this
continent. And as he hath shewn himself such an inveterate enemy to
liberty, and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power; is he, or is
he not, a proper man to say to these colonies, "YOU SHALL MAKE NO LAWS
BUT WHAT I PLEASE." And is there any inhabitant in America so ignorant
as not to know, that according to what is called the PRESENT
CONSTITUTION, that this continent can make no laws but what the king
gives leave to; and is there any man so unwise, as not to see, that
(considering what has happened) he will suffer no law to be made here,
but such as suit HIS purpose. We may be as effectually enslaved by the
want of laws in America, as by submitting to laws made for us in
England. After matters are made up (as it is called) can there be any
doubt, but the whole power of the crown will be exerted, to keep this
continent as low and humble as possible? Instead of going forward we
shall go backward, or be perpetually quarrelling or ridiculously
petitioning. --WE are already greater than the king wishes us to be,
and will he not hereafter endeavour to make us less? To bring the
matter to one point. Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a
proper power to govern us? Whoever says No to this question, is an
INDEPENDANT, for independancy means no more, than, whether we shall
make our own laws, or whether the king, the greatest enemy this
continent hath, or can have, shall tell us "THERE SHALL BE NO LAWS BUT
SUCH AS I LIKE."

But the king you will say has a negative in England; the people there
can make no laws without his consent. In point of right and good
order, there is something very ridiculous, that a youth of twenty-one
(which hath often happened) shall say to several millions of people,
older and wiser than himself, I forbid this or that act of yours to be
law. But in this place I decline this sort of reply, though I will
never cease to expose the absurdity of it, and only answer, that
England being the King's residence, and America not so, makes quite
another case. The king's negative HERE is ten times more dangerous and
fatal than it can be in England, for THERE he will scarcely refuse his
consent to a bill for putting England into as strong a state of defense
as possible, and in America he would never suffer such a bill to be
passed.

America is only a secondary object in the system of British politics,
England consults the good of THIS country, no farther than it answers
her OWN purpos