nsport us a few moments to
Boston; that seat of wretchedness will teach us wisdom, and instruct
us forever to renounce a power in whom we can have no trust. The
inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who but a few months ago were in
ease and affluence, have now no other alternative than to stay and
starve, or turn out to beg. Endangered by the fire of their friends if
they continue within the city, and plundered by the soldiery if they
leave it. In their present situation they are prisoners without the
hope of redemption, and in a general attack for their relief they
would be exposed to the fury of both armies.

Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of
Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out, "Come,
come, we shall be friends again for all this." But examine the
passions and feelings of mankind, bring the doctrine of reconciliation
to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me whether you can
hereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power that hath
carried fire and sword into your land? If you can not do all these,
then are you only deceiving yourselves, and by your delay bringing
ruin upon your posterity. Your future connection with Britain, whom
you can neither love nor honor, will be forced and unnatural, and
being formed only on the plan of present convenience, will in a little
time fall into a relapse more wretched than the first. But if you say
you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, hath your house
been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are
your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live
on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the
ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a
judge of those who have. But if you have, and can still shake hands
with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of husband, father,
friend, or lover, and, whatever may be your rank or title in life, you
have the heart of a coward and the spirit of a sycophant.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Born In 1743, died in 1826; Member of the Virginia House of
Burgesses in 1769-75, and again in 1776-78; Member of the
Continental Congress in 1775; drafted the Declaration of
Independence in 1776; Governor of Virginia in 1779; Member
of Congress in 1783; Minister to France in 1785; Secretary
of State in 1790; Vice-President in 1797; elected President
in 1801 and