I Am
Sure That While He Turned His Ears To State Policy, He Would
Attentively Listen Also To The Dictates Of Nature, That Great
Parent; For, As A Good King, He No Doubt Wishes To Create, To Spare,
And To Protect, As She Does.
Must I then, in order to be called a
faithful subject, coolly, and philosophically say, it is necessary
for
The good of Britain, that my children's brains should be dashed
against the walls of the house in which they were reared; that my
wife should be stabbed and scalped before my face; that I should be
either murdered or captivated; or that for greater expedition we
should all be locked up and burnt to ashes as the family of the B - -
-n was? Must I with meekness wait for that last pitch of desolation,
and receive with perfect resignation so hard a fate, from ruffians,
acting at such a distance from the eyes of any superior; monsters,
left to the wild impulses of the wildest nature. Could the lions of
Africa be transported here and let loose, they would no doubt kill
us in order to prey upon our carcasses! but their appetites would
not require so many victims. Shall I wait to be punished with death,
or else to be stripped of all food and raiment, reduced to despair
without redress and without hope. Shall those who may escape, see
everything they hold dear destroyed and gone. Shall those few
survivors, lurking in some obscure corner, deplore in vain the fate
of their families, mourn over parents either captivated, butchered,
or burnt; roam among our wilds, and wait for death at the foot of
some tree, without a murmur, or without a sigh, for the good of the
cause? No, it is impossible! so astonishing a sacrifice is not to be
expected from human nature, it must belong to beings of an inferior
or superior order, actuated by less, or by more refined principles.
Even those great personages who are so far elevated above the common
ranks of men, those, I mean, who wield and direct so many thunders;
those who have let loose against us these demons of war, could they
be transported here, and metamorphosed into simple planters as we
are, they would, from being the arbiters of human destiny, sink into
miserable victims; they would feel and exclaim as we do, and be as
much at a loss what line of conduct to prosecute. Do you well
comprehend the difficulties of our situation? If we stay we are sure
to perish at one time or another; no vigilance on our part can save
us; if we retire, we know not where to go; every house is filled
with refugees as wretched as ourselves; and if we remove we become
beggars. The property of farmers is not like that of merchants; and
absolute poverty is worse than death. If we take up arms to defend
ourselves, we are denominated rebels; should we not be rebels
against nature, could we be shamefully passive? Shall we then, like
martyrs, glory in an allegiance, now become useless, and voluntarily
expose ourselves to a species of desolation which, though it ruin us
entirely, yet enriches not our ancient masters. By this inflexible
and sullen attachment, we shall be despised by our countrymen, and
destroyed by our ancient friends; whatever we may say, whatever
merit we may claim, will not shelter us from those indiscriminate
blows, given by hired banditti, animated by all those passions which
urge men to shed the blood of others; how bitter the thought! On the
contrary, blows received by the hands of those from whom we expected
protection, extinguish ancient respect, and urge us to self-defence-
-perhaps to revenge; this is the path which nature herself points
out, as well to the civilised as to the uncivilised. The Creator of
hearts has himself stamped on them those propensities at their first
formation; and must we then daily receive this treatment from a
power once so loved? The Fox flies or deceives the hounds that
pursue him; the bear, when overtaken, boldly resists and attacks
them; the hen, the very timid hen, fights for the preservation of
her chickens, nor does she decline to attack, and to meet on the
wing even the swift kite. Shall man, then, provided both with
instinct and reason, unmoved, unconcerned, and passive, see his
subsistence consumed, and his progeny either ravished from him or
murdered? Shall fictitious reason extinguish the unerring impulse of
instinct? No; my former respect, my former attachment vanishes with
my safety; that respect and attachment was purchased by protection,
and it has ceased. Could not the great nation we belong to have
accomplished her designs by means of her numerous armies, by means
of those fleets which cover the ocean? Must those who are masters of
two thirds of the trade of the world; who have in their hands the
power which almighty gold can give; who possess a species of wealth
that increases with their desires; must they establish their
conquest with our insignificant innocent blood!
Must I then bid farewell to Britain, to that renowned country? Must
I renounce a name so ancient and so venerable? Alas, she herself,
that once indulgent parent, forces me to take up arms against her.
She herself, first inspired the most unhappy citizens of our remote
districts, with the thoughts of shedding the blood of those whom
they used to call by the name of friends and brethren. That great
nation which now convulses the world; which hardly knows the extent
of her Indian kingdoms; which looks toward the universal monarchy of
trade, of industry, of riches, of power: why must she strew our poor
frontiers with the carcasses of her friends, with the wrecks of our
insignificant villages, in which there is no gold? When, oppressed
by painful recollection, I revolve all these scattered ideas in my
mind, when I contemplate my situation, and the thousand streams of
evil with which I am surrounded; when I descend into the particular
tendency even of the remedy I have proposed, I am convulsed -
convulsed sometimes to that degree, as to be tempted to exclaim - Why
has the master of the world permitted so much indiscriminate evil
throughout every part of this poor planet, at all times, and among
all kinds of people?
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