wounds have preserved? Is this the case?
Or is it rather a country that tramples upon your rights, disdains
your cries, and insults your distresses? Have you not more than once
suggested your wishes and made known your wants to congress? Wants and
wishes which gratitude and policy would have anticipated rather than
evaded; and have you not lately, in the meek language of entreating
memorials, begged from their justice what you could no longer expect
from their favour? How have you been answered? Let the letter which
you are called to consider to-morrow reply.

"If this then be your treatment while the swords you wear are
necessary for the defence of America, what have you to expect from
peace, when your voice shall sink, and your strength dissipate by
division? When those very swords, the instruments and companions of
your glory, shall be taken from your sides, and no remaining mark of
military distinction left but your wants, infirmities, and scars? Can
you then consent to be the only sufferers by this revolution, and,
retiring from the field, grow old in poverty, wretchedness, and
contempt? Can you consent to wade through the vile mire of dependency,
and owe the miserable remnant of that life to charity which has
hitherto been spent in honour? If you can--go--and carry with you the
jest of tories, and the scorn of whigs;--the ridicule, and, what is
worse, the pity of the world. Go,--starve and be forgotten. But if
your spirit should revolt at this; if you have sense enough to
discover, and spirit enough to oppose, tyranny under whatever garb it
may assume; whether it be the plain coat of republicanism, or the
splendid robe of royalty; if you have yet learned to discriminate
between a people and a cause, between men and principles,--awake;
attend to your situation, and redress yourselves. If the present
moment be lost, every future effort is in vain; and your threats then
will be as empty as your entreaties now.

"I would advise you therefore to come to some final opinion upon what
you can bear, and what you will suffer. If your determination be in
any proportion to your wrongs, carry your appeal from the justice to
the fears of the government. Change the milk-and-water style of your
last memorial. Assume a bolder tone,--decent, but lively, spirited,
and determined; and suspect the man who would advise to more
moderation and longer forbearance. Let two or three men who can feel
as well as write, be appointed to draw