The Pennsylvania ledger, or, The Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, & New-Jersey weekly advertiser — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-03-23 00:00:00, page 1

^ Philadelphia: Printed by James Humphreys, junr. in Front-street, at the Corner of Black
horfe Alley:—Where Essays, Articles of News, Advertisements, &c. are gratefully received and impartially inserted. And
Where Subscriptions are taken in for this Paper, at Ten Shillings per Year.
<PG</°K± <JG : ^^L^ £G^^*± i£^^^ H^ ^tfy
To the PEOPLE of Pennsylvania.
LETTER 111.
WHEN I fat down to address you, a resolve or
vote of our Committee of Infection for calling
a Convention had alarmed many good friends of
the province on account of our Ch^rter-conilitu
on; and therefore I determined freely to examine
tire right of the Committee to convene such a body,
the necessity of their being convened, the powers
which they might aflame, and the conlufion such a
measure must produce. But in the evening of the
fame day on which my firlt letter was published, we
were acquainted, "by order and in behalf of the com
mittee," that they had recalled their former vote;
and therefore, as the resolution for this recal was
probably formed before my publication, 1 Shall claim
no merit in it. The public teems willing to ascribe
it to motives of prudence, fuggelted by the general
disapprobation of the Convention-Scheme; —the zeal
Shewn among all ranks of people tor the Support of
our ancint government by Assemblies, and the little
pro L pc& chat tny regard wo ild hive been paid to
the edicts of a body of men, constituted without
necessity, even if we could fuppoie an) number
of our Countv Committees willing to unite in aiiu
ming powers which were never delegated to them.
But those who correspond in behalf of the Com
mittee give us o her reasons than the above. They
tell us, that they have held a " conference with
several members of AfTmbly," and have, in behalf
of this province, told them ttieir duty—that the laid
members have promised all future attention to the
fame—but that the Committee, watchful for our
good, and not willing to trail them too far, hill
hold the rod over them, and therefore have not
annulled their voce, but hive only been graciously
pleased to forbear, “ for the present the forwarding
the letters" [or bluing the writsj for “ calling a
Convention."
This is rather spoken in a lordly Ryle, if it be any
thing more than the affirming language of the few
who correspond in the name of the Committee.
But if there be those who think a back door more
honourable for a retreat than the front, I would
not wound their dignity, nor throw a draw in the
way to retard them. Itis probable that our Aflembly
may now be permitted to exercise their own judgment
without further attempts to intimidate them in the
discharge of the important trust committed to them
by the voice of their country; and therefore, as I
would avoid contention at all times, and especially at
^his dangeious crisis, I Shall hkewife for the present
forbear fending to the press every thing which 1 had
prepared in vindication of our injured Representa
tives, except so far as relates to Independency.
But that topic I propose, as occasion offers, to han
dle at some length. For I find the chief resentment
levelled against them, appears to be on account of
their inftrudions to their Delegates. These, in the
eyes of some men Hand as an insurmountable barrier
in the way of their destructive purpoles, and I trull
WEEKLY
Just printed, publijhed, and now felling by
ROBERT BELL, in Third street, Philadelphia.
Price Three Shillings, with large allowance to
those who buy per the hundred or dozen
IJLAIN TRUTH; addr^d to the Inha
bitants of America, containing Remarks
on a late Pamphlet intituledCOMMON SENSE.
Wherein are (hewn, thatthe Scheme oF Independ
ENCE is Ruinous, Delusive, and impracticable :
That were the Author's AiLverations, refpe&ing
the Power of America as Ked as Nugatory, Re
conciliation, on liberal Principles with Great-
Britain would be ex deed Policy: And that, cir
cunftanced as we are, permanent Liberty, and true
Happiness can only be obtained by Reconciliation
with that Kingdom. Written by CANDIDUS.
Will ye turn from Flattery and attend to this fide?
There Truths unlicenc'd, walks; and dares accost
Even Kings themselves, the Monarchs of the free!
Thompson on the Liberties of Britain.
N. B. To this Pamphlet is Subjoined a Defence of
the Liberty of the Preis, by the fugacious and par
triotic Junius, Author of the celebrated Free
Letters to his present Majesty, and his Ministers.
PENNSYLVANIA
March 23. 1776.
Or the Virginia, Maryland,
SATURDAY,
will continue so to Hand till removed by the clear
fenie of an uncorrupted majority of the good people
ol this province. Without full proofs of this, the
Assembly can neither content to any change of our
constitution or to make the lealt transfer of our
allegiance; and these proofs ought to be more pure
than what can flow through the loul pages of
interefled writers, or Grangers intermeddling in
our affairs, and avowedly pressing their republican
schemes upon us, at the riique ol all we hold valuable.
Nor would I be willing to receive these proofs from
Committees, as proposed in the Evening Poll of the
9111 infant, by on~ who Stiles himlelf “ A Lover of
Order?' but Should be fty'ed an /author of Confufon.
" It would be proper, fays he, that the constitu
ents of the Congress Should declare their Sentiments
upon that head [lndependence] as Soon as possi
ble., ,l his may be done by the various Committees
and Conventions on the continent. 7 heir votes and
reiolves Should determine the question in Congrels.
The firft Congress was nothing but the echo of
Committees and Conventions. In the prelent impor
tant quellion concerning Independence, the Con
greis should only as in the former cale, echo back
the Sentiments of the people," that is of Committees
and Conventions. And thus we may be echoed
and re-echoed out of our liberties, our property,
our happiness, and plunged deeper and deeper into
all the growing horrors of war and bloodshed with
out ever being consulted ! For I infill upon it, that
no Committees were ever entrusted with any autho
rity to Speak the feme of the People ol Pennsylvania
on this question. I hv r e already observed by how
few voices our largell Committee or a hundred was
chosen ; and I know lome counties where the whole
Committee was nam^d by fix or Seven voices only.
At this rate three or four hundred people would
take upon them to declare the fenie of as many
hundred thousands, in a matter of the greatest im
portance chat ever came before us ! Can you, my
countrymen, acquielce in Such a horrible dodrine?
or does not the bare mention of it Still further con
vince you that your liberties can no where be 10 Safe
as in the hands of your Representatives in Assembly?
“ Those who are not inebriated with Independency
will certainly allow, that the inftrudions to their
Delegates were dictated by the true Spirit of peace,
juilice and exalted policy. Who so proper to instruct
them as those cholen by yourlelves, not in the hour
of passion, riot and conlufion, but in the day of
peace and tranquil reflexion ?" These words I bor
row from a pamphlet just published under the title
of Plain Truth; which 1 would recommend to your
perusal, as containing many judicious remarks upon
the mischievous tenets and palpable abiurdities held
forth in the pamphlet 10 faliely called Common Sense.
I have, in my Second letter, freely declared my
political creed, viz.—“ That the true interest of
America lies in reconciliation with Great-Britain,
upon Constitutional Principles, and that I with it
upon none else." I now proceed to give my reasons
for this declaration. It is fit, in so great a question,
that you Should weigh both Sides well, and exercise
that good fenie for which the inhabitants of these
Colonies have been hitherto distinguished ; and then
I Shall be under no apprehensions concerning the
pernicious, though specious plans, whicli are every
day published in our news-papers and pamphlets.
The people generally judge right, when the whole
truth is plainly laid before them; but through in
attention in some, and fondnefs for novelty in others,
when but one fide of a proposition is agitated and
persevered in, they may gradually deceive them
selves, and adopt what cooler reflection and future
dear-bought experience may prove to be ruinous.
Agriculture and commerce have hitherto been the
happy employments, by which these middle Colonies
have risen into wealth and importance. By them
the face of the country has been changed from a
barren wilderneß into the hospitable abodes of peace
and plenty. Without them, we had either never
existed as Americans, or existed only as Savages. —
The oaks would still have possessed their native Spots
of earth, and never have appeared in the form of Ships
and houses. What are now well cultivated fields, or
flourishing cities, would have remained only the So
litary haunts of wild beasts, or of men equally wild.
^ I^,>%
)
^xou-%^
THE
ADVERTISER.
L E D G E R:
Pennsylvania, & New-Jersey
This I lay was our ground, and these our views,
u ™ ver X declared from the origin of this contest,
till wtthin a few weeks ago, when lome gleams of
reconciliation began firft to break in upon us. If
we now mean to change this ground, and reied all
propositions of peace, from that moment we ?re de
^. lcd b y advocate of our cause in Great-
Britain. We falfify every declaration which the
c° n s,f s hath heretofore held forth in our behalf.
We abandon all profped of preserving our import
mice by trade and agriculture, the ancient, fare
and experienced road to wealth and happiness.
In Short, if thus centradiding all our former pub
lic profeffions, we Should now a ffed Independence as
our own ad, before it appears clearly to the world
'""' °P° n us b y th ^ cr ^ ] hand of
the Parent-hate.—We could neither hope for Union
nor Succejs in the attempt. We must be considered
as a pithless people in the fight of all mankind, and
cou^d Scarcely exped the confidence of any nation
upon earth, or look up to heaven for its approving
Sentence. On the contrary, every convulsion. a^
tendant upon revolutions and innovations of
vernment, untimely attempted or finally defeat'd
might be our portion ; added to the loss of trade
° f p rot ^ ioil ; the consequent decay of
husbandry; bloodshed and deflation; with an ex
change of the easy and flourishing condition of far
mers and merchants, for a life, at bell of hardy
poverty as foldicrs or hunters.
To fee America reduced to such a situation mav
be tae choice of adventurers who havs nothing to
That much of our former felicity was owing to
the protection of England is not to be denied . and
that we might hill derive great advantages from her
protection and friendship, if not valued at too high
a price, is equally certain; nor is it worth enquiring
whether that protection was afforded us more for
her own lake than ours? That the former was the
cale, more especially since the Colonies grew into
consequence, I have not the lead doubt, but that
this is a reason for our rejecting any Suture connexi
on with her I must utterly deny. Although I con
sider her as having, in her late conduct towards us
acted the part of a cruel Step-dame, and not ofa
folieiing Parent, I would not therefore quarrel with
the benefits 1 may reap from a connexion with her
and can exped to re^p no where else. If by her
fleets and armies every nation on the globe is deter
red from invading our properties, either on the hi^h
leas, in foreign countries, or on our own coasts ou^ht
we not in found policy to profit by her Strength . a ^d
wuhout regarding the motives of her conduct; cm-'
brace the opportunity of becoming rich and power
ful in her friendship, at an expence far less than it
would cost us merely to exist in alliance with any
other power?'
If our present differences can be accommodated,
there is Scarce a probability that ffiewill ever renew
the late fatal lyftem of policy, or attempt to employ
force against us. But Should She be So infatuate/
at any future period, as to think of Subjugating us'
either by the arts of corruption, or oppressive exer
tions of power, can we entertain a doubt but that
we Shall again with a virtue equal to the present
and wuh the weapons of defence in our hands (when
necessary) convince her that we are willing, by a
constitutional connexion with her, to afford and re
ceive reciprocal benefits; but although fabjeds of
the fame King, we will not consent to be her Slaves.
It was on this ground, and not for the purpose of
trying new forms of government, “ or eroding fe
per^te Independent States," that America embarked
m the present glorious contest. On this ground, and
upon none else, the Continental Union is formed.
On this ground, we have a powerful Support among
Lie true Sons of Liberty in Great-Britain ; and lastly
upon this ground, we have the utmost assurance of
obtaining a full redress of our grievances, and an
ample Security against any future violation of our
just rights. And if hereafter, in the fufcfs of time
it ihall be necessary to separate from the land that
gave birth to our ancestors, it will be in our Rate of
perfed manhood, when we can fully weild our own
arms and proved our commerce and coatis by our
f cts ^ witho ^ 10 °ki% to any nation upon
ear.h for affiltance. *
March 23, 1776.
Numb. LXI.