u are therefore at this moment in the
awkward situation of fighting for a phantom,--a quiddity,--a thing that
wants, not only a substance, but even a name,--for a thing which is
neither abstract right nor profitable enjoyment.

They tell you, Sir, that your dignity is tied to it. I know not how it
happens, but this dignify of yours is a terrible incumbrance to you; for
it has of late been ever at war with your interest, your equity, and
every idea of your policy. Show the thing you contend for to be reason,
show it to be common sense, show it to be the means of attaining some
useful end, and then I am content to allow it what dignity you please.
But what dignity is derived from the perseverance in absurdity is more
than ever I could discern. The honorable gentleman has said
well,--indeed, in most of his _general_ observations I agree with
him,--he says, that this subject does not stand as it did formerly. Oh,
certainly not! Every hour you continue on this ill-chosen ground, your
difficulties thicken on you; and therefore my conclusion is, remove from
a bad position as quickly as you can. The disgrace, and the necessity of
yielding, both of them, grow upon you every hour of your delay.

But will you repeal the act, says the honorable gentleman, at this
instant, when America is in open resistance to your authority, and that
you have just revived your system of taxation? He thinks he has driven
us into a corner. But thus pent up, I am content to meet him; because I
enter the lists supported by my old authority, his new friends, the
ministers themselves. The honorable gentleman remembers that about five
years ago as great disturbances as the present prevailed in America on
account of the new taxes. The ministers represented these disturbances
as treasonable; and this House thought proper, on that representation,
to make a famous address for a revival and for a new application of a
statute of Henry the Eighth. We besought the king, in that
well-considered address, to inquire into treasons, and to bring the
supposed traitors from America to Great Britain for trial. His Majesty
was pleased graciously to promise a compliance with our request. All the
attempts from this side of the House to resist these violences, and to
bring about a repeal, were treated with the utmost scorn. An
apprehension of the very consequences now stated by the honorable
gentleman was then given as a reason for shutting the door against all
hope of such