h a kiss. Ask yourselves how
this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike
preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and
armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown
ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to
win back our love?

Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and
subjugation, the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen,
sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to
submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has
Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world to call for all
this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are
meant for us. They can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind
and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so
long forging. And what have we to oppose them? Shall we try argument?
Sir, 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, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we have
done everything that could be done to avert the storm that 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 hands 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 ourselves never to abandon until the
glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I
repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts
is all that is left us!

They tell us, sir, that we