"death, show itself equal to the whole "of that commerce which now attracts "the envy of the world. Whatever England has been growing to by a progreffive increafe of improvement, brought in by varieties of people, by fucceffion of civilizing conquests and civilizing fettlements in a series of fe"venteen hundred years, you fhall fee as much added to her by America in "the course of a fingle life!" If this ftate of his country had been foretold to him, would it not require all the fanguine credulity of youth, and all the fervid glow of enthufiafm, to make him believe it? Fortunate man, he has lived to see it! Fortunate indeed, if he lives to fee nothing that shall vary the profpect, and cloud the setting of his day!

Excufe me, Sir, if turning from fuch thoughts, I refume this comparative view once more. You have seen it on a large fcale: look at it on a fmall one. I will · point out to your attention a particular inftance of it in the fingle province of Pennfylvania. In the year 1704 that province called for 11,4591. in value of your commodities, native and foreign. This was the whole. What did it demand in 1772 Why nearly fifty times as much; for in that year the export to Pennfylvania was 507,909!. nearly equal to the export to all the Colonies together in the first period.

I choose, Sir, to enter into these minute and particular details; because generalities, which in all other cafes are apt to heighten and raise the fubject, have here a tendency to fink it. When we speak of the commerce of our Colonies, fiction lags after truth; invention is unfruitful, and imagination cold and barren.

So far, Sir, as to the importance of the object in the view of its commerce, as concerned in the exports from England. If I were to detail the imports, I could fhow how many enjoyments they procure, which deceive the burden of life; how many materials which invigorate the fprings of national industry, and extend and animate every part of our foreign and domeftic commerce. This would be a curious fubject indeed-but I must prescribe bounds to myself in a matter fo vaft and various.

I pass therefore to the Colonies in another point of view, their agriculture. This they have profecuted with fuch a fpirit, that, befides feeding plentifully their own growing multitude, their annual export of grain, comprehending rice, has fome years ago exceeded a Million in value. Of their laft harvest, I am perfuaded, they will export much more.. At the beginning of

the century, fome of thefe Colonies imported corn from the mother country. For fome time paft, the old world has been fed from the new. The scarcity which you have felt would have been a defolating famine; if this child of your old age, with a true filial piety, with a Roman charity, had not put the full breaft of its youthful exuberance to the mouth of its exhaufted parent.

As to the wealth which the Colonies have drawn from the fea by their fifheries, you had all that matter fully opened at your bar. You furely thought thofe acquifitions of value; for they feemed even to excite your envy; and yet the spirit, by which that enterprizing employment has been exercifed, ought rather, in my opinion, to have raised your esteem and emulation. And pray, Sir, what in the world is equal to it? Pafs by the other parts, and look at the manner in which the people of New-England have of late carried on the Whale-Fishery. Whilft we follow them among the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen receffes of Hudfon's-Bay, and Davis's Straits, whilft we are looking for them beneath the Arctic circle, we hear that they have pierced into the oppofite region of polar cold, that they are at the Antipodes, and engaged under the frozen ferpent of the fouth. Falkland island, which feemed too remote and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a ftage and refting-place in the progrefs of their victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more difcouraging to them, than the accumulated winter of both the poles. We know that whilft fome of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coaft of Africa, others run the longitude, and pursue their gigantic game along the coaft of Brazil. No fea but what is vexed by their fifheries, climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the perfeverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm fagacity of English enterprize, ever carried this perilous mode of hardy induftry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent people; a people who are ftill, as it were, but in the griftle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood. When I contemplate these things; when I know that the Colonies in general owe little or nothing to any care of ours, and that they are not fqueezed into this happy form by the conftraints of watchful and suspicious govern ment, but that through a wife and falutary neglect, a generous nature has been fuffered to take her own way to perfection;

No

when

when I reflect upon these effects, when I see how profitable they have been to us, I feel all the pride of power fink, and all presumption in the wifdom of human contrivances melt,and die away with in me. My rigour relents. I pardon fomething to the fpirit of Liberty.

I am fenfible, Sir, that all which I have afferted in my detail is admitted in the grofs: but that quite a different conclufion is drawn from it. America, Gentlemen fay, is a noble object. It is an object well worth fighting for. Certainly it is, if fighting people be the best way of gaining them. Gentlemen in this refpect will be led to their choice of means by their complexions and their habits. Thofe who understand the military art will of courfe have fome predilection for it. Thofe who wield the thunder of the state may have more confidence in the efficacy of arms. But I confefs, poffibly for want of this knowledge, my opinion is much more in favour of prudent management, than of force; confidering force not as an odious, but a feeble inftrument, for preferving a people fo numerous, so active, fo growing, fo fpirited as this, in a profitable and fubordinate connexion with us, First, Sir, permit me to obferve, that the ufe of force alone is but temporary. It may fubdue for a moment; but it does not remove the neceffity of fubduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.

My next objection is its uncertainty. Terror is not always the effect of force; and an armament is not a victory. If you do not fucceed, you are without refource; for, conciliation failing, force remains; but, force failing, no further hope of reconciliation is left. Power and authority are fometimes bought by kindness; but they can never be begged as alms, by an impoverished and defeated violence.

I

A further objection to force is, that you impair the object by your very endeavours to preserve it. The thing you fought for is not the thing which you recover; but depreciated, funk, wafted, and confumed in the conteft. Nothing lefs will content me, than whole America. do not choose to confume its ftrength along with our own; because in all parts it is the British ftrength that I confume. I do not choose to be caught by a foreign enemy at the end of this exhausted conflict; and fill lefs in the midst of it. I may efcape; but I can make no infurance 1 against fuch an event. Let me add, that I do not choose wholly to break the American fpirit, because it is the spirit that has made the country.

Laftly, we have no fort of experience in favour of force as an inftrument in the rule of our Colonies. Their growth and their utility have been owing to methods altogether different. Our ancient indulgence has been faid to be pursued to a fault. It may be fo. But we know, if feeling is evidence, that our fault was more tolerable than our attempt to mend it; and our fin far more falutary than our penitence.

Thefe, Sir, are my reafons for not entertaining that high opinion of untried force, by which many Gentlemen, for whofe fentiments in other particulars £ have great refpect, feem to be fo greatly captivated. But there is fill behind a third confideration concerning this ob ject, which ferves to determine my opinion on the fort of policy which ought to be pursued in the management of America, even more than its Population and its Commerce; I mean its Temper and Characier.

In this Character of the Americans, a love of Freedom is the predominating feature, which marks and distinguishes the whole: and as an ardent is always a jealous affection, your Colonies become fufpicious, reftive, and untractable, whenever they fee the leaft attempt to wrest from them by force, or fhuffle from them by chicane, what they think the only advantage worth living for. This fierce fpirit of Liberty is ftronger in the English Colonies, probably, than in any other people of the earth; and this from a great variety of powerful causes; which, to understand the true temper of their minds, and the direction which this spirit takes, it will not be amifs to lay open fomewhat more largely.

First, the people of the Colonies are defcendents of Englishmen. England, Sir, is a nation, which still I hope refpects, and formerly adored, her freedom. The Colonists emigrated from you, when this part of your character was molt predominant; and they took this biafs and direction the moment they parted from your hands. They are therefore not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas, and on Englith principles. Abftract Liberty, like other mere abftractions, is not to be found. Liberty inheres in fome fenfible object; and every nation has formed to itself fome favourite point, which, by way of eminence, becomes the criterion of their happiness. It happened, you know, Sir, that the great contefts for freedom in this country were from the earliest times chiefly upon the question of taxing. Most of the contests in the ancient common

wealths

wealths turned primarily on the right of election of magiftrates; or on the ballance among the feveral orders of the fiate. The queftion of money was not with them fo immediate. But in England it was otherwife. On this point of Taxes the able pens, and most eloquent tongues, have been exercifed; the greateft fpirits have acted and fuffered. In order to give the fullest fatisfaction concerning the importance of this point, it was not only neceflary for thofe, who in argument defended the excellence of the English conftitution, to intift on this privilege of granting money as a dry point of fact, and to prove, that the right had been acknowledged in ancient parchments, and blind ufages, to refide in a certain body called an Houfe of Commons: They went much further; they attempted to prove, and they fucceeded, that in theory it ought to be fo, from the particular nature of an House of Commons, as an immediate reprefentative of the people; whether the old records had delivered this oracle or not. They took infinite pains to inculcate, as a fundamental principle, that, in all monarchies, the people muft in effect themfeives, mediately or immediately, poffefs the power of granting their own money, or no fhadow of liberty could fubfift. The Colonies draw from you as with their life-blood, thefe ideas and principles. Their love of liberty, as with you, is fixed and attached on this fpecific point of taxing. Liberty might be fafe, or might be endangered in twenty other particulars, without their being much pleafed or alarmed. Here they felt its pulfe; and as they found that beat, they thought themselves fick or found. I do not lay whether they were right or wrong in applying your general arguments to their own cafe. It is not eafy indeed to make a monopoly of theorems and corollaries. The fact is, that they did thus apply thofe general arguments, and your mode of governing them, whether through lenity or indolence, through wifdom or mistake, confirmed them in the imagination, that they, as well as you, had an intereft in thefe common principles.

They were further confirmed in this pleafing error by the form of their provincial legiflative aflemblies. Their governments are popular in an high degree; fome are merely popular; in all, the popular reprefentative is the most weighty; and this fhare of the people in their ordinary government never fails to infpire them with lofty fentiments, and with a ftrorg averfion from whatever tends to deprive them of their chief importance.

If any thing were wanting to this neceffary operation of the form of government, Religion would have given it a complete effect. Religion, always a principle of energy, in this new people, is no way worn out or impaired; and their mode of profeffing it is also one main cause of this free spirit. The people are proteftants; and of that kind, which is the most adverse to all implicit fubmiffion of mind and opinion. This is a perfuafion not only favourable to liberty, but built upon it. I do not think, Sir, that the reafon of this averfeness in the diffenting churches from all that looks like abfolute Government is fo much to be fought in their religious tenets, as in their hiftory. Every one knows, that the Roman Catholic religion is at leaft coeval with most of the governments where it prevails; that it has generally gone hand in hand with them; and received great favour and every kind of fupport from authority. The Church of England too was formed from her cradle under the nurfing care of regular government. But the diffent-; ing interefts have fprung up in direct oppolition to all the ordinary powers of the world; and could juftify that oppofition. only on a ftrong claim to natural liberty. Their very existence depended on the powerful and unremitted affertion of that claim. All proteftantifm, even the most cold and paffive, is a fort of diffent. But the religion moft prevalent in our Northern Colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; it is the diffidence of diffent; and the proteftantism of the proteftant religion. This religion, under a variety of denominations, agreeing in nothing but in the communion of the fpirit of liberty, is predominant in most of the Northern provinces; where the church of England, notwithstanding its legal rights, is in reality no more than a fort of private fect, not compofing moft probably the tenth of the people. The Colonifts left England when this spirit was high; and in the emigrants was the higheft of all: and even that ftream of foreigners, which has been conftantly flowing into thefe Colonies, has, for the greatet part, been compofed of diffenters from the establishments of their feveral countries, and have brought with them. a temper and character far from alien to that of the people with whom they mixed.

Sir, I can perceive by their manner, that fome Gentlemen object to the latitude of this defcription; becaufe in the Southern Colonies the Church of England forms a large body, and has a regular eftablishment,

tablishment. It is certainly true. There is however a circumftance attending thefe Colonies, which, in my opinion, fully counterbalances this difference, and makes the fpirit of liberty ftill more high and haughty than in thofe to the Northward. It is that in Virginia and the Carolinas, they have a vaft multitude of flaves. Where this is the cafe in any part of the world, those who are free, are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom. Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of rank and privilege. Not fecing there, that freedom, as in countries where it is a common bleffing, and as broad and general as the air, may be united with much abject toil, with great mifery, with all the exterior of fervitude, Liberty looks amongst them, like fomething that is more noble and liberal. I do not mean, Sir, to commend the superior morality of this fentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue in it; but I cannot alter the nature of man. The fact is fo; and thefe people of the Southern Colonies are much more ftrongly, and with an higher and more flubborn fpirit, attached to liberty than thofe to the Northward. Such were all the ancient commonwealths; fuch were our Gothic ancestors; fuch in our days were the Poles; and fuch will be all masters of flaves, who are not flaves themselves. In fuch a people the haughtiness of domination combines with the fpirit of freedom, fortifies it, and renders it invincible,

Permit me, Sir, to add another circumftance in our Colonies, which contributes no mean part towards the growth and effect of this untractable fpirit. I mean their education. In no country perhaps in the world is the law fo gene ral a ftudy. The profeffion itself is numerous and powerful; and in most provinces it takes the lead. The greater number of the Deputies fent to the Congrefs were Lawyers. But all who read, and most do read, endeavour to obtain fome fmattering in that science. I have been told by an eminent Bookfeller, that in no branch of his business, after trass of popular devotion, were fo many books as thofe on the Law exported to the Plantations. The Colonilts have now fallen into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear that they have fold nearly as many of Blackstone's Commentaries in America as in England. General Gage marks out this difpofition very particularly in a letter on your table. He ftates, that all the people in his government are lawyers, or fmatterJune, 1775.r

ers in law; and that in Boston they have been enabled, by fuccefsful chicane, wholly to evade many parts of one of your capital penal conftitutions. The fmartnefs of debate will fay, that this knowledge ought to teach them more clearly the rights of legislature, their ob igations to obedience, and the penalties of rebellion. All this is mighty well. But my honourable and learned. friend on the floor, who condefcends to mark what I fay for animadverfion, will difdain that ground. He has heard as well as I, that when great honours and great emoluments do not win over this knowledge to the fervice of the state, it is a formidable adverfary to government. If the fpirit be not tamed and broken by thefe happy methods, it is stubborn and litigious. Abeunt ftudia in mores. This ftudy renders men acute, inquifitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defence, full of resources. countries, the people, more fimple and of a lefs mercurial caft, judge of an ill principle in government only by an actu al grievance; here they anticipate the evil, and judge of the prefiure of the grievance by the badnefs of the principle. They augur mifgovernmentat a dif tance; and fnuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.

In other

No

The laft caufe of this difobedient fpirit in the Colonies is hardly less powerful than the reft, as it is not merely moral, but laid deep in the natural conftitution of things. Three thousand miles of ocean lie between you and them. contrivance can prevent the effect of this distance, in weakening Government. Seas roll, and months pafs, between the order and the execution; and the want of a speedy explanation of a single point is enough to defeat an whole fyftem. You have, indeed, winged ministers of vengeance, who carry your bolts in their pounces to the remoteit verge of the fea But there a power steps in, that limits the arrogance of raging paffions and furious elements, and fays, "So far fhalt thou go, and no farther.' that should fret and rage, and bite the chains of Nature ?-Nothing worse happens to you, than does to all Nations, who have extenfive Empire; and it happens in all the forms into which Empire can be thrown. In large bodies, the circulation of power must be lefs vigorous at the extremities. Nature has faid it. The Turk cannot govern Ægypt, and Arabia, and Curdittan, as he governs NOT E. *The Attorney General. Y y

Who are you

Thrace

Thrace; nor has he the fame dominion in Crimea and Algiers, which he has at Brufa and Smyrna. Defpotifm itself is obliged to truck and huckiter, The Sul tan gets fuch obedience as he can. He governs with a loose rein, that he may govern at all; and the whole of the force and vigour of his authority, in his centre, is derived from a prudent relaxation : all his borders. Spain, in her provinces, is, perhaps, not fo well obeyed, as you are in yours. She complies too; the fubmits; the watches times. This is the immutable condition, the eternal law, of extenfive and detached Empire.

Then, Sir, from thefe fix capital fources; of Defcent; of Form of Government; of Religion in the Northern Pro vinces; of Manners in the Southern; of Education; of the Remotenefs of Situation from the first Mover of Government, from all these caufes a fierce fpirit of Liberty has grown up. It has grown with the growth of the people in your Colonies, and increased with the increase of their wealth; a Spirit, that unhappily meeting with an exercife of Power in England, which, however lawful, is not reconcilable to any ideas of Liberty, much lefs with theirs, has kindled this flame, that is ready to confume us.

I do not mean to commend either the Spirit in this excess, or the moral caufes which produce it, Perhaps a more fmooth and accommodating Spirit of Freedom in them would be more acceptable to us, Perhaps ideas of Liberty might be defired, more reconcilable with an arbitrary and boundlefs authority. Perhaps we might with the Colonifts to be perfuaded, that their Liberty is more fecure when held in truft for them by us (as their guardians during a perpetual minority) than with any part of it in their own hands. But the question is, not whe ther their fpirit deferves praife or blame? what, in the name of God, fhall we do with it? You have before you the object; fuch as it is, with all its glories, with all its imperfections on its head. You fee the magnitude; the importance; the temper; the habits; the diforders. By all thefe confiderations, we are ftrongly urged to determine fomething concerning it. We are called upon to fix fome rule and line for our future conduct, which may give a little ftability to our politicks, and prevent the return of fuch unhappy deliberations as the prefent. Every fuch return will bring the matter before us in a ftill more untractable form, For, whataftonishing and incredible things

have we not seen already? What monfters have not been generated from this unnatural contention? Whilst every principle of authority and resistance has been pushed, upon both sides, as far as it would go, there is nothing fo folid and certain, either in reasoning or in practice, that has been not fhaken. Until very lately, all authority in America feemed to be nothing but an emanation from yours. Even the popular part of the Colony Conftitution derived all its activity, and its firft vital movement, from the pleafure of the Crown. We thought, Sir, that the utmost which the difcontented Colonifis could do, was to disturb authority; we never dreamt they could of themselves fupply it, knowing in general what an operofe business it is; to eftablifh a government abfolutely new. But having, for our purposes in this contention, refolved, that, none but an obedient Affembly fhould fit, the humours of the people there, finding all paffage through the legal channel topped, with great violence broke out another way. Some provinces have tried their experiment, as we have tried ours; and theirs have fucceeded. They have formed a Government fufficient for its purposes, without the bustle of a Revolution, or the troublefome formality of an election. Evident neceffity, and tacit confent, have done the business in an inftant. So well they have done it, that Lord Dunmore (the account is among the fragments on your table) tells you, that the new inftitution is infinitely better obeyed than the ancient Government ever was in its molt fortunate periods. Obedience is what makes Government, and not the names by which it is called; not the names of Governor, as formerly, or Committee, as at prefent. This new Government has originated directly from the people; and was not tranfmitted through any of the ordinary artificial media of a pofitive conftitution. It was not a manufacture ready formed, and tranfmitted to them in that condition from England. The evil arifing from hence is this; that the Colonifts having once found the poffibility of enjoying the advantages of order, in the midst of a struggle for Liberty, fuch firuggles will not henceforth feem fo terrible to the settled and foher part of mankind, as they had appeared before the trial,

Purfuing the fame plan of punishing by the denial of the exercife of Government to still greater lengths, we wholly abrogated the ancient Government of Mallachufet, We were confident, that

the