The Connecticut courant and Hartford weekly intelligencer — Hartford, Conn., 1774-09-19 00:00:00, page 4

And there is not a man amongst us, not the warm
est friend of administration, who does not sincerely
wish that aft had never been made. In faft, they
only alk for what we wilh to be rid of. Under such
a disposition of mind, one would imagine there could
be no occasion for fleets and armies to bring men to
a good understanding. But my Lords, our difficul
ty lies in the point of honour. We must not let down
the dignity of the mother country ; but preserve
her sovereignty over ail the parts of the Britilh em
pire. This languagehas something in it that founds
pieafant to the ears of Englilhmen, but is otherwise
of little weight, for fare, my Lords, there are me
thods of making reafonableconceflions, and yet with
out injuring bur dignity. Ministers are generally
fruitful in expedients to reconcile difficulties of this
kind, to escape the embarrafl'ments of forms, the
competition of dignity and precedency, and to let
qlalhingrights sleep, while they tranfaft their own
personal business. Now, my Lords, on this occasi
on can they find no excuse, no pretence, no inven
tion, no happy turn of language, not one colourable
argument for doing the greatest service, they can
render to their country ? It must be something more
than incapacity that makes men barren of expedi
ents at such a season as this. Do, but for once, re
move this imprafticable stateliness and dignity, and
treat the matter with a little common sense, and a
little good humour, and our reconciliation would
not be the work of an hour. But after all, my
Lords, if there is any thing mortifying in undoing
the errors of our Ministers, it is a mortification we
ought to submit to. If it was unjust to tax them,
we ought to repeal it for their fakes ; if it was un
wise to tax them, we ought to repeal it for our own.
A matter so trivial in itfelf as the three-penny duty
upon tea, but which has -given cause to so much na
tional hatred and reproach, ought not to be fuffered
to subsist an unncceflary day. Must the interest, the
commerce and the union of this country and her co
lonies, be all of them facrificed to save the credit of
one imprudent mealbre of administration ? I own I
cannot comprehend that there is any dignity either
in being in the wrong, or in persisting in it. I have
known friendlhip preferred and affeftion gained,but
I never knew dignity loft, by the candid acknow
ledgment of an error. And, my Lords, let me ap
peal to your own experience of a few years backward
will not mention particulars, because I would
pass. no censures and revive no unpleasant reflefti
ons) but I think every candid Minister must own.
that administration has fuffered in more instances
than one, both in interest and credit* by not choof
mg to give up points, that could not be defended.
’.Vith regard to the people of Boston, I am free to
own, that I neither approve of their riots nor their
.punilhment. And yet if we inflift it as we ought,
with a confcicufnefs that we were ourselves the ag
g.eflbts, that we gave the provocation, and that their
dnobedience is the fruitof our own imprudent and
"npericus conduft, I think the punilhment cannot
.rile to any great degree of severity.
I own, my Lords, I have read the report of the
Lords Committees of this House, with very different
Sentiments from those with which it was drawn up.
it seems to he designed that we Ihould confider their
violent meafe res and speeches, as so many deter
mined afts of opposition to the sovereignty ofEng
‘ land, arising from the malignity of their own hearts.
One would think the mother country had been to
tally silent and pafiive in the progress of the whole
affair.* I on the contrary confider these violences
the natural effefts of such mcafures as ours on the
minds of freemen. And this is the most ufeful
• point of view, in which government can confider
them. In their fixation, a wife man would expeft
tp meet with the strongest marks of passion and im
prudence, and be prepared to forgive them. The
firft and easiest thing to be done is to correft our
own errors ; and I am confident we ftiould find it the
most effe&ual method to correft theirs. At any rate
let us put ourselves in the right ; and then, if we
must contend with North-America, we Ihall be u
nanimous at home, apd the wife andmoderate there
will be our friends. Atprefent we force every North
American to be our enemy ; and the wife and mo
derate at home, and those immense multitudes,
which must loon begin to fuffer by the madness of
our rulers, will unite to oppose them. It is a strange
idea we have taken up, to cure their resentments
by increasing their provocations; to remove the ef
fefts of our own ill conduft, by multiplying the in
flan res of it. But the spirit of blindness and infatu
ation is gone forth. We are hurrying wildly on
without any fixed defign,,without any important ob
jeft. We pursue a vain phantom of unlimited so
vereignty, which was not made for man ; and re
jeft the solid -advantages of a moderats ufeful and
Intelligible authority. That just God, whom we
have ail so deeply offended, can hardly inflift a fe
vercr national punilhment, than by committing us
to the natural consequences of our own conduft.
Indeed, in my opinion, a biacker cloud never hung
-over this Island.
To reason conhUently with the principles of jus
tice and national friendlhip, which I have endea
voured to eftabjilh, or rather to revive what was e
flablilhed by our ancefiors, as our wifefl: rule of con
duft for the government of America ; I must necef
farity disapprove of the bill before us; for it con
tradifts every one of them. In our present situation
every aft of the legislature, even our afts of severity
ought to be so many Reps towards the reconciliation
wc wilh for. But to change the government of a
people, without their content, is the highest and
meft arbitrary aft of sovereignty that one nation can
exercise over another. The Romans hardly ever
proceeded to this extremity even over a conquered
nation, till its frequent revolts and infurreftions had
made them deem it incorrigible. The very.idea of
it,implies amoftabjeft & flavifli dependency in the
imeiior state. Recolleft that fheAmencans are men
of like passions with ourselves, and think how deep
ly this treatment must afteft them. They have the
fame veneration for their charters,' that we have, for
our Magna Charta, and they ought in reason to have
greater. Tney are tne title deeds to all their rights
both public and private. What ?my Lords, must
these rights never acquire any legal aflurance and
liability ? Can-these derive no force from the peace
able pofleffion of near two hundred years ? And must
the fundamental constitution of a powerful state, be
for ever fubjeft to as capricious alterations as you
think fit to make, in the charters of a little mer
cantile company or the corporation of a borough ?
Phis will undoubtedly furnilh matter for a more
pernicious debate than has yet been moved. Eve
ry other colony will make the case its own. They
will complain that their rights can never be afeer
tained ; that every thing belonging to them depends
upon our arbitrary will ; and may think it better
to run any hazard, than to submit to the violence of
' their mother-country, in a matter in which they can
neither fee moderation nor end.
But let us cooly enquire what is the reafc- of this
unheard of innovation ? Is it to make them eacea
ble ?My Lords, it will make them mad. Will
they be better governed, if we introduce this change ?
Will they be more our friends ? The least that j uch
a measure can do, is to make them hate us. And,
would to God, my Lords, we had governed our
selves with as much oeconomy, integrity and pru
dence as they have done. Let them continue to en
joy the liberty our fathers gave them. Gave them'
did I fay ? They are coheirs of liberty with our
selves ; and their portion of the inheritance has been
mucn better looked after than ours. Suffer them,
to enjoy a little longer that ffiort period of public
integrity and domestic happiness, which seems to be
the portion allotted by Providence to young riling
Rates. Instead of hoping that their constitution
may receive improvement from our skill in govern
ment, the most ufeful wiih I can form in their favour
is, that heaven may long preserve them from our
vices and our politicks.
Let me add further, that to make any chances in
their government, without their consent, would be
to transgress the wisest rules of policy, and to wound
Ofir most important interests. As they increase in
numbers and in riches, our comparative strength
must leflen. In another age, when our power has
begun to lose something of its superiority, we Ihould
be happy if we could support our authority by mu
tual good will and the habit of commanning ; but
chiefly by those original eftablilhments, which time
and public honour might have rendered inviolable.
Our posterity will then have reason to lament that
they cannot avail themselves of those treasures of
public friendfhip and confidence which our fathers
had wifely hoarded up, and we are throwing away.
’Tis hard, ’tis cruel, besides all our debts and taxes',
and those enormous expences which are multiplying
upon us every year, to load our unhappy sons with
the hatred and curses of North-America. Indeed,
my Lords, we are treating posterity very feurvily’
We have mortgaged all the lands ; we have cut
down all the oaks ; we are now trampling down the
fences, rooting up the seedlings and fampiers,
and ruining all the resources of another age. We
Ihall fpndthe next generation into the world, like
the wretched heir of a worthless father, without mo
ney, credit or friends ; with a stripped, incumber
ed, and perhaps untenanted estate.
, Having spoke so largely against the principle of
the bill, it is hardly necessary to enter into the me
rits of it. I Ihall only observe, that even if we had
the confect of the people to alter their government,
it would be unwise to make such alterations as thefe’
To give the appointment of rhe governor and coun
cil to the Crown, and the disposal of all places, e
ven of the judges, and with a power of removing
them, to the governor, is evidently calculated with
a view to form a strong party in our favour. This
I know has _ been done in other colonies; but Hill
this is opening a source of perpetual difeord, where
it is our interest always to agree. If we mean any
thing by this eftablilhment, it is to support the go
t ertiornoi and council against the people, i. e. to
quarrel with our friends, that we may please their
leryants. This scheme of governing them by a par
ty is not wifely imagined, it is much too premature,
and, at all. events, rnuft turn to our disadvantage.
If it fails, it will only make us contemptible ; if it
fuccceds, it will make us odious. It is our interest
to take very little part in their domestic adnriniftra
tion of government-, but purely to watch over them
for their good. We never gained so much by
North America as when we let them govern them
selves, and were content to trade with them and to
protest them-. One would think, my Lords, there
was some statute law prohibiting us, under the seve
rest penalties, to profit by experience.
My Lords, I have ventured to lay my thoughts be
fore you, on the greatest national concern that ever
came under your deliberation, with as much honesty
as you will meet with from abler men, and with a
melancholy aflurance, that not a word of it will be
regarded. And yet, my Lords, with your permis
sion, I will waste one Ihort argument more on the
fame cause, one that I own I am fond of, and which
contains in it, what I think, must affeft every gener
ous mind. My Lords, I look upon North-America
as the only great nursery of freemen now left upon
the face of the earth. We have seen the liberties of
Poland and Sweden swept away in the course of one
year, by treachery and usurpation. The three free
towns in Germany are like so many dying sparks,
that go out, one after another ; and which must all
be soon extinguiflied under the deftru&ive greatness
©f their neighbours. Holland is little more than a
great trading company, with luxurious manners,, and
an exhaulled revenue ; with little strength, and with
less spirit. Switzerland alone is free and happy
within the narrow inclofure of its rocks and Vallies.
As for the state of this country, my Lords, I can on
ly refer myfelf to your own secret thoughts. lam
disposed to think and hope the best of public liberty.
Were I to describe her according to my own ideas at
present, I Ihould fay that Ihe has a sickly counte
nance, but I trust Ilie has a strong constitution.
But whatever may be our future fate, the great
est glory that attends this country, a greater than a
ny other nation ever acquired, is to have formed
and nursed up to such a state of happiness, those co
lonies whom we are now so eager to butcher. We
ought to cheriih them as theimmortal monuments
of our public justice and wisdom ; as the heirs of
our better days, of our old arts and manners, and of
our expiring national virtues. What work of art,
or power, or public utility has ever equalled the
glory of having peopled a continent without guilt
or bloodshed, with a multitude of free and happy
•common-wealths ; to have given them the best arts
of life and government; and to have fuffered them
under the Ihelter of our authority, to acquire in
peace the Ikill to use them. In comparison cf this,
the policy of governing by influence, and even the
priue of war and victory arc diftloneft tricks and
poor contemptible pageantry.
We seem not to be sensible of the high and im
portant trust which providence has committed to
our charge. The most precious remains of civil li
berty, that the world can now boast of, are now
lodgedin our hands; and God forbid that we Ihould
violate so sacred a deposit. By enslaving your co
lonies, you not only ruin the peace, the commerce,
and the fortunes of both countries ; but you extin
guiffi the faireft hopes, Ihut up the last asylum of
mankind. I think, my Lords,without being weak
ly superstitious, that a good man may hope that
heaven will take part against the execution of a plan
which seems big, not only with miLhief, but im
piety.
Let us be content with the Ipoils and the destruc
tion of the east. If your Lordlhips can fee no im
propriety in it, let the plunderer and the oppressor
still go free. But let not the love of liberty be the
only crime you think worthy of punilhment. I fear
we ihall soon make it a part of our national charac
ter, to ruin every thing that has the misfortune to
depend upon us.
No nation has. ever before contrived, in so Ihort a
space of time, without any war or pfiblic calamity
(unless unwise measures may be so called) to destroy
lut,h ample resources of commerce.wealth and pow
er, as of late were ours, and which, if they had been
rightly improved, might have railed us to a state
moie honourable and more permaneht greatnek
than the world has yet seen.
Let me remind the noble Lords in administration,
that before the stamp aft, they had power Sufficient
to answer all the just ends of government, and they
were all completely answered. If this is the power
they want, though we have loft much of it atpre
fent, a few kind words would recover it aft.
But if the tendency of this bill is, as I own it ap
pears to me, to acquire a power of governing them
by influence and corruption ; in the firftplace, my
Lords, this is not true government, but a fophiliica
ted kind, which counterfeits the appearance, but
without the spirit or virtue of the true : and then,
as it tends todebafe their spirits, and corrupt their
manners, to destroy all that is great and refpeftable
info considerable a part of the human species, and
by degrees to gather them together with the relief
the world, under the yoke of universal Slavery ; I
think, for these reasons, it is the duty of every wife
man, of every honeit man,and of everyEnglifhman,
by all lawful means, to oppose it.
Feinted by E. Watlbn, near the Great Bridge.