scendants would forget the arts of war and the noble activity and
zeal which made their ancestors invincible. Every art of corruption
would be employed to loosen the bond of union which renders our
resistance formidable. When the spirit of liberty which now
animates our hearts and gives success to our arms is extinct, our
numbers will accelerate our ruin and render us easier victims to
tyranny. Ye abandoned minions of an infatuated ministry, if
peradventure any should yet remain among us, remember that a Warren
and Montgomery are numbered among the dead. Contemplate the mangled
bodies of your countrymen, and then say, What should be the reward
of such sacrifices? Bid us and our posterity bow the knee,
supplicate the friendship, and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut
the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to
riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye
love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than
the animating contest of freedom,--go from us in peace. We ask not
your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed
you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget
that ye were our countrymen!

To unite the supremacy of Great Britain and the liberty of America
is utterly impossible. So vast a continent, and of such a distance
from the seat of empire, will every day grow more unmanageable. The
motion of so unwieldy a body cannot be directed with any dispatch
and uniformity without committing to the Parliament of Great Britain
powers inconsistent with our freedom. The authority and force which
would be absolutely necessary for the preservation of the peace and
good order of this continent would put all our valuable rights
within the reach of that nation.

As the administration of government requires firmer and more
numerous supports in proportion to its extent, the burdens imposed
on us would be excessive, and we should have the melancholy prospect
of their increasing on our posterity. The scale of officers, from
the rapacious and needy commissioner to the haughty governor, and
from the governor, with his hungry train, to perhaps a licentious
and prodigal viceroy, must be upheld by you and your children. The
fleets and armies which will be employed to silence your murmurs and
complaints must be supported by the fruits of your industry.

And yet with all this enlargement of the expense and powers of
government, t