be included within the following deſcriptions. Intereſted men who are not to be truſted, weak men who cannot ſee, prejudiced men who will not ſee, and a certain ſett of moderate men who think better of the European world than it deſerves; and this laſt claſs, by an ill-judged deliberation, will be the cauſe of more calamities to this Continent, than all the other three.
It is the good fortune of many to live diſtant from the ſcene of preſent ſorrow; the evil is not ſufficiently brought to their doors to make them feel the precariouſneſs with which all American property is poſſeſſed. But let our imaginations tranſport us for a few moments to Boſton; that feat of wretchedneſs will teach us wiſdom, and inſtruct us for ever to renounce a power in whom we can have no truſt. The inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who but a few months ago were in eaſe and affluence, have now no other alternative than to ſtay and ſtarve, or turn out to beg. Endangered by the fire of their friends if they continue within the city, and plundered by government if they leave it. In their preſent condition they are priſoners without the hope of redemption, and in a general attack for their relief, they would be expoſed to the fury of both armies.
Men of paſſive tempers look ſomewhat lightly over the offences of Britain, and ſtill hoping for the beſt, are apt to call out, "come, come, we ſhall be friends again for all this." But examine the paſſions and feelings of mankind: Bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the touchſtone of nature, and then tell me, whether you can hereafter love, honor, and faithfully ſerve, the power that hath carried fire and ſword into your land? If you cannot do all theſe, then are you only deceiving yourſelves, and by your delay bringing ruin upon poſterity. Your future connexion with Britain, whom you can neither love nor honor, will be forced and unnatural, and being formed only on the plan of preſent convenience, will in a little time fall into a relapſe more wretched than the firſt. But if you ſay, you can ſtill paſs the violations over, than I aſk, hath your houſe been burnt? Hath your property been deſtroyed before your face? Are your wife and children deſtitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you loſt a parent or a child by their hands, and yourſelf the ruined and wretched ſurvivor? If you have not, then are you not a judge of thoſe who have. But if you have, and ſtill can ſhake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of huſband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the ſpirit of a ſycophant.
This is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but trying them by thoſe feelings and affections which nature juſtifies, and without which, we ſhould be incapable of diſcharging the ſocial duties of life, or enjoying the felicities of it. I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpoſe of provoking revenge, but to awaken us from fatal and unmanly ſlumbers, that we may purſue determinately ſome fixed object. It is not in the power of England or of Europe to conquerAmerica,
