he most abject slavery. . . ." He added, in a
spirit of strict justice: "As to the pact of non-exportation, that is
another thing; I confess that I have doubts of its being legitimate. We
owe considerable sums to Great Britain; we can only pay them with our
produce. To have a right to accuse others of injustice, we must be just
ourselves; and how can we be so if we refuse to pay our debts to Great
Britain? That is what I cannot make out."

The opposition was as yet within the law, and the national effort was as
orderly as it was impassioned. "There is agitation, there are meetings,
there is mutual encouragement to the struggle, the provinces concert
opposition together, the wrath against Great Britain grows and the abyss
begins to yawn; but such are the habits of order among this people, that,
in the midst of this immense ferment among the nation, it is scarcely
possible to pick out even a few acts of violence here and there; up to
the day when the uprising becomes general, the government of George III.
can scarcely find, even in the great centres of opposition, such as
Boston, any specious pretexts for its own violence" [M. Cornelis de Witt,
_Histoire de Washington_]. The declaration of independence was by this
time becoming inevitable when Washington and Jefferson were still writing
in this strain:

Washington to Capt. Mackenzie.

"You are taught to believe that the people of Massachusetts are a people
of rebels in revolt for independence, and what not. Permit me to tell
you, my good friend, that you are mistaken, grossly mistaken. . . .
I can testify, as a fact, that independence is neither the wish nor the
interest of this colony or of any other on the continent, separately or
collectively. But at the same time you may rely upon it that none of
them will ever submit to the loss of those privileges, of those precious
rights which are essential to the happiness of every free State, and
without which liberty, property, life itself, are devoid of any
security."

Jefferson to Mr. Randolph.

"Believe me, my dear sir, there is not in the whole British empire a man
who cherishes more cordially than I do the union with Great Britain.
But, by the God who made me, I would cease to live rather than accept
that union on the terms proposed by Parliament. We lack neither motives
nor power to declare and maintain our separation. It is the will alone
that we lack, and that is growing little by little under the