The Connecticut courant and Hartford weekly intelligencer — Hartford, Conn., 1775-05-01 00:00:00, page 1

My Lords,
I RISE with vast astonishment to fee these papers *
brought to your table in so late a period of this
btiinefi; papers, I am sure, the contents of which
are already known; not only to every noble Lord in
this House, but almost to every person in this king
dom, who has made American affairs in the least an
object of enquiry ; yet now, in the very tail cf this
business, when measures ffiould be long since deter
mined on, we are furnifhed with an empty parade of
parchments---to tell us what ?---why, what all the
world knew before---that the Americans fore undet
The SPEECH of the Right Honorable the Earl of
C HATHA M, in the House of Lords, Ja
nuary 20, 1775 ; on the following Motion made
by his Lordship, viz " Tha't an humble Address
be presented to his Majcfty, most humbly to ad
vise, and beseech him, that, in order to open the
way towards an happy fettlemerit of the danger
ous troubles in America, by beginning to allay
ferments, and foften animosities there ; and above
all, for preventing, in the mean time, any fiidden
and fatal catastrophe at Boston, now fuftering un
der the daily irritation 'of art army before their
eyes, and polled in their town. It may graciously
pieafe his Majesty, that immediate orders be dis
patched to General Gage, for removing his Majes
ty's forces from the town of Boston; as soon as the
rigour of the season, and other circumstances in
dispensable to the fafety and accommodation of
the said troops, may render the fame practicable."
injuries, and irritated by wrongs, ffript of their in
born Rights and dearest Privileges, have refilled, and
Entered into associations for the preservation of that
bluffing to which life and property are batfecondory
considerations.
Give me leave to a& you, my Lords, how these
associations have been formed ? has the tide of cor-
* The rathole of the American papers pujt then delivered
in a! the talite 1, Lord Dartmouth, at the command cf his
M-ffy,
honour of this country. This is their fault; this is
their crime; petitioning for that, without which a
free people cannot possibly exift;---yet, for asking
this boon, this unalienable privilege of Englishmen,
are they reprobated and ftigmatifed with the epithets
of ingrates---traitors---and rebels.
Had the early fituaticn of the people of Boston
been attended to,my Lords, it would not have come
to this---but the infant complaints of Boston were
literally treated like the capricious squalls ofa child,
who, it was faidj did not know whether it was ag
grieved, or not.---But full well, my Lords, I knew,
at that time, that this child, if not redressed, would
soon assume the courage and voice of a man. The
Bostonians did not then complain upon flight, or
temporary evil; but on an evil which sapped the ve
ry vitals of their constitution, and reduced all the
blessings of life to chance, equivocation, and infecu
fity. Full well I knew that the sons of ancestors,
born under the fame free constitution, and once
Wreathing the fame liberal air as Englishmen,---an
teftors, who even quitted this land of Liberty, the
moment it became the land of Oppression, and, in
tefiftance to bigotted councils, and oppreffivc mea
sures, tore themselves from their dearest connexions;
I fay,my Lords, full well! knew that the offspring of
such ancestors would rcfift upon the fame principled
and on the fame occasions.
It has, however, gone abroad,that the resolutions,
ruption yet flowed in upon their elections ? have
those delegates been fubborned ? or have great in
terests, great power, or great threats been used (as is
too much the case in this our boasted mother country)
to carry on what conduct they ffiould adopt ? no---
nothing like this has appeared ; the electors seem to
be prompted by no other motive than that glorious,
and exalted one, the preservation of their common
Liberties ; and under this idea they have been in
duced to appoint men competent to so great an un
dertaking; men of tried and found principles, em
barked in the fame great cause, and, from Similar
sentiments, taught to pity the miseries of the whole,
Invested then with this right, (the choice of a free
people) the delegates have deliberated with pru
dence, wisdom, and spirit ; and, in con sequence of
these deliberations, have addressed the jultice, and
Containing the Frefneft ADVICES,
MONDAY, May 1, <775
CONNECTICUT
AND
WEEKLY
and petitions', of the Cengrefi are not the real refc
lutions and petitions of the sober, referable, and
dispassionate ;but the very dregs and refufe of the
people; and to circulate this report the better, letters
are handed abort from some very refpeXable mer
chants (as they are called) from the different pro
vinces. But well I knowhow to describe such m&-
chants-^-little paltry, peddling fellows, venders of
twbpehty Wards, and falfhoods, who under the idea
of trade, fell every thingin their power----flonour,
Trust, and Conscience.
These fellows (for such is the lotofhumanity) are
ever to be found in all couiitri«s---and are always
in great plenty when their country is at stake, who,
without ever regarding con Sequences,, & that general
ruin mightenfue, press forward to the goal of lucre,
and cutout the Shorten passage to their own interests.
Yet these are the men;who areheld out to us to take
a true Rate of the country from ; Men who aft, up
on themoft illiberal principles,children of thteworld;
who have no fixed residence ^-no lifting attach
ments, but to the shrine of M mirfion. But it is not
Such that ever speak the voice of a people---it is the
proprietors, and tillers of th~ ground-men wh^
have permanent-natural right in the place---and
who from being nursed in the oofom of cultivation,
from strong and honourable attachments to their
country ; it is to these, credit and authority are to
be given, and from these our beit informations are
to be drawn.
Much, my Lords, has been said abort the autho
rity of Parliament in these cases, and when men are
driven for want of argument, they fly to this as their
lift resource--" Ads of Parti' ! ent (fays their ad
vocates) are sacred, and fhduld be implicitly sub
mitted to; for if the supreme power does not lodge
Somewhere operatively arid effectually, there must be
an endof all legislation." But my Lords they who
argue, or rather dogmatize in this manner, do not
fee the whole of this question* on great; wife, and li
beral grounds; for in all free states the constitution
is fixed,and all legislative power & authority,where
ever placed,either in colledive bodies or individual
ly, must derive under that constitution who framed
them.---AXs of legislation, therefore, however strong
and effective they may be, When they are framed in
the spirit of this conftitution,yet when they refill,they
attack their own foundation; for it is the constitu
tion, and it alone, that limits both Sovereignty and
allegiance.
This dodririe, my Lords, is no temporary doc
trine,taken up on particular occafibns to answer par
ticular purposes, it is involved in no metaphyfical
doubts and intricacies---but clear, pr^cife;and deter
mined. It is recorded in all our law books, it is
written in the great volume of nattire---it is the ef
fential,unalterable right of Englillimeii—it accords
with all the principles of jullice and civil policy,
which neither armed force on the obefide, nor fib
miffion on the other, can upon any occafton whatever
eradicate.
The fads being then, ray Lotds, as I have flattd
them, what has government done? they have sent
an armed fotce, consisting of above seventeen thou
sand men, to dragoon the Bostonians into what is
called their duty, and for the cfiafiifemcht ofa small
rabble, confilting of the neceffit'ous and charaXerlefs
in doing an unlawful ad, have involved above thirty
thousand inhabitants in the greatest difficulty, op-
It was this doXrine that was the great guide to the
framers of the bill of rights, at the period of the glo
rious revolution men of the greatest accuracy,
wisdom, and honesty ; aad, without any difparmge
ment to the present day, few such counfellors are
now to be seen. Recalled; my Lords,for a moment,
the arguments used by these men- -and fee how wife,
liberal, and constitutional they were ; turn then to
their opponents, and how flimfy, thin, and unpro
vided they appear ! If then we applaud our ancestors
for obtaining such liberties for us, at a time when
all the fights of Engliflimen were trampled upon,
and despotism had trodden down the laws, surely
we cannot, in reason, deny that portion of liberty
(so hardly and honourably obtained) to our own
brethren---brethren by the fame common parent, &
who are unquestionable heirs of the fame glorious
inheritance.
T H E'
^vf^M
preffion and mrifternatioh. Is this the way to wiri
™ en „° '!"" duty, and recover them the principled
of afeftion and British allegiance ? Do you think
that men who could be.roufed to forego their pro:
fits, tneir ple^fures, and the peaceable enjovrnent of
their dearest conneXions-all for the fake of liberty,
will oe whipped into vassalage like slaves ? Why,
my Lords, this condud in government is so fanrafti
cal and aeral in prariice, that it by far exceeds the
bolded wing of poetry ; for poetry has often read
pleasing, as well as inftru&ive lessons to mankind ;
and chough it sometimes amuses herfelf in fi&ion,
that fi&ion, to pteafe,ftiould be founded on vertimili
tude. But in this wife system there is nothing.lib
truth, nothing like policy, nothing like justice, ex
perience, or common sense.
t But, my. Lords, government, so far from once
turning its eyes to the policy and deftradive conse
quence of this scheme, are constantly fending out,
more troop,; and we are told, in the language of
menace, that if seventeen thousand men won't do,
fifty thousand ihalL 'Tis true my Lords, with this
force they may ravage the country; waste and deftro,
. as they march ; but ia the progress of feventeeri
^hundred miles,' can they occupy the places they
have passed ? will not a country,which cab produce
three millions of people,, wronged and ihfulted as
they are, flart up like Hydras in every corner, and
gather frefh strength from freffi opposition ? nay;
What dependance can you have; upon the fol4iery,the
unhappy engines of your wrath ? They are Engliih^
men, who mutt feel for the privileges of.Englifc
men; and their carrying muftets and bayonets a
bout them, surely does no. exclude them the pale of
civil community- Do yoy ^Llnlt.g^t^fcfy^-Q
then, can turn their arms again ft their brethren ?-—
Surely no---a victory hinft be to them a 'defeat------
carnage---a facrifice.
But, my Lords, it is not merely three millions of
people, the produce of America, we have to combat
with, in this urfnatun.4 struggle; many more are oft
this fide, difyerfed overthe fdee ofthis wide empire.
Every Whig in this country is for them. Ireland ,
'with them to a man ; nay, even those Englishmen;
who may be now temporarily inactive, when they
once come to be routed to a sense of recollection;
When they come to weigh the great line of right;
for which their brethren in America are contending
sor f the sense of their own danger will ihflru& them
to range themtielreson this fide.
Who then, in the name of Heaven ! could adfrife
this meaftire r or who can continue to give this ffifyg
and unconititdtionai advice? I do not mean ,to level
at one man, or any particular set of men ; but thud
much I declare, that if his Majefly continues to hear
such counfellors, he Will not only be badly advised,
but undone. He may wear his crown indeed, it is
true, but it will not be worth his wearing; robbed cf
so principal a jewel as America,it will lose its luftre,
and no longer beam that effulgence which ffiould
irradiate the brow of M y. What then is become
of this boasted country ofEngland, chce so renown
ed in arts, Sts well as arras? What is become of her
constitution, that has hitherto been the winder a#
well as the envy of surrounding nations! has fne
changed her civil power, and salutary laws for a mi
litary code ? or has she transferred her feat of empire
to Constantinople ?---Has She, who has often ihed
her dearest blood in the manly resistance of despotism,
now not only tamely submitted to it, but fat down
herfelf to forge the arbitrary chains?
But our present governors, alas! think so little
of this matter, that I hear General Gage has been
thought to have a&ed too tardy in this business----
that he has not been fwift enough to execute ven
geance, and ffieath the sword in the bowels of his
countrymen. I really pity the Unfortunate fituatirri
of that gentleman, who has approved himfelf on
many occasions a gallant soldier, and humane man ;
for what, from being under the disagreeable predi
cament of doing his duty 6h the one fide, and his
own feelings of justice and policy on the other, what
a conflict must he have ! his situation, my Lords;
puts me in mind of a similar tranfadion in the civil
wars of France, when the great Conde bn one fide,
and Marshal Turenne bn the other, commanded dif
ferent armies ; the latter eonfeious what terrible
both FOREIGN and DOMESTIC.
(NUMBER ,40.]
CO UR # A N T,
HARTFORD
INTELLIGENCES. °\