e we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? We have been
trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon
the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of
which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to
entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have
not been already exhausted? Let us not deceive ourselves longer. We
have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now
coming on. We have petitioned, we have remonstrated, we have
supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the Throne, and have
implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hand of the
Ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our
remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our
supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with
contempt, from the foot of the Throne. In vain, after these things, may
we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no
longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free--if we mean to preserve
inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long
contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in
which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged never to
abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we
must fight! I repeat it, we must fight! An appeal to arms, and to the
God of Hosts, is all that is left to us.

They tell us that we are weak--unable to cope with so formidable an
adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or
the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a
British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather
strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of
effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the
delusive phantom of Hope until our enemies have bound us hand and foot?
We are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of
Nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the
holy cause of liberty, are invincible by any force which the enemy can
send against us. Besides, we shall not fight our battles alone. There
is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and will
raise us friends to fight our battle for us. The battle is not to the
strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.

Besides, we have no election.