1765.

Seats are purchased with the nation's money; and a corrupt administration, by bribing others with places and pensions, can command a majority in the house of commons that will pass what laws they please. These evils May. are too notorious to escape general observation, and too atrocious to be palliated. Why are not these crying grievances redressed? Only because they afford the greatest opportunities for bribery and corruption.

"The fundamental principle of the English constitution is reason and natural right. It has within itself the principle of self-preservation, correction, and improvement. That there are several towns, corporations, and bodies of people in England in similar circumstances as the colonies, shows that some of the people in England, as well as those in America, are injured and oppressed, but shows no sort of right for the oppression. Those places ought to join with the Americans in remonstrances to obtain redress of grievances.

"The absurdity of our being represented in parliament is so glaring that it is almost an affront to common sense to use arguments to expose it; and yet it has been so much insisted upon that it seems as if the free use of common sense was to be prohibited as well as our other common rights.

"But the cases in England, cited to justify the taxation of America, are in no way similar. The taxation of America is arbitrary and tyrannical, and what the parliament of England have no right to impose. The colonies are not only unconnected in interest with any members of parliament, but, in many respects, entirely opposite; indeed, I believe, in all respects where their affairs would come before that house; for when has it meddled with any matter relating to them, except to lay some imposition upon them?

"As to the towns in England which send no members to parliament, there are many persons in parliament deeply interested in them; all the counties where they stand do send members; and many of their inhabitants are voters for the county members. As to the moneyed interest, there are in the house a sufficient number of those who have

1765. May.

considerable property in money to take due care of that interest. Those persons who have no votes have yet the opportunity of influence in elections. Nor is it difficult for any man of fortune to procure a right of voting. So that the mention of these cases, as parallel with that of the colonies, is wonderfully trifling and impertinent. "Our adherence to the English constitution is on account of its real excellence. It is not the mere name of English rights that can satisfy us. It is the reality that we claim as our inheritance, and would defend with our lives. Can any man be represented without his own consent? Where is the advantage of it, if persons are appointed to represent us without our choice? Would not our greatest enemies be the most likely to endeavor to be chosen for that office? Could such a right of representation be ever desired by any reasonable man ? Is English liberty such a chimera as

this?

"The great fundamental principles of a government should be common to all its parts and members, else the whole will be endangered. If, then, the interest of the mother country and her colonies cannot be made to coincide, if the same constitution may not take place in both, if the welfare of the mother country necessarily requires a sacrifice of the most valuable natural rights of the colonies, — their right of making their own laws, and disposing of their own property by representatives of their own choosing, - if such is really the case between Great Britain and her colonies, then the connection between them ought to cease; and sooner or later it must inevitably cease. The English government cannot long act towards a part of its dominions upon principles diametrically opposed to its own, without losing itself in the slavery it would impose upon the colonies, or learning them to throw it off and assert their freedom.

"There never can be a disposition in the colonies to break off their connection with the mother country, so long as they are permitted to have the full enjoyment of those rights to which the English constitution entitles them. They desire no more; nor can they be satisfied with less." These words imbodied the sober judgment of New York..

1765.

They were caught up by the impatient colonies; were reprinted in nearly all their newspapers; were approved of by their most learned and judicious statesmen; and even formed part of the instructions of South Carolina to its agent in England.

May.

Thus revolution proceeded. Virginia marshalled resistance, Massachusetts entreated union, New York pointed to independence.

1765. June.

CHAPTER XIV.

SOUTH CAROLINA FOUNDS THE AMERICAN UNION.

JUNE JULY, 1765.

THE summons for the congress had gone forth from Massachusetts, when the resolves of Virginia were published to the world. "They have spoken treason," said the royalists. "Is it treason," retorted others, "for the deputies of the people to assert their rights, or to give them away?" "Oh! those Virginians," cried Oxenbridge Thacher, from his death-bed, where, overplied by public exertions, he was wasting away with a hectic, "those Virginians are men; they are noble spirits. I long to speak in court against tyranny words that shall be read after my death." "Why," said one of his friends, "are not our rights and liberties as boldly asserted by every government in America as by Virginia?" "Behold," cried another, "a whole continent awakened, alarmed, restless, and disaffected." Everywhere, from north to south, through the press, in letters, or as they met in private for counsel or in groups in the street, the "Sons of Liberty" told their griefs to one another, and planned retaliation or redress.

"No good reason can be given," observed the more calm among them, "why the colonies should not modestly and soberly inquire what right the parliament of Great Britain has to tax them." "We were not sent out to be slaves," they continued, citing the example of ancient Greece and the words of Thucydides; "we are the equals of those who remained behind. Americans hold equal rights with those in Britain, not as conceded privileges, but inherent and indefeasible." "We have the rights of Englishmen," was the common voice, "and as such we are to be ruled by

laws of our own making, and tried by men of our own condition."

1765.

June.

"If we are Englishmen," said one, on what footing is our property?" "The great Mr. Locke," said another, "lays it down that no man has a right to that which another may take from him;" and a third, proud of his respect for the law, sheltered himself under the words of the far-famed Coke: "The lord may tax his villein, high or low; but it is against the franchises of the land for freemen to be taxed but by their own consent in parliament." "If the people in America are to be taxed by the representatives of the people in England, their malady," said Hopkins, of Rhode Island, " is an increasing evil, that must always grow greater by time." "When the parliament once begins," such was the discourse at Boston, "there is no drawing a line." "And it is only the first step," repeated the New York owners of large estates; "a land-tax for all America will be thought of next."

"It is plain," said even the calmest, "Englishmen do not regard Americans as members of the same family, brothers, and equals, but as subordinates, bound to submit to oppression at their pleasure." "A bill was even prepared," thus men warned each other against new dangers, "that authorized quartering British soldiers upon American private families." "And is not our property seized," they further exclaimed, "by men who cry, 'give, give,' and never say, ' enough,' and thrown into a prerogative court to be forfeited without a jury?"

"There is not silver enough in the colonies to pay for the stamps," computed patriot financiers, "and the trade by which we could get more is prohibited." "And yet," declared the merchants of New York, "we have a natural right to every freedom of trade of the English." "To tax us, and bind our commerce and restrain manufactures," reasoned even the most patient, "is to bid us make brick without straw." "The northern colonies will be absolutely restricted from using any articles of clothing of their own fabric," predicted one colony to another. And men laughed as they added: "Catching a mouse within his majesty's