a
disavowal of their attempt, and a relaxation of their claim, would still
have instigated us to a war, for a bleak and barren spot in the
Magellanick ocean, of which no use could be made, unless it were a place
of exile for the hypocrites of patriotism.
Yet let it not be forgotten, that, by the howling violence of patriotick
rage, the nation was, for a time, exasperated to such madness, that, for
a barren rock under a stormy sky, we might have now been fighting and
dying, had not our competitors been wiser than ourselves; and those who
are now courting the favour of the people, by noisy professions of
publick spirit, would, while they were counting the profits of their
artifice, have enjoyed the patriotick pleasure of hearing, sometimes,
that thousands had been slaughtered in a battle, and, sometimes, that a
navy had been dispeopled by poisoned air and corrupted food. He that
wishes to see his country robbed of its rights cannot be a patriot.
That man, therefore, is no patriot, who justifies the ridiculous claims
of American usurpation; who endeavours to deprive the nation of its
natural and lawful authority over its own colonies; those colonies,
which were settled under English protection; were constituted by an
English charter; and have been defended by English arms.
To suppose, that by sending out a colony, the nation established an
independent power; that when, by indulgence and favour, emigrants are
become rich, they shall not contribute to their own defence, but at
their own pleasure; and that they shall not be included, like millions
of their fellow-subjects, in the general system of representation;
involves such an accumulation of absurdity, as nothing but the show of
patriotism could palliate.
He that accepts protection, stipulates obedience. We have always
protected the Americans; we may, therefore, subject them to government.
The less is included in the greater. That power which can take away
life, may seize upon property. The parliament may enact, for America, a
law of capital punishment; it may, therefore, establish a mode and
proportion of taxation.
But there are some who lament the state of the poor Bostonians, because
they cannot all be supposed to have committed acts of rebellion, yet all
are involved in the penalty imposed. This, they say, is to violate the
first rule of justice, by condemning the innocent to suffer with the
guilty.
This deserves some notice, as it seems dictated by equ
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