way towards a happy settlement of the dangerous
troubles in America, by beginning to allay ferments and soften
animosities there; and, above all, for preventing, in the mean time, any
sudden and fatal catastrophe at Boston, now suffering under the daily
irritation of an army before their eyes, posted in their town; it may
graciously please his majesty that immediate orders be dispatched to
General Gage, for removing his majesty's forces from the town of
Boston, as soon as the rigour of the season and other circumstances
indispensable to the safety and accommodation of the said troops may
render the same practicable." In continuation, Chatham proceeded to
discuss the whole question: a question which, he said, demanded instant
attention, as an hour lost might produce years of calamity. He remarked:
"I will not desert for a single moment the conduct of this weighty
business; unless nailed to my bed by extremity of sickness, I will give
it my unremitted attention. I will knock at the door of this sleeping
and confounded ministry, and will rouse them to a sense of their
impending danger. When I state the importance of the colonies, and the
magnitude of the danger hanging over this country from the present
plan of mis-administration practised against them, I desire not to be
understood to argue for a reciprocity of indulgence between England
and America. I contend not for indulgence but justice to America; and I
shall ever contend, that the Americans justly owe obedience to us in
a limited degree; they owe obedience to our ordinances of trade and
navigation. But let the line be skilfully drawn between the objects of
those ordinances and their private internal property; let the sacredness
of their property remain inviolate; let it be taxed only by their own
consent, given in their provincial assemblies, else it will cease to be
property. As to the metaphysical refinements, attempting to show that
the Americans are equally free from obedience and commercial restraints
as from taxation of revenue, being unrepresented here, I pronounce them
futile, frivolous, and groundless. Resistance to your acts was necessary
as it was just; and your vain declaration of the omnipotence of
parliament, and your imperious doctrines of the necessity of
submission, will be found equally impotent to convince or enslave your
fellow-subjects in America, who feel that tyranny, whether ambitioned by
an individual part, of the legislature or by the bodies