The Penn's Grove record., 1923-02-23

NtSPACSCib OlSlI dCJlOnS!-dnQ 10
prey upon their substance;-Yes, sir,
you sent them men, whose behaviour
has often caused the blood of those
Sons of Liberty to recoil within them
men promoted by you to the highest
seats of justice, in that country, who
to my knowledge, had good cause to
dread a court of justice in their ownl
They protected by our arms-No,
sir! They have nobly taken up arms
in your defense; have exerted a most
heroic v%alour, amidst their daily la
bours, for the defense of a country
whose frontier was drenched in blood
while its interior parts gave up all
their savings to our emolumenti'
All this vas very true. For the
Americans had not only planted, but
IN a great measure protected them
selves. In the French and Indian
war, from '55 to '63, they lost nearly
10000 of their stoutest young meni
And by regular return it appears
than Massachusetts alone expend-
ed about 500, 000f sterling il
that timei Nor only so, but they
had hesitated for a moment to
furnish to the last mar and shilling
whatever Britain had required.
But, alas! what signifies right
against might! When a king wants
money for his own pride, or for his
hungry relations, and when his min
listers want stakes for their gaming
tables, or diamond necklaces for their
strumpets, they will have it, though
plundered colonies should lack bread
and spelling books for their children.
. E'Or in tho van, 3eO ,,la.z A. -
God was burning with peculiar bright
ness in u land, and both Britain and
her colonies enjoyed a measure of
blessings seldom endulged to the most
favored nations-When, at the very
mention of Old-England, our hearts
leaped for joy, as at the name of a
great and venerable mother, and that
mother felt an equal transport at
thoughts of us, her Furnishing colon
ies-When all the produce of all these
vast and fertile regions was poured
into her beloved lap, and she, in re-
turn, not allowing us the trouble to
make even a hob-nail, heaped our
families with all the ne~cessaries and
elegancies of her ingenious artists
When, though far separated by an
oceans roar, we were yet so united
by love and mutual helpfulness that
the souls of Columbus, Raleigh, and
Smith, looking down from heaven,
with joy beheld the consummation of
all their labours and wishesl At that
happy period, Lord North brought in
a bill to tax the colonies, with out
allowing US a voice in their councils!
The colonies were thunderstruck; and
Britain herself g~roaning through all
her island, gave signs "of woe that
all was LOST"
Doctor Franklin, who was then in
England as a colony agent, on hear
ing that this most iniquitous bill had
actually passed both houses, and was
ratified by the king, wrote to a friend
in America in these words-"The sun
of our liberty is set-you must all
Industry and Economy-but, above all
things, encourage the young people to
marry and raise up children as fast
as they cam"
Meaning, that America, yet too
weak to resist the chains which a
wicked ministry were forging on her,
should instantly fly to heaven-ordered
marriage, for heroic youth, to snap
the ignominious bonds from their own
and their fathers arms.
But the sons of Columbia, though few
in number, had too long enjoyed the
sweets of Liberty and Property, to
part with them so tamely, because a
king and his minions had ordered it.
No! blessed be God, their conduct was
such as to strike the world with this
glorious truth, that a brave people,
who know their rights, are not to be
enslaved.
For, soon as it was told in Amer
lea, that the stamp-act had passed, the
people rose up against it as one mar
the old grudges between churchmen
and dissenters were instantly forgot
ten-every mar looked to his fellow
as to a brother for aid against the
coming slavery-their looks on each
other were as lightnings in a parched
forest-the sacred fire kindled and
ran from end to end of the continent.
In every colony the people rushed in
to patriotic societies-reminded each
other of their rights-denounced the
stamp-act as a most adacious infringe
~ment,-burnt in effigy the promoters
of it-torn down the houses of those
bastard Americans who had received
the stamps to sell-and menaced
loudly a non-intercourse with Britain,
if the act was not Immediately re-
pealed!
This spirited behaviour filled all
England with amazement. Every man
there, no matter what his principles
or politics, felt it to the very quick.
The manufacturers and merchants
trembled-the tories raved-the wings
rejoiced, and with the great Pitt and
Burke at their head, publicly applaud
ed the Americans, and denounced the
stamp-act as entirely contrary to the
spirit of British freedom. In short
the cry against it "a so loud both
in England and America that the min
istry, covered with shame, were
obliged to give way, and abandon the
project.
ITO be c%ontinued)