ion. To that justice we now
appeal. You have been told that we are seditious, impatient of
government, and desirous of independency. Be assured that these are
not facts but calumnies. Permit us to be as free as yourselves, and we
shall ever esteem a union with you to be our greatest glory, and our
greatest happiness;--we shall ever be ready to contribute all in our
power to the welfare of the empire;--we shall consider your enemies as
our enemies, and your interest as our own.

"But if you are determined that your ministers shall wantonly sport
with the rights of mankind:--if neither the voice of justice, the
dictates of the law, the principles of the constitution, nor the
suggestions of humanity, can restrain your hands from shedding human
blood in such an impious cause, we must then tell you that we will
never submit to be hewers of wood or drawers of water for any ministry
or nation in the world.

"Place us in the same situation that we were at the close of the late
war, and our former harmony will be restored."[238]

[Footnote 238: The committee which prepared this eloquent
and manly address, were Mr. Lee, Mr. Livingston, and Mr.
Jay. The composition has been generally attributed to Mr.
Jay.]

[Sidenote: Petition to the King.]

The petition to the King states succinctly the grievances complained
of, and then proceeds to say:

"Had our creator been pleased to give us existence in a land of
slavery, the sense of our condition might have been mitigated by
ignorance and habit. But thanks be to his adorable goodness, we were
born the heirs of freedom, and ever enjoyed our right under the
auspices of your royal ancestors, whose family was seated on the
British throne, to rescue and secure a pious and gallant nation from
the popery and despotism of a superstitious and inexorable tyrant.
Your majesty, we are confident, justly rejoices that your title to the
crown is thus founded on the title of your people to liberty; and,
therefore, we doubt not but your royal wisdom must approve the
sensibility that teaches your subjects anxiously to guard the blessing
they received from divine providence, and thereby to prove the
performance of that compact, which elevated the illustrious house of
Brunswick to the imperial dignity it now possesses.

"The apprehensions of being degraded into a state of servitude, from
the pre-eminent rank of English freemen, while our minds retain the
strongest love of libert