any time.
They are always _provoked_. But if this unheard-of doctrine of the
encouragement of rebellion were true, if it were true that an assurance
of the friendship of numbers in this country towards the colonies could
become an encouragement to them to break off all connection with it,
what is the inference? Does anybody seriously maintain, that, charged
with my share of the public councils, I am obliged not to resist
projects which I think mischievous, lest men who suffer should be
encouraged to resist? The very tendency of such projects to produce
rebellion is one of the chief reasons against them. Shall that reason
not be given? Is it, then, a rule, that no man in this nation shall open
his mouth in favor of the colonies, shall defend their rights, or
complain of their sufferings,--or when war finally breaks out, no man
shall express his desires of peace? Has this been the law of our past,
or is it to be the terms of our future connection? Even looking no
further than ourselves, can it be true loyalty to any government, or
true patriotism towards any country, to degrade their solemn councils
into servile drawing-rooms, to flatter their pride and passions rather
than to enlighten their reason, and to prevent them from being cautioned
against violence lest others should be encouraged to resistance? By such
acquiescence great kings and mighty nations have been undone; and if any
are at this day in a perilous situation from rejecting truth and
listening to flattery, it would rather become them to reform the errors
under which they suffer than to reproach those who forewarned them of
their danger.

But the rebels looked for assistance from this country.--They did so, in
the beginning of this controversy, most certainly; and they sought it by
earnest supplications to government, which dignity rejected, and by a
suspension of commerce, which the wealth of this nation enabled you to
despise. When they found that neither prayers nor menaces had any sort
of weight, but that a firm resolution was taken to reduce them to
unconditional obedience by a military force, they came to the last
extremity. Despairing of us, they trusted in themselves. Not strong
enough themselves, they sought succor in France. In proportion as all
encouragement here lessened, their distance from this country increased.
The encouragement is over; the alienation is complete.

In order to produce this favorite unanimity in delusion, and to prevent
all