ason to suspect she
has either ceased to be virtuous, or been extremely negligent in the
appointment of her rulers.

"In almost every age, in repeated conflicts, in long and bloody wars,
as well civil as foreign, against many and powerful nations, against
the open assaults of enemies, and the more dangerous treachery of
friends, have the inhabitants of your island, your great and glorious
ancestors, maintained their independence, and transmitted the rights
of men and the blessings of liberty to you their posterity.

"Be not surprised therefore that we, who are descended from the same
common ancestors, that we, whose forefathers participated in all the
rights, the liberties, and the constitution, you so justly boast of,
and who have carefully conveyed the same fair inheritance to us,
guaranteed by the plighted faith of government, and the most solemn
compacts with British sovereigns, should refuse to surrender them to
men, who found their claims on no principles of reason, and who
prosecute them with a design, that by having _our_ lives and property
in their power, they may with the greater facility enslave _you_."

After stating the serious condition of American affairs, and the
oppressions, and misrepresentations of their conduct, which had
induced the address; and their claim to be as free as their fellow
subjects in Britain; they say, "are not the proprietors of the soil of
Great Britain lords of their own property? Can it be taken from them
without their consent? Will they yield it to the arbitrary disposal of
any men, or number of men whatever? You know they will not.

"Why then are the proprietors of the soil of America less lords of
their property than you are of yours, or why should they submit it to
the disposal of your parliament, or any other parliament or council in
the world, not of their election? Can the intervention of the sea that
divides us cause disparity of rights, or can any reason be given why
English subjects, who live three thousand miles from the royal palace,
should enjoy less liberty than those who are three hundred miles
distant from it?

"Reason looks with indignation on such distinctions, and freemen can
never perceive their propriety."

After expatiating on the resources which the conquest of America would
place in the hands of the crown for the subjugation of Britain, the
address proceeds, "we believe there is yet much virtue, much justice,
and much public spirit in the English nat