"OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY"
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JANUARY
“Much hath been said of the united strength of
Britain and the colonies, that in conjunction they might bid defiance to
the world. What have we to do with setting the world at defiance? Our
plan is commerce; and that, well attended to, will secure us the
friendship of all Europe. I challenge the warmest advocate for
reconciliation to show a single advantage that this continent can reap
by being connected with Great Britain.
“As Europe is our market for trade, we ought to form no
partial connection with any part of it. It is the true interest of
America to steer clear of European contentions, which she never can do
while by her dependence on Britain she is the make weight in the scale
of British politics.
“Everything that is right or natural pleads for
separation. 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. It is not in the power of
Britain or of Europe to conquer America, if she does not conquer herself
by delay and timidity.
“It is repugnant to reason and 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 do not think so. The authority of Great Britain, sooner or
later, must have an end; and the event cannot be far off. The business
of this continent, from its rapid progress to maturity, will soon be too
weighty and intricate to he managed with any tolerable degree of
convenience by a power so distant from us and so very ignorant of us.
There is something absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually
governed by an island: in no instance hath nature made the satellite
larger than the primary planet. They belong to different systems;
England to Europe, America to itself, Everything short of independence
is leaving the sword to our children, and shrinking back at a time when
going a little further would render this continent the glory of the
earth. Admitting that matters were now made up, the king will have a
negative over the whole legislation of this continent; and he will
suffer no law to be made here but such as suits 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.
“Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related. The best
terms which we can expect to obtain can amount to no more than a
guardianship, which can last no longer than till the colonies come of
age. Emigrants of property will not come to a country whose form of
government hangs by a thread. Nothing but a continental form of
government can keep the peace of the continent inviolate from civil
wars.
“The colonies have 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; if there is any
true cause of fear respecting independence, it is because no plan is yet
laid down. Let a continental conference he held, to frame a continental
charter, or charter of the united colonies. But where, say some, is the
king of America? He reigns above; in America, the law is king; in free
countries there ought to be no other.
“All men, whether in England or America, confess
that a separation between the countries will take place one time or
other. To find out the very time, we need not go far, for the time hath
found us. The present, likewise, is that peculiar time which never
happens to a nation but once, the time of forming itself into a
government. Until we consent that the seat of government in America be
legally and authoritatively occupied, where will be our freedom, where
our property?
“Nothing can settle our affairs so expeditiously as an
open and determined declaration for independence. It is unreasonable to
suppose that France or Spain will give us assistance, if we mean only to
use that assistance for the purpose of repairing the breach. While we
profess ourselves the subjects of Britain, we must in the eyes of
foreign nations be considered as rebels. A manifesto published and
dispatched to foreign courts, setting forth the miseries we have
endured, and declaring that we had been driven to the necessity of
breaking off all connection with her, at the same time assuring all such
courts of our desire of entering into trade with them, would produce
more good effects to this continent than if a ship were freighted with
petitions to Britain.