hese are the
implements of war and subjugation--the last arguments to which kings
resort.

I ask, gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be
not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible
motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world,
to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has
none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other.

They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the
British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to
them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last
ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We
have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has
been all in vain.

Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we
find, which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you,
sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we have done everything that could be
done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned, we
have remonstrated, we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves
before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the
tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament.

Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced
additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded;
and we have been spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne. In
vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and
reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope.

If we wish to be free; if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable
privileges for which we have been so long contending; if we mean not
basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long
engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the
glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight!--I
repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms, and to the God of hosts,
is all that is left us.

They tell us, sir, that we are weak--unable to cope with so formidable an
adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the
next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British
guard shall be stationed in every house?

Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire
the means of effectual resistance by l