kings, all anti-monar­chical parts of scripture have been very smoothly glossed over in monarchical go­vernments, but they undoubtedly merit the attention of countries which have their governments yet to form. " Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's" is the scripture doctrine of courts, yet it is no support of monarchical government, for the Jews at that time were without a king and in a state of vassalage to the Romans.

Near three thousand years passed away [Page 15] from the Mosaic account of the creation, till the Jews under a national delusion re­quested a king. Till then, their form of go­vernment, (except in exraordinary cases where the Almighty interposed) was a kind of Republic administred by a judge and the elders of the tribes. Kings they had none, and it was held sinful to acknowledge any Being under that title but the Lord of Hosts. And when a man seriously reflects on the idolatrous homage which is paid to the per­sons of kings, he need not wonder that the Almighty ever jealous of his honour, should disapprove of a form of government which so impiously invades the prerogative of Heaven.

Monarchy is ranked in scripture as one of the sins of the Jews, for which a curse in reserve is denounced against them. The his­tory of that transaction is worth attending to.

The children of Israel being oppressed by the Midianites, Gideon marched against them with a small army, and victory thro' the Divine interposition decided in his fa­vour, The Jews elate with success, and attributing it to the generalship of Gideon, proposed making him a king; saying Rule [Page 16] thou over us, thou and thy son and thy son's son. Here was temptation in its fullest extent; not a kingdom only, but an here­ditary one, but Gideon in the piety of his soul replied, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. THE LORD SHALL RULE OVER YOU. Words need not be more explicit; Gideon doth not decline the honour, but denieth their right to give it; neither doth he compliment them with in­vented declarations of his thanks, but in the positive stile of a prophet charges them with disaffection to their proper Sovereign, the King of Heaven.

About one hundred and thirty years after this they fell again into the same error. The hankering which the Jews had for the idolatrous customs of the Heathens, is something exceedingly unaccountable; but so it was, that laying hold of the misconduct of Samuel's two sons who were entrusted with some secular concerns they came in an abrupt and clamorous manner to Samuel saying, behold thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways, now make us a king to judge us like all the other nations. And here we cannot but observe that their motives were bad, viz. that they might be like unto other [Page 17] nations, i. e. the Heathens, whereas their true glory laid in being as much unlike them as possible. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a King to judge us: and Samuel prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord said unto Samuel hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have re­jected me, THAT I SHOULD NOT REIGN OVER THEM. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me and served other Gods: so do they also unto thee. Now there­fore hearken unto their voice, howbeit, protest solemnly unto them and shew them the manner of the King that shall reign over them, i. e. not of any particular King, but the general man­ner of the Kings of the Earth whom lsrael was so eagerly copying after. And not­withstanding the great distance of time and difference of manners, the character is still in fashion. And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people, that asked of him a King. And he said this shall be the manner of the King that shall reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them for him­self for his chariots and to be his horse-men, and some shall run before his chariots. (This [Page 18] description agrees with the present mode of impressing men) and he will appoint him cap­tains over thousands and captains over fifties, will set them to ear his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. (This describes the expence and luxury as well as the oppression of Kings) and he will take your fields and your vineyards, and your olive yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give them to his officers and to his servants. (By which we see that bribery, corruption, and favouritism, are the standing vices of Kings.) And he will take the tenth of your men servants, and your maid servants, and your goodliest young men and your asses, and put them to his work: and he will take the tenth of your sheep, and ye shall be his ser­vants, and ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen, AND THE LORD WILL NOT HEAR YOU IN THAT DAY. This accounts for the continuation of Monarchy; neither do the characters of the few good kings which have lived since, either sanctify the title, or blot out the sin­fulness of the origin; the high encomium [Page 19] given of David takes no notice of him offici­ally as a King, but only as a Man after God's own heart. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said nay but we will have a king over us, that we may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us and fight our battles. Samuel continued to reason with them but to no purpose, he set before them their ingratitude but all would not avail, and seeing them fully bent on their folly, he cried out, I will call unto the Lord and he shall send thunder and rain (which then was a pun­ishment being in the time of wheat harvest) that ye may perceive and see that your wicked­ness is great which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, IN ASKING YOU A KING. So Sa­muel called unto the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said unto Samuel, pray for thy ser­vants unto the Lord thy God that we die not, for WE HAVE ADDED UNTO OUR SINS THIS EVIL, TO ASK A KING. These por­tions of scripture are direct and positive. They admit of no equivocal construction. That the Almighty hath here entered his protest against monarchical government is true, or the scripture is false. And a man [Page 20] hath good reason to believe that there is as much of king-craft, as priest-craft, in with­holding the scripture from the public in po­pish countries. For monarchy in every in­stance is the popery of government.

To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession; and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and an imposition on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and tho' himself might deserve some decent degree of honours of his cotempora­ries, yet his descendants might be far too un­worthy to inherit them. One of the strong­est natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.

Secondly, as no man at first could possess any other public honours than were bestow­ed upon him, so the givers of those honours could have no power to give away the right of posterity, and though they might say "we choose you for our head" they could not with­out [Page 21] manifest injustice to their children say "that your children and your children's children shall reign over ours forever." Be­cause such an unwise, unjust; unnatural com­pact might (perhaps) in the next succession put them under the government of a rogue or a fool. Most wise men in their private sentiments have ever treated hereditary right with contempt; yet it is one of those evils, which when once established is not easily re­moved: many submit from fear, others from superstition, and the more powerful part shares with the king the plunder of the rest.

This is supposing the present race of kings in the world to have had an honorable ori­gin: whereas it is more than probable, that could we take off the dark covering of anti­quity and trace them to their first rise, that we should find the first of them nothing better than the principal ruffian of some rest­less gang, whose savage manners or pre-emi­nence in subtilty obtained him the title of chief among plunderers: and who by increa­sing in power and extending his depredations, over-awed the quiet and defenceless to pur­chase their safety by frequent contributions. Yet his electors could have no idea of giving hereditary right to his descendants, because [Page 22] such a perpetual exclusion of themselves was incompatible with the free and unrestrained principles they professed to live by. Where­fore, hereditary succession in the early ages of monarchy could not take place as a matter of claim, but as something casual or com­plimental; but as few or no records were extant in those days, and traditionary history stuff'd with fables, it was very easy after the lapse of a few generations, to trump up some superstitious tale conveniently timed, Mahomet like, to cram hereditary right down the throats of the vulgar. Perhaps the disorders which threatened, or seemed to threaten, on the decease of a leader and the choice of a new one (for elections among ruffians could not be very orderly) induced many at first to favour hereditary pretensi­ons; by which means it happened, as it hath happened since, that what at first was submitted to as a convenience was after­wards claimed as a right.

England since the conquest hath known some few good monarchs, but groaned be­neath a much larger number of bad ones: yet no man in his senses can say that their claim under William the Conqueror is a very honourable one. A French Bastard [Page 23] landing with an armed Banditti and esta­blishing himself king of England against the consent of the natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original.—It certainly hath no divinity in it. However it is need­less to spend much time in exposing the folly of hereditary right, if there are any so weak as to believe it, let them promis­cuously worship the Ass and Lion and wel­come. I shall neither copy their humility nor disturb their devotion.

Yet I should be glad to ask how they sup­pose kings came at first? the question ad­mits but of three answers, viz. either by lot, by election or by usurpation. If the first king was taken by lot, it establishes a precedent for the next, which excludes hereditary succession. Saul was by lot yet the succession was not hereditary, neither does it appear from that transaction there was any intention it ever should. If the first king of any country was by election that likewise establishes a precedent for the next; for to say that the right of all future gene­rations is taken away by the act of the first electors in their choice not only of a king, but of a family of kings for ever, hath no parallel in or out of scripture but the doctrine [Page 24] of original sin, which supposes the free-will of all men lost in Adam: and from such comparison, and it will admit of no other, hereditary succession can derive no glory. For as in Adam all sinned, and as in the first electors all men obeyed; as in the one all mankind were subjected to Satan, and in the other to sovereignty; as our innocence was lost in the first, and our authority in the last; and as both disable us from re­assuming some former state and privilege, it unanswerably follow; that original sin and hereditary succession are parallels. Disho­norable rank! inglorious connection! yet the most subtle sophist cannot produce a juster simile.

As to usurpation no man will be so hardy as to defend it; and that William the con­quer was an usurper is a fact not to be contradicted. The plain truth is, that the antiquity of English monarchy will not bear looking into.

But it is not so much the absurdity as the evil of hereditary succession which concerns mankind. Did it ensure a race of good and wise men it would have the seal of divine authority, but as it opens a door to the fool­ish, the wicked, and the improper, it hath [Page 25] in it the nature of oppression. Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent—se­lected from the rest of Mankind their minds are easily poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so ma­terially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ig­norant and unfit of any throughout the do­minions.

Another evil which attends hereditary suc­cession, is, that the throne is subject to be possessed by a minor at any age; all which time the regency acting under the cover of a king have every opportunity and inducement to betray their trust. The same national misfortune happens when a king worn out with age and infirmity enters the last stage of human weakness. In both these cases the public becomes a prey to every miscreant who can tamper successfully with the follies either of age or infancy.

The most plausible plea which hath ever been offered in favour of hereditary succession, is, that it preserves a Nation from civil wars; [Page 26] and were this true, it would be weighty; whereas it is the most barefaced falsity ever imposed upon mankind. The whole histo­ry of England disowns the fact. Thirty kings and two minors have reigned in that distracted kingdom since the conquest, in which time there has been (including the Revolution) no less than eight civil wars and nineteen Rebellions. Wherefore instead of making for peace, it makes against it, and destroys the very foundation it seems to stand upon.

The contest for monarchy and succession between the houses of York and Lancaster laid England in a scene of blood for many years. Twelve pitched battles besides skir­mishes and sieges were fought between Henry and Edward. Twice was Henry prisoner to Edward, who in his turn was prisoner to Henry. And so uncertain is the fate of war and the temper of a Nation, when nothing but personal matters are the ground of a quarrel, that Henry was taken in triumph from a prison to a palace, and Edward obliged to fly from a palace to a foreign land: Yet as sudden transitions of temper are seldom lasting. Henry in his turn was driven from the throne and Edward [Page 27] recalled to succeed him. The parliament always following the strongest side.

This contest began in the reign of Henry the sixth and was not entirely extinguished till Henry the seventh. in whom the fami­lies were united. Including a period of 67 years, viz. from 1422 to 1489.

In short, monarchy and succession have laid (not this or that kingdom only) but the world in blood and ashes. 'Tis a form of government which the word of God bears testimony against, and blood will attend it.

If we enquire into the business of a King we shall find that in some countries they have none; and after sauntering away their lives without pleasure to themselves or ad­vantage to the nation, withdraw from the scene and leave their successors to tread the same idle round. In absolute monarchies the whole weight of business civil and mili­tary lies on the King; the children of Israel in their request for a King urged this plea "that he may judge us, and go out before us and fight our battles." But in countries where he is neither a judge nor a general as in England, a man would be puzzled to know what is his business.

[Page 28]The nearer any government approaches to a republic the less business there is for a King. It is somewhat difficult to find a proper name for the government of England. Sir William Meredith calls it a Republic; but in its present state it is unworthy of the name, because the corrupt influence of the Crown by having all the places in its dis­posal, hath so effectually swallowed up the power, and eaten out the virtue of the House of Commons (the Republican part in the constitution) that the government of England is nearly as monarchical as that of France or Spain. Men fall out with names wihout understanding them. For 'tis the republican and not the monarchical part of the constitution of England which Englishmen glory in, viz. the liberty of choosing an house of commons from out of their own body—and it is easy to see that when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues. Why is the constitution of England sickly? but because monarchy hath poisoned the re­public; the crown hath engrossed the commons.

In England a king hath little more to do than to make war and give away places; which in plain terms, is to impoverish the [Page 29] nation and set it together by the ears. A pret­ty business indeed for a man to be allowed eight hundred thousand sterling a year for, and worshipped into the bargain! Or more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.

THOUGHTS, on the present STATE of AMERICAN AFFAIRS,

IN the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense: and have no other pre­liminaries to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of prejudice and pre­possession, and suffer his reason and his feelings to determine for themselves: that he will put on or rather that he will not put off the true character of a man, and gene­rously enlarge his views beyond the present day.

Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between England and Ame­rica. Men of all ranks have embarked in the controversy, from different motives, and with various designs; but all have been [Page 30] ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed. Arms as the last resource decide the contest; the appeal was the choice of the King, and the Continent has accepted the challenge.

It hath been reported of the late Mr. Pel­ham (who tho' an able minister was not without his faults) that on his being attack­ed in the House of Commons on the score that his measures were only of a temporary kind, replied " they will last my time." Should a thought so fatal and unmanly possess the Colonies in the present contest, the name of ancestors will be remembered by future generations with detestation.

The Sun never shined on a cause of great­er worth. 'Tis not the affair of a City, a County, a Province or a Kingdom; but of a Continent—of at least one eighth part of the habitable Globe. 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected even to the end of time by the proceedings now. Now is the seed time of Continental union, faith, and honour. The least fracture now, will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the [Page 31] wound will enlarge with the tree, and pos­terity read it in full grown characters.

By referring the matter from argument to arms, a new aera for politics is struck—a new method of thinking hath arisen. All plans, proposals, &c. prior to the 19th of April, i. e. to the commencement of hosti­lities, are like the almanacks of the last year; which tho' proper then, are superceded and useless now. Whatever was advanced by the advocates on either side of the question then, terminated in one and the same point, viz. a union with Great Britain; the only difference between the parties, was the method of effecting it; the one proposing force the other friendship; but it hath so far happened that the first hath failed, and the second hath withdrawn her influence.

As much hath been said of the advantages of reconciliation, which like an agreeable dream, hath passed away and left us as we were, it is but right, that we should ex­amine the contrary side of the argument, and enquire into some of the many material injuries which these Colonies sustain, and al­ways will sustain, by being connected with and dependant on Great Britain. To exa­mine [Page 32] that connection and dependance on the principles of nature and common sense, to see what we have to trust to if separated, and what we are to expect if dependant.

I have heard it asserted by some, that as America hath flourished under her former connection with Great Britain, that the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness and will always have the same effect—Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument:—we may as well assert that because a child hath thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty. But even this is admitting more than is true, for I answer, roundly, that America would have flourished as much, and probably much more had no European power taken any notice of her. The commerce by which she hath enriched herself are the necessaries of life, and will always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe.

But she has protected us say some. That she hath engrossed us is true, and defended the Continent at our expence as well as her [Page 33] own is admitted; and she would have de­fended Turkey from the same motive viz. the sake of trade and dominion.

Alas! we have been long led away by ancient prejudices and made large sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted the pro­tection of Great Britain, without considering, that her motive was interest not attachment; that she did not protect us from our enemies on our account, but from her enemies on her own account, from those who had no quarrel with us on any other account, and who will always be our enemies on the same account. Let Britain wave her pretensions to the Con­tinent, or the Continent throw off the de­pendance, and we should be at peace with France and Spain were they at war with Britain. The miseries of Hanover last war ought to warn us against connections.

It hath lately been asserted in parliament, that the Colonies have no relation to each other but through the Parent Country, i. e. that Pennsylvania and the Jerseys and so on for the rest, are sister Colonies by the way of England; this is certainly a very round­about way of proving relationship, but it is the nearest and only true way of proving en­mity [Page 34] (or enemyship, if I may so call it.) France and Spain never were, nor perhaps ever will be our enemies as Americans but as our being the subjects of Great Britain.

But Britain is the parent country say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families; wherefore the assertion if true, turns to her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only partly so, and the phrase, parent or mother country, hath been jesui­tically adopted by the King and his parasites, with a low papistical design of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds. Europe and not England is the parent country of America. This new World hath been the asylum for the perse­cuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descen­dants still.

In this extensive quarter of the Globe, we [Page 35] forget the narrow limits of three hundred and sixty miles (the extent of England) and carry our friendship on a larger scale; we claim brotherhood with every European Christian, and triumph in the generosity of the sentiment.

It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradations we surmount the force of local pre­judice as we enlarge our acquaintance with the World. A man born in any town in England divided into parishes, will naturally associate most with his fellow-parishioners (because their interests in many cases will be com­mon) and distinguish him by the name of neighbour: if he meet him but a few miles from home, he drops the narrow idea of a street, and salutes him by the name of townsman: if he travel out of the county and meet him in any other, he forgets the minor divisions of street and town and calls him countryman, i. e. county-man: but if in their foreign excursions they should associate in France, or any other part of Europe, their local remembrance would be enlarged into that of Englishmen. And by a just parity of reasoning, all Europeans meeting in America, or any other quarter of the Globe, are coun­trymen; for England, Holland, Germany, [Page 36] or Sweden, when compared with the whole, stand in the same places on the larger scale, which the divisions of street, town, and county do on the smaller ones; Distinctions too limitted for Continental minds. Not one third of the inhabitants, even of this Province, are of English de­scent. Wherefore, I reprobate the phrase of Parent or Mother Country applied to England only, as being false,selfish, nar­row and ungenerous.

But admitting, that we were all of English descent, what does it amount to? Nothing. Britain being now an open enemy, extin­guishes every other name and title: and to say that reconciliation is our duty, is truly farcical. The first king of England, of the present line (William the Conqueror) was a Frenchman, and half the Peers of England are descendants from the same country; wherefore, by the same method of reasoning, England ought to he governed by France.

Much hath been said of the united strength of Britain and the Colonies, that in conjunction they might bid defiance to the world: But this is mere presumption, the sate of war is uncertain, neither do the ex­pressions [Page 37] mean any thing, for this Conti­nent would never suffer itself to be drained of inhabitants, to support the British Arms in either Asia, Africa, or Europe.

Besides, what have we to do with setting the world at defiance? Our plan is com­merce, and that well attended to, will se­cure us the peace and friendship of all Eu­rope, because it is the interest of all Europe to have America a free port. Her trade will always be a protection, and her barrenness of gold and silver will secure her from invaders.

I challenge the warmest advocate for re­conciliation, to shew, a single advantage that this Continent can reap, by being connected with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge, not a single advantage is derived. Our corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe and our imported goods must be paid for buy them where we will.

But the injuries and disadvantages we sus­tain by that connection, are without num­ber, and our duty to mankind at large, as well as to ourselves, instruct us to renounce the alliance: because any submission to, or dependance on Great Britain, tends directly [Page 38] to involve this Continent in European wars and quarrels. As Europe is our market for trade, we ought to form no political connec­tion with any part of it. 'Tis the true in­terest of America, to steer clear of European contentions, which she never can do, while by her dependance on Britain, she is made the make-weight in the scale of British politics.

Europe is too thickly planted with King­doms, to be long at peace, and whenever a war breaks out between England and any foreign power, the trade of America goes to ruin, because of her connection with Britain. The next war may not turn out like the last, and should it not, the advocates for re­conciliation now, will be wishing for se­paration then, because neutrality in that case, would be a safer convoy than a man of war. Every thing that is right or reason­able pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'TIS TIME TO PART. Even the distance at which the Almighty hath placed England and America, is a strong and natural proof, that the authority of the one over the other, was never the design of Heaven. The time likewise at which the Continent [Page 39] was discovered, adds weight to the argu­ment, and the manner in which it was peopled encreases the force of it.—The Reformation was preceded by the discovery of America; As if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety.

The authority of Great Britain over this Continent is a form of Government which sooner or later must have an end: And a serious mind can draw no true pleasure by looking forward, under the painful and posi­tive conviction, that what he calls "the pre­sent constitution," is merely temporary. As parents, we can have no joy, knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure any thing which we may bequeath to posterity: And by a plain method of argu­ment, as we are running the next genera­tion into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and piti­fully. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a few years far­ther into life; that eminence will present a prospect, which a few present fears and pre­judices conceal from our sight.

[Page 40]Though I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offence, yet I am inclined to believe, that all those who espouse the doctrine of reconciliation, may be included within the following descriptions. Interested men who are not to be trusted, weak men who cannot see, prejudiced men who will not see, and a certain set of moderate men who think better of the European world than it deserves; and this last class, by an ill-judged deliberation, will be the cause of more calamities to this Continent, than all the other three.

It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scene of present sorrow; the evil is not sufficiently brought to their doors to make them feel the preca­riousness with which all American property is possessed. But let our imaginations transport us for a few moments to Bos­ton; that seat of wretchedness will teach us wisdom, and instruct us for ever to re­nounce a power in whom we can have no trust. The inhabitants of that unfortunate city who but a few months ago were in ease and affluence, have now no other alternative than to stay and starve, or turn out to beg. Endangered by the fire of their friends if [Page 41] they continue within the city, and plunder­ed by government if they leave it. In their present condition they are prisoners without the hope of redemption, and in a general attack for their relief, they would be ex­posed to the fury of both armies.

Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offences of Britain, and still hoping for the best, are apt to call out. Come, come, we shall be friends again for all this. But examine the passions and feelings of mankind: bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me, whether you can hereafter love, honour, and faithfully serve the power that hath carried fire and sword into your land? If you cannot do all these, then are you only deceiving yourselves, and by your delay bringing ruin upon posterity. Your future connection with Britain whom you can neither love nor honour, will be forced and unnatural, and being formed only on the plan of present convenience, will in a little time, fall into a relapse more wretched than the first. But if you say, you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, hath your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are your [Page 42] wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and your­self the ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a judge of those who have. But if you have and still can shake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a syco­phant.

This is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but trying them by those feelings and affections which nature justifies, and without which, we should be incapable of discharging the social duties of life, or en­joying the felicities of it. I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpose of provoking revenge, but to awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers, that we may pursue de­terminately some fixed object. 'Tis not in the power of England or of Europe to con­quer America, if she doth not conquer her­self by delay and timidity. The present winter is worth an age if rightly employed, but if lost or neglected, the whole Continent [Page 43] will partake of the misfortune; and there is no punishment which that man doth not deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that may be the means of sacrificing a season so precious and useful.

'Tis repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things; to all examples from former ages, to suppose, that this Continent can long remain subject to any external power. The most sanguine in Britain doth not think so. The utmost stretch of human wisdom cannot at this time compass a plan, short of separation, which can promise the Continent even a year's security. Reconciliation is now a fallacious dream. Nature hath deserted the connection, and art cannot supply her place. For as Milton wisely expresses "never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep."

Every quiet method for peace hath been ineffectual. Our prayers have been rejected with disdain; and hath tended to convince us that nothing flatters vanity or confirms obstinacy in Kings more than repeated pe­titioning—and nothing hath contributed more, than that very measure, to make the Kings of Europe absolute. Witness Den­mark [Page 44] and Sweden. Wherfore, since no­thing but blows will do, for God's sake let us come to a final separation, and not leave the next generation to be cutting throats under the violated unmeaning names of parent and child.

To say they will never attempt it again is idle and visionary, we thought so at the repeal of the stamp-act, yet a year or two undeceived us; as well may we suppose that nations which have been once defeated will never renew the quarrel.

As to government matters 'tis not in the power of Britain to do this Continent jus­tice: the business of it will soon be too weighty and intricate to be managed with any tolerable degree of convenience, by a power so distant from us, and so very ignor­ant of us; for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us. To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which when obtained requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few years be looked upon as folly and childishness—There was a time when it [Page 45] was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease.

Small islands not capable of protecting themselves are the proper objects for go­vernment to take under their care: but there is something very absurd, in supposing a Continent to be perpetually governed by an island. In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet, and as England and America with respect to each other reverse the common order of nature▪ it is evident they belong to different systems. England to Europe: America to itself.

I am not induced by motives of pride, party or resentment to espouse the doctrine of separation and independence; I am clear­ly positively, and conscientiously persuaded that 'tis the true interest of this Continent to be so; that every thing short of that is mere patchwork, that it can afford no lasting felicity,—that it is leaving the sword to our children, and shrinking back at a time, when a little more, a little farther, would have rendered this Continent the glory of the earth.

[Page 46]As Britain hath not manifested the least inclination towards a compromise, we may be assured that no terms can be obtained worthy the acceptance of the Continent, or any ways equal to the expence of blood and treasure we have been already put to.

The object contended for, ought always to bear some just proportion to the expence. The removal of North, or the whole de­testable junto, is a matter unworthy the millions we have expended. A temporary stoppage of trade was an inconvenience, which would have sufficiently ballanced the repeal of all the acts complained off, had such repeals been obtained; but if the whole Continent must take up arms, if every man must be a soldier, 'tis scarcely worth our while to fight against a contemptible ministry only. Dearly, dearly, do we pay for the re­peal of the acts, if that is all we fight for; for in a just estimation, 'tis as great a folly to pay a Bunker-hill price for law as for land. As I have always considered the independancy of this Continent, as an event which sooner or later must arrive, so from the late rapid progress of the Continent to maturity, the event could not be far off. Wherefore on the breaking out of hostilities, it was not worth [Page 47] the while to have disputed a matter, which time would have finally redressed, unless we meant to be in earnest: otherwise it is like wasting an estate on a suit at law, to regu­late the trespasses of a tenant, whose lease is just expiring. No man was a warmer wisher for reconciliation than myself, before the fatal 19th of April 1775, but the mo­ment the event of that day was made known, I rejected the hardened, sullen tempered Pharoah of England for ever; and disdain the wretch, that with the pretended title of FATHER OF HIS PEOPLE can unfeelingly hear of their slaughter, and composedly sleep with their blood upon his soul.

But admitting that matters were now made up, what would be the event? I an­swer, the ruin of the Continent. And that for several reasons▪

First. The powers of governing still re­maining in the hands of the King, he will have a negative over the whole legislation of this Continent: and as he hath shewn him­self such an inveterate enemy to liberty, and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power; is he, or is he not, a proper man to say to these Colonies, You shall make no laws but [Page 48] what I please. And is there any inhabitant in America so ignorant, as not to know, that according to what is called the present constitution, that this Continent can make no laws but what the king gives leave to; and is there any man so unwise, as not to see, that (considering what has happened) he will suffer no laws to be made here, but such as suit his purpose. We may be as effectually enslaved by the want of laws in America, as by submitting to laws made for us in England. After matters are made up (as it is called) can there be any doubt, but the whole power of the crown will be exerted to keep this Continent as low and humble as possible? instead of going for­ward, we shall go backward, or be per­petually quarrelling or ridiculously petion­ing. —We are already greater than the King wishes us to be, and will he not here­after endeavour to make us less. To bring the matter to one point, is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us? Whoever says no to this question is an Independant, for independency means no more than whether we shall make our own laws, or, whether the King, the greatest enemy this Continent hath, or can [Page 49] have, shall tell us, there shall be no laws but such as I like.

But the King you'll say, hath a negative in England; the people there can make no laws without his consent. In point of right and good order, there is something very ri­diculous that a youth of twenty-one (which hath often happened) shall say to six mil­lions of people older and wiser than himself, "I forbid this or that act of yours to be law." But in this place I decline this sort of reply, though I will never cease to expose the ab­surdity of it, and only answer that England being the King's residence, and America not so, makes quite another case. The King's negative here is ten times more dan­gerous and fatal than it can be in England, for there he will scarcely refuse his consent to a bill for putting England into as strong a state of defence as possible, and here he would never suffer such a bill to be passed.

America is only a secondary object in the system of British politics. England consults the good of this country, no farther, than it answers her own purpose. Wherefore her own interest leads her to suppress the growth of ours in every case which doth not promote [Page 50] her advantage, or in the least interferes with it. A pretty state we should soon be in, under such a second hand government, con­sidering what has happened! Men do not change from enemies to friends by the alter­ation of a name: And in order to shew that reconciliation now is a dangerous doctrine, I affirm, that it would be policy in the King at this time, to repeal the acts for the sake of reinstating himself in the government of the provinces; In order that HE MAY ACCOM­PLISH BY CRAFT AND SUBTILTY, IN THE LONG RUN, WHAT HE CANNOT DO BY FORCE AND VIOLENCE IN THE SHORT ONE. Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related.

Secondly—That as even the best terms which we can expect to obtain, can amount to no more than a temporary expedient, or a kind of goverment by guardianship, which can last no longer than till the Colo­nies come of age, so the general face and state of things in the interim will be un­settled and unpromissing: Emigrants of pro­perty will not choose to come to a country whose form of goverment hangs but by a thread, and who is every day tottering on the brink of commotion and disturbance: [Page 51] And numbers of the present inhabitants would lay hold of the interval to dispose of their effects, and quit the Continent.

But the most powerful of all arguments is, that nothing but independance i. e. a continental form of government, can keep the peace of the Continent and preserve it inviolate from civil wars. I dread the event of a reconciliation with Britain now, as it is more than probable, that it will be followed by a revolt some where or other, the con­sequences of which may be far more fatal than all the malice of Britain.

Thousands are already ruined by British barbarity; (thousands more will probably suffer the same fate;) Those men have other feelings than us who having nothing suffered. All they now possess is liberty, what they before enjoyed is sacrificed to its service, and having nothing more to lose, they dis­dain submission. Besides, the general tem­per of the Colonies towards a British govern­ment will be like that of a youth, who is nearly out of his time; they will care very little about her: And a government which cannot preserve the peace, is no government at all, and in that case we pay our money [Page 52] for nothing; and pray what is it that Britain can do, whose power will be wholly on pa­per, should a civil tumult break out the very day after reconciliation? I have heard some men say, many of whom I believe spoke without thinking, that they dreaded an independance, fearing that it would pro­duce civil wars: It is but seldom that our first thoughts are truly correct, and that is the case here; for there are ten times more to dread from a patched up connection, than from independance. I make the sufferers case my own, and I protest, that were I driven from house and home, my property destroyed, and my circumstances ruined, that as a man sensible of injuries, I could never relish the doctrine of reconciliation, or consider myself bound thereby.

The Colonies hath manifested such a spi­rit of good order and obedience to continen­tal government, as is sufficient to make every reasonable person easy and happy on that head. No man can assign the least pretence for his fears, on any other grounds, than such as are truly childish and ridiculous, viz. that one colony will be striving for su­periority over another.

[Page 53]Where there are no distinctions, there can be no superiority; perfect equality affords no temptation. The Republics of Europe are all, (and we may say always) in peace. Holland and Swisserland, are without wars, foreign or domestic: Monarchical govern­ments, it is true, are never long at rest; the crown itself is a temptation to enterprising ruffians at home; and that degree of pride and insolence ever attendant on regal autho­rity, swells into a rupture with foreign powers in instances, where a republican go­vernment by being formed on more natural principles, would negociate the mistake.

If there is any true cause for fear respect­ing independance, it is because no plan is yet laid down. Men do not see their way out—Wherefore, as an opening into that business I offer the following hints; at the same time modestly affirming, that I have no other opinion of them myself, than that they may be the means of giving rise to something better. Could the straggling thoughts of individuals be collected, they would frequently form materials for wise and able men to improve into useful matter.

[Page 54]Let the assemblies be annual with a pre­sident only. The representation more equal. Their business wholly domestic, and subject to the authority of a Continental Congress.

Let each Colony be divided into six, eight or ten convenient districts, each dis­trict to send a proper number of Delegates to Congress, so that each Colony send at least thirty. The whole number in Con­gress will be at least 390. Each Congress to sit [...] and to choose a president by the following method. When the Dele­gates are met, let a Colony be taken from the whole thirteen Colonies by lot, after which let the whole Congress choose (by ballot) a president from out of the Delegates of that province. In the next Congress let a Colony be taken by lot from twelve only, omitting that Colony from which the pre­sident was taken in the former Congress, and so proceeding on till the whole thirteen shall have had their proper rotation. And in order that nothing may pass into a law but what is satisfactorily just, not less than three fifths of the Congress to be called a majority—He that will promote discord under a government so equally formed as this, would have joined Lucifer in his revolt.

[Page 55]But as there is a peculiar delicacy from whom, or in what manner this business must first arise, and as it seems most agree­able and consistent, that it should come from some intermediate body between the governed and the governors, that is, be­tween the Congress and the People. Let a CONTINENTAL CONFERENCE be held in the following manner, and for the follow­ing purpose.

A Committee of twenty six members of Congress, viz. Two for each Colony. Two members from each House of Assembly, or Provincial convention; and five Repre­sentatives of the people at large, to be cho­sen in the capital city or town of each Pro­vince, for, and in behalf of the whole Pro­vince, by as many qualified voters as shall think proper to attend from all parts of the Province for that purpose: or if more con­venient, the Representatives may be chosen in two or three of the most populous parts thereof. In this CONFERENCE thus assem­bled, will be united the two grand prin­ciples of business, knowlege and power. The members of Congress, Assemblies, or Conventions, by having had experience in national concerns, will be able and use­ful [Page 56] counsellors, and the whole, by being impowered by the people, will have a truly legal authority.

The conferring members being met, let their business be to frame a CONTINENTAL CHARTER, or Charter of the United Colo­nies; (answering, to what is called the Mag­na Charta of England) fixing the number and manner of choosing Members of Con­gress, Members of Assembly, with their date of sitting, and drawing the line of bu­siness and jurisdiction between them: (Al­ways remembering, that our strength and happiness, is Continental not Provincial. Securing freedom and property to all men, and above all things, the free exercise of re­ligion, according to the dictates of con­science; with such other matters as is ne­cessary for a charter to contain. Immedi­ately after which, the said conference to dissolve, and the bodies which shall be cho­sen conformable to the said charter, to be the Legislators and Governors of this Continent, for the time being: Whose peace and happiness, may God preserve. AMEN.

Should any body of men be hereafter [Page 57] delegated for this or some similar purpose, I offer them the following extracts from that wise observer on Governments DRAGO­NETTI. "The Science" says he ‘of the Politician consists in fixing the true point of happiness and freedom. Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who should discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of indivi­dual happiness, with the least national expence.’ DRAGONETTI on Virtues and Rewards.

But where say some is the King of America? I'll tell you friend, he reigns above; and doth not make havoc of man­kind like the Royal Brute of Great Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honours, let a day be so­lemnly set a part for proclaiming the Char­ter; let it be brought forth placed on the Divine Law, the Word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monar­chy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to he no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, [Page 58] let the Crown at the conclusion of the cere­mony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is.

A government of our own is our natural right: and when a man seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a constitution of our own, in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time and chance. If we omit it now, some * Massanello may hereafter arise, who laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the despe­rate and the discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the Con­tinent like a deluge. Should the govern­ment of America return again into the hands of Britain, the tottering situation of things, will be a temptation for some despe­rate adventurer to try his fortune; and in such a case, what relief can Britain give? Ere she could hear the news, the fatal busi­ness might be done; and ourselves suffer­ing [Page 59] like the wretched Britons under the oppression of the Conqueror. Ye that oppose independance now, ye know not what ye do: ye are opening a door to eternal ty­ranny, by keeping vacant the seat of govern­ment. There are thousands, and tens of thousands, who would think it glori­ous to expel from the Continent, that barbarous and hellish power, which have stirred up the Indians and the Negroes to destroy us, the cruelty hath a double guilt, it is dealing brutaly by us, and treacher­ously by them.

To talk of friendship with those in whom our reason forbids us to have faith, and our affections wounded thro' a thousand pores instruct us to detest, is madness and folly. Every day wears out the little remains of kin­dred between us and them, and can there be any reason to hope, that as the relationship expires, the affection will encrease, or that we shall agree better, when we have ten times more and greater concerns to quarrel over than ever?

Ye that tell us of harmony and reconcili­ation, can ye restore to us the time that is past? can ye give to prostitution its former innocence? neither can ye reconcile Britain and America. The last cord now is broken, [Page 60] the people of England are presenting ad­dresses against us. There are injuries which nature cannot forgive; she would cease to be nature if she did. As well can the lover forgive the ravisher of his mistress, as the Continent forgive the murders of Britain. The Almighty hath implanted in us these unextinguishable feelings for good and wise purposes. They are the Guardians of his Image in our hearts. They distinguish us from the herd of common animals. The social compact would dissolve, and justice be extirpated from the earth, or have only a casual existence were we callous to the touches of affection. The robber and the murderer would often escape unpunished, did not the injuries which our tempers sus­tain, provoke us into justice.

O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny but the ty­rant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is over-run with oppression. Free­dom hath been hunted round the Globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her.— Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to de­part. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.

[Page 61]

OF THE PRESENT ABILITY OF AMERICA, WITH SOME MISCELLANEOUS REFLECTIONS.

I Have never met with a man, either in England or America, who hath not confessed his opinion, that a separation between the countries, would take place one time or other: And there is no in­stance, in which we have shewn less judg­ment; than in endeavouring to describe what we call, the ripeness or fitness of the Continent for independance,

As all men allow the measure, and vary only in their opinion of the time, let us in order to remove mistakes, take a general survey of things, and endeavour if possible, to find out the very time. But I need not go far, the enquiry ceases at once, for, the time hath found us. The general con­currence, the glorious union of all things, prove the fact.

'Tis not in numbers but in unity that our great strength lies: yet our present numbers are sufficient to repel the force of all the world. The Continent hath at this time the largest disciplined army of any [Page 62] power under Heaven: and is just arrived at that pitch of strength, in which no single Colony is able to support itself, and the whole, when united, is able to do any thing. Our land force is more than sufficient, and as to Naval affairs, we cannot be insensible that Britain would never suffer an Ameri­can man of war to be built, while the Continent remained in her hands. Where­fore, we should be no forwarder an hundred years hence, in that branch than we are now; but the truth is we should be less so, because the timber of the Country is every day diminishing.

Were the Continent crouded with inha­bitants, her sufferings under the present circumstances would be intolerable. The more sea port Towns we had, the more should we have both to defend and to lose. Our present numbers are so happily propor­tioned to our wants, that no man need be idle. The diminution of trade affords an army, and the necessities of an army creates a new trade.

Debts we have none: and whatever we may contract on this account will serve as a glorious memento of our virtue. Can we [Page 63] but leave posterity with a settled form of government, an independant constitution of it's own the purchase at any price will be cheap. But to expend millions for the sake of getting a few vile acts repealed, and routing the present ministry only, is un­worthy the charge, and is using posterity with the utmost cruelty; because it is leaving them the great work to do and a debt upon their backs from which they derive no ad­vantage. Such a thought is unworthy a man of honour, and is the true characteris­tic of a narrow heart and a pidling politi­cian.

The debt we may contract doth not deserve our regard if the work be but accomplished. No nation ought to be without a debt. A national debt is a national bond: and when it bears no interest is in no case a grievance. Britain is oppressed with a debt of upwards of one hundred and forty millions sterling, for which she pays upwards of four millions interest. And as a compensation for her debt, she has a large navy; America is without a debt, and without a navy; but for the twentieth part of the Engilsh national debt, could have a navy as large again. The navy of England is not worth [Page 64] at this time more than three millions and an half sterling.

No country on the globe is so happily situated, or so internally capable of raising a fleet as America. Tar, timber, iron, and cordage are her natural produce. We need go abroad for nothing. Whereas the Dutch, who make large profits by hiring out their ships of war to the Spaniards and Portuguese, are obliged to import most of the materials they use. We ought to view the building a fleet as an article of commerce, it being the natural manufactory of this country. 'Tis the best money we can lay out. A navy when finished is worth more than it cost: And is that nice point in national policy, in which commerce and protection are united. Let us build; if we want them not, we can sell; and by that means re­place our paper currency with ready gold and silver.

In point of manning a fleet, people in general run into great errors; it is not ne­cessary that one fourth part should be sailors. The Terrible Privateer, Capt. Death, stood the hottest engagement of any ship last war, yet had not twenty sailors on board, [Page 65] though her complement of men was up­wards of two hundred. A few able and social sailors will soon instruct a sufficient number of active landmen in the common work of a ship. Wherefore we never can be more capable to begin on maritime mat­ters than now, while our timber is standing, our fisheries blocked up, and our sailors and shipwrights out of employ. Men of war, of seventy and eighty guns were built forty years ago in New England, and why not the same now? Ship building is Ame­rica's greatest pride, and in which, she will in time excel the whole world. The great empires of the east are mostly inland, and consequently excluded from the possibility of rivalling her. Africa is in a state of barbarism; and no power in Europe, hath either such an extent of coast, or such an internal supply of materials. Where nature hath given the one, she has with-held the other; to America only hath she been li­beral of both. The vast empire of Russia is almost shut out from the sea; wherefore, her boundless forrests, her tar, iron, and cordage are only articles of commerce.

In point of safety, ought we to be with­out a fleet? We are not the little people [Page 66] now, which we were sixty years ago, at that time we might have trusted our pro­perty in the streets, or fields rather, and slept securely without locks or bolts to our doors and windows The case now is alter­ed, and our methods of defence, ought to improve with our increase of property. A common pirate, twelve months ago, might have come up the Delaware, and laid the city of Philadelphia under instant Contribu­tion for what sum he pleased; and the same might have happened to other places. Nay, any daring fellow in a brig of 14 or 16 guns might have robbed the whole Continent, and carried off half a million of money. These are circumstances which demand our attention and point out the necessity of naval protection.

Some perhaps will say, that after we have made it up with Britain that she will protect us. Can we be so unwise as to mean that she shall keep a navy in our Harbours for that purpose? Common sense will tell us, that the power which hath endeavoured to subdue us, is of all others, the most im­proper to defend us. Conquest may be ef­fected under the pretence of friendship; and ourselves, after a long and brave resist­ance, [Page 67] be at last cheated into slavery. And if her ships are not to be admitted into our harbours, I would ask, how is she to protect us? A navy three or four thousand miles off can be of little use, and on sudden emergencies, none at all. Wherefore if we must hereafter protect ourselves, why not do it for ourselves? why do it for another?

The English list of ships of war, is long and formidable, but not a tenth part of them are at any one time fit for service, numbers of them not in being; yet their names are pompously continued in the list if only a plank is left of the ship: and not a fifth part of such as are fit for service, can be spared on any one station at one time. The East and West Indies, Mediterranean, Africa, and other parts over which Britain extends her claim, make large demands upon her navy. From a mixture of pre­judice and innatention, we have contracted a false notion respecting the navy of England, and have talked as if we should have the whole of it to encounter at once, and for that reason, supposed, that we must have one as large; which not being instantly practicable, have been made use of by a set of disguised tories to discourage our be­ginning [Page 68] thereon. Nothing can be farther from truth and this, for if America had only a twentieth part of the naval force of Britain, she would be by far an over match for her; because as we neither have, nor claim any foreign dominion, our whole force would be employed on our own coast, where we should, in the long run, have two to one the advantage of those who had three or four thousand miles to sail over, before they could attack us, and the same dist­ance to return in order to refit and recruit. And although Britain by her fleet hath a check over our trade to Europe, we have as large a one over her trade to the West Indies, which by laying in the neighbourhood of the Continent lies entirely at its mercy.

Some method might be fallen on to keep up a naval force in time of peace, if we should not judge it necessary to support a constant navy. If premiums were to be given to merchants to build and employ in their service, ships mounted with 20 30, 40, or 50 guns (the premiums to be in proportion to the loss of bulk to the mer­chant) fifty or sixty of those ships, with a few guard ships on constant duty would keep up a sufficient navy, and that without bur­dening [Page 69] ourselves with the evil so loudly complained of in England, of suffering their fleets in time of peace to lie rotting in the docks. To unite the sinews of commerce and defence is sound policy; for when our strength and our riches, play into each o­ther's hand, we need fear no external ene­my.

In almost every article of defence we abound. Hemp flourishes even to rankness, so that we need not want cordage. Our iron is superior to that of other countries. Our small arms equal to any in the world. Cannon we can cast at pleasure. Salt-petre and gun powder we are every day produc­ing. Our knowledge is hourly improving. Resolution is our inherent character, and courage hath never yet forsaken us. Where­fore, what is it that we want? why is it that we hesitate? From Britain we can expect nothing but ruin. If she is once admitted to the government of America again, this Continent will not be worth living in. Jea­lousies will be always arising; insurrections will be constantly happening; and who will go forth to quell them? who will venture his life to reduce his own countrymen to a fo­reign obedience? the difference between [Page 70] Pennsylvania and Connecticut, respecting some unlocated lands, shews the insignifi­cance of a British government, and fully proves, that nothing but Continental au­thority can regulate Continental matters.

Another reason why the present time is preferable to all others, is, that the fewer our numbers are, the more land there is yet unoccupied, which instead of being lavish­ed by the king on his worthless depen­dants, may be hereafter applied, not only to the discharge of the present debt, but to the constant support of government. No nation under Heaven hath such an advan­tage as this.

The infant state of the Colonies, as it is called, so far from being against, is an ar­gument in favour of independance. We are sufficiently numerous, and were we more so, we might be less united. 'Tis a matter worthy of observation, that the more a country is peopled, the smaller their ar­mies are. In military numbers the ancients far exceeded the moderns: and the reason is evident, for trade being the consequence of population, men become too much absorb­ed thereby to attend to any thing else. [Page 71] Commerce diminishes the spirit both of Pa­triotism and military defence. And history sufficiently informs us that the bravest at­chievements were always accomplished in the non age of a nation. With the encrease of commerce England hath lost its spirit. The city of London, notwithstanding its numbers, submits to continued insults with the patience of a coward. The more men have to lose, the less willing are they to ven­ture. The rich are in general slaves to fear, and submit to courtly power with the trem­bling duplicity of a spaniel.

Youth is the seed time of good habits as well in nations as in individuals. It might be difficult, if not impossible to form the Continent into one Government half a cen­tury hence. The vast variety of interests occasioned by an increase of trade and po­pulation would create confusion, Colony would be against Colony. Each being able would scorn each others assistance: and while the proud and foolish gloried in their little distinctions, the wise would lament that the union had not been formed before. Wherefore, the present time is the true time for establishing it. The intimacy which is contracted in infancy, and the friendship [Page 72] which is formed in misfortune, are of all others, the most lasting and unalterable. Our present union is marked with both these characters: we are young, and we have been distressed; but our concord hath withstood our troubles, and fixes a memorable Aera for posterity to glory in.

The present time likewise, is that pecu­liar time, which never happens to a nation but once, viz. the time of forming itself into a government. Most nations have let slip the opportunity, and by that means have been compelled to receive laws from their conquerors, instead of making laws for them­selves. First they had a king, and then a form of government; whereas the articles or charter of government should be formed first, and men delegated to execute them afterward: but from the errors of other na­tions, let us learn wisdom, and lay hold of the present opportunity— To begin government at the right end.

When William the Conqueror subdued England, he gave them law at the point of the sword; and until we consent that the seat of government in America be legally and authoritatively occupied; we shall be in [Page 73] danger of having it filled by some fortunate ruffian, who may treat us in the same man­ner, and then, where will be our freedom? where our property.

As to religion, I hold it to be the indis­pensible duty of government, to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government hath to do therewith: let a man throw aside that narrowness of soul, that selfishness of principle, which the niggards of all profes­sions are so unwilling to part with, and he will be delivered of his fears on that head. Suspicion is the companion of mean souls and the bane of all good society. For myself, I fully and conscientiously believe, that it is the will of the Almighty, that there should be diversity of religious opinions among us. It affords a larger field for our Christian kindness: were we all of one way of thinking, our religious dispositions would want matter for probation: and on this liberal principle I look on the various denominations among us, to be like children of the same family differing only in what is called their Christian names.

In page 54 I threw out a few thoughts on the propriety of a Continental charter, [Page 74] (for I only presume to offer hints, not plans,) and in this place I take the liberty of re-mentioning the subject, by observing, that a charter is to be understood as a bond of solemn obligation, which the whole enters into, to support the right of every separate part, whether of religion, personal freedom, or property. A right reckoning makes long friends.

In a former page, I likewise mention­ed the necessity of a large and equal re­presentation; and there is no political mat­ter which more deserves our attention. A small number of electors, or a small number of representatives, are equally dangerous. But if the number of the representatives be not only small, but unequal, the danger is encreased. As an instance of this I menti­on the following; when the petition of the associators was before the House of Assembly of Pennsylvania, twenty eight members only were present. All the Bucks county mem­bers, being eight, voted against it, and had seven of the Chester members done the same, this whole Province had been govern­ed by two counties only, and this danger it is always exposed to. The unwarrantable [Page 75] stretch likewise, which that house made in their last sitting, to gain an undue authority over the Delegates of that Province, ought to warn the people at large, how they trust power out of their own hands. A set of instructions for the Delegates were put to­gether; which in point of sense and busi­ness would have dishonoured a school-boy, and after being approved by a few, a very few without doors, were carried into the house, and there passed in behalf of the whole Colony: whereas did the whole Colony know, with what ill-will that house hath entered on some necessary public measures, they would not hesitate a moment to think them unworthy of such a trust.

Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which if continued would grow into oppressions. Expedience and right, are different things. When the calamities of America required a consultation, there was no method so ready, or at that time so proper, as to appoint persons from the se­veral houses of Assembly for that purpose; and the wisdom with which they have pro­ceeded hath preserved this Continent from ruin. But as it is more than probable that we shall never be without a CONGRESS, [Page 76] every well wisher to good order, must own, that the mode for choosing members of that body, deserves consideration. And I put it as a question to those, who make a study of mankind, whether representation and election is not too great a power for one and the same body of men to possess? When we are planning for posterity. we ought to remember, that virtue is not hereditary.

It is from our enemies that we often gain excellent maxims, and are frequently sur­prised into reason by their mistakes. Mr. Cornwall (one of the Lords of the Treasury) treated the petition of the New York As­sembly with contempt, because that house he said consisted but of twenty six mem­bers, which, trifling number he argued could not with decency be put for the whole. We thank him for his involuntary honesty *.

TO CONCLUDE, however strange it may appear to some, or however unwilling they may be to think so, matters not, [Page 77] but many strong and striking reasons may be given to shew, that nothing can settle our affairs so expeditiously as an open and determined declaration for independance. Some of which are,

First—It is the custom of Nations when any two are at war, for some other powers not engaged in the quarrel, to step in as mediators and bring about the preliminaries of a peace: But while America calls her­self the subject of Great Britain, no power however well disposed she may be, can offer her mediation. Wherefore in our present state we may quarrel on for ever.

Secondly—It is unreasonable to suppose, that France or Spain will give us any kind of assistance, if we mean only to make use of that assistance, for the purpose of re­pairing the breach, and strengthening the connection between Britain and America; because, those powers would be sufferers by the consequences.

Thirdly—While we profess ourselves the subjects of Britain, we must in the eye of foreign nations be considered as Rebels. The precedent is some-what dangerous to [Page 78] their peace, for men to be in arms under the name of subjects: we on the spot can solve the paradox; but to unite resistance and subjection, requires an idea much too refined for common understanding.

Fourthly—Were a manifesto to be pub­lished and dispatched to foreign Counts, setting forth the miseries we have endured, and the peaceable methods we have ineffec­tually used for redress, declaring at the same time, that not being able any longer to live happily or safely, under the cruel disposition of the British Court, we had been driven to the necessity of breaking off all connections with her; at the same time, assuring all such Courts, of our peaceable disposition towards them, and of our desire of entering into trade with them: such a memorial would produce more good effects to this Continent, than if a ship were freight­ed with petitions to Britain.

Under our present denomination of British Subjects, we can neither be received nor heard abroad: the custom of all Courts is against us, and will be so, until by an independance we take rank with other nations.

[Page 79]These proceedings may at first appear strange and difficult, but like all other steps which we have already passed over, will in a little time become familiar and agreeable: and until an independance is declared, the Continent will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some un­pleasant business from day to day, yet knows it must be done, hates to set about it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its necessity.

FINIS.
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Lately published, and now selling by Robert Bell, printer and bookseller, next door to St. Paul's church, in Third-Street, Philadelphia, complete in three volumes, with neat bindings, (price thirty-six shillings). That new and interesting work of great merit and integrity.

POLITICAL DISQUISITIONS; or, an enquiry into public errors, defects, and abuses. Illustrated by, and established upon facts and remarks, extracted from a variety of authors, ancient and modern. Calculated to draw the timely attention of government and people, to a due consideration of the necessity, and the means, of reforming those errors, defects, and abuses; of restoring the constitution, and saving the state, by James Burgh, gentleman; author of the dignity of human nature, and other works.

LIKEWISE.

LETTERS written by the late Right Honorable Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, to his son, Philip Stanhope, Esq late envoy extraordinary at the court of Dresden: together with several other pieces on various subjects. Published by Mrs. Eugenia Stanhope, from the originals now in her possession. 4 vols, (price one pound six shillings.)

By desire of some of the members of the Honorable the American Continental Congress, and some of the military officers of the association, in a few days the following work will be ready for the public.

THE Military Guide for young officers, by Thomas Simes, Esq A large and valuable compilation from the most celebrated military writers—Marshal Saxe— General Bland—King of Prussia—Prince Ferdinand—&c. Containing the experience of many brave Heroes in criti­cal situations, for the use of young warriors; including an excellent Military, Historical, and Explanatory Dictionary.

Also in the press, and speedily will be published.

A NEW System of Military Discipline; containing instructions by gradual ascension, from the corporal to the field officer, with Rules, Maxims, and Observati­ons, for the Government, Conduct and Discipline of an Army, by a General Officer.

LARGE ADDITIONS TO C …
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LARGE ADDITIONS TO COMMON SENSE; ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS OF AMERICA, ON THE FOLLOWING INTERESTING SUBJECTS.

  • I. The American Patriot's Prayer.
  • II. American Independancy defended, by Candidus.
  • III. The Propriety of Independancy, by Demophilus.
    The dread of Tyrants, and the sole resource
    Of those that under grim Oppression groan.
    THOMSON.
  • IV. A Review of the American Contest, with some Strictures on the King's Speech. Addressed to all Parents in the Thirteen United Colonies, by a Friend to Posterity and Mankind.
  • V. Letter to Lord Dartmouth, by an English American.
  • VI. Observations on Lord North's Conciliatory Plan, by Sincerus.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED AND GIVEN An Appendix to Common Sense; Together with an Ad­dress to the people called Quakers, on their Testimony concerning Kings and Government, and the present Commotions in AMERICA.

PHILADELPHIA: Printed, and Sold, by R. BELL, in Third-Street. MDCCLXXVI.

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The AMERICAN PATRIOT'S Prayer.

PARENT of all, omnipotent
In heav'n, and earth below,
Thro' all creation's bounds unspent,
Whose streams of goodness flow.
Teach me to know from whence I rose,
And unto what design'd;
No private aims let me propose,
Since link'd with human kind.
But chief to hear my country's voice,
May all my thoughts incline,
'Tis reason's law, 'tis virtue's choice,
'Tis nature's call and thine.
Me from fair freedom's sacred cause,
Let nothing e'er divide;
Grandeur, nor gold, nor vain applause,
Nor friendship false misguide.
Let me not faction's partial hate
Pursue to this Land's woe;
Nor grasp the thunder of the state,
To wound a private foe.
If, for the right, to wish the wrong
My country shall combine.
Single to serve th' erron'ous throng,
Spight of themselves, be mine.
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Printed, and now Selling at One Shilling (being less than half Price), to all the Purchasers of the First and Second Editions; also annexed to the Large Edition, which is now selling by ROBERT BELL, in Third-Street, Philadelphia.

ADDITIONS TO COMMON SENSE. AMERICAN INDEPENDANCY defended.

WHEN the little pamphlet intitled COMMON SENSE first made its appearance in favor of that so often abjured idea of independance upon Great-Britain, I was informed that no less than three gentlemen of respectable abilities were engaged to answer it. As yet I have seen nothing which directly pretends to dispute a single position of the author. The oblique essay in Humphreys's paper, and solemn Testimony of the Quakers, however intend­ed, having offered nothing to the purpose, I shall take leave to examine this important question, with all candor and attention, and submit the result to my much interested country.

Dependance of one man, or state, upon another is either absolute, or limited by some certain terms of agreement. The [Page 82] dependance of these colonies which Great Britain calls constitutional, as declared by act of Parliament, is absolute. If the contrary of this be the bugbear so many have been declaiming against, I could wish my coun­trymen would consider the consequence of so stupid a profession. If a limited depen­dance is intended, I would be much obliged to any one who will shew me the Britanno-American Magna Charta wherein the terms of our limited dependance are precisely stated. If no such thing can be found, and absolute dependance be accounted inadmssi­ble, the sound we are squabbling about has certainly no determinate meaning. If any say we mean that kind of dependance we acknowledged at and before the year 1763; I answer, vague and uncertain laws, and more especially CONSTITUTIONS, are the very in­struments of slavery. The Magna Charta of England was very explicit, considering the time it was formed, and yet much blood was spilt in disputes concerning its meaning.

Besides the danger of an indefinite de­pendance upon an undetermined power, it might be worth while to consider what the characters are on whom we are so ready to acknowledge ourselves dependant. The vo­taries [Page 83] for this idol tell us, upon the good people of our Mother Country, whom they represent as the most just, humane, and af­fectionate friends we can have in the world. Were this true, it were some encourage­ment; but who can pretend ignorance that these just and humane friends are as much under the tyranny of men of a reverse cha­racter as we should be, could those miscre­ants gain their ends? I disclaim any more than a mutual dependance on any man, or number of men upon earth; but an indefi­nite dependance upon a combination of men, who have, in the face of the sun, broken thro' the most solemn covenants, de­bauched the hereditary, and corrupted the elective guardians of the people's rights, who have, in fact, established an absolute tyranny in Great-Britain and Ireland, and openly declared themselves competent to bind the Colonists in all cases whatsoever: I say in­definite dependance on such a combination of usurping innovators is evidently as dan­gerous to liberty, as fatal to civil and social happiness, as any one step that could be pro­posed, even by the destroyer of men. The utmost that the honest party in Great-Britain can do, is to warn us to avoid this depen­dance at all hazards! Does not even a Duke of Grafton declare the ministerial measures [Page 84] illegal and dangerous? And shall America, no way connected with this administration, press our submission to such measures, and reconciliation to the authors of them? Would not such pigeon-hearted wretches equally forward the recal of the Stuart fa­mily, and the establishment of Popery throughout Christendom, did they conceive the party in favor of those loyal measures the strongest? Shame on the men who can court exemption from present trouble and expence, at the price of their own and pos­terity's liberty! The honest party in Eng­land cannot wish for the reconciliation pro­posed. It is as unsafe to them as to us, and they thoroughly apprehend it. What check have they now upon the crown, and what shadow of control can they pretend, when the crown can command fifteen or twenty millions a year, which they have no­thing to say to? A proper proportion of our commerce is all that can benefit any good man in Britain or Ireland, and God forbid we should be so cruel as to furnish bad men with power to enslave both Britain and Ame­rica. Administration has now fairly disse­vered the dangerous tie: Execrated will he be by the latest posterity who again joins the fatal cord! But say the puling pusillanimous cowards, we shall be subject to a long and [Page 85] bloody war, if we declare independance. On the contrary, I affirm it the only step that can bring the contest to a speedy and happy issue. By declaring independance we place ourselves on a footing for an equal ne­gociation: Now we are called a pack of villainous rebels, who, like the St. Vin­cent Indians, can expect nothing more than a pardon for our lives, and the sovereign fa­vor, respecting freedom and property, to be at the King's will. Grant Almighty God that I may be numbered with the dead be­fore that sable day dawn on North-Ame­rica!

All Europe knows the illegal and inhu­man treatment we have received from Bri­tons. All Europe wishes the haughty em­press of the main reduced to a more hum­ble deportment. After herself has thrust her Colonies from her, the maritime pow­ers cannot be such idiots as to suffer her to reduce them to a more absolute obedience of her dictates than they were heretofore obliged to yield. Does not the most super­ficial politician know that while we profess ourselves the subjects of Great-Britain, and yet hold arms against her, they have a right to treat us as rebels, and that according to the laws of nature and nations no other [Page 86] state has a right to interfere in the dispute? But on the other hand, on our declaration of independance, the maritime states at least will find it their interest, which always se­cures the question of inclination, to protect a people who can be so advantageous to them. So that those short-sighted politici­ans, who conclude that this step will involve us in slaughter and devastation, may plainly perceive that no measure in our power will so naturally and effectually work our deliver­ance. The motion of a finger of the Grand Monarch would procure as gentle a temper in the Omnipotent British Minister as ap­peared in the Manilla ransom and Falkland islands affairs. From without certainly we have every thing to hope, nothing to fear; from within, some tell us the Presbyterians, if freed from the restraining power of Great-Britain, would over-run the peaceable Qua­kers in this government. For my own part, I despise and detest the bickerings of secta­ries, and am apprehensive of no trouble from that quarter, especially while no pe­culiar honors nor emoluments are annexed to either. I heartily wish too many of the Quakers did not give cause of complaint, by endeavoring to counteract the measures of their fellow citizens for the common safety. If they profess themselves only pilgrims [Page 87] here, let them walk through the men of this world without interfering with their actions on either side. If they would not pull down Kings, let them not support tyrants; for whe­ther they understand it or not, there is, and ever has been, an essential difference in the characters.

Finally, with M. De Vatell, I account a state a moral person having an interest and will of its own, and I think that state a mon­ster, whose prime mover has an interest and will, in direct opposition to its prosperity and security. This position has been so clearly demonstrated in the pamphlet first mention­ed in this essay, that I shall only add, if there are any arguments in favor of return­ing to a state of dependance on Great-Bri­tain, that is on the present Administration of Great-Britain, I could wish they were timely offered, that they may be soberly con­sidered, before the cunning proposals of the cabinet set all the timid, lazy and irresolute members of the community into a clamor for peace at any rate.

CANDIDUS.
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ADDITIONS TO COMMON SENSE. The Propriety of INDEPENDANCY.

TO acknowledge that the Creator form­ed Man for society, and that society cannot subsist without regulations, laws, and government; and at the same time to assert, that in spight of all human care to prevent it, every government will degenerate into a tyranny, is such a daring blasphemy of the divine attributes, that had I not heard it asserted, and acquiesced in as a truth, I could not have believed such a position could have obtained in a civilized country! This monstrous hypothesis con­cludes that notwithstanding the Deity had power enough to form such admirable crea­tures as men and women, and fit them for enjoying of each other a thousand ways, and tho' by means of the most exquisite of those enjoyments a race should arise from them over which every power of rightful government must of necessity be exercised, yet just and rightful government is in reali­ty utopian, imaginary, and impracticable! [Page 90] Did not God cloath the grass direct the wild Goat and provide for the Sparrow, I might more easily be persuaded to suspect his care of Man.

I readily grant that the delegates of go­vernmental power are too apt to consider themselves the possessors of it in their own right, and that they therefore take every means in their power to become the masters in place of servants to their constitu­ents; and that the people in all civilized countries have been too inattentive to the usurpations of their rulers: But I conceive of no cause in the nature of things which so absolutely counteracts the power of a wise, learned, and free community as to render it impossible for them to preserve their li­berty. The arguments brought from the condition of other states, are by no means conclusive with respect to the North-Ame­rican colonies. I am bold to assert, that such a favourable combination of circum­stances as they are blessed with at this im­portant conjuncture, never did take place among any people with whom history has made us acquainted. The most just and so­lid foundation of social happiness was laid in the first settlement of the Continent, the [Page 91] cultivation of the earth for the subsistance of its proprietor. Here was no feudal tenure from some military Lord; every cultivator being the lord of his own soil, and content with its produce, had no thoughts of en­croaching upon and subjecting his neigh­bour to his absolute dominion. Hence a handsome competency has enabled the bulk of the people to give their children such education as enables them to read, and be­come acquainted with the usurpations of the deepest plotters of their ruin. The spirit of the people for obtaining this necessary in­formation, is evident from the incredible number of news-papers and other periodical publications which they encourage, and the effect of such institutions never have been so great in any community, yet known, as in these pantaplebean (altogether Commons) colonies. How quickly the most important revolution of the fundamentals of our po­licy can pervade a continent, may be guess­ed at by the progress of the idea of Coloni­al Independancy in three weeks or a month at farthest! Surely thousands and tens of thousands of common farmers and trades­men must be better reasoners than some of our trammelled juris consultors, who to this hour feel a reluctance to part with the abo­minable [Page 92] chain, which remaining, in any shape whatever, tho' modified by all the wis­dom and caution of the greatest men now living, must in a very little time drag the colonies into the most abject slavery. Many profess themselves zealous for the liberties of America, yet declare an abhorrence of the idea of independancy on Great-Britain. If this be not a solecism, as absurd and ir­reconcileable as ever was obtruded on man­kind, I know not the meaning of the term! Civil Liberty never was defined in stricter terms than an EXEMPTION from all controul, WITHOUT THE COMMUNITY, in which eve­ry qualified member has an equal voice. No American, as such, has the shadow of in­corporation with the government of Great-Britain; and in consequence, if he receives the [...] syllable of law from that quarter, he gives up his claim to the definitive ex­emption. If the sticklers for dependance do not mean dependance for some certain laws, in the forming of which the Colonists have no voice at all, I do not yet understand them; and if they do mean that we should admit the claim of any state, or any part of the power of any state, with which the de­mocratic power of this state is not incorpo­rated, to give us law in any case whatever, [Page 93] they admit a fibre, which I must make free to tell them, will speedily grow into an iron sinew which neither themselves nor posteri­ty will be able to endure or burst asunder. And further, it is not only the admission of some possible law from a foreign power, that hurries a people into slavery; a meer negative power [...] acts for the repeal of grievous laws will more slowly, but as cer­tainly subvert liberty.

Again, Mr. Hume's observation, [ Perfect Commnowealth, p. 301.] that "the sword being in the hands of a single person who will always neglect to discipline the militia, in order to have the pretext to keep up a standing army;" and the succeeding one, "that this is a mortal distemper in the Bri­tish government of which it must, at last, inevitably perish," now so fatally confirmed, may be a sufficient warning to the Colonies to beware of being again entangled with the yoke of bondage.

Many object to a Republican Govern­ment as impracticable in a large state. "The contrary of this (says Hume, [ Per. Com. 302.] seems evident. Though 'tis more difficult to form a Republican Government [Page 94] in an extensive country than in a city; there is more facility, when once it is for­med, of preserving it steady and uniform, without tumult or faction, in the former than the latter. ( Per. Com. 303.) In a large government which is modelled with masterly skill, there is compass and room enough to refine the democracy from the lower people, who may be admitted into the first elections, or first concoction of the commonwealth; to the higher magistrates who direct all the motions. At the same time the parts are so distant and remote that 'tis very difficult either by intrigue, preju­dice, or passion, to hurry them into mea­sures against the public interest." Thus far Mr. Hume, whose plan for a perfect com­monwealth, will speedily be submitted to public consideration.

DEMOPHILUS.
[Page 95]

A Review of the American Contest, with some STRICTURES ON the KING's speech, and its consequences. ADDRESSED to all PARENTS in the THIRTEEN UNITED COLONIES. By a Friend to Posterity and Mankind.

NATURE instructs the brute creation to provide for, guard and protect their offspring until they are able to do for themselves. The dam is never known to forsake her young while her care is necessary for their safety, nor to do any thing which would involve them in distress and difficulty. Man, who has this principle in common with brutes, is endowed with others yet more valuable, but which to him are absolutely necessary, whereby he is taught to provide for the future welfare of his descendants and to guard them from the encroachments of that power which civil society constitutes for its own safety; but which, through the depravity of human nature is often turned against it. There are few parents who do not make it their con­stant study and earnest endeavour to leave some valuable inheritance to their children: [Page 96] few who have been so lost to the feelings of nature and calls of parental affection, as to entail difficulty and distress on their children, when it was in their power to leave them a a fair and easy inheritance. And yet it has so happened, that by an ill timed attach­ment to the present, without paying proper attention to the future, they have entailed misery upon them by the very means which were designed to preserve them from it.

It is now in your power to bequeath to your children the one or the other, and it becomes you to have an eye to them in all your proceedings. It is sufficiently known to you, that riches in arbitrary states are often the ruin of their possessors, and that security to property is absolutely necessary to stamp their true value on wealth and pos­sessions. He therefore, who wishes to leave his children in flourishing circumstanc­es ought to be a zealous friend to those mea­sures, and that plan of government which gives the greatest security to property, and an active warm oppposer of those which leave it to the arbitrary disposal of men, who find a greater advantage in making free with what does not belong to them, than in frugally using what is justly their [Page 97] own. Whig and Tory should be out of the question. Private pique, party faction and animosity ought to subside. He who thinks should think for posterity, and he who acts should act for his children.

It is a great weakness to suffer our pas­sions to take place of our reason and blind­ly to follow their dictates, though to our manifest hurt, rather than subject them to our better sense. A false pride, which will not acknowledge an error though ever so evident, an obstinate perseverance in our own opinion without deigning to hear ad­vice or instruction, and an unreasonable at­tachment to party, have done much mischief to mankind, and may yet do more if not carefully avoided. I have directed this pa­per to you in preference to others, because your parental affection should form more than a counterpoise to every false principle, which can influence the human mind where the interest of your offspring is at stake.

Our present contest is immensely great, and every man must see that it will affect posterity. Its consequences cannot end with itself; but the latest generations must feel its effects. The great Ruler of the universe [Page 98] has permitted it for wise purposes, and has called every one of us to act our part in it. It becomes us, therefore, laying aside all former prejudices, partiality and party at­tachments, to act upon principles which will justify us to him who has assigned us our stations, and cause posterity to bless the me­mory of their forefathers. We all agree in this, that Great-Britain is unjust and arbi­trary, and we have hitherto principally dif­fered in the mode of opposition, which ought to have been pursued. I speak not to those who think one way and talk another. They act upon such base principles, that it is in vain to attempt to rouze in them any just or generous sentiments. We have no in­stance of the conversion of avaricious or am­bitious hypocrites, and it would be wasting time to use arguments to convince them, I direct myself to you who have sincerity suf­ficient to examine the principles on which you proceed, and honesty enough to pursue that course of conduct which appears to be right, and so much affection for your chil­dren as to prefer their interest and happiness to every other consideration. For you I mean to throw together a few hints which may assist you in finally fixing a right choice.

[Page 99]The British administration began its at­tacks on our liberties with a Stamp act, but meeting with strong opposition they thought fit to repeal it. This act threw the colonies into strong convulsions, and we rejoiced ex­ceedingly on its repeal, and fondly hoped that we would enjoy future tranquillity. But we were mistaken. They never intend­ed to relinquish the design, but only to change their ground, that which they first pitched upon not seeming tenable. An Ame­rican revenue granted by a British Parlia­ment was the object, and they never lost sight of it; for they soon renewed their at­tacks upon principles which they thought more favourable to their intentions; but meeting with as little success in that, as in the preceding attempt, they suspended their measures for a time, in hopes of lulling us into a careless security. They accordingly once more returned to the charge, and en­deavoured to effect by cunning and artifice what they had heretofore attempted in vain on every other peaceable plan. This not succceding, they were reduced to their last shift of bullying and force; and this they resolved upon. They levied armies, ap­pointed Generals of reputation to command, and sent them amongst us, we may know [Page 100] their commission by their conduct; for after abusing, brow-beating and insulting, after starving and tarring and feathering, after of­fering every possible injury which a free people could bear, without obtaining their ends, and every other measure failing, they drew the sword, and at once reduced us to the dire alternative of submitting to their il­legal claims of jurisdiction, or entering into the bloody contest. Like men determined to be free we chose the latter. It now rests on the last argument, an argument which finally settles all controversies of a like na­ture. The plan of operation is now open­ed, and they who stand to it with the most steady perseverance must finally succeed. This is the decree of Providence in all cases, ‘he that persevereth unto the end shall be saved.’ We have, by the blessing of God, effectually baffled all their former attempts; but if we fail in this, all our former victo­ries will only serve to make our fall the more conspicuous and terrible.

I will not enquire what would have been the efficacy of any heretofore recommend­ed, but untried means. The worst that can has happened, and it is with it we have now to deal; to relinquish it on our part, [Page 101] would be to give up the matter, for how­ever any means might once have done, cow­ardice alone would now desert the field, and slavery must be the inevitable consequence.

I do not wonder that war sits heavy on us▪ and that we are somewhat restless and uneasy; but I shall be surprized, if we, who have so long and so successfully opposed ty­ranny and oppression should all on a sudden lose every desire of retaining our liberties. I am forced into this remark by the artful, cunning and designing manner in which some men talk of a reconciliation with Great Britain, and the bug-bears they conjure up to frighten the timid, irresolute and igno­rant, from a steady prosecution of those means, which alone can help us in our pre­sent circumstances. Facts bear evidence from the beginning of the contest that eve­ry scheme they ever recommended has, up­on trial, proved inadequate to the end for which it was intended; yet they proceed. Beware of such men, they love neither their country, nor their liberties, so much as something else.

There are many I doubt not who are de­nominated Tories by the more zealous [Page 102] Whigs, who in their hearts wish success to our measures, tho' they may be chagrined because those they proposed did not go down with the people; these are uniform, open, and not very dangerous; but there are others, who under the cloke of friendship for the cause, harbour the bitterest rancour and malice in their hearts. These talk fa­vourably in general, though their discourses mostly terminate with a doubt, suspicion, or but, which gives those with whom they converse, reason to dread some hidden de­sign, or approaching evil, which most men have not properly attended to. They art­fully recal your attention to a certain peri­od, when all was peace and quietness, and by pathetically lamenting the unhappy al­teration, endeavour to impress your minds with an opinion that all our troubles arose from ourselves. They carefully avoid men­tioning the iniquitous measures of the Bri­tish government which produced them, and by keeping those out of sight, they gradual­ly lead the unwary into the belief, that the men who have been most active on the pre­sent occasion in opposing the tyrannical pro­ceedings of Great-Britain, and who have hazarded their all in defence of their coun­try, have been actuated by sinister motives [Page 103] in all they have done. If every man who hears such insinuations were to ask those who cast them out, what measures have not the men they condemn tried at one time or another to avoid the present contest, and save our liberties? What advantages they can reap by a successful end of it, which every other freeman on the continent will not reap equally with them? And in an unsuccessful close of it, all will allow they must be the greatest sufferers. Their lives must go, let who will else escape. These questions might recal them to facts, and these facts would enable men to judge aright.

Honesty could not stand the force of a few pertinent questions, but these men have taken their leave of it, and like Manasseh of old, have sold themselves to do wicked­ly. Were it not so, could it be possible for them in the face of the sun, to charge all our troubles on the New-England Presby­terians, troubles which originally began and have all along been kept up by a wicked ad­ministration and a venal parliament. To make them the hatchers of mischiefs oc­casioned by unconstitutional acts of parlia­ment, and the only fomenters of our just [Page 104] opposition, which a Pennsylvanian Quaker, a Maryland and a Virginian Churchman did more to effect than all the other men on the continent put together, is cruelty in the ex­treme. My heart bleeds when I think of such men; who would sell the whole con­tinent and all the blood on it for private ad­vantage, and with whom a few thousand guineas with a title would be esteemed an equivalent for the lives, liberty and proper­ty of the freemen of a colony. May that God who sees how little they can gain, if successful, open their eyes and turn their hearts, e'er they be convinced by fatal ex­perience, that he who purchases the whole world at the price of his soul, is a very un­wise dealer, and makes but a poor bargain in the end. If the calls of virtue, the pre­cepts of religion, and dictates of patriotism cannot awaken them to a sense of their du­ty, yet Norfolk might open their eyes. But let them do as they please, we ought to act wisely. If we do not make such a settle­ment now as will secure the privileges we contend for to posterity, we entail either sla­very or a civil war on our children. This is certain, let what will be doubtful. Look round you then, view your offspring, and tell me, are you willing to leave them such [Page 105] a legacy? Do not trifle on this occasion, all your other legacies must derive their true value from the part you now take in this contest. Think not that the God who charges him with worse than infidelity who provides not for his own, and those of his houshold, will justify you in returning to the state you were in when our troubles began, and there­by delivering over your offspring to the mis­chievous machinations of a power that from the beginning has set right, justice, and mer­cy at defiance, and in all her deliberations considered nothing but her ability to exe­cute.

Look to the year 1763, that happy peri­od, as many so fondly call it, and see what safety there is to America in such a situati­on. Lord North has said, ‘If that is all they want, we are agreed;’ and the say­ing pleases many of you. His Lordship, like others, who have learned wisdom by ex­perience, wishes to have all to begin again, believing that he could more easily effect his purpose by other means than those he is at present pursuing. Swallow the bait and you are undone for ever.

[Page 106]Can any man in his senses believe, that he who has so long, and so invariably pur­sued his point against the sense of the best men in the nation, will finally desert his master's most favourite scheme so easily? Has he uttered a single syllable that can make the most credulous believe that he is convinced of the injustice of his conduct? He confesses he was deceived; but wherein lay the deception; In believing that fewer troops would effect a submission than he is now convinced must be employed. Here lay the deception he complains of, and he is therefore determined to send his terms with such an armed force, as he expects will frighten you into a compliance. Does this look like the conduct of one who designs to relinquish his claims? Were he or his master sensible of the injustice of their proceedings and the wrongs they have done us, they would both speak a very different language. Why does he call you rebel? Why call in foreign troops to his aid? Why does his master lament so pathetically, that the extensive operations of the war he means to carry on against you, will exhaust his funds and increase the public debts, while he has not a single tear to shed, not a groan, nor as much as a sigh for all the blood he [Page 107] has already spilt, and yet means to spill, if he wishes to allow you security to your privileges? Oh! George! The day thou utteredst that sentiment in the face of the sun, thou gavest up all title to humanity. ‘Among the many unavoidable ill conse­quences of this rebellion, none affects me more sensibly,’ says the King. ‘than the extraordinary burthen it must create to my faithful subjects.’ "Most humane Prince! most pious Sovereign! most affec­tionate father of thy people! an addition to thy British subjects burthens to obtain a most unrighteous purpose of thy own, affects thee in order to reconcile them to the bearing of it; but to spill the blood of thy oppressed American subjects disturbs not thy guiltless conscience! Let me tell thee, O King, that there is a God who sees through the veil that covers thy deceit, and who hears the cry of the needy, and regards the prayer of the distressed, who will recompence vengeance on the wicked, though supported by the power of Great Britain. Our weakness is sufficient in his hands for the purpose. If thine and thy ministers intentions are not evil against us, why didst thou not hearken to the repeat­ed prayers of thy distressed subjects in Ame­rica? [Page 108] why dost thou not recal thy troops, repeal the acts, indemnify us for what we have suffered, and offer any further secu­rity to our rights, which we may think ne­cessary? Thou beganest the attack and this is thy duty; besides, thou hast an obedi­ent parliament, which disputes not thy will, and all this is in thy power, and in no one's else." Had the King made a speech to the house recommending these things, he would have given unequivocal proof of his honest intentions, and it might justly be termed gracious. But who can trust a Prince, who while he speaks the language of peace and humanity with his lips, has nothing but cruelty and war in his conduct. The man who does, may have the innocence of the dove, but he cannot be possessed of the wisdom of the serpent. I conclude by en­treating you, that as you love your chil­dren, and their happiness, you never desert your present opposition, until you obtain such a plan of constitutional vigour, as shall put it at all times in your power to secure yourselves, and your descendants from tyrannical encroachments. This you never had, nor never can have on the plan of your former dependence. Remember, I call the Deity to witness, that I have warned [Page 109] you against destroying your offspring, and prayed you to be on your guard against the snares of the insidious. May he who acts from a principle of humanity and benevo­lence to mankind, finally meet with success, and may the schemes of hypocrites be blasted.

A Friend to Posterity and Mankind.

To the Right Honorable Lord DARTMOUTH, Secretary of State for AMERICA.

Philadelphia, Jan. 1, 1776.
My Lord,

YOU are the minister of the American department. You have the character of a religious man, a rare virtue in a modern statesman. It has become my duty and interest to address you, on the present circumstances of affairs in America. I know the Americans well; their strongest and ruling passion was their affection to their mother country; the honour, the glory of Great Britan they esteemed as their greatest happiness; a large portion of the same affecti­on remains; nothing but repeated injuries and [Page 110] injustice could have lessened it. My Lord from a wanton and avaricious exercise of power, the ministry of Great Britain have heaped injuries on the heads of the Americans, that no one period of history can parallel.

The practice of the Egyptians in smo­thering the children of the Israelites in the birth, the swords of Cortez and Pizarro, who slew millions of innocent Mexicans and Peruvians, the dreadful famine brought by the East India company upon the poor East-Indians must all be brought into one scale, to serve as any sort of balance to the system of desolation, that you and your brother ministers, are meditating and daily practising against the unhappy people of North America.

The elements, which the providence of God hath given for all his creatures, you have the presumption to deprive them of, Fire, sword, famine, and desolation, shew the vi­cinity of your fleets and armies; children and servants are animated to rise and slaugh­ter their benefactors. No species of cruelty, which the wit or malice of man or devils could devise, but are practised against the Americans.

[Page 111]Do you believe in God, my Lord, and direct these things? Do you believe that God made America as well as Great-Bri­tain? If you do, ponder, consider well, what answer you will give if you escape punishment in this world, when you come to be questioned before the Throne of God, for the destruction you have made of his creatures, the work of his hands, to whom he granted life and liberty, earth, air and water equally as to yourself: and yet pre­sumptuous man, you have dared to coun­teract his providence! Have you conscience my Lord? If you have, I would not for the empire of a thousand worlds, be Lord Dartmouth? But, my Lord, it is not to awaken your conscience only that I write you this letter: the flame of civil war, by your management, hath extended far and wide in America; battles have been fought, num­bers have been slain, and prisoners taken on both sides; the Americans have in their possession ten for one, and among them many men of rank, Prescot, Preston, Stop­ford, and others; they are all treated with tenderness and regard, while the prisoners you have taken are treated with severity, carried to England in irons, there, as it is said, to be tried, and of course condemned [Page 112] and executed, or in other words, under form of law murdered!

My Lord, if there be any thing on earth or in heaven that you respect, avoid that rock—You have Col. Allen, Capt Martin­dale and some other prisoners—the hour that it is known here that any of those prisoners are executed, the prisoners here will be sacrificed—nay more, every English and Scots adherent;—dread shun, and for ever abandon such murderous intentions.—The cries and vengeance of all the relations of those whose blood shall be shed in this man­ner will surround you, death and horror will be your constant companions, and the torments of the damned, even on earth, will await you.—

My Lord, this is but the beginning of sorrows. Take in good part what I write. It is truth, and intended for the benefit of Britain and America.

AN ENGLISH AMERICAN.
[Page 113]

Observations on LORD NORTH's Conciliatory PLAN.

I CANNOT recal an idea to my mind more amazingly absurd and stupid than the idea of Lord North's second attempt to gull the Colonists into a belief of his in­clination to hold out to them terms of a safe and amicable reconciliation, with Great Britain. No one is ignorant that the Ame­ricans have offered every thing that can possibly be devised to bury the injurious and enslaving claim of administration, in perpetual oblivion, and leave matters on the same footing they were before the pretence was held up. Those generous proposals, however often repeated, have as often been rejected with an insolent contempt, and yet the profound politician tells his op­ponents in the British House of Commons, that he is heartily inclined to a reconcilia­tion with the Colonies, and willing to put them in the situation they so passionately desire; that is, says he, to a courtier de­manding explanation, in a state of abso­lute dependance on the British parliament in all cases whatsoever; for, says his Lordship, they were unquestionably thus dependant [Page 114] in 1763, had his Lordship entirely forgot the success of his former experiment, per­haps a trial of the same wretched trick over again, might have appeared less ri­diculous, I may indeed say, less insulting to the lowest understanding. I would ask the most credulous votary for making up the dispute, what possible grounds they per­ceive to found their expectation of a perma­nent reconciliation upon? Has any thing lately turned up, which has indicated a change of disposition in the Prince or his favorites? Can a majority, which have been secured from one seven years to another, by pure force of corruption, be depended on to remain firm to a slaughtering, plun­dering and desolating court, and share the detestation of present and future ages, for mere nothing? Has the court resolved to cast Bernard, Hutchinson and daughter, Richardson the murderer, crazy John Mal­colm, and Richardson the recent volun­teer, out on the common? I tell you, nay! You have a fresh instance of the firmness of the cabinet, in adding another three thousand pound pensioner to the list, in a conjuncture, when all mankind will confess there is need of saving. These burthen­some pensions must come from some part [Page 115] of the dominions! If Great Britain and Ire­land have conceived such a mortal hatred to America, that they can hug her most inveterate enemies in their bosoms, and vote them such munificent rewards for drawing her into so destructive a civil war, we can­not be safe in the power of such enemies. If they abound in resources as largely as Mr. Wedderburne and others boast they do, let them cease complaining of their poverty, and contentedly discharge their own national debt, rather than go on aug­menting it by their efforts to saddle it, with an unlimited pension list on America. Does the nation bear the weight of the present unnatural quarrel with America on other terms, than a firm assurance of the Court, that millions of leading men's dependants shall be provided for in America, for whom places can by no means be found at home. Is not the very genius of the people of Great Britain and Ireland corrupted, inso­much, that the views of young fellows of education, or any connection with men of note, are altogether set on public money? Can our peaceable men indulge a gleam of hope, that this humour will alter, or that youths, bred in idleness and dissipation, will become industrious and disinterested pa­triots [Page 116] If not, they must then be so weak as to conceit, that ministers will become less fond of fingering the public money, and securing themselves in places of power and profit by means of it; indeed, that they will become more honest and saving of the national money than those the constitution has appointed as a check upon them. It is no wonder they tell of sending a formida­ble fleet and army to bring over their terms of reconciliation, when they are in no one article different from the terms they first aimed to impose. Had the minister, or more properly the obstinate author of all our troubles, had the remotest idea of fa­vouring us with a government of laws, which had any respect to the security of our lives and properties, he had long since granted with a good grace, petitions, made and repeated with the most dutiful persever­ing affection, which asked for nothing more! Sed aut Caesar aut nullus, seems the unalter­able determination of the man, who soothed our already elated expectations, by an in­augural declaration, that he gloried in the name of Briton, at that time, a distinctive characteristic of the patrons of universal li­berty. If therefore the whole body of the governing, and influential part of the go­verned [Page 117] in Great Britain, be unalterably set upon extorting tribute from the Colonies; and the better to secure the collection of it, claims right to impose the laws, and exe­cutors of those laws, dependant only on themselves for appointment, continuance and support; and all these to be extended at their sole pleasure, it may readily be de­termined in what condition, the absolutely passive subjects of such an unnatural usur­pation would quickly be. It is evident they have concluded on two things, viz. to make a bold push for our entire subjection, as their ends would be thereby more readily answered; but that being found impracti­cable, we are to be tried with negociation, in which all the craft, duplicity and punic faith of administration is to be expected. Pray God it may be wisely and firmly guarded against! The worthy and honor­able John Collins, Esq of Newport, Rhode Island, on the arrival of Lord North's last conciliatory plan, observed, that notwith­standing the exposure of his large estate, to whatever depredations the enemy saw fit to make upon it, he was more concerned for the probable success of their arts than arms. Had the Americans in general the wisdom and firmness of that gentleman, matters would never have come to the pre­sent [Page 118] melancholy lengths we find them. However, in the great and general plan of him who putteth down and setteth up states, this is doubtless an indispensable part, and therefore not to be complained of; but it has amazed me to contemplate the nume­rous instances of disappointment our ene­mies have met with, in every plot they have laid for our destruction. How did Bernard and Hutchinson flatter themselves with the number of friends they had in several towns of the Massachusetts, and thought that a very trifling force, from the other side of the water, added to their minions, depend­ants and expectants, would crush a little tur­bulent faction, who disturbed their darling measures? Certainly men intoxicated with a lust of absolute power found something in the appearance of things to tole them on to an object so grateful to their fondest wishes; other wise they would have been contented to augment and confirm their power by such unperceived degrees that the happy days, many tell us we have enjoyed under a continually invading usurpation, would not yet have been so sensibly interrupted. No less has the so often extolled Governor Tryon been disappointed in his benevolent intentions respecting New-York. His band [Page 119] on Long Island, and on the east side of Hudson's river, with Sir John Johnson a­mong his vassals, and the Indians, gave him great hopes of having matters in a fine train before the invincible armada arrived in the spring; instead of which, it is pro­bable the active General Lee will so fortify that place, that all the force they can send against it, will be insufficient to reduce it. Dunmore, with all his wanton ravage, has done little more than exasperate the Vir­ginians, and convinced that brave Colony, that they can be formidable to savages on the east, as well as west side of their dominion. Carleton's Canadians, make no such figure in the harangues of the pen­sioner, as they did last year; and in case foreigners are to be procured to be poured in upon us, the greatest opposers of our total separation from Britain acknowledge, they would then no longer defer a declara­tion of independancy, and application to other powers for their protection. To this the whole scene appears rapidly ad­vancing, in my view, as hastily as in­finite wisdom thinks proper to conduct it; and if this be his most gracious design, he will work, and none shall hinder. Amen, Beneficent Jehovah! Amen. Sic sperat.

SINCERUS.
[Page]

The following Additions are those published in the new Edition of Common Sense.

Postscript to the Introduction.

THE Publication of this new Edition hath been de­layed, with a view of taking notice (had it been necessary) of any attempt to refute the doctrine of Inde­pendance: as no answer hath yet appeared, it is now pre­sumed that none will, the Time needful for getting such a performance ready for the public being considerably past.

Who the author of this production is, is wholly un­necessary to the public, as the object for attention is the doctrine itself, not the man. Yet it may not be unnecessary to say, that he is unconnected with any party, and under no sort of influence public or private, but the influence of reason and principle.

Philadelphia, February 14, 1776.

More Additions.

Page 38. line 2. after quarrels; ( and sets us at variance with nations, who would otherwise seek our friendship, and against whom, we have neither anger nor complaint.)

Page 47. line 8. from the top, is now added, after 1775, Massacre of Lexington.)

Page 74. line 8. from the top is now added after the word A, ( firm bargain and)

N. B. The remainder of the additions being calcula­tions from Entick's Naval History concerning Ship-build­ing, are given at the end of this Appendix.

[Page]

APPENDIX TO COMMON SENSE. The necessity of INDEPENDANCY.

SINCE the publication of the first edition of this pamphlet, or rather on the same day on which it came out, the King's Speech made its appearance in this city. Had the spirit of prophecy di­rected the birth of this production, it could not have brought it forth, at a more sea­sonable juncture, or a more necessary time. The bloody mindedness of the one, shew the necessity of pursuing the doctrine of the other. Men read by way of revenge. And the Speech, instead of terrifying, pre­pared a way for the manly principles of Independance.

Ceremony, and even silence, from what­ever motive they may arise, have a hurt­ful tendency, when they give the least degree of countenance to base and wicked performances; wherefore, if this maxim [Page 122] be admitted, it naturally follows, that the King's Speech, as being a piece of finished villainy, deserved, and still deserves, a ge­neral execration, both by the Congress and the people. Yet, as the domestic tran­quillity of a nation, depends greatly on the chastity of what may properly be cal­led NATIONAL MANNERS, it is often bet­ter, to pass some things over in silent dis­dain, than to make use of such new me­thods of dislike, as might introduce the least innovation, on that guardian of our peace and safety. And, perhaps, it is chiefly owing to this prudent delicacy, that the King's Speech hath not, before now, suffered a public execution. The Speech, if it may be called one, is nothing better than a wilful audacious libel against the truth, the common good, and the ex­istence of mankind; and is a formal and pompous method of offering up human sa­crifices, to the pride of tyrants. But this general massacre of mankind, is one of the privileges, and the certain conse­quence of King's; for as nature knows them not, they know not her, and although they are beings of our own creating, they know not us, and are become the Gods of their creators. The speech hath one good [Page 123] quality, which is, that it is not calculated to deceive, neither can we, even if we would, be deceived by it. Brutality and tyranny appear on the face of it. It leaves us at no loss: And every line convinces, even in the moment of reading, that he, who hunts the woods for prey, the naked and untutored Indian, is less a Savage than the King of Britain.

Sir John Dalrymple, the putative father of a whining jesuitical piece, fallaciously called, " The address of the people of Eng­land, to the Inhabitants of America," hath, perhaps, from a vain supposition, that the people here were to be frightened at the pomp and description of a king, giving, (though very unwisely on his part) the real character of the present one: "But," says this writer, "if you are inclined to pay compliments to an administration which we do not complain of, (meaning the Marquis of Rockingham's at the repeal of the Stamp Act,) it is very unfair in you to withhold them from that prince by whose NOD ALONE, they were permitted to do any thing." This is toryism with a witness! Here is ido­latry even without a mask: And he who can calmly hear and digest such doctrine, [Page 124] hath forfeited his claim to rationality— an apostate from the order of manhood, and ought to be considered—as one, who hath not only given up the proper dignity of man, but sunk himself beneath the rank of animals, and contemptibly crawl through the world like a worm.

However, it matters very little now, what the king of England either says or does; he hath wickedly broken through every moral and human obligation, tramp­led nature and conscience beneath his feet; and by a steady and constitutional spirit of insolence and cruelty, procured for him­self an universal hatred. It is now the interest of America to provide for her­self. She hath already a large and young family, whom it is more her duty to take care of, than to be granting away her pro­perty, to support a power, who is become a reproach to the names of men and chris­tians. —YE, whose office it is to watch over the morals of a nation, of whatso­ever sect or denomination ye are of, as well as ye, who, are more immediately the guardians of the public liberty, if ye wish to preserve your native country uncontami­nated by European corruption, ye must in secret wish a separation.—But leaving [Page 125] the moral part to private reflection, I shall chiefly confine my farther remarks to the following heads:

First, That it is the interest of America, to be separated from Britain.

Secondly, Which is the easiest and most practicable plan, RECONCILIATION or IN­DEPENDANCE? with some occasional re­marks.

In support of the first, I could, If I judged it proper, produce the opinion of some of the ablest and most experienced men on this continent; and whose senti­ments, on that head, are not yet publicly known. It is in reality a self evident position: For no nation, in a state of fo­reign dependance, limited in its commerce, and cramped and fettered in its legi­slative powers, can ever arrive at any material eminence. America doth not yet know what opulence is; and al­though the progress which she hath made, stands unparalleled in the history of other nations, it is but childhood, com­pared with what she would be capable of arriving at, had she, as she ought to have, the legislative powers in her own hands. [Page 126] England, is at this time, proudly coveting what would do her no good, were she to accomplish it; and the continent hesitating on a matter, which will be her final ruin if neglected. It is the commerce, and not the conquest of America, by which Eng­land is to be benefited, and that would in a great measure continue, were the countries as independant of each other as France and Spain; because in many articles, neither can go to a better market. But it is the independance of this country on Britain or any other, which is now the main and only object worthy of contention, and which, like all other truths discovered by necessity, will appear clear and stronger every day.

First. Because it will come to that one time or other.

Secondly, Because the longer it is de­layed, the harder it will be to accomplish.

I have frequently amused myself both in public and private companies, with si­lently remarking the specious errors of those who speak without reflecting. And among the many which I have heard, the follow­ing [Page 127] seems the most general, viz. that had this rupture happened forty or fifty years hence, instead of now, the continent would have been more able to have shaken off the dependance. To which I reply, that our military ability at this time, arises from the experience gained in the last war, and which in forty or fifty years time, would have been totally extinct. The Continent would not, by that time, have had a Ge­neral, or even a military officer left; and we, or those who may succeed us, would have been as ignorant of martial matters as the ancient Indians: And this single po­sition, closely attended to, will unanswer­ably prove, that the present time is prefer­able to all others: The argument turns thus: At the conclusion of the last war, we had experience, but wanted numbers; and forty or fifty years hence, we should have num­bers, without experience; wherefore, the proper point of time, must be some parti­cular point between the two extremes, in which a sufficiency of the former remains, and a proper encrease of the latter is obtain­ed: And that point of time is the present time.

The reader will pardon this digression, as it does not properly come under the [Page 128] head I first set out with, and to which I again return by the following position, viz.

Should affairs be patched up with Bri­tain, and she to remain the governing and sovereign power of America, (which as matters are now circumstanced, is giving up the point entirely) we shall deprive ourselves of the very means of sinking the debt we have, or may contract. The value of the back lands, which some of the provinces are clandestinely deprived of, by the unjust extension of the limits of Cana­da, valued only at five pounds sterling per hundred acres, amount to upwards of twen­ty five millions, Pennsylvania currency; and the quit-rents at one penny sterling per acre, to two millions yearly.

It is by the sale of those lands, that the debt may be sunk, without burthen to any, and the quit-rent reserved thereon, will always lessen, and in time will wholly sup­port the yearly expence of government. It matters not how long the debt is in paying, so that the lands when sold, be applied to the discharge of it, and for the execution of which, the Congress for the time being, will be the continental trustees.

[Page 129]I proceed now to the second head, viz. Which is the easiest and most practicable plan, Reconciliation or Independance; with some occasional remarks.

He who takes nature for his guide, is not easily beaten out of his argument, and on that ground, I answer generally—That Independance being a single simple line, contained within ourselves; and reconcilia­tion, a matter exceedingly perplexed and com­plicated, and in which, a treacherous ca­pricious court is to interfere, gives the an­swer without a doubt.

The present state of America is truly a­larming to every man who is capable of reflection. Without law, without govern­ment, without any other mode of power than what is founded on, and granted by courtesy. Held together by an unexampled concurrence of sentiment, which, is never­theless subject to change, and which, every secret enemy is endeavouring to dissolve. Our present condition, is, Legislation with­out law, wisdom without a plan, a consti­tution without a name, and, what is strangely astonishing, perfect independance contending for dependance. The instance [Page 130] is without a precedent; the case never ex­isted before; and who can tell what may be the event? The property of no man is secure in the present unbraced system of things. The mind of the multitude is left at random, and seeing no fixed object be­fore them, they pursue such as fancy or opinion starts. Nothing is criminal; there is no such thing as treason; wherefore, every one thinks himself at liberty to act as he pleases. The Tories would not have da­red to assemble offensively, had they known that their lives, by that act, were forfeited to the laws of the state. A line of distinc­tion should be drawn, between English sol­diers taken in battle, and inhabitants of America taken in arms. The first are pri­soners, but the latter traitors. The one forfeits his liberty, the other his head.

Notwithstanding our wisdom, there is a visible feebleness in some of our proceed­ings, which gives encouragement to dissen­tions. The Continental Belt is too loosely buckled: And if something is not done in time, it will be too late to do any thing, and we shall fall into a state, in which, neither Reconciliation nor Independance will be practicable. The king and his worth­less [Page 131] adherents are got at the old game of di­viding the Continent, and there are not wanting among us, Printers, who will be busy in spreading specious falsehoods. The artful and hypocritical letter, which ap­peared a few months ago, in two of the New-York papers, and likewise in two others, is an evidence, that there are men who want either judgment or honesty.

It is easy getting into holes and corners, and talking of reconciliation: But do such men seriously consider, how difficult the task is, and how dangerous it may prove, should the Continent divide thereon. Do they take within their view, all the va­rious orders of men, whose situation and circumstances, as well as their own, are to be considered therein. Do they put them­selves in the place of the sufferer, whose all is already gone, and of the soldier, who hath quitted all for the defence of his country. If their ill judged moderation be suited to their own private situations only, regardless of others, the event will convince them, that "they are reckoning without their host."

[Page 132]Put us, say some, upon the footing we were on in sixty-three: To which I an­swer, the request is not now in the power of Britain to comply with, neither will she propose it, but if it were, and even should be granted, I ask, as a reasonable question, By what means is such a corrupt and faithless court to be kept to its engage­ments? Another parliament, nay, even the present, may hereafter repeal the obliga­tion, on the pretence of its being violently obtained, or unwisely granted; and in that case, Where is our redress?—No going to law with nations; cannon are the barri­sters of crowns; and the sword, not of justice, but of war, decides the suit. To be on the footing of sixty three, it is not sufficient, that the laws only be put on the same state, but that our circumstances, likewise be put on the same state; our burnt and destroyed towns repaired or built up, our private losses made good, our public debts (contracted for defence) discharged, otherwise, we shall be millions worse, than we were at that enviable period. Such a request, had it been complied with a year ago, would have won the heart and soul of the Continent, but now it is too late. "The Rubicon is passed."

[Page 133]Besides the taking up arms, merely to enforce the repeal of a pecuniary law, seems as unwarrantable by the divine law, and as repugnant to human feelings, as the tak­ing up arms to enforce the obedience there­to. The object, on either side, doth not justify the means; for the lives of men are too valuable, to be cast away on such trifles. It is the violence which is done and threatened to our persons; the destruction of our property by an armed force; the in­vasion of our country by fire and sword, which conscientiously qualifies the use of arms: And the instant, in which such a mode of defence became necessary, all sub­jection to Britain ought to have ceased; and the independancy of America, should have been considered, as dating its aera from, and published by, the first musket that was fired against her. This line is a line of con­sistency; neither drawn by caprice, nor ex­tended by ambition; but produced by a chain of events, of which the colonies were not the authors.

I shall conclude these remarks, with the following timely and well intended hints. We ought to reflect, that there are three different ways by which an independancy [Page 134] may hereafter be affected; and that one of those three, will one day or other, be the fate of America, viz. By the legal voice of the people in Congress; by a military power; or by a mob: It may not always happen that our soldiers are citizens, and the multitude a body of reasonable men; virtue, as I have already remarked, is not heredi­tary, neither is it perpetual. Should an in­dependancy be brought about by the first of those means, we have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest purest constitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birth day of a new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the event of a few months. The reflection is awful, and in this point of view, how trifling, how ridiculous, do the little, paltry cavillings, of a few weak or interested men appear, when weighed against the business of a world.

Should we neglect the present favorable and inviting period, and an independance [Page 135] be hereafter effected by any other means, we must charge the consequence to our­selves, or to those rather, whose narrow and prejudiced souls, are habitually opposing the measure, without either inquiring or reflecting. There are reasons to be given in support of independance, which men should rather privately think of, than be publicly told of. We ought not now to be debating whether we shall be indepen­dant or not, but, anxious to accomplish it on a firm, secure, and honorable basis, and uneasy rather that it is not yet began upon. Every day convinces us of its necessity: Even the Tories (if such beings yet remain among us) should, of all men, be the most solicitous to promote it; for as the appoint­ment of committees at first, protected them from popular rage, so, a wise and well established form of government, will be the only certain means of continuing it securely to them. Wherefore, if they have not virtue enough to be WHIGS, they ought to have prudence enough to wish for Independance.

In short, Independance is the only BOND that can tye and keep us together. We shall then see our object, and our ears will be legally shut against the schemes of an in­triguing, [Page 136] as well, as a cruel enemy. We shall then too, be on a proper footing, to treat with Britain; for there is reason to conclude, that the pride of that court, will be less hurt by treating with the American states for terms of peace, than with those, whom she denominates, "rebellious sub­jects," for terms of accommodation. It is our delaying in that, encourages her to hope for conquest, and our backwardness tends only to prolong the war. As we have, without any good effect therefrom, with­held our trade to obtain a redress of our grievances, let us now try the alternative, by independantly redressing them ourselves, and then offering to open the trade. The mercantile and reasonable part in England, will be still with us; because, peace with trade, is preferable to war without it. And if this offer be not accepted, other courts may be applied to.

On these grounds I rest the matter. And as no offer hath yet been made to refute the doctrine contained in the former editions of this pamphlet, it is a negative proof, that either the doctrine cannot be refuted, or, that the party in favor of it are too nume­rous to be opposed. WHEREFORE, instead [Page 137] of gazing at each other with suspicious or doubtful curiosity, let each of us hold out to his neighbour the hearty hand of friend­ship, and unite in drawing a line, which, like an act of oblivion shall bury in forget­fulness every former dissention. Let the names of Whig and Tory be extinct; and let none other be heard among us, than those of a good citizen, an open and resolute friend, and a virtuous supporter of the RIGHTS of MANKIND and of the FREE AND INDE­PENDANT STATES OF AMERICA.

To the Representatives of the Religious So­ciety of the People called Quakers, or to so many of them as were concerned in publishing a late piece, entitled ‘The ANCIENT TESTIMONY and PRINCI­PLES of the People called QUAKERS renewed, with respect to the KING and GOVERNMENT, and touching the COMMOTIONS now prevailing in these and other parts of AMERICA addressed to the PEOPLE IN GENERAL.’

THE Writer of this, is one of those few, who never dishonors religion either by ridiculing, or cavilling at [Page 138] any denomination whatsoever. To God, and not to man, are all men accountable on the score of religion. Wherefore, this epistle is not so properly addressed to you as a religious, but as a political body, dab­bling in matters, which the professed Qui­etude of your Principles instruct you not to meddle with.

As you have, without a proper authority for so doing, put yourselves in the place of the whole body of the Quakers, so, the writer of this, in order to be on an equal rank with yourselves, is under the necessity of putting himself in the place of all those, who, ap­prove the very writings and principles against which, your testimony is directed: And he hath chosen this singular situation, in order, that you might discover in him that presump­tion of character which you cannot see in yourselves. For neither he nor you can have any claim or title to Political Representation.

When men have departed from the right way, it is no wonder that they stumble and fall. And it is evident from the manner in which ye have managed your testimony, that politics, (as a religious body of men) is not your proper Walk; for however well adapted it might appear to you, it is, ne­vertheless, [Page 139] a jumble of good and bad put unwisely together, and the conclusion drawn therefrom, both unnatural and unjust.

The two first pages, (and the whole doth not make four) we give you credit for, and expect the same civility from you, because the love and desire of peace is not confined to Quakerism, it is the natural, as well as the religious wish of all denominations of men. And on this ground, as men laboring to esta­blish an Independant Constitution of our own, do we exceed all others in our hope, end, and aim. Our plan is peace forever. We are tired of contention with Britain, and can see no real end to it but in a final separation. We act consistently, because for the sake of introducing an endless and uninterrupted peace, do we bear the evils and burthens of the present day. We are endeavoring, and will steadily continue to endeavor, to sepa­rate and dissolve a connection which hath already filled our land with blood; and which, while the name of it remains, will be the fatal cause of future mischiefs to both countries.

We fight neither for revenge nor con­quest; neither from pride nor passion; we [Page 140] are not insulting the world with our fleets and armies, nor ravaging the globe for plun­der. Beneath the shade of our own vines are we attacked, in our own houses, and on our own lands, is the violence committed against us. We view our enemies in the character of Highwaymen and House­breakers, and having no defence for our­selves in the civil law, are obliged to punish them by the military one, and apply the sword, in the very case, where you have before now applied the halter—Perhaps we feel for the ruined and insulted sufferers in all and every part of the Continent, with a degree of tenderness which hath not yet made its way into some of your bosoms. But be ye sure that ye mistake not the cause and ground of your testimony. Call not coldness of soul, religion; nor put the Bigot in the place of the Christian.

O ye partial ministers of your own ac­knowledged principles. If the bearing arms be sinful, the first going to war must be more so, by all the difference between wilful attack and unavoidable defence. Wherefore, if ye really preach from con­science, and mean not to make a political hobby-horse of your religion, convince [Page 141] the world thereof, by proclaiming your doctrine to our enemies, for they likewise bear ARMS. Give us proof of your sin­cerity by publishing it at St. James's, to the commanders in chief at Boston, to the admirals and captains who are piratically ravaging our coasts, and to all the murder­ing miscreants who are acting in authority under HIM whom ye profess to serve. Had ye the honest soul of * BARCLAY ye would preach repentance to your king; ye would tell the Royal Wretch his sins, and warn him of eternal ruin; ye would not [Page 142] spend your partial invectives against the in­jured and the insulted only, but, like faith­ful ministers, would cry aloud and spare none. Say not that ye are persecuted, neither en­deavor to make us the authors of that re­proach, which, ye are bringing upon your­selves; for we testify unto all men, that we do not complain against you, because ye are Quakers, but because ye pretend to be and are not Quakers.

Alas! it seems by the particular tendency of some part of your testimony, and other parts of your conduct, as if, all sin was re­duced to, and comprehended in, the act of bearing arms, and that by the people only. Ye appear to us, to have mistaken party for conscience; because, the general tenor of your actions wants uniformity: And it is exceedingly difficult to us to give credit to many of your pretended scruples; because, we see them made by the same men, who, in the very instant that they are exclaiming against the mammon of this world, are ne­vertheless, hunting after it with a step as steady as Time, and an appetite as keen as Death.

The quotation which ye have made from Proverbs, in the third page of your testi­mony, that, "when a man's ways please [Page 143] the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him;" is very unwisely chosen on your part; because, it amounts to a proof, that the king's ways (whom ye are so desirous of supporting) do not please the Lord, otherwise, his reign would be in peace.

I now proceed to the latter part of your testimony, and that, for which all the fore­going seems only an introduction, viz.

"It hath ever been our judgment and principle, since we were called to profess the light of Christ Jesus, manifested in our consciences unto this day, that the setting up and putting down kings and governments, is God's peculiar prerogative; for causes best known to himself: And that it is not our business to have any hand or contriv­ance therein; nor to be busy bodies above our station, much less to plot and contrive the ruin, or overturn of any of them, but to pray for the king, and safety of our nation, and good of all men: That we may live a peaceable and quiet life, in all godliness and honesty: under the government which God is pleased to set over us"—If these are really your principles, why do you not abide by them? Why do you not leave that, which ye call God's work, to be managed by [Page 144] himself? These very principles instruct you to wait with patience and humility, for the event of all public measures, and to recieve that event as the divine will towards you. Wherefore, what occasion is there for your political testimony if you fully believe what it contains? And the very publishing it proves, that either, ye do not believe what ye profess, or have not virtue enough to practise what ye believe.

The principles of Quakerism have a di­rect tendency to make a man the quiet and inoffensive subject of any, and every go­vernment which is set over him. And if the setting up and putting down of kings and governments is God's peculiar preroga­tive, he most certainly will not be robbed thereof by us; wherefore the principle it­self leads you to approve of every thing, which ever happened, or may happen to kings as being his work. Oliver Cromwell thanks you, Charles, then, died not by the hands of man; and should the present proud Imitator of him, come to the same untimely end, the writers and publishers of the testimony, are bound by the doctrine it contains, to applaud the fact. Kings are not taken away by miracles, neither are changes in government brought about by [Page 145] any other means than such as are common and human; and such as we are now using. Even the dispersion of the Jews, though foretold by our Saviour, was effected by arms. Wherefore, as ye refuse to be the means on one side, ye ought not to be med­lers on the other; but to wait the issue in silence? and unless ye can produce divine authority, to prove, that the Almighty who hath created and placed this new world at the greatest distance it could possibly stand, east and west, from every part of the old, doth, nevertheless, disapprove of its being independant of the corrupt and abandoned court of Britain, unless I say, ye can shew this, how can ye on the ground of your principles, justify the exciting and stirring up the people ‘firmly to unite in the abhorrence of all such writings, and measures, as evidence a desire and design to break off the happy connexion we have hitherto enjoyed, with the kingdom of Great Britain, and our just and necessary subordination to the king, and those who are lawfully placed in authority under him.’ What a slap of the face is here! The men, who in the very paragraph be­fore, have quietly and passively resigned up the ordering, altering, and disposal of kings [Page 146] and governments, into the hands of God, are now recalling their principles, and put­ting in for a share of the business. Is it possible, that the conclusion, which is here justly quoted, can any ways follow from the doctrine laid down? The inconsistency is too glaring not to be seen; the absurdity too great not to be laughed at; and such as could only have been made by those, whose understandings were darkened by the nar­row and crabbed spirit of a despairing poli­tical party; for ye are not to be considered as the whole body of the Quakers, but on­ly as a factional and fractional part thereof.

Here ends the examination of your testi­mony; (which I call upon no man to abhor, as ye have done, but only to read and judge of fairly;) to which I subjoin the following remark; "That the setting up and putting down of kings," most certainly mean, the making him a king, who is yet not so, and the making him no king who is already one. And pray what hath this to do in the present case? We neither mean to set up nor to pull down, neither to make nor to un­make, but to have nothing to do with them. Wherefore, your testimony in whatever light it is viewed serves only to dishonor your [Page 147] judgment, and for many other reasons had better have been let alone than published.

First, because it tends to the decrease and reproach of all religion whatever, and is of the utmost danger to society, to make it a party in political disputes.

Secondly, Because it exhibits a body of men, numbers of whom disavow the pub­lishing political testomonies, as being con­cerned therein and approvers thereof.

Thirdly, Because it hath a tendency to undo that continental harmony and friend­ship which yourselves by your late liberal and charitable donations hath lent a hand to establish; and the preservation of which, is of the utmost consequence to us all.

And here without anger or resentment I bid you farewell. Sincerely wishing, that as men and christians, ye may always fully and uninterruptedly enjoy every civil and re­ligious right; and be in your turn, the means of securing it to others; but that the example which ye have unwisely set, of mingling religion with politics, may be dis­avowed and reprobated by every inhabitant of AMERICA.

FINIS.
[Page]

The following are the remainder of those Additions and Im­provements which are added in the body of the new Edi­tion of COMMON SENSE.

Page 64, line 2, from the too, after the paragraph which ends with the word sterling, is now added in the new edition.

The first and second editions of this pamphlet were pub­lished without the following calculations, which are now given as a proof that the above estimation of the navy is a just one. See Entick's Naval Hist. introd. page 56.

The charge of building a ship of each rate, and furnishing her with masts, yards, sails and rigging, together with a proportion of eight months boatswain's and carpen­ter's sea-stores, as calculated by Mr. Burchett, Secretary to the Navy.

For a ship of 100 guns
£.35,553
90
29,886
80
23,638
70
17,785
60
14,197
50
10,606
40
7,558
30
5, [...]46
20
3,710

And from hence it is easy to sum up the value, or cost rather, of the whole British navy, which in the year 1757, when it was at its greatest glory consisted of the following ships and guns.

Ships. Guns. Cost of one. Cost of all.
6 100 35,553 l. 213,318 l.
12 90 29,886 358,632
12 80 23,638 283,656
43 70 17,785 764,755
35 60 14,197 496,895
40 50 10,606 424,240
45 40 7,558 340,110
58 20 3,710 215,180
85 Sloops, bombs, and fireships, one with another, at 2,000 170,000
      Cost 3,266,786
  Remains for guns   233,214
      Total 3,500,000
[Page]

ROBERT BELL, Bookseller, to the Public.

Self-defence against unjust attacks needs no apology. Bell.

THE pamphlet of large ADDITIONS to Common Sense, containing several excellent pieces, written by some worthy and respectable citizens of Philadelphia, are in the opinion of some gentlemen, who are good judges of literary merit, thought worthy of preservation, in such manner as to bind with other pamphlets in an octavo volume.—Those that think as they do, will buy, and those who do not think in that manner, will let them alone.

The judicious and discerning have perception sufficient to observe this, without the unnecessary intervention of the Foster-Father-Author's optics (whose self-imagined importance hath swelled him into contemptible consequen­tiality) because the Provedore to the Sentimentalists doth not PRINT decent EDITIONS for such ignoramus's as Lord Dunmore's NEGROES.

The envious Mr. ANONYMOUS, the shadow of an au­thor, with his murdering MASK and his DARK LAN­THORN, fully equipped for the ruffian business of assassi­nation (like unto a villainous THIEF, whose voracious cravings for PREY constrain him to forget the fears which forced him so lately to scamper away) hath once more crept into the field to ROB and to DESTROY the reputation of authors, whose literary abilities OUT-SHINE his, as far as the blaze of a torch OUT-SHINETH the glimmering of a candle.—

Beside their superior talents in literature, they have thereto added (in his eyes) another most grievous offence by their not employing him as a go-between, that he might thereby have an opportunity to insinuate there is no WRITERS in America but the wou'd-be author of Common Sense—This stolen applause he is avariciously attached unto, although he certainly knoweth the ticklish tenure of such usurped reputation—For if he possessed only a small share of internal honesty, he would be constrained to cry out in the emphatic words of the poor Israelite, who lost the hatchet—ALAS! FOR IT WAS BORROWED.

P. S. The judicious part of the public know that the ostensible author was, and still is the aggressor, yet the real bookseller, who hateth dissimulation, giveth the following true KEY to the whole dispute.—

When the work was at a stand for want of a courageous Typographer, I was then recommended by a gentleman nearly in the following words, "There is Bell, he is a Republican Printer, give it to him, and I will answer for his courage to PRINT IT.

[Page]This same Mr. ANONYMOUS, this Amanuensis to a group of authors, on seeing the manly fortitude with which R. Bell printed his name on the title of the flam­ing production, to sound the depths of the multitude for a virtuous and glorious independancy; and afterwards be­holding the success of the sale and of the sentiment, he immediately formed the ungrateful design of jockeying the Printer, who had to please the authors, and serve the cause, done fifty pounds worth of work for the small price of twenty pounds, and at the same time formed the dis­graceful intention to circumvent the real bookseller, by whose knowledge in business the pamphlet was made res­pectable—Upon the Bookseller's discovering these shame­ful veerings, he laid immediate hold on the indubitable MAXIM in the law of retaliation, which he holdeth to be as invulnerable, in the practice of the world, as the law of self-defence, and therefore determined to out-jockey if possible.

The Bookseller's success in this manoeuvre was so ex­ceeding galling to the ingrate GO-BETWEEN, who first made the vicious attempt, that to be convicted and foiled at his own weapons was more than his capricious disposi­tion was able to sustain. He immediately fell into a fit of ill-natured, ostentatious, and pretended generosity, which would most certainly have carried him to Bedlam or a p—n, had he not in the midst of his debasement recol­lected it was not yet quite impossible for him to arise again, by touching public money, and to attain to be the MASSANELLO among authors and booksellers, at least for one DAY.

N. B. Robert Bell, in Third-street, continueth to sell to all who are capable of making proper distinctions, the large edition of Common Sense with ALL the aditions and improvements; also the appendix, and address to the Quakers COMPLETE.

Just printed, and published at the desire of several Mem­bers of the Continental Congress, and some of the Milita­ry Officers of the Association; and is now selling by R. BELL, in Third-street (Price twenty-six shillings, two volumes in neat bindings)

THE MILITARY GUIDE for YOUNG OFFICERS. By THOMAS SIMES, Esq.

To which are now added extracts from a military Essay, containing reflexions on the raising, arming, clothing and discipline of the British infantry and cavalry. By Campbell Dalrymple, Esq Lieutenant-Colonel to the King's own regiment of Dragoons.

The whole is illuminated with eleven COPPER-PLATES.

A DIALOGUE BETWEEN T …
[Page]

A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE GHOST OF GENERAL MONTGOMERY Just arrived from the ELYSIAN FIELDS; AND AN AMERICAN DELEGATE, IN A WOOD NEAR PHILADELPHIA.

Printed, and Sold by R. BELL, in Third-Street. MDCCLXXVI.

[Page]

A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE GHOST OF GENERAL MONTGOMERY, AND A DELEGATE, IN A WOOD NEAR PHILADELPHIA.

Delegate.

WELCOME to this retreat my good friend. If I mis­take not, I now see the ghost of the brave General MONTGOMERY.

General Montgomery.

I am glad to see you. I still love liberty and America, and the contemplation of the future greatness of this Continent now forms a large share of my present happiness. I am sent here up­on an important errand, to warn you a­gainst listening to terms of accomodations from the court of Britain.

Del.

I shall be happy in receiving in­struction from you in the present trying ex­igency of our public affairs. But suppose [Page 6] the terms you speak of should be just and honorable.

Gen. Mont.

How can you expect these, after the King has proclaimed you rebels from the throne, and after both houses of parliament have resolved to support him in carrying on a war against you? No, I see no offers from Great Britain but of PARDON. The very word is an insult upon our cause. To whom is pardon offered?—to virtuous freemen. For what?—for flying to arms in defence of the rights of humanity: And from whom do these offers come? From a ROYAL CRIMINAL. You have furnished me with a new reason for triumphing in my death, for I had rather have it said that I died by his vengeance, than that I lived by his mercy.

Del.

But you think nothing of the de­structive consequences of war. How many cities must be reduced to ashes! how many families must be ruined! and how many widows and orphans must be made, should the present war be continued any longer with Great Britain.

Gen. Mont.

I think of nothing but of the destructive consequences of slavery. The calamities of war are transitory and confined [Page 7] in their effects. But the calamities of sla­very are extensive and lasting in their ope­ration. I love mankind as well as you, and I could never restrain a tear when my love of justice has obliged me to shed the blood of a fellow creature. It is my hu­manity that makes me urge you against a reconciliation with Great Britain, for if this takes place, nothing can prevent the American Colonies from being the seat of war as often as the King of Great Britain renews his quarrels with any of the Colo­nies, or with any of the belligerent powers of Europe.

Del.

I tremble at the doctrine you have advanced. I see you are for the indepen­dance of the Colonies on Great Britain.

Gen. Mont.

I am for permanent liberty, peace, and security to the American Colo­nies.

Del.

These can only be maintained by placing the Colonies in the situation they were in the year 1763.

Gen. Mont.

And is no satisfaction to be made to the Colonies for the blood and treasure they have expended in resisting the arms of Great Britain? Who can soften the prejudices of the King—the parliament— [Page 8] and the nation, each of whom will be averse to maintain a peace with you in proportion to the advantages you have gained over them? Who shall make restitution to the widows—the mothers—and the children of the men who have been slain by their arms? Can no hand wield the sceptre of government in America except that which has been stained with the blood of your countrymen? For my part if I thought this Continent would ever acknowledge the so­vereignty of the Crown of Britain again, I should forever lament the day in which I offered up my life for its salvation.

Del.

You should distinguish between the King and his ministers.

Gen. Mont.

I live in a world where all political superstition is done away. The King is the author of all the measures car­ried on against America. The influence of bad ministers is no better apology for these measures, than the influence of bad com­pany is for a murderer, who expiates his crimes under a gallows.—You all complain of the corruption of the parliament, and of the venality of the nation, and yet you for­get that the Crown is the source of them both.—You shun the streams, and yet you [Page 9] are willing to sit down at the very fountain of corruption and venality.

Del.

Our distance and charters will pro­tect us from the influence of the crown.

Gen. Mont.

Your distance will only render your danger more imminent, and your ruin more irretrievable. Charters are no restraints against the lust of power. The only reason why you have escaped so long is, because the treasure of the nation has been employed for these 50 years in buying up the virtue of Britain and Ireland. Hereafter the seduc­tion of the representatives of the people of America will be the only aim of administra­tion should you continue to be connected with them.

Del.

But I foresee many evils from the independance of the Colonies. Our trade will be ruined from the want of a navy to protect it. Each Colony will put in its claim for superiority, and we shall have do­mestic wars without end.

Gen. Mont.

As I now know that Divine Providence intends this country to be the asylum of persecuted virtue from every quar­ter of the globe, so I think your trade will be the vehicle that will convey it to you. [Page 10] Heaven has furnished you with greater re­sources for a navy than any nation in the world. Nothing but an ignorance of your strength could have led you to sacrifice your trade for the protection of a foreign navy. A freedom from the restraints of the acts of navigation I foresee will produce such im­mense additions to the wealth of this coun­try that posterity will wonder that ever you thought your present trade worth its pro­tection. As to the supposed contentions between sister colonies, they have no foun­dation in truth. But supposing they have, will delaying the independance of the Colo­nies, 50 years, prevent them? No—the weakness of the Colonies, which at first produced their union, will always preserve it, 'till it shall be their interest to be separat­ed. Had the Colony of Massachuset's-bay been possessed of the military resources which it would probably have had 50 years hence, would she have held out the signal of distress to her sister colonies, upon the news of the Boston port-bill? No—she would have withstood all the power of Britain alone, and afterwards the neutral colonies might have shared the fate of the colony of Canada. Moreover, had the connection with Great-Britain [Page 11] been continued 50 years longer, the progress of British laws, customs, and man­ners (now totally corrupted) would have been such that the Colonies would have been prepared to welcome slavery. But had it been otherwise, they must have asserted their independance with arms. This is nearly done already. It will be cruel to be­queath another contest to your posterity.

Del.

But I dread all innovations in go­vernments. They are very dangerous things.

Gen. Mont.

The revolution, which gave a temporary stability to the liberties of Bri­tain, was an innovation in government, and yet no ill consequences have arisen from it. Innovations are dangerous only as they shake the prejudices of a people; but there are now, I believe, but few prejudices to be found, in this country, in favor of the old connection with Great-Britain. I ex­cept those men only who are under the in­fluence of their passions and offices.

Del.

But is it not most natural for us to wish for a connection with a people who speak the same language with us, and pos­sess the same laws, religion, and forms of government with ourselves.

Gen. Mont.
[Page 12]

The immortal Montesquieu says, that nations should form alliances with those nations only which are as unlike to themselves as possible in religion, laws and manners, if they mean to preserve their own constitutions. Your dependance upon the crown is no advantage, but rather an in­jury, to the people of Britain, as it encreas­es the power and influence of the King. The people are benefited only by your trade, and this they may have after you are inde­pendant of the crown. Should you be dis­posed to forgive the King and the nation for attempting to enslave you, they will never forgive you for having baffled them in the attempt.

Del.

But we have many friends in both Houses of Parliament.

Gen. Mont.

You mean the ministry have many enemies in Parliament who con­nect the cause of America with their cla­mours at the door of administration. Lord Chatham's conciliatory bill would have ruin­ed you more effectually than Lord North's motion. The Marquiss of Rockingham was the anthor of the declaratory bill. Mr. Wilkes has added infamy to the weakness [Page 13] of your cause, and the Duke of Grafton and Lord Lyttleton have rendered the mi­nority junto, if possible, more contemptible than ever.

Del.

But if we become independant we shall become a commonwealth.

Gen. Mont.

I maintain that it is your in­terest to be independant of Great Britain, but I do not recommend any new form of government to you. I should think it strange that a people who have virtue enough to defend themselves against the most powerful nation in the world should want wisdom to contrive a perfect and free form of government. You have been kept in subjection to the crown of Britain by a miracle. Your liberties have hitherto been suspended by a thread. Your connection with Great-Britain is unnatural and unne­cessary. All the wheels of a government should move within itself.—I would only beg leave to observe to you, that monarchy and aristocracy have in all ages been the ve­hicles of slavery.

Del.

Our governments will want force and authority if we become independant of Great-Britain.

Gen. Mont.
[Page 14]

I beg leave to contradict that assertion. No royal edicts or acts of assembly have ever been more faithfully or universally obeyed than the resolves of the Congress. I admire the virtue of the co­lonies, and did not some of them still hang upon the haggard breasts of Great-Britain, I should think the time now come in which they had virtue enough to be happy under any form of government. Remember that it is in a commonwealth only that you can expect to find every man a patriot or a hero. Aristides—Ep [...]min [...]das—Pericles—Scipio-Camillus—and a thousand other illustrious Grecian and Roman heroes, would never have astonished the world with their names had they lived under royal governments.

Del.

Will not a declaration of indepen­dance lessen the number of our friends, and encrease the rage of our enemies in Britain?

Gen. Mont.

Your friends as (you call them) are too few—too divided—and too in­terested to help you. And as for your ene­mies, they have done their worst. They have called upon Russians—Hanoverians— Hessians—Canadians—Savages-and Negroes to assist them in burning your towns—deso­lating [Page 15] your country—and in butchering your wives and children. You have nothing fur­ther to fear from them. Go, then, and awak­en the Congress to a sense of their import­ance; you have no time to lose. France waits for nothing but a declaration of your inde­pendance to revenge the injuries they sus­stained from Britain in the last war. But I forbear to reason any further with you. The decree is finally gone forth, Britain and America are now distinct empires. Your country teems with patriots—heroes— and legislators, who are impatient to burst forth into light and importance. Hereafter your atchievements shall no more swell the page of British history. God did not excite the attention of all Europe—of the whole world—nay of angels themselves to the present controversy for nothing. The inhabitants of Heaven long to see the ark finished, in which all the liberty and true religion of the world are to be deposited. The day in which the Colonies declare their independance will be a jubilee to Hampden—Sidney—Russel—Warren—Gar­diner—Macpherson—Cheeseman, and all the other heroes who have offered themselves as sacrifices upon the altar of liberty. It [Page 16] was no small mortification to me when I fell upon the plains of Abraham, to reflect that I did not expire like the brave General Wolfe, in the arms of victory. But I now no longer envy him his glory. I would rather die in attempting to obtain permanent freedom for a handful of people, than sur­vive a conquest which would serve only to extend the empire of despotism. A band of heroes now beckon to me. I can only add that America is the theatre where hu­man nature will soon receive its greatest military—civil and literary honors.—

FINIS.

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