dressed, unless we meant to be in earnest; otherwise, it
is like wasting an estate on a suit at law to regulate the
trespasses of a tenant whose lease is just expiring. No man was a
warmer wisher for a reconciliation than myself before the fatal
nineteenth of April, 1775,[A] but the moment the event of that day
was made known, I rejected the hardened, sullen-tempered Pharaoh
of England forever; and disdain the wretch that, with the
pretended title of _father of his people_, can unfeelingly hear of
their slaughter and composedly sleep with their blood upon his
soul.

"But admitting that matters were now made up, what would be the
event? I answer, the ruin of the continent. And that for several
reasons.

"1st. The powers of governing still remaining in the hands of the
king, he will have a negative over the whole legislation of this
continent. And as he hath shown himself such an inveterate enemy
to liberty, and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power, is
he, or is he not, a proper person to say to these colonies, '_You
shall make no laws but what I please?_' And is there any
inhabitant of America so ignorant as not to know that, according
to what is called the _present constitution_, 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 suits _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 quarreling or ridiculously
petitioning. We are already greater than the king wishes us to be,
and will he not hereafter endeavor 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 _independent_, for independency means no more than this,
whether we shall make our own laws, or whether the king, the
greatest enemy which 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