ngland, Ireland and Scotland, that the despotic
government will be compelled to retrace its steps."

Even at this time the Americans had no desire to break loose from the
government of Great Britain. England was emphatically their home.
Englishmen were their brothers. In England their fathers were gathered
to the grave. The Americans did not assume a new name. They still
called themselves Englishmen. They were proud to be members of the
majestic kingdom, which then stood at the head of the world.

Congress met. Its members, perhaps without exception, were yearning
for reconciliation with the mother-country, and for sincere and
cordial friendship. It was resolved to make another solemn appeal to
the king, whom they had ever been accustomed to revere, and, in a
fraternal spirit, to address their brethren, the people of England,
whom they wished to regard with all the respect due to elder brothers.

The intelligence of Christendom has applauded the dignity and the
pathos of these documents. The appeal fell upon the profane, gambling,
wine-bloated aristocrats of the court, as if it had been addressed to
the marble statuary in the British Museum. Nay worse. Those statues
would have listened in respectful silence. No contemptuous laughter,
and no oaths of menace, would have burst from their marble lips. The
following brief extract will show the spirit which pervaded these
noble documents. It is one of the closing sentences of the address to
the king:

"Permit us then, most gracious sovereign, in the name of all
your faithful people in America, with the utmost humility to
implore you, for the honor of Almighty God, whose pure
religion our enemies are undermining; for the glory which
can be advanced only by rendering your subjects happy and
keeping them united; for the interests of your family,
depending on an adherence to the principle that enthroned
it; for the safety and welfare of your kingdom and
dominions, threatened with unavoidable dangers, and
distresses; that your majesty, as the loving father of your
whole people, connected by the same bands of law, loyalty,
faith and blood, though dwelling in various countries, will
not suffer the transcendent relation, formed by these ties,
to be further violated, in uncertain expectation of effects
which, if attained, never can compensate for the calamities
through which they must be gained."

T