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diff --git a/5655.txt b/5655.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7eb8a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/5655.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3773 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America, by +Edmund Burke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America + +Author: Edmund Burke + +Commentator: Sidney Carleton Newsom + +Editor: Sidney Carleton Newsom + + +Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5655] +This file was first posted on August 5, 2002 +Last Updated: June 20, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BURKE'S SPEECH *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + +BURKE'S SPEECH + +ON + +CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA + +By Edmond Burke + + +Edited With Introduction And Notes By Sidney Carleton Newsom + +Teacher Of English, Manual Training High School Indianapolis, Indiana + + + + + +PREFACE + +The introduction to this edition of Burke's speech on Conciliation with +America is intended to supply the needs of those students who do not +have access to a well-stocked library, or who, for any reason, +are unable to do the collateral reading necessary for a complete +understanding of the text. + +The sources from which information has been drawn in preparing this +edition are mentioned under "Bibliography." The editor wishes to +acknowledge indebtedness to many of the excellent older editions of +the speech, and also to Mr. A. P. Winston, of the Manual Training High +School, for valuable suggestions. + + + + +CONTENTS + + POLITICAL SITUATION + + EDMUND BURKE + + BURKE AS A STATESMAN + + BURKE IN LITERATURE + + TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS + + BIBLIOGRAPHY + + SPEECH ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA + + NOTES + + INDEX + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +POLITICAL SITUATION + +In 1651 originated the policy which caused the American Revolution. +That policy was one of taxation, indirect, it is true, but none the less +taxation. The first Navigation Act required that colonial exports should +be shipped to England in American or English vessels. This was followed +by a long series of acts, regulating and restricting the American trade. +Colonists were not allowed to exchange certain articles without +paying duties thereon, and custom houses were established and officers +appointed. Opposition to these proceedings was ineffectual; and in 1696, +in order to expedite the business of taxation, and to establish a better +method of ruling the colonies, a board was appointed, called the Lords +Commissioners for Trade and Plantations. The royal governors found +in this board ready sympathizers, and were not slow to report their +grievances, and to insist upon more stringent regulations for enforcing +obedience. Some of the retaliative measures employed were the suspension +of the writ of habeas corpus, the abridgment of the freedom of the press +and the prohibition of elections. But the colonists generally succeeded +in having their own way in the end, and were not wholly without +encouragement and sympathy in the English Parliament. It may be that +the war with France, which ended with the fall of Quebec, had much to do +with this rather generous treatment. The Americans, too, were favored by +the Whigs, who had been in power for more than seventy years. The policy +of this great party was not opposed to the sentiments and ideas of +political freedom that had grown up in the colonies; and, although more +than half of the Navigation Acts were passed by Whig governments, the +leaders had known how to wink at the violation of nearly all of them. + +Immediately after the close of the French war, and after George III. had +ascended the throne of England, it was decided to enforce the Navigation +Acts rigidly. There was to be no more smuggling, and, to prevent this, +Writs of Assistance were issued. Armed with such authority, a servant of +the king might enter the home of any citizen, and make a thorough search +for smuggled goods. It is needless to say the measure was resisted +vigorously, and its reception by the colonists, and its effect upon +them, has been called the opening scene of the American Revolution. As a +matter of fact, this sudden change in the attitude of England toward the +colonies, marks the beginning of the policy of George III. which, had it +been successful, would have made him the ruler of an absolute instead +of a limited monarchy. He hated the Tories only less than the Whigs, +and when he bestowed a favor upon either, it was for the purpose of +weakening the other. The first task he set himself was that of crushing +the Whigs. Since the Revolution of 1688, they had dictated the policy of +the English government, and through wise leaders had become supreme +in authority. They were particularly obnoxious to him because of their +republican spirit, and he regarded their ascendency as a constant menace +to his kingly power. Fortune seemed to favor him in the dissensions +which arose. There grew up two factions in the Whig party. There were +old Whigs and new Whigs. George played one against the other, advanced +his favorites when opportunity offered, and in the end succeeded in +forming a ministry composed of his friends and obedient to his will. + +With the ministry safely in hand, he turned his attention to the House +of Commons. The old Whigs had set an example, which George was shrewd +enough to follow. Walpole and Newcastle had succeeded in giving England +one of the most peaceful and prosperous governments within in the +previous history of the nation, but their methods were corrupt. With +much of the judgment, penetration and wise forbearance which marks a +statesman, Walpole's distinctive qualities of mind eminently fitted +him for political intrigue; Newcastle was still worse, and has the +distinction of being the premier under whose administration the revolt +against official corruption first received the support of the public. + +For near a hundred years, the territorial distribution of seats in the +House had remained the same, while the centres of population had shifted +along with those of trade and new industries. Great towns were without +representation, while boroughs, such as Old Sarum, without a single +voter, still claimed, and had, a seat in Parliament. Such districts, +or "rotten boroughs," were owned and controlled by many of the great +landowners. Both Walpole and Newcastle resorted to the outright purchase +of these seats, and when the time came George did not shrink from doing +the same thing. He went even further. All preferments of whatsoever sort +were bestowed upon those who would do his bidding, and the business +of bribery assumed such proportions that an office was opened at the +Treasury for this purpose, from which twenty-five thousand pounds are +said to have passed in a single day. Parliament had been for a long +time only partially representative of the people; it now ceased to be so +almost completely. + +With, the support which such methods secured, along with encouragement +from his ministers, the king was prepared to put in operation his policy +for regulating the affairs of America. Writs of Assistance (1761) were +followed by the passage of the Stamp Act (1765). The ostensible object +of both these measures was to help pay the debt incurred by the French +war, but the real purpose lay deeper, and was nothing more or less than +the ultimate extension of parliamentary rule, in great things as well as +small, to America. At this crisis, so momentous for the colonists, the +Rockingham ministry was formed, and Burke, together with Pitt, supported +a motion for the unconditional repeal of the Stamp Act. After much +wrangling, the motion was carried, and the first blunder of the mother +country seemed to have been smoothed over. + +Only a few months elapsed, however, when the question of taxing the +colonies was revived. Pitt lay ill, and could take no part in the +proposed measure. Through the influence of other members of his +party,--notably Townshend,--a series of acts were passed, imposing +duties on several exports to America. This was followed by a suspension +of the New York Assembly, because it had disregarded instructions in the +matter of supplies for the troops. The colonists were furious. Matters +went from bad to worse. To withdraw as far as possible without yielding +the principle at stake, the duties on all the exports mentioned in +the bill were removed, except that on tea. But it was precisely the +principle for which the colonists were contending. They were not in the +humor for compromise, when they believed their freedom was endangered, +and the strength and determination of their resistance found a climax in +the Boston Tea Party. + +In the meantime, Lord North, who was absolutely obedient to the king, +had become prime minister. Five bills were prepared, the tenor of which, +it was thought, would overawe the colonists. Of these, the Boston Port +Bill and the Regulating Act are perhaps the most famous, though the +ultimate tendency of all was blindly coercive. + +While the king and his friends were busy with these, the opposition +proposed an unconditional repeal of the Tea Act. The bill was introduced +only to be overwhelmingly defeated by the same Parliament that passed +the five measures of Lord North. + +In America, the effect of these proceedings was such as might have been +expected by thinking men. The colonies were as a unit in their support +of Massachusetts. The Regulating Act was set at defiance, public +officers in the king's service were forced to resign, town meetings +were held, and preparations for war were begun in dead earnest. To avert +this, some of England's greatest statesmen--Pitt among the number--asked +for a reconsideration. On February the first, 1775, a bill was +introduced, which would have gone far toward bringing peace. One month +later, Burke delivered his speech on Conciliation with the Colonies. + + + + +EDMUND BURKE + +There is nothing unusual in Burke's early life. He was born in Dublin, +Ireland, in 1729. His father was a successful lawyer and a Protestant, +his mother, a Catholic. At the age of twelve, he became a pupil of +Abraham Shackleton, a Quaker, who had been teaching some fifteen years +at Ballitore, a small town thirty miles from Dublin. In after years +Burke was always pleased to speak of his old friend in the kindest way: +"If I am anything," he declares, "it is the education I had there that +has made me so." And again at Shackleton's death, when Burke was near +the zenith of his fame and popularity, he writes: "I had a true +honor and affection for that excellent man. I feel something like a +satisfaction in the midst of my concern, that I was fortunate enough to +have him under my roof before his departure." It can hardly be doubted +that the old Quaker schoolmaster succeeded with his pupil who was +already so favorably inclined, and it is more than probable that the +daily example of one who lived out his precepts was strong in its +influence upon a young and generous mind. + +Burke attended school at Ballitore two years; then, at the age of +fourteen, he became a student at Trinity College, Dublin, and remained +there five years. At college he was unsystematic and careless of +routine. He seems to have done pretty much as he pleased, and, however +methodical he became in after life, his study during these five years +was rambling and spasmodic. The only definite knowledge we have of this +period is given by Burke himself in letters to his former friend Richard +Shackleton, son of his old schoolmaster. What he did was done with a +zest that at times became a feverish impatience: "First I was greatly +taken with natural philosophy, which, while I should have given my mind +to logic, employed me incessantly. This I call my FUROR MATHEMATICUS." +Following in succession come his FUROR LOGICUS, FUROR HISTORICUS, and +FUROR PEOTICUS, each of which absorbed him for the time being. It would +be wrong, however, to think of Burke as a trifler even in his youth. He +read in the library three hours every day and we may be sure he read as +intelligently as eagerly. It is more than probable that like a few other +great minds he did not need a rigid system to guide him. If he chose +his subjects of study at pleasure, there is every reason to believe he +mastered them. + +Of intimate friends at the University we hear nothing. Goldsmith came +one year later, but there is no evidence that they knew each other. It +is probable that Burke, always reserved, had little in common with his +young associates. His own musings, with occasional attempts at writing +poetry, long walks through the country, and frequent letters to and from +Richard Shackleton, employed him when not at his books. + +Two years after taking his degree, Burke went to London and established +himself at the Middle Temple for the usual routine course in law. +Another long period passes of which there is next to nothing known. +His father, an irascible, hot-tempered man, had wished him to begin the +practice of law, but Burke seems to have continued in a rather irregular +way pretty much as when an undergraduate at Dublin. His inclinations +were not toward the law, but literature. His father, angered at such a +turn of affairs, promptly reduced his allowance and left him to follow +his natural bent in perfect freedom. In 1756, six years after his +arrival in London, and almost immediately following the rupture with his +father, he married a Miss Nugent. At about the same time he published +his first two books, [Footnote: A Vindication of Natural Society and +Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and +Beautiful] and began in earnest the life of an author. + +He attracted the attention of literary men. Dr. Johnson had just +completed his famous dictionary, and was the centre of a group of +writers who accepted him at his own valuation. Burke did not want for +company, and wrote copiously.[Footnote: Hints for an Essay on the +Drama. Abridgement of the History of England] He became associated with +Dodsley, a bookseller, who began publishing the Annual Register in 1759, +and was paid a hundred pounds a year for writing upon current events. +He spent two years (1761-63) in Ireland in the employment of William +Hamilton, but at the end of that time returned, chagrined and disgusted +with his would-be patron, who utterly failed to recognize Burke's worth, +and persisted in the most unreasonable demands upon his time and energy. + +For once Burke's independence served him well. In 1765 Lord Rockingham +became prime minister, and Burke, widely known as the chief writer +for the Annual Register, was free to accept the position of private +secretary, which Lord Rockingham was glad to offer him. His services +here were invaluable. The new relations thus established did not end +with the performance of the immediate duties of his office, but a warm +friendship grew up between the two, which lasted till the death of Lord +Rockingham. While yet private secretary, Burke was elected to Parliament +from the borough of Wendover. It was through the influence of his +friend, or perhaps relative, William Burke, that his election was +secured. + +Only a few days after taking his seat in the House of Commons, Burke +made his first speech, January 27, 1766. He followed this in a very +short time with another upon the same subject--the Taxation of the +American Colonies. Notwithstanding the great honor and distinction which +these first speeches brought Burke, his party was dismissed at the close +of the session and the Chatham ministry formed. He remained with his +friends, and employed himself in refuting [Footnote: Observations on the +Present State of the Nation] the charges of the former minister, George +Grenville, who wrote a pamphlet accusing his successors of gross neglect +of public duties. + +At this point in his life comes the much-discussed matter of +Beaconsfield. How Burke became rich enough to purchase such expensive +property is a question that has never been answered by his friends or +enemies. There are mysterious hints of successful speculation in East +India stock, of money borrowed, and Burke himself, in a letter to +Shackleton, speaks of aid from his friends and "all [the money] he +could collect of his own." However much we may regret the air of mystery +surrounding the matter, and the opportunity given those ever ready to +smirch a great man's character, it is not probable that any one ever +really doubted Burke's integrity in this or any other transaction. +Perhaps the true explanation of his seemingly reckless extravagance (if +any explanation is needed) is that the conventional standards of his +time forced it upon him; and it may be that Burke himself sympathized +to some extent with these standards, and felt a certain satisfaction in +maintaining a proper attitude before the public. + +The celebrated case of Wilkes offered an opportunity for discussing +the narrow and corrupt policy pursued by George III. and his followers. +Wilkes, outlawed for libel and protected in the meantime through legal +technicalities, was returned to Parliament by Middlesex. The House +expelled him. He was repeatedly elected and as many times expelled, and +finally the returns were altered, the House voting its approval by a +large majority. In 1770 Burke published his pamphlet [Footnote: Present +Discontents] in which he discussed the situation. For the first time he +showed the full sweep and breadth of his understanding. His tract was +in the interest of his party, but it was written in a spirit far removed +from narrow partisanship. He pointed out with absolute clearness the +cause of dissatisfaction and unrest among the people and charged George +III. and his councillors with gross indifference to the welfare of the +nation and corresponding devotion to selfish interests. He contended +that Parliament was usurping privileges when it presumed to expel any +one, that the people had a right to send whomsoever they pleased to +Parliament, and finally that "in all disputes between them and their +rulers, the presumption was at least upon a par in favor of the +people." From this time until the American Revolution, Burke used every +opportunity to denounce the policy which the king was pursuing at home +and abroad. He doubtless knew beforehand that what he might say would +pass unnoticed, but he never faltered in a steadfast adherence to +his ideas of government, founded, as he believed, upon the soundest +principles. Bristol elected him as its representative in Parliament. It +was a great honor and Burke felt its significance, yet he did not flinch +when the time came for him to take a stand. He voted for the removal +of some of the restrictions upon Irish trade. His constituents, +representing one of the most prosperous mercantile districts, angered +and disappointed at what they held to be a betrayal of trust, refused to +reelect him. + +Lord North's ministry came to an end in 1782, immediately after the +battle of Yorktown, and Lord Rockingham was chosen prime minister. +Burke's past services warranted him in expecting an important place in +the cabinet, but he was ignored. Various things have been suggested +as reasons for this: he was poor; some of his relations and intimate +associates were objectionable; there were dark hints of speculations; he +was an Irishman. It is possible that any one of these facts, or all of +them, furnished a good excuse for not giving him an important position +in the new government. But it seems more probable that Burke's abilities +were not appreciated so justly as they have been since. The men with +whom he associated saw some of his greatness but not all of it. He +was assigned the office of Paymaster of Forces, a place of secondary +importance. + +Lord Rockingham died in three months and the party went to pieces. Burke +refused to work under Shelburne, and, with Fox, joined Lord North in +forming the coalition which overthrew the Whig party. Burke has been +severely censured for the part he took in this. Perhaps there is little +excuse for his desertion, and it is certainly true that his course +raises the question of his sincere devotion to principles. His personal +dislike of Shelburne was so intense that he may have yielded to his +feelings. He felt hurt, too, we may be sure, at the disposition made of +him by his friends. In replying to a letter asking him for a place +in the new government, he writes that his correspondent has been +misinformed. "I make no part of the ministerial arrangement," he writes, +and adds, "Something in the official line may be thought fit for my +measure." + +As a supporter of the coalition, Burke was one of the framers of +the India Bill. This was directed against the wholesale robbery and +corruption which the East India Company had been guilty of in its +government of the country. Both Fox and Burke defended the measure with +all the force and power which a thorough mastery of facts, a keen sense +of the injustice done an unhappy people, and a splendid rhetoric +can give. But it was doomed from the first. The people at large were +indifferent, many had profitable business relations with the company, +and the king used his personal influence against it. The bill failed to +pass, the coalition was dismissed, and the party, which had in Burke its +greatest representative, was utterly ruined. + +The failure of the India Bill marked a victory for the king, and it +also prepared the way for one of the most famous transactions of Burke's +life. Macaulay has told how impressive and magnificent was the scene +at the trial of Warren Hastings. There were political reasons for the +impeachment, but the chief motive that stirred Burke was far removed +from this. He saw and understood the real state of affairs in India. The +mismanagement, the brutal methods, and the crimes committed there in the +name of the English government, moved him profoundly, and when he rose +before the magnificent audience at Westminster, for opening the cause, +he forced his hearers, by his own mighty passion, to see with his own +eyes, and to feel his own righteous anger. "When he came to his two +narratives," says Miss Burney, "when he related the particulars of those +dreadful murders, he interested, he engaged, he at last overpowered me; +I felt my cause lost. I could hardly keep my seat. My eyes dreaded a +single glance toward a man so accused as Mr. Hastings; I wanted to sink +on the floor, that they might be saved so painful a sight. I had no hope +he could clear himself; not another wish in his favor remained." The +trial lasted for six years and ended with the acquittal of Hastings. The +result was not a surprise, and least of all to Burke. The fate of the +India Bill had taught him how completely indifferent the popular mind +was to issues touching deep moral questions. Though a seeming failure, +he regarded the impeachment as the greatest work of his life. It did +much to arouse and stimulate the national sense of justice. It +made clear the cruel methods sometimes pursued under the guise of +civilization and progress. The moral victory is claimed for Burke, and +without a doubt the claim is valid. + +The second of the great social and political problems, which employed +English statesmen in the last half of the eighteenth century, was +settled in the impeachment of Warren Hastings. The affairs of America +and India were now overshadowed by the French Revolution, and Burke, +with the far-sighted vision of a veteran statesman, watched the progress +of events and their influence upon the established order. In 1773 he had +visited France, and had returned displeased. It is remarkable with what +accuracy he pointed out the ultimate tendency of much that he saw. A +close observer of current phases of society, and on the alert to explain +them in the light of broad and fundamental principles of human progress, +he had every opportunity for studying social life at the French capital. +Unlike the younger men of his times, he was doubtful, and held his +judgment in suspense. The enthusiasm of even Fox seemed premature, and +he held himself aloof from the popular demonstrations of admiration and +approval that were everywhere going on. The fact is, Burke was growing +old, and with his years he was becoming more conservative. He dreaded +change, and was suspicious of the wisdom of those who set about such +widespread innovations, and made such brilliant promises for the future. +But the time rapidly approached for him to declare himself, and in 1790 +his Reflections on the Revolution in France was issued. His friends +had long waited its appearance, and were not wholly surprised at the +position taken. What did surprise them was the eagerness with which the +people seized upon the book, and its effect upon them. The Tories, with +the king, applauded long and loud; the Whigs were disappointed, for +Burke condemned the Revolution unreservedly, and with a bitterness +out of all proportion to the cause of his anxiety and fear. As the +Revolution progressed, he grew fiercer in his denunciation. He broke +with his lifelong associates, and declared that no one who sympathized +with the work of the Assembly could be his friend. His other writings +on the Revolution [Footnote: Letter to a Member of the National Assembly +and Letters on a Regicide Peace.] were in a still more violent strain, +and it is hard to think of them as coming from the author of the Speech +on Conciliation. + +Three years before his death, at the conclusion of the trial of Warren +Hastings, Burke's last term in Parliament expired. He did not wish +office again and withdrew to his estate. Through the influence of +friends, and because of his eminent services, it was proposed to make +him peer, with the title of Lord Beacons field. But the death of his son +prevented, and a pension of twenty-five hundred pounds a year was given +instead. It was a signal for his enemies, and during his last days he +was busy with his reply. The "Letter to a Noble Lord," though written +little more than a year before his death, is considered one of the most +perfect of his papers. Saddened by the loss of his son, and broken in +spirits, there is yet left him enough old-time energy and fire to answer +his detractors. But his wonderful career was near its close. His last +months were spent in writing about the French Revolution, and the third +letter on a Regicide Peace--a fragment--was doubtless composed just +before his death. On the 9th of July, 1797, he passed away. His friends +claimed for him a place in Westminster, but his last wish was respected, +and he was buried at Beaconsfield. + + + + +BURKE AS A STATESMAN + +There is hardly a political tract or pamphlet of Burke's in which he +does not state, in terms more or less clear, the fundamental principle +in his theory of government. "Circumstances," he says in one place, +"give, in reality, to every political principle, its distinguishing +color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what renders +every civil and political scheme beneficial or obnoxious to mankind." At +another time he exclaims: "This is the true touchstone of all theories +which regard man and the affairs of men; does it suit his nature in +general, does it suit his nature as modified by his habits?" And again +he extends his system to affairs outside the realm of politics. "All +government," he declares, "indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, +every virtue and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and +barter." + +It is clear that Burke thought the State existed for the people, and not +the people for the State. The doctrine is old to us, but it was not +so in Burke's time, and it required courage to expound it. The great +parties had forgotten the reason for their existence, and one of them +had become hardened and blinded by that corruption which seems to follow +long tenure of office. The affairs of India, Ireland, and America gave +excellent opportunity for an exhibition of English statesmanship, but in +each case the policy pursued was dictated, not by a clear perception +of what was needed in these countries, but by narrow selfishness, not +unmixed with dogmatism of the most challenging sort. The situation in +India, as regards climate, character, and institutions, counted for +little in the minds of those who were growing rich as agents of the East +India Company. Much the same may be said of America and Ireland. The +sense of Parliament, influenced by the king, was to use these parts +of the British Empire in raising a revenue, and in strengthening party +organization at home. In opposing this policy, Burke lost his seat +as representative for Bristol, then the second city of England; spent +fourteen of the best years of his life in conducting the impeachment +of Warren Hastings, Governor-General of India; and, greatest of all, +delivered his famous speeches on Taxation and Conciliation, in behalf of +the American colonists. + +Notwithstanding the distinctly modern tone of Burke's ideas, it would +be wrong to think of him as a thoroughgoing reformer. He has been called +the Great Conservative, and the title is appropriate. He would have +shrunk from a purely republican form of government, such as our own, +and it is, perhaps, a fact that he was suspicious of a government by the +people. The trouble, as he saw it, lay with the representatives of the +people. Upon them, as guardians of a trust, rested the responsibility +of protecting those whom they were chosen to serve. While he bitterly +opposed any measures involving radical change in the Constitution, he +was no less ardent in denouncing political corruptions of all kinds +whatsoever. In his Economical Reform he sought to curtail the enormous +extravagance of the royal household, and to withdraw the means of +wholesale bribery, which offices at the disposal of the king created. +He did not believe that a more effective means than this lay in the +proposed plan for a redistribution of seats in the House of Commons. In +one place, he declared it might be well to lessen the number of voters, +in order to add to their weight and independence; at another, he asks +that the people be stimulated to a more careful scrutiny of the conduct +of their representatives; and on every occasion he demands that the +legislators give their support to those measures only which have for +their object the good of the whole people. + +It is obvious, however, that Burke's policy had grievous faults. His +reverence for the past, and his respect for existing institutions as the +heritage of the past, made him timid and overcautious in dealing with +abuses. Although he stood with Pitt in defending the American colonies, +he had no confidence in the thoroughgoing reforms which the great +Commoner proposed. When the Stamp Act was repealed, Pitt would have +gone even further. He would have acknowledged the absolute injustice of +taxation without representation. Burke held tenaciously to the opposing +theory, and warmly supported the Declaratory Act, which "asserted +the supreme authority of Parliament over the colonies, in all cases +whatsoever." His support of the bill for the repeal of the Stamp Act, as +well as his plea for reconciliation, ten years later, were not prompted +by a firm belief in the injustice of England's course. He expressly +states, in both cases that to enforce measures so repugnant to the +Americans, would be detrimental to the home government. It would result +in confusion and disorder, and would bring, perhaps, in the end, open +rebellion. All of his speeches on American affairs show his willingness +to "barter and compromise" in order to avoid this, but nowhere is there +a hint of fundamental error in the Constitution. This was sacred to him, +and he resented to the last any proposition looking to an organic change +in its structure. "The lines of morality," he declared, "are not like +ideal lines of mathematics. They are broad and deep, as well as long. +They admit of exceptions; they demand modifications. These exceptions +and modifications are made, not by the process of logic, but the rules +of prudence. Prudence is not only first in rank of all the virtues, +political and moral, but she is the director, the regulator, the +standard of them all." + +The chief characteristics, then, of Burke's political philosophy are +opposed to much that is fundamental in modern systems. His doctrine is +better than that of George III, because it is more generous, and affords +opportunity for superficial readjustment and adaptation. It is this +last, or rather the proof it gives of his insight, that has secured +Burke so high a place among English statesmen. + + + + +A GROUP OF WRITERS COMING IMMEDIATELY BEFORE BURKE + + Addison. . . . 1672-1719 + Steele . . . . 1672-1729 + Defoe. . . . . 1661-1731 + Swift. . . . . 1667-1745 + Pope . . . . . 1688-1744 + Richardson . . 1689-1761 + + + + +A GROUP OF WRITERS CONTEMPORARY WITH BURKE + + Johnson . . . . 1709-1784 + Goldsmith . . . 1728-1774 + Fielding. . . . 1707-1754 + Sterne. . . . . 1713-1768 + Smollett. . . . 1721-1771 + Gray. . . . . . 1716-1771 + Boswell . . . . 1740-1795 + + + + +BURKE IN LITERATURE + +It has become almost trite to speak of the breadth of Burke's +sympathies. We should examine the statement, however, and understand its +significance and see its justice. While he must always be regarded first +as a statesman of one of the highest types, he had other interests than +those directly suggested by his office, and in one of these, at least, +he affords an interesting and profitable study. + +To the student of literature Burke's name must always suggest that of +Johnson and Goldsmith. It was eight years after Burke's first appearance +as an author, that the famous Literary Club was formed. At first it was +the intention to limit the club to a membership of nine, and for a +time this was adhered to. The original members were Johnson, Burke, +Goldsmith, Reynolds, and Hawkins. Garrick, Pox, and Boswell came in +later. Macaulay declares that the influence of the club was so great +that its verdict made and unmade reputations; but the thing most +interesting to us does not lie in the consideration of such literary +dictatorship. To Boswell we owe a biography of Johnson which has +immortalized its subject, and shed lustre upon all associated with him. +The literary history of the last third of the eighteenth century, with +Johnson as a central figure, is told nowhere else with such accuracy, or +with better effect. + +Although a Tory, Johnson was a great one, and his lasting friendship for +Burke is an enduring evidence of his generosity and great-mindedness. +For twenty years, and longer, they were eminent men in opposing parties, +yet their mutual respect and admiration continued to the last. To Burke, +Johnson was a writer of "eminent literary merit" and entitled to a +pension "solely on that account." To Johnson, Burke was the greatest +man of his age, wrong politically, to be sure, yet the only one "whose +common conversation corresponded to the general fame which he had in +the world"--the only one "who was ready, whatever subject was chosen, to +meet you on your own ground." Here and there in the Life are allusions +to Burke, and admirable estimates of his many-sided character. + +Coming directly to an estimate of Burke from the purely literary point +of view, it must be borne in mind that the greater part of his writings +was prepared for an audience. Like Macaulay, his prevailing style +suggests the speaker, and his methods throughout are suited to +declamation and oratory. He lacks the ease and delicacy that we are +accustomed to look for in the best prose writers, and occasionally one +feels the justice of Johnson's stricture, that "he sometimes talked +partly from ostentation", or of Hazlitt's criticism that he seemed to be +"perpetually calling the speaker out to dance a minuet with him before +he begins." + +There may be passages here and there that warrant such censure. Burke is +certainly ornate, and at times he is extremely self-conscious, but the +dominant quality of his style, and the one which forever contradicts +the idea of mere showiness, is passion. In his method of approaching a +subject, he may be, and perhaps is, rather tedious, but when once he +has come to the matter really in hand, he is no longer the rhetorician, +dealing in fine phrases, but the great seer, clothing his thoughts +in words suitable and becoming. The most magnificent passages in +his writings--the Conciliation is rich in them--owe their charm and +effectiveness to this emotional capacity. They were evidently written +in moments of absolute abandonment to feeling--in moments when he was +absorbed in the contemplation of some great truth, made luminous by his +own unrivalled powers. + +Closely allied to this intensity of passion, is a splendid imaginative +quality. Few writers of English prose have such command of figurative +expression. It must be said, however, that Burke was not entirely free +from the faults which generally accompany an excessive use of figures. +Like other great masters of a decorative style, he frequently becomes +pompous and grandiloquent. His thought, too, is obscured, where we +would expect great clearness of statement, accompanied by a dignified +simplicity; and occasionally we feel that he forgets his subject in an +anxious effort to make an impression. Though there are passages in his +writings that justify such observations, they are few in number, when +compared with those which are really masterpieces of their kind. + +Some great crisis, or threatening state of affairs, seems to furnish the +necessary condition for the exercise of a great mind, and Burke is never +so effective as when thoroughly aroused. His imagination needed the +chastening which only a great moment or critical situation could give. +Two of his greatest speeches--Conciliation, and Impeachment of +Warren Hastings--were delivered under the restraining effect of such +circumstances, and in each the figurative expression is subdued and not +less beautiful in itself than, appropriate for the occasion. + +Finally, it must be observed that no other writer of English prose has a +better command of words. His ideas, as multifarious as they are, always +find fitting expression. He does not grope for a term; it stands ready +for his thought, and one feels that he had opportunity for choice. It +is the exuberance of his fancy, already mentioned, coupled with this +richness of vocabulary, that helped to make Burke a tiresome speaker. +His mind was too comprehensive to allow any phase of his subject to pass +without illumination. He followed where his subject led him, without any +great attention to the patience of his audience. But he receives full +credit when his speeches are read. It is then that his mastery of +the subject and the splendid qualities of his style are apparent, and +appreciated at their worth. + +In conclusion, it is worth while observing that in the study of a +great character, joined with an attempt to estimate it by conventional +standards, something must always be left unsaid. Much may be learned of +Burke by knowing his record as a partisan, more by a minute inspection +of his style as a writer, but beyond all this is the moral tone or +attitude of the man himself. To a student of Burke this is the greatest +thing about him. It colored every line he wrote, and to it, more than +anything else, is due the immense force of the man as a speaker and +writer. It was this, more than Burke's great abilities, that justifies +Dr. Johnson's famous eulogy: "He is not only the first man in the House +of Commons, he is the first man everywhere." + + + + +A GROUP OF WRITERS COMING IMMEDIATELY AFTER BURKE + +Wordsworth . . . . 1770-1850 + +Coleridge . . . . . 1772-1834 + +Byron . . . . . . . 1788-1824 + +Shelley . . . . . . 1792-1822 + +Keats . . . . . . . 1795-1821 + +Scott . . . . . . . 1771-1832 + + + + +TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS + +1. "Like Goldsmith, though in a different sphere, Burke belongs both to +the old order and the new." Discuss that statement. + +2. Burke and the Literary Club. (Boswell's Life of Johnson.) + +3. Lives of Burke and Goldsmith. Contrast. + +4. An interpretation of ten apothegms selected from the Speech on +Conciliation. + +5. A study of figures in the Speech on Conciliation. + +6. A definition of the terms: "colloquialism" and "idiom" Instances of +their use in the Speech on Conciliation. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +1. Burke's Life. John Morley. English Men of Letters Series. + +2. Burke. John Morley. An Historical Study. + +3. Burke. John Morley. Encyclopaedia Britannica. + +4. History of the English People. Green. Vol. IV., pp 193-271. + +5 History of Civilization in England. Buckle. Vol I, pp. 326-338 + +6. The American Revolution. Fiske. Vol. I, Chaps. I., II. + +7. Life of Johnson. Boswell. (Use the Index) + + + + +EDMUND BURKE + +ON MOVING HIS RESOLUTIONS FOR CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES. HOUSE OF +COMMONS, MARCH 22, 1775 + + +I hope, Sir, that notwithstanding the austerity of the Chair, your +good nature will incline you to some degree of indulgence towards human +frailty. You will not think it unnatural that those who have an object +depending, which strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be +somewhat inclined to superstition. As I came into the House full of +anxiety about the event of my motion, I found, to my infinite surprise, +that the grand penal bill, [Footnote: 1] by which we had passed sentence +on the trade and sustenance of America, is to be returned to us from the +other House. I do confess I could not help looking on this event as a +fortunate omen. I look upon it as a sort of providential favor, by which +we are put once more in possession of our deliberative capacity upon a +business so very questionable in its nature, so very uncertain in its +issue. By the return of this bill, which seemed to have taken its flight +forever, we are at this very instant nearly as free to choose a plan for +our American Government as we were on the first day of the session. +If, Sir, we incline to the side of conciliation, we are not at all +embarrassed (unless we please to make ourselves so) by any incongruous +mixture of coercion and restraint. We are therefore called upon, as it +were by a superior warning voice, again to attend to America; to attend +to the whole of it together; and to review the subject with an unusual +degree of care and calmness. + +Surely it is an awful subject, or there is none so on this side of the +grave. When I first had the honor [Footnote: 2] of a seat in this House, +the affairs of that continent pressed themselves upon us as the most +important and most delicate object of Parliamentary attention. My little +share in this great deliberation oppressed me. I found myself a partaker +in a very high trust; and, having no sort of reason to rely on the +strength of my natural abilities for the proper execution of that trust, +I was obliged to take more than common pains to instruct myself in +everything which relates to our Colonies. I was not less under the +necessity of forming some fixed ideas concerning the general policy of +the British Empire. Something of this sort seemed to be indispensable, +in order, amidst so vast a fluctuation of passions and opinions, to +concentre my thoughts, to ballast my conduct, to preserve me from being +blown about by every wind of fashionable doctrine. I really did not +think it safe or manly to have fresh principles to seek upon every fresh +mail which should arrive from America. + +At that period I had the fortune to find myself in perfect concurrence +with a large majority in this House. Bowing under that high authority, +and penetrated with the sharpness and strength of that early impression, +I have continued ever since, without the least deviation, in my +original sentiments. [Footnote: 3] Whether this be owing to an obstinate +perseverance in error, or to a religious adherence to what appears to me +truth, and reason, it is in your equity to judge. + +Sir, Parliament having an enlarged view of objects, made, during this +interval, more frequent changes in their sentiments and their conduct +than could be justified in a particular person upon the contracted scale +of private information. But though I do not hazard anything approaching +to a censure on the motives of former Parliaments to all those +alterations, one fact is undoubted--that under them the state of +America has been kept in continual agitation. [Footnote: 4] Everything +administered as remedy to the public complaint, if it did not produce, +was at least followed by, an heightening of the distemper; until, by a +variety of experiments, that important country has been brought into her +present situation--a situation which I will not miscall, which I dare +not name, which I scarcely know how to comprehend in the terms of any +description. + +In this posture, Sir, things stood at the beginning of the session. +About that time, a worthy member [Footnote: 5] of great Parliamentary +experience, who, in the year 1766, filled the chair of the American +committee with much ability, took me aside; and, lamenting the present +aspect of our politics, told me things were come to such a pass that +our former [Footnote: 6] methods of proceeding in the House would be +no longer tolerated: that the public tribunal (never too indulgent to a +long and unsuccessful opposition) would now scrutinize our conduct +with unusual severity: that the very vicissitudes and shiftings of +Ministerial measures, instead of convicting their authors of inconstancy +and want of system, would be taken as an occasion of charging us with a +predetermined discontent, which nothing could satisfy; whilst we accused +every measure of vigor as cruel, and every proposal of lenity as weak +and irresolute. The public, he said, would not have patience to see us +play the game out with our adversaries; we must produce our hand. It +would be expected that those who for many years had been active in such +affairs should show that they had formed some clear and decided idea +of the principles of Colony government; and were capable of drawing out +something like a platform of the ground which might be laid for future +and permanent tranquillity. + +I felt the truth of what my honorable friend represented; but I felt +my situation too. His application might have been made with far greater +propriety to many other gentlemen. No man was indeed ever better +disposed, or worse qualified, for such an undertaking than myself. +Though I gave so far in to his opinion that I immediately threw my +thoughts into a sort of Parliamentary form, I was by no means equally +ready to produce them. It generally argues some degree of natural +impotence of mind, or some want of knowledge of the world, to hazard +plans of government except from a seat of authority. Propositions are +made, not only ineffectually, but somewhat disreputably, when the minds +of men are not properly disposed for their reception; and, for my part, +I am not ambitious of ridicule--not absolutely a candidate for disgrace. + +Besides, Sir, to speak the plain truth, I have in general no very +exalted opinion of the virtue of paper government; [Footnote: 7] nor +of any politics in which the plan is to be wholly separated from the +execution. But when I saw that anger and violence prevailed every day +more and more, and that things were hastening towards an incurable +alienation of our Colonies, I confess my caution gave way. I felt this +as one of those few moments in which decorum yields to a higher duty. +Public calamity is a mighty leveller; and there are occasions when any, +even the slightest, chance of doing good must be laid hold on, even by +the most inconsiderable person. + +To restore order and repose to an empire so great and so distracted as +ours, is, merely in the attempt, an undertaking that would ennoble the +flights of the highest genius, and obtain pardon for the efforts of the +meanest understanding. Struggling a good while with these thoughts, by +degrees I felt myself more firm. I derived, at length, some confidence +from what in other circumstances usually produces timidity. I grew less +anxious, even from the idea of my own insignificance. For, judging of +what you are by what you ought to be, I persuaded myself that you would +not reject a reasonable proposition because it had nothing but its +reason to recommend it. On the other hand, being totally destitute of +all shadow of influence, natural or adventitious, I was very sure that, +if my proposition were futile or dangerous--if it were weakly conceived, +or improperly timed--there was nothing exterior to it of power to awe, +dazzle, or delude you. You will see it just as it is; and you will treat +it just as it deserves. + +The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war; not +peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless +negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal discord fomented, +from principle, in all parts of the Empire, not peace to depend on the +juridical determination of perplexing questions, or the precise marking +the shadowy boundaries of a complex government. It is simple peace; +sought in its natural course, and in its ordinary haunts. It is peace +sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in principles purely pacific. I +propose, by removing the ground of the difference, and by restoring the +former unsuspecting confidence of the Colonies in the Mother Country, +to give permanent satisfaction to your people; and (far from a scheme of +ruling by discord) to reconcile them to each other in the same act and +by the bond of the very same interest which reconciles them to British +government. + +My idea is nothing more. Refined policy [Footnote: 8] ever has been, the +parent of confusion; and ever will be so, as long as the world endures. +Plain good intention, which is as easily discovered at the first view +as fraud is surely detected at last, is, let me say, of no mean force in +the government of mankind. Genuine simplicity of heart is an healing +and cementing principle. My plan, therefore, being formed upon the most +simple grounds imaginable, may disappoint some people when they hear it. +It has nothing to recommend it to the pruriency of curious ears. There +is nothing at all new and captivating in it. It has nothing of the +splendor of the project [Footnote: 9] which has been lately laid upon +your table by the noble lord in the blue ribbon. [Footnote: 10] It does +not propose to fill your lobby with squabbling Colony agents, [Footnote: +11] who will require the interposition of your mace, at every instant, +to keep the peace amongst them. It does not institute a magnificent +auction of finance, where captivated provinces come to general ransom +by bidding against each other, until you knock down the hammer, and +determine a proportion of payments beyond all the powers of algebra to +equalize and settle. + +The plan which I shall presume to suggest derives, however, one great +advantage from the proposition and registry of that noble lord's +project. The idea of conciliation is admissible. First, the House, +in accepting the resolution moved by the noble lord, has admitted, +notwithstanding the menacing front of our address, [Footnote: 12] +notwithstanding our heavy bills of pains and penalties--that we do not +think ourselves precluded from all ideas of free grace and bounty. + +The House has gone farther; it has declared conciliation admissible, +previous to any submission on the part of America. It has even shot a +good deal beyond that mark, and has admitted that the complaints of our +former mode of exerting the right of taxation were not wholly unfounded. +That right thus exerted is allowed to have something reprehensible in +it, something unwise, or something grievous; since, in the midst of +our heat and resentment, we, of ourselves, have proposed a +capital alteration; and in order to get rid of what seemed so very +exceptionable, have instituted a mode that is altogether new; one that +is, indeed, wholly alien from all the ancient methods and forms of +Parliament. + +The principle of this proceeding is large enough for my purpose. The +means proposed by the noble lord for carrying his ideas into execution, +I think, indeed, are very indifferently suited to the end; and this I +shall endeavor to show you before I sit down. But, for the present, I +take my ground on the admitted principle. I mean to give peace. Peace +implies reconciliation; and where there has been a material dispute, +reconciliation does in a manner always imply concession on the one +part or on the other. In this state of things, I make no difficulty +in affirming that the proposal ought to originate from us. Great and +acknowledged force is not impaired, either in effect or in opinion, by +an unwillingness to exert itself. The superior power may offer peace +with honor and with safety. Such an offer from such a power will be +attributed to magnanimity. But the concessions of the weak are the +concessions of fear. When such a one is disarmed, he is wholly at the +mercy of his superior; and he loses forever that time and those chances, +[Footnote: 13] which, as they happen to all men, are the strength and +resources of all inferior power. + +The capital leading questions on which you must this day decide are +these two: First, whether you ought to concede; and secondly, what your +concession ought to be. On the first of these questions we have gained, +as I have just taken the liberty of observing to you, some ground. But +I am sensible that a good deal more is still to be done. Indeed, Sir, +to enable us to determine both on the one and the other of these great +questions with a firm and precise judgment, I think it may be necessary +to consider distinctly the true nature and the peculiar circumstances +of the object which we have before us; because after all our struggle, +whether we will or not, we must govern America according to that nature +and to those circumstances, [Footnote: 14] and not according to our +own imaginations, nor according to abstract ideas of right--by no means +according to mere general theories of government, the resort to which +appears to me, in our present situation, no better than arrant trifling. +I shall therefore endeavor, with your leave, to lay before you some +of the most material of these circumstances in as full and as clear a +manner as I am able to state them. + +The first thing that we have to consider with regard to the nature of +the object is--the number of people in the Colonies. I have taken for +some years a good deal of pains on that point. I can by no calculation +justify myself in placing the number below two millions of inhabitants +of our own European blood and color, besides at least five hundred +thousand others, who form no inconsiderable part of the strength and +opulence of the whole. This, Sir, is, I believe, about the true number. +There is no occasion to exaggerate where plain truth is of so much +weight and importance. But whether I put the present numbers too high +or too low is a matter of little moment. Such is the strength with which +population shoots in that part of the world, that, state the numbers as +high as we will, whilst the dispute continues, the exaggeration ends. +Whilst we are discussing any given magnitude, they are grown to it. +Whilst we spend our time in deliberating on the mode of governing two +millions, we shall find we have millions more to manage. Your children +do not grow faster from infancy to manhood than they spread from +families to communities, and from villages to nations. + +I put this consideration of the present and the growing numbers in the +front of our deliberation, because, Sir, this consideration will make +it evident to a blunter discernment than yours, that no partial, narrow, +contracted, pinched, occasional system will be at all suitable to such +an object. It will show you that it is not to be considered as one of +those minima which are out of the eye and consideration of the law; +not a paltry excrescence of the state; not a mean dependent, who may be +neglected with little damage and provoked with little danger. It will +prove that some degree of care and caution is required in the handling +such an object; it will show that you ought not, in reason, to trifle +with so large a mass of the interests and feelings of the human race. +You could at no time do so without guilt; and be assured you will not be +able to do it long with impunity. + +But the population of this country, the great and growing population, +though a very important consideration, will lose much of its weight if +not combined with other circumstances. The commerce of your Colonies is +out of all proportion beyond the numbers of the people. This ground +of their commerce indeed has been trod some days ago, and with great +ability, by a distinguished person at your bar. This gentleman, after +thirty-five years--it is so long since he first appeared at the same +place to plead for the commerce of Great Britain--has come again before +you to plead the same cause, without any other effect of time, than +that to the fire of imagination and extent of erudition which even then +marked him as one of the first literary characters of his age, he has +added a consummate knowledge in the commercial interest of his country, +formed by a long course of enlightened and discriminating experience. + +Sir, I should be inexcusable in coming after such a person with any +detail, if a great part of the members who now fill the House had not +the misfortune to be absent when he appeared at your bar. Besides, Sir, +I propose to take the matter at periods of time somewhat different from +his. There is, if I mistake not, a point of view from whence, if you +will look at the subject, it is impossible that it should not make an +impression upon you. + +I have in my hand two accounts; one a comparative state of the export +trade of England to its Colonies, as it stood in the year 1704, and as +it stood in the year 1772; the other a state of the export trade of this +country to its Colonies alone, as it stood in 1772, compared with the +whole trade of England to all parts of the world (the Colonies included) +in the year 1704. They are from good vouchers; the latter period from +the accounts on your table, the earlier from an original manuscript of +Davenant, who first established the Inspector-General's office, which +has been ever since his time so abundant a source of Parliamentary +information. + +The export trade to the Colonies consists of three great branches: the +African--which, terminating almost wholly in the Colonies, must be +put to the account of their commerce,--the West Indian, and the North +American. All these are so interwoven that the attempt to separate them +would tear to pieces the contexture of the whole; and, if not entirely +destroy, would very much depreciate the value of all the parts. I +therefore consider these three denominations to be, what in effect they +are, one trade. [Footnote: 15] + +The trade to the Colonies, taken on the export side, at the beginning of +this century, that is, in the year 1704, stood thus:-- + + Exports to North America and the West Indies. L483,265 + To Africa. .................................. 86,665 + -------- + L569,930 + +In the year 1772, which I take as a middle year between the highest and +lowest of those lately laid on your table, the account was as follows:-- + + To North America and the West Indies ...... L4,791,734 + To Africa. ................................ 866,398 + To which, if you add the export trade from + Scotland, which had in 1704 no existence .. 364,000 + ---------- + L6,022,132 + +From five hundred and odd thousand, it has grown to six millions. It +has increased no less than twelve-fold. This is the state of the +Colony trade as compared with itself at these two periods within this +century;--and this is matter for meditation. But this is not all. +Examine my second account. See how the export trade to the Colonies +alone in 1772 stood in the other point of view; that is, as compared to +the whole trade of England in 1704:-- + + The whole export trade of England, including + that to the Colonies, in 1704. ................ L6,509,000 + Export to the Colonies alone, in 1772 ......... 6,024,000 + + ---------- + Difference, L485,000 + +The trade with America alone is now within less than L500,000 of being +equal to what this great commercial nation, England, carried on at +the beginning of this century with the whole world! If I had taken the +largest year of those on your table, it would rather have exceeded. But, +it will be said, is not this American trade an unnatural protuberance, +that has drawn the juices from the rest of the body? The reverse. It +is the very food that has nourished every other part into its present +magnitude. Our general trade has been greatly augmented, and augmented +more or less in almost every part to which it ever extended; but +with this material difference, that of the six millions which in the +beginning of the century constituted the whole mass of our export +commerce, the Colony trade was but one-twelfth part, it is now (as a +part of sixteen millions) considerably more than a third of the whole. +This is the relative proportion of the importance of the Colonies at +these two periods, and all reasoning concerning our mode of treating +them must have this proportion as its basis, or it is a reasoning weak, +rotten, and sophistical. + +Mr. Speaker, I cannot prevail on myself to hurry over this great +consideration. [Footnote: 15] IT IS GOOD FOR US TO BE HERE. [Footnote: +16] We stand where we have an immense view of what is, and what is past. +Clouds, indeed, and darkness, rest upon the future. Let us, however, +before we descend from this noble eminence, reflect that this growth of +our national prosperity has happened within the short period of the life +of man. It has happened within sixty-eight years. There are those alive +whose memory might touch the two extremities. For instance, my Lord +Bathurst might remember all the stages of the progress. He was in 1704 +of an age at least to be made to comprehend such things. He was then old +enough acta parentum jam legere, et quae sit potuit cognoscere virtus. +[Footnote: 17] Suppose, Sir, that the angel of this auspicious youth, +foreseeing the many virtues which made him one of the most amiable, as +he is one of the most fortunate, men of his age, had opened to him in +vision that when in the fourth generation the third Prince of the House +of Brunswick had sat twelve years on the throne of that nation which, by +the happy issue of moderate and healing counsels, was to be made Great +Britain, he should see his son, Lord Chancellor of England, turn back +the current of hereditary dignity to its fountain, and raise him to +a higher rank of peerage, whilst he enriched the family with a new +one--if, amidst these bright and happy scenes of domestic honor and +prosperity, that angel should have drawn up the curtain, and unfolded +the rising glories of his country, and, whilst he was gazing with +admiration on the then commercial grandeur of England, the genius should +point out to him a little speck, scarcely visible in the mass of the +national interest, a small seminal principle, rather than a formed body, +and should tell him: "Young man, there is America--which at this day +serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men, and +uncouth manners; yet shall, before you taste of death, [Footnote: 18] +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 progressive +increase of improvement, brought in by varieties of people, by +succession of civilizing conquests and civilizing settlements in a +series of seventeen hundred years, you shall see as much added to her +by America in the course of a single life!" If this state of his +country had been foretold to him, would it not require all the sanguine +credulity of youth, and all the fervid glow of enthusiasm, to make him +believe it? Fortunate man, he has lived to see it! Fortunate, indeed, +if he lives to see nothing that shall vary the prospect, and cloud the +setting of his day! + +Excuse me, Sir, if turning from such thoughts I resume this comparative +view once more. You have seen it on a large scale; look at it on a small +one. I will point out to your attention a particular instance of it +in the single province of Pennsylvania. In the year 1704 that province +called for L11,459 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 Pennsylvania was L507,909, +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 cases are apt to heighten and +raise the subject, have here a tendency to sink it. When we speak of +the commerce with 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 view of its +commerce, as concerned in the exports from England. If I were to detail +the imports, I could show how many enjoyments they procure which deceive +the burthen of life; how many materials which invigorate the springs of +national industry, and extend and animate every part of our foreign and +domestic commerce. This would be a curious subject indeed; but I must +prescribe bounds to myself in a matter so vast and various. + +I pass, therefore, to the Colonies in another point of view, their +agriculture. This they have prosecuted with such a spirit, that, besides +feeding plentifully their own growing multitude, their annual export +of grain, comprehending rice, has some years ago exceeded a million in +value. Of their last harvest I am persuaded they will export much more. +At the beginning of the century some of these Colonies imported corn +from the Mother Country. For some time past the Old World has been +fed from the New. The scarcity which you have felt would have been a +desolating famine, if this child of your old age, with a true filial +piety, with a Roman charity, [Footnote: 19] had not put the full breast +of its youthful exuberance to the mouth of its exhausted parent. + +As to the wealth which the Colonies have drawn from the sea by their +fisheries, you had all that matter fully opened at your bar. You surely +thought those acquisitions of value, for they seemed even to excite your +envy; and yet the spirit by which that enterprising employment has been +exercised ought rather, in my opinion, to have raised your esteem and +admiration. And pray, Sir, what in the world is equal to it? Pass by the +other parts, and look at the manner in which the people of New England +have of late carried on the whale fishery. Whilst we follow them among +the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the +deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits, whilst we +are looking for them beneath the arctic circle, we hear that they have +pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, that they are at the +antipodes, and engaged under the frozen Serpent of the south. Falkland +Island, which seemed too remote and romantic an object for the grasp of +national ambition, is but a stage and resting-place in the progress of +their victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging +to them than the accumulated winter of both the poles. We know that +whilst some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast +of Africa, others run the longitude and pursue their gigantic game along +the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries; no +climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the perseverance of +Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity +of English enterprise ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy +industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent +people; a people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, 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 squeezed into this happy form by the +constraints of watchful and suspicious government, but that, through a +wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take +her own way to perfection; when I reflect upon these effects, when I see +how profitable they have been to us, I feel all the pride of power sink, +and all presumption in the wisdom of human contrivances melt and die +away within me. My rigor relents. I pardon something to the spirit of +liberty. + +I am sensible, Sir, that all which I have asserted in my detail is +admitted in the gross; but that quite a different conclusion is drawn +from it. America, gentlemen say, is a noble object. It is an object well +worth fighting for. Certainly it is, if fighting a people be the best +way of gaining them. Gentlemen in this respect will be led to their +choice of means by their complexions [Footnote: 20] and their habits. +Those who understand the military art will of course have some +predilection for it. Those who wield the thunder of the state [Footnote: +21] may have more confidence in the efficacy of arms. But I confess, +possibly for want of this knowledge, my opinion is much more in favor +of prudent management than of force; considering force not as an odious, +but a feeble instrument for preserving a people so numerous, so active, +so growing, so spirited as this, in a profitable and subordinate +connection with us. + +First, Sir, permit me to observe that the use of force alone is but +temporary. It may subdue for a moment, but it does not remove the +necessity of subduing again; and a nation is not governed [Footnote: 22] +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 succeed, you are +without resource; for, conciliation failing, force remains; but, force +failing, no further hope of reconciliation is left. Power and authority +are sometimes bought by kindness; but they can never be begged as alms +by an impoverished and defeated violence. + +A further objection to force is, that you impair the object by your +very endeavors to preserve it. The thing you fought for is not the thing +which you recover; but depreciated, sunk, wasted, and consumed in the +contest. Nothing less will content me than WHOLE AMERICA. I do not +choose to consume its strength along with our own, because in all parts +it is the British strength that I consume. I do not choose to be caught +by a foreign enemy at the end of this exhausting conflict; and still +less in the midst of it. I may escape; but I can make no insurance +against such an event. Let me add, that I do not choose wholly to break +the American spirit; because it is the spirit that has made the country. + +Lastly, we have no sort of experience in favor of force as an instrument +in the rule of our Colonies. Their growth and their utility has been +owing to methods altogether different. Our ancient indulgence [Footnote: +23] has been said to be pursued to a fault. It may be so. But we know if +feeling is evidence, that our fault was more tolerable than our attempt +to mend it; and our sin far more salutary than our penitence. + +These, Sir, are my reasons for not entertaining that high opinion of +untried force by which many gentlemen, for whose sentiments in other +particulars I have great respect, seem to be so greatly captivated. But +there is still behind a third consideration concerning this object which +serves to determine my opinion on the sort 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 character. + +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 suspicious, +restive, and untractable whenever they see the least attempt to wrest +from them by force, or shuffle from them by chicane, what they think +the only advantage worth living for. This fierce spirit of liberty is +stronger 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 amiss to lay open somewhat more largely. + +First, the people of the Colonies are descendants of Englishmen. +England, Sir, is a nation which still, I hope, respects, and formerly +adored, her freedom. The Colonists emigrated from you when this part +of your character was most predominant; and they took this bias 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 English principles. Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, +is not to be found. Liberty inheres in some sensible object; and +every nation has formed to itself some favorite point, which by way +of eminence becomes the criterion of their happiness. It happened, you +know, Sir, that the great contests [Footnote: 24] for freedom in this +country were from the earliest times chiefly upon the question of +taxing. Most of the contests in the ancient commonwealths turned +primarily on the right of election of magistrates; or on the balance +among the several orders of the state. The question of money was not +with them so immediate. But in England it was otherwise. On this +point of taxes the ablest pens, and most eloquent tongues, have been +exercised; the greatest spirits have acted and suffered. In order to +give the fullest satisfaction concerning the importance of this point, +it was not only necessary for those who in argument defended the +excellence of the English Constitution to insist 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 usages to reside in +a certain body called a House of Commons. They went much farther; they +attempted to prove, and they succeeded, that in theory it ought to be +so, from the particular nature of a House of Commons as an immediate +representative 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 must in effect themselves, +mediately or immediately, possess the power of granting their own money, +or no shadow of liberty can subsist. The Colonies draw from you, as with +their life-blood, these ideas and principles. Their love of liberty, as +with you, fixed and attached on this specific point of taxing. Liberty +might be safe, or might be endangered, in twenty other particulars, +without their being much pleased or alarmed. Here they felt its pulse; +and as they found that beat, they thought themselves sick or sound. I +do not say whether they were right or wrong in applying your general +arguments to their own case. It is not easy, indeed, to make a monopoly +of theorems and corollaries. The fact is, that they did thus apply those +general arguments; and your mode of governing them, whether through +lenity or indolence, through wisdom or mistake, confirmed them in the +imagination that they, as well as you, had an interest in these common +principles. + +They were further confirmed in this pleasing error by the form of their +provincial legislative assemblies. Their governments are popular in an +high degree; some are merely popular; in all, the popular representative +is the most weighty; and this share of the people in their ordinary +government never fails to inspire them with lofty sentiments, and with +a strong aversion from whatever tends to deprive them of their chief +importance. + +If anything were wanting to this necessary 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 professing it is also one main cause of this +free spirit. The people are Protestants; and of that kind which is the +most adverse to all implicit submission of mind and opinion. This is a +persuasion not only favorable to liberty, but built upon it. I do +not think, Sir, that the reason of this averseness in the dissenting +churches from all that looks like absolute government is so much to be +sought in their religious tenets, as in their history. Every one knows +that the Roman Catholic religion is at least co-eval with most of the +governments where it prevails; that it has generally gone hand in hand +with them, and received great favor and every kind of support from +authority. The Church of England too was formed from her cradle under +the nursing care of regular government. But the dissenting interests +have sprung up in direct opposition to all the ordinary powers of the +world, and could justify that opposition only on a strong claim to +natural liberty. Their very existence depended on the powerful and +unremitted assertion of that claim. All Protestantism, even the most +cold and passive, is a sort of dissent. But the religion most prevalent +in our Northern Colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; +it is the dissidence of dissent, and the protestantism of the Protestant +religion. This religion, under a variety of denominations agreeing in +nothing but in the communion of the spirit 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 sort of +private sect, not composing most probably the tenth of the people. The +Colonists left England when this spirit was high, and in the emigrants +was the highest of all; and even that stream of foreigners which has +been constantly flowing into these Colonies has, for the greatest part, +been composed of dissenters from the establishments of their several +countries, who 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 some gentlemen object to the +latitude of this description, because in the Southern Colonies the +Church of England forms a large body, and has a regular establishment. +It is certainly true. There is, however, a circumstance attending these +Colonies which, in my opinion, fully counterbalances this difference, +and makes the spirit of liberty still more high and haughty than in +those to the northward. It is that in Virginia and the Carolinas they +have a vast multitude of slaves. Where this is the case 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 [Footnote: 25] not only an enjoyment, +but a kind of rank and privilege. Not seeing there, that freedom, as in +countries where it is a common blessing and as broad and general as the +air, may be united with much abject toil, with great misery, with all +the exterior of servitude; liberty looks, amongst them, like something +that is more noble and liberal. I do not mean, Sir, to commend the +superior morality of this sentiment, which has at least as much pride as +virtue in it; but I cannot alter the nature of man. The fact is so; and +these people of the Southern Colonies are much more strongly, and with +an higher and more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty than those to +the northward. Such were all the ancient commonwealths; such were our +Gothic ancestors; such in our days were the Poles; and such will be all +masters of slaves, who are not slaves themselves. In such a people the +haughtiness of domination combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies +it, and renders it invincible. + +Permit me, Sir, to add another circumstance in our Colonies which +contributes no mean part towards the growth and effect of this +untractable spirit. I mean their education. In no country perhaps in the +world is the law so general a study. The profession itself is numerous +and powerful; and in most provinces it takes the lead. The greater +number of the deputies sent to the Congress were lawyers. But all who +read, and most do read, endeavor to obtain some smattering in that +science. I have been told by an eminent bookseller, that in no branch +of his business, after tracts of popular devotion, were so many books +as those on the law exported to the Plantations. The Colonists have now +fallen into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear that they +have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's Commentaries in America as in +England. General Gage marks out this disposition very particularly in +a letter on your table. He states that all the people in his government +are lawyers, or smatterers in law; and that in Boston they have been +enabled, by successful chicane, wholly to evade many parts of one of +your capital penal constitutions. The smartness of debate will say +that this knowledge ought to teach them more clearly the rights of +legislature, their obligations to obedience, and the penalties of +rebellion. All this is mighty well. But my honorable and learned friend +on the floor, who condescends to mark what I say for animadversion, will +disdain that ground. He has heard, as well as I, that when great honors +and great emoluments do not win over this knowledge to the service of +the state, it is a formidable adversary to government. If the spirit +be not tamed and broken by these happy methods, it is stubborn and +litigious. Abeunt studia in mores. [Footnote: 26] This study readers men +acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defence, full +of resources. In other countries, the people, more simple, and of a +less mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in government only by +an actual grievance; here they anticipate the evil, and judge of the +pressure of the grievance by the badness of the principle. They augur +misgovernment at a distance, and snuff the approach of tyranny in every +tainted breeze. + +The last cause of this disobedient spirit in the Colonies is hardly less +powerful than the rest, as it is not merely moral, but laid deep in +the natural constitution of things. Three thousand miles of ocean lie +between you and them. No contrivance can prevent the effect of this +distance in weakening government. Seas roll, and months pass, between +the order and the execution, and the want of a speedy explanation of +a single point is enough to defeat a whole system. You have, indeed, +winged ministers of vengeance, [Footnote: 27] who carry your bolts in +their pounces to the remotest verge of the sea. But there a power steps +in that limits the arrogance of raging passions and furious elements, +and says, SO FAR SHALL THOU GO, AND NO FARTHER. Who are you, that you +should fret and rage, and bite the chains of nature? Nothing worse +happens to you than does to all nations who have extensive empire; and +it happens in all the forms into which empire can be thrown. In large +bodies the circulation [Footnote: 28] of power must be less vigorous at +the extremities. Nature has said it. The Turk cannot govern Egypt and +Arabia and Kurdistan as he governs Thrace; nor has he the same dominion +in Crimea and Algiers which he has at Brusa and Smyrna. Despotism itself +is obliged to truck and huckster. The Sultan gets such obedience as he +can. He governs with a loose rein, that he may govern at all; and the +whole of the force and vigor of his authority in his centre is derived +from a prudent relaxation in all his borders. Spain, in her provinces, +is, perhaps, not so well obeyed as you are in yours. She complies, too; +she submits; she watches times. This is the immutable condition, the +eternal law of extensive and detached empire. + +Then, Sir, from these six capital sources--of descent, of form of +government, of religion in the Northern Provinces, of manners in the +Southern, of education, of the remoteness of situation from the first +mover of government--from all these causes a fierce spirit 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 exercise of power in England which, however +lawful, is not reconcilable to any ideas of liberty, much less with +theirs, has kindled this flame that is ready to consume us. + +I do not mean to commend either the spirit in this excess, or the moral +causes which produce it. Perhaps a more smooth and accommodating spirit +of freedom in them would be more acceptable to us. Perhaps ideas +of liberty might be desired more reconcilable with an arbitrary and +boundless authority. Perhaps we might wish the Colonists to be persuaded +that their liberty is more secure when held in trust for them by us, as +their guardians during a perpetual minority, than with any part of it +in their own hands. The question is, not whether their spirit deserves +praise or blame, but--what, in the name of God, shall we do with it? You +have before you the object, such as it is, with all its glories, with +all its imperfections [Footnote: 29] on its head. You see the magnitude, +the importance, the temper, the habits, the disorders. By all these +considerations we are strongly urged to determine something concerning +it. We are called upon to fix some rule and line for our future conduct +which may give a little stability to our politics, and prevent the +return of such unhappy deliberations as the present. Every such return +will bring the matter before us in a still more untractable form. For, +what astonishing and incredible things have we not seen already! What +monsters 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 so solid and certain, +either in reasoning or in practice, that has not been shaken. Until very +lately all authority in America seemed to be nothing but an emanation +from yours. Even, the popular part of the Colony Constitution derived +all its activity and its first vital movement from the pleasure of the +Crown. We thought, Sir, that the utmost which the discontented Colonies +could do was to disturb authority; we never dreamt they could of +themselves supply it--knowing in general what an operose business it is +to establish a government absolutely new. But having, for our purposes +in this contention, resolved that none but an obedient Assembly should +sit, the humors of the people there, finding all passage through the +legal channel stopped, with great violence broke out another way. Some +provinces have tried their experiment, as we have tried ours; and +theirs has succeeded. They have formed a government sufficient for its +purposes, without the bustle of a revolution or the formality of an +election. Evident necessity and tacit consent have done the business in +an instant. So well they have done it, that Lord Dunmore--the account is +among the fragments on your table--tells you that the new institution +is infinitely better obeyed than the ancient government ever was in its +most fortunate periods. Obedience is what makes government, and not the +names by which it is called; not the name of Governor, as formerly, or +Committee, as at present. This new government has originated directly +from the people, and was not transmitted through any of the ordinary +artificial media of a positive constitution. It was not a manufacture +ready formed, and transmitted to them in that condition from England. +The evil arising from hence is this; that the Colonists having once +found the possibility of enjoying the advantages of order in the midst +of a struggle for liberty, such struggles will not henceforward seem so +terrible to the settled and sober part of mankind as they had appeared +before the trial. Pursuing the same plan [Footnote: 30] of punishing by +the denial of the exercise of government to still greater lengths, +we wholly abrogated the ancient government of Massachusetts. We were +confident that the first feeling if not the very prospect, of anarchy +would instantly enforce a complete submission. The experiment was tried. +A new, strange, unexpected face of things appeared. Anarchy is found +tolerable. A vast province has now subsisted, and subsisted in a +considerable degree of health and vigor for near a twelvemonth, without +Governor, without public Council, without judges, without executive +magistrates. How long it will continue in this state, or what may arise +out of this unheard-of situation, how can the wisest of us conjecture? +Our late experience has taught us that many of those fundamental +principles, formerly believed infallible, are either not of the +importance they were imagined to be, or that we have not at all adverted +to some other far more important and far more powerful principles, +which entirely overrule those we had considered as omnipotent. I am much +against any further experiments which tend to put to the proof any +more of these allowed opinions which contribute so much to the public +tranquillity. In effect we suffer as much at home by this loosening +of all ties, and this concussion of all established opinions as we do +abroad; for in order to prove that the Americans have no right to their +liberties, we are every day endeavoring to subvert the maxims which +preserve the whole spirit of our own. To prove that the Americans +ought not to be free, we are obliged to depreciate the value of freedom +itself; and we never seem to gain a paltry advantage over them in debate +without attacking some of those principles, or deriding some of those +feelings, for which our ancestors have shed their blood. + +But, Sir, in wishing to put an end to pernicious experiments, I do not +mean to preclude the fullest inquiry. Far from it. Far from deciding on +a sudden or partial view, [Footnote: 31] I would patiently go round and +round the subject, and survey it minutely in every possible aspect. Sir, +if I were capable of engaging you to an equal attention, I would state +that, as far as I am capable of discerning, there are but three ways +[Footnote: 32] of proceeding relative to this stubborn spirit which +prevails in your Colonies, and disturbs your government. These are--to +change that spirit, as inconvenient, by removing the causes; to +prosecute it as criminal; or to comply with it as necessary. I would not +be guilty of an imperfect enumeration; I can think of but these three. +Another has indeed been started,--that of giving up the Colonies; but it +met so slight a reception that I do not think myself obliged to dwell a +great while upon it. It is nothing but a little sally of anger, like the +forwardness of peevish children who, when they cannot get all they would +have, are resolved to take nothing. + +The first of these plans--to change the spirit, as inconvenient, by +removing the causes--I think is the most like a systematic proceeding. +It is radical in its principle; but it is attended with great +difficulties, some of them little short, as I conceive, of +impossibilities. This will appear by examining into the plans which have +been proposed. + +As the growing population in the Colonies is evidently one cause of +their resistance, it was last session mentioned in both Houses, by men +of weight, and received not without applause, that in order to check +this evil it would be proper for the Crown to make no further grants of +land. But to this scheme there are two objections. The first, that there +is already so much unsettled land in private hands as to afford room for +an immense future population, although the Crown not only withheld its +grants, but annihilated its soil. If this be the case, then the +only effect of this avarice of desolation, this hoarding of a royal +wilderness, would be to raise the value of the possessions in the hands +of the great private monopolists without any adequate cheek to the +growing and alarming mischief of population. + +But if you stopped your grants, what would be the consequence? The +people would occupy without grants. They have already so occupied +in many places. You cannot station garrisons in every part of these +deserts. If you drive the people from one place, they will carry on +their annual tillage, and remove with their flocks and herds to another. +Many of the people in the back settlements are already little attached +to particular situations. Already they have topped the Appalachian +Mountains. From thence they behold before them an immense plain, one +vast, rich, level meadow; a square of five hundred miles. Over this they +would wander without a possibility of restraint; they would change their +manners with the habits of their life; would soon forget a government by +which they were disowned; would become hordes of English Tartars; and, +pouring down upon your unfortified frontiers a fierce and irresistible +cavalry, become masters of your governors and your counsellors, your +collectors and comptrollers, and of all the slaves that adhered to them. +Such would, and in no long time must be, the effect of attempting to +forbid as a crime and to suppress as an evil the command and blessing of +providence, INCREASE AND MULTIPLY. Such would be the happy result of the +endeavor to keep as a lair of wild beasts that earth which God, by an +express charter, has given to the children of men. Far different, +and surely much wiser, has been our policy hitherto. Hitherto we have +invited our people, by every kind of bounty, to fixed establishments. We +have invited the husbandman to look to authority for his title. We +have taught him piously to believe in the mysterious virtue of wax and +parchment. We have thrown each tract of land, as it was peopled, into +districts, that the ruling power should never be wholly out of sight. +We have settled all we could; and we have carefully attended every +settlement with government. + +Adhering, Sir, as I do, to this policy, as well as for the reasons I +have just given, I think this new project of hedging-in population to be +neither prudent nor practicable. + +To impoverish the Colonies in general, and in particular to arrest the +noble course of their marine enterprises, would be a more easy task. I +freely confess it. We have shown a disposition to a system of this kind, +a disposition even to continue the restraint after the offence, looking +on ourselves as rivals to our Colonies, and persuaded that of course we +must gain all that they shall lose. Much mischief we may certainly do. +The power inadequate to all other things is often more than sufficient +for this. I do not look on the direct and immediate power of the +Colonies to resist our violence as very formidable. In this, however, +I may be mistaken. But when I consider that we have Colonies for no +purpose but to be serviceable to us, it seems to my poor understanding +a little preposterous to make them unserviceable in order to keep them +obedient. It is, in truth, nothing more than the old and, as I thought, +exploded problem of tyranny, which proposes to beggar its subjects +into submission. But remember, when you have completed your system of +impoverishment, that nature still proceeds in her ordinary course; +that discontent will increase with misery; and that there are critical +moments in the fortune of all states when they who are too weak to +contribute to your prosperity may be strong enough to complete your +ruin. Spoliatis arma supersunt. [Footnote: 34] + +The temper and character which prevail in our Colonies are, I am afraid, +unalterable by any human art. We cannot, I fear, falsify the pedigree +of this fierce people, and persuade them that they are not sprung from +a nation in whose veins the blood of freedom circulates. The language +in which they would hear you tell them this tale would detect the +imposition; your speech would betray you. [Footnote: 35] An Englishman +is the unfittest person on earth to argue another Englishman into +slavery. + +I think it is nearly as little in our power to change their republican +religion as their free descent; or to substitute the Roman Catholic as +a penalty, or the Church of England as an improvement. The mode of +inquisition and dragooning is going out of fashion in the Old World, and +I should not confide much to their efficacy in the New. The education +of the Americans is also on the same unalterable bottom with their +religion. You cannot persuade them to burn their books of curious +science; to banish their lawyers from their courts of laws; or to quench +the lights of their assemblies by refusing to choose those persons who +are best read in their privileges. It would be no less impracticable +to think of wholly annihilating the popular assemblies in which these +lawyers sit. The army, by which we must govern in their place, would be +far more chargeable to us, not quite so effectual, and perhaps in the +end full as difficult to be kept in obedience. With regard to the high +aristocratic spirit of Virginia and the Southern Colonies, it has been +proposed, I know, to reduce it by declaring a general enfranchisement of +their slaves. This object has had its advocates and panegyrists; yet I +never could argue myself into any opinion of it. Slaves are often much +attached to their masters. A general wild offer of liberty would +not always be accepted. History furnishes few instances of it. It is +sometimes as hard to persuade slaves [Footnote: 36] to be free, as it is +to compel freemen to be slaves; and in this auspicious scheme we should +have both these pleasing tasks on our hands at once. But when we talk +of enfranchisement, do we not perceive that the American master may +enfranchise too, and arm servile hands in defence of freedom?--a measure +to which other people have had recourse more than once, and not without +success, in a desperate situation of their affairs. + +Slaves as these unfortunate black people are, and dull as all men are +from slavery, must they not a little suspect the offer of freedom from +that very nation which has sold them to their present masters?--from +that nation, one of whose causes of quarrel [Footnote: 37] with those +masters is their refusal to deal any more in that inhuman traffic? An +offer of freedom from England would come rather oddly, shipped to +them in an African vessel which is refused an entry into the ports of +Virginia or Carolina with a cargo of three hundred Angola negroes. +It would be curious to see the Guinea captain attempting at the same +instant to publish his proclamation of liberty, and to advertise his +sale of slaves. + +But let us suppose all these moral difficulties got over. The ocean +remains. You cannot pump this dry; and as long as it continues in its +present bed, so long all the causes which weaken authority by distance +will continue. + + "Ye gods, annihilate but space and time, + And make two lovers happy!" + +was a pious and passionate prayer; but just as reasonable as many of the +serious wishes of grave and solemn politicians. + +If then, Sir, it seems almost desperate to think of any alterative +course for changing the moral causes, and not quite easy to remove the +natural, which produce prejudices irreconcilable to the late exercise +of our authority--but that the spirit infallibly will continue, and, +continuing, will produce such effects as now embarrass us--the second +mode under consideration is to prosecute that spirit in its overt acts +as criminal. + +At this proposition I must pause a moment. The thing seems a great +deal too big for my ideas of jurisprudence. It should seem to my way of +conceiving such matters that there is a very wide difference, in reason +and policy, between the mode of proceeding on the irregular conduct of +scattered individuals, or even of bands of men who disturb order within +the state, and the civil dissensions which may, from time to time, on +great questions, agitate the several communities which compose a great +empire. It looks to me to be narrow and pedantic to apply the ordinary +ideas of criminal justice to this great public contest. I do not know +the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people. I cannot +insult and ridicule the feelings of millions of my fellow-creatures as +Sir Edward Coke insulted one excellent individual (Sir Walter Raleigh) +at the bar. I hope I am not ripe to pass sentence on the gravest public +bodies, intrusted with magistracies of great authority and dignity, and +charged with the safety of their fellow-citizens, upon the very +same title that I am. I really think that, for wise men, this is not +judicious; for sober men, not decent; for minds tinctured with humanity, +not mild and merciful. + +Perhaps, Sir, I am mistaken in my idea of an empire, as distinguished +from a single state or kingdom. But my idea of it is this; that an +empire is the aggregate of many states under one common head, whether +this head be a monarch or a presiding republic. It does, in such +constitutions, frequently happen--and nothing but the dismal, cold, dead +uniformity of servitude can prevent its happening--that the subordinate +parts have many local privileges and immunities. Between these +privileges and the supreme common authority the line may be extremely +nice. Of course disputes, often, too, very bitter disputes, and much ill +blood, will arise. But though every privilege is an exemption, in the +case, from the ordinary exercise of the supreme authority, it is no +denial of it. The claim of a privilege seems rather, ex vi termini, +[Footnote: 38] to imply a superior power; for to talk of the privileges +of a state or of a person who has no superior is hardly any better than +speaking nonsense. Now, in such unfortunate quarrels among the component +parts of a great political union of communities, I can scarcely conceive +anything more completely imprudent than for the head of the empire to +insist that, if any privilege is pleaded against his will or his acts, +his whole authority is denied; instantly to proclaim rebellion, to beat +to arms, and to put the offending provinces under the ban. Will not +this, Sir, very soon teach the provinces to make no distinctions on +their part? Will it not teach them that the government, against which a +claim of liberty is tantamount to high treason, is a government to +which submission is equivalent to slavery? It may not always be quite +convenient to impress dependent communities with such an idea. + +We are, indeed, in all disputes with the Colonies, by the necessity of +things, the judge. It is true, Sir. But I confess that the character of +judge in my own cause is a thing that frightens me. Instead of filling +me with pride, I am exceedingly humbled by it. I cannot proceed with a +stern, assured, judicial confidence, until I find myself in something +more like a judicial character. I must have these hesitations as long +as I am compelled to recollect that, in my little reading upon such +contests as these, the sense of mankind has at least as often decided +against the superior as the subordinate power. Sir, let me add, too, +that the opinion of my having some abstract right [Footnote: 39] in my +favor would not put me much at my ease in passing sentence, unless I +could be sure that there were no rights which, in their exercise under +certain circumstances, were not the most odious of all wrongs and the +most vexatious of all injustice. Sir, these considerations have great +weight with me when I find things so circumstanced, that I see the +same party at once a civil litigant against me in point of right and a +culprit before me, while I sit as a criminal judge on acts of his whose +moral quality is to be decided upon the merits of that very litigation. +Men are every now and then put, by the complexity of human affairs, into +strange situations; but justice is the same, let the judge be in what +situation he will. + +There is, Sir, also a circumstance which convinces me that this mode +of criminal proceeding is not, at least in the present stage of our +contest, altogether expedient; which is nothing less than the conduct +of those very persons who have seemed to adopt that mode by lately +declaring a rebellion in Massachusetts Bay, as they had formerly +addressed to have traitors brought hither, under an Act of Henry the +Eighth, [Footnote: 40] for trial. For though rebellion is declared, it +is not proceeded against as such, nor have any steps been taken towards +the apprehension or conviction of any individual offender, either on +our late or our former Address; but modes of public coercion have been +adopted, and such as have much more resemblance to a sort of qualified +hostility towards an independent power than the punishment of rebellious +subjects. All this seems rather inconsistent; but it shows how difficult +it is to apply these juridical ideas to our present case. + +In this situation, let us seriously and coolly ponder. What is it we +have got by all our menaces, which have been many and ferocious? What +advantage have we derived from the penal laws we have passed, and which, +for the time, have been severe and numerous? What advances have we made +towards our object by the sending of a force which, by land and sea, is +no contemptible strength? Has the disorder abated? Nothing less. When I +see things in this situation after such confident hopes, bold promises, +and active exertions, I cannot, for my life, avoid a suspicion that the +plan itself is not correctly right. [Footnote: 41] + +If, then, the removal of the causes of this spirit of American liberty +be for the greater part, or rather entirely, impracticable; if the +ideas of criminal process be inapplicable--or, if applicable, are in the +highest degree inexpedient; what way yet remains? No way is open but the +third and last,--to comply with the American spirit as necessary; or, if +you please, to submit to it as a necessary evil. + +If we adopt this mode,--if we mean to conciliate and concede,--let us +see of what nature the concession ought to be. To ascertain the nature +of our concession, we must look at their complaint. The Colonies +complain that they have not the characteristic mark and seal of British +freedom. They complain that they are taxed in a Parliament in which +they are not represented. If you mean to satisfy them at all, you must +satisfy them with regard to this complaint. If you mean to please any +people you must give them the boon which they ask; not what you may +think better for them, but of a kind totally different. Such an act may +be a wise regulation, but it is no concession; whereas our present theme +is the mode of giving satisfaction. + +Sir, I think you must perceive that I am resolved this day to have +nothing at all to do with the question of the right of taxation. Some +gentlemen start--but it is true; I put it totally out of the question. +It is less than nothing in my consideration. I do not indeed wonder, +nor will you, Sir, that gentlemen of profound learning are fond of +displaying it on this profound subject. But my consideration is narrow, +confined, and wholly limited to the policy of the question. I do not +examine whether the giving away a man's money be a power excepted +and reserved out of the general trust of government, and how far all +mankind, in all forms of polity, are entitled to an exercise of that +right by the charter of nature; or whether, on the contrary, a right +of taxation is necessarily involved in the general principle of +legislation, and inseparable from the ordinary supreme power. These are +deep questions, where great names militate against each other, where +reason is perplexed, and an appeal to authorities only thickens the +confusion; for high and reverend authorities lift up their heads on both +sides, and there is no sure footing in the middle. This point is the +great + + "Serbonian bog, + Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, + Where armies whole have sunk." + [Footnote: 42] + +I do not intend to be overwhelmed in that bog, though in such +respectable company. The question [Footnote: 43] with me is, not whether +you have a right to render your people miserable, but whether it is not +your interest to make them happy. It is not what a lawyer tells me I MAY +do, but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I OUGHT to do. Is a +politic act the worse for being a generous one? Is no concession proper +but that which is made from your want of right to keep what you grant? +Or does it lessen the grace or dignity of relaxing in the exercise of +an odious claim because you have your evidence-room full of titles, and +your magazines stuffed with arms to enforce them? What signify all those +titles, and all those arms? Of what avail are they, when the reason +of the thing tells me that the assertion of my title is the loss of my +suit, and that I could do nothing but wound myself by the use of my own +weapons? + +Such is steadfastly my opinion of the absolute necessity of keeping up +the concord of this Empire by an unity of spirit, though in a diversity +of operations, that, if I were sure the Colonists had, at their leaving +this country, sealed a regular compact of servitude; that they had +solemnly abjured all the rights of citizens; that they had made a vow +to renounce all ideas of liberty for them and their posterity to all +generations; yet I should hold myself obliged to conform to the temper I +found universally prevalent in my own day, and to govern two million +of men, impatient of servitude, on the principles of freedom. I am not +determining a point of law, I am restoring tranquillity; and the +general character and situation of a people must determine what sort of +government is fitted for them. That point nothing else can or ought to +determine. + +My idea, therefore, without considering whether we yield as matter +of right, or grant as matter of favor, is to admit the people of our +Colonies into an interest in the Constitution; and, by recording that +admission in the journals of Parliament, to give them as strong an +assurance as the nature of the thing will admit, that we mean forever to +adhere to that solemn declaration of systematic indulgence. + +Some years ago the repeal of a revenue Act, upon its understood +principle, might have served to show that we intended an unconditional +abatement of the exercise of a taxing power. Such a measure was then +sufficient to remove all suspicion, and to give perfect content. But +unfortunate events since that time may make something further necessary; +and not more necessary for the satisfaction of the Colonies than for the +dignity and consistency of our own future proceedings. + +I have taken a very incorrect measure of the disposition of the House if +this proposal in itself would be received with dislike. I think, Sir, we +have few American financiers. But our misfortune is, we are too acute, +we are too exquisite [Footnote: 44] in our conjectures of the future, +for men oppressed with such great and present evils. The more moderate +among the opposers of Parliamentary concession freely confess that +they hope no good from taxation, but they apprehend the Colonists have +further views; and if this point were conceded, they would instantly +attack the trade laws. [Footnote: 45] These gentlemen are convinced +that this was the intention from the beginning, and the quarrel of +the Americans with taxation was no more than a cloak and cover to +this design. Such has been the language even of a gentleman of real +moderation, and of a natural temper well adjusted to fair and equal +government. I am, however, Sir, not a little surprised at this kind of +discourse, whenever I hear it; and I am the more surprised on account of +the arguments which I constantly find in company with it, and which are +often urged from the same mouths and on the same day. + +For instance, when we allege that it is against reason to tax a people +under so many restraints in trade as the Americans, the noble lord in +the blue ribbon shall tell you that the restraints on trade are futile +and useless--of no advantage to us, and of no burthen to those on whom +they are imposed; that the trade to America is not secured by the +Acts of Navigation, but by the natural and irresistible advantage of a +commercial preference. + +Such is the merit of the trade laws in this posture of the debate. But +when strong internal circumstances are urged against the taxes; when +the scheme is dissected; when experience and the nature of things are +brought to prove, and do prove, the utter impossibility of obtaining an +effective revenue from the Colonies; when these things are pressed, or +rather press themselves, so as to drive the advocates of Colony taxes to +a clear admission of the futility of the scheme; then, Sir, the sleeping +trade laws revive from their trance, and this useless taxation is to be +kept sacred, not for its own sake, but as a counterguard and security of +the laws of trade. + +Then, Sir, you keep up revenue laws which are mischievous, in order to +preserve trade laws that are useless. Such is the wisdom of our plan in +both its members. They are separately given up as of no value, and yet +one is always to be defended for the sake of the other; but I cannot +agree with the noble lord, nor with the pamphlet from whence he seems +to have borrowed these ideas concerning the inutility of the trade laws. +For, without idolizing them, I am sure they are still, in many ways, +of great use to us; and in former times they have been of the greatest. +They do confine, and they do greatly narrow, the market for the +Americans; but my perfect conviction of this does not help me in the +least to discern how the revenue laws form any security whatsoever to +the commercial regulations, or that these commercial regulations are the +true ground of the quarrel, or that the giving way, in any one instance +of authority, is to lose all that may remain unconceded. + +One fact is clear and indisputable. The public and avowed origin of this +quarrel was on taxation. This quarrel has indeed brought on new disputes +on new questions; but certainly the least bitter, and the fewest of all, +on the trade laws. To judge which of the two be the real radical cause +of quarrel, we have to see whether the commercial dispute did, in order +of time, precede the dispute on taxation? There is not a shadow of +evidence for it. Next, to enable us to judge whether at this moment a +dislike to the trade laws be the real cause of quarrel, it is absolutely +necessary to put the taxes out of the question by a repeal. See how the +Americans act in this position, and then you will be able to discern +correctly what is the true object of the controversy, or whether any +controversy at all will remain. Unless you consent to remove this +cause of difference, it is impossible, with decency, to assert that the +dispute is not upon what it is avowed to be. And I would, Sir, recommend +to your serious consideration whether it be prudent to form a rule for +punishing people, not on their own acts, but on your conjectures? Surely +it is preposterous at the very best. It is not justifying your anger +by their misconduct, but it is converting your ill-will into their +delinquency. + +But the Colonies will go further. Alas! alas! when will this speculation +against fact and reason end? What will quiet these panic fears which we +entertain of the hostile effect of a conciliatory conduct? Is it true +that no case can exist in which it is proper for the sovereign to accede +to the desires of his discontented subjects? Is there anything peculiar +in this case to make a rule for itself? Is all authority of course lost +when it is not pushed to the extreme? Is it a certain maxim that the +fewer causes of dissatisfaction are left by government, the more the +subject will be inclined to resist and rebel? + +All these objections being in fact no more than suspicions, conjectures, +divinations, formed in defiance of fact and experience, they did +not, Sir, discourage me from entertaining the idea of a conciliatory +concession founded on the principles which I have just stated. + +In forming a plan for this purpose, I endeavored to put myself in that +frame of mind which was the most natural and the most reasonable, and +which was certainly the most probable means of securing me from all +error. I set out with a perfect distrust of my own abilities, a total +renunciation of every speculation of my own, and with a profound +reverence for the wisdom of our ancestors who have left us the +inheritance of so happy a constitution and so flourishing an empire, +and, what is a thousand times more valuable, the treasury of the maxims +and principles which formed the one and obtained the other. + +During the reigns of the kings of Spain of the Austrian family, whenever +they were at a loss in the Spanish councils, it was common for their +statesmen to say that they ought to consult the genius of Philip the +Second. The genius of Philip the Second might mislead them, and the +issue of their affairs showed that they had not chosen the most perfect +standard; but, Sir, I am sure that I shall not be misled when, in a +case of constitutional difficulty, I consult the genius of the English +Constitution. Consulting at that oracle--it was with all due humility +and piety--I found four capital examples in a similar case before me; +those of Ireland, Wales, Chester, and Durham. + +Ireland, before the English conquest, [Footnote: 46] though never +governed by a despotic power, had no Parliament. How far the English +Parliament itself was at that time modelled according to the present +form is disputed among antiquaries; but we have all the reason in the +world to be assured that a form of Parliament such as England then +enjoyed she instantly communicated to Ireland, and we are equally sure +that almost every successive improvement in constitutional liberty, as +fast as it was made here, was transmitted thither. The feudal baronage +and the feudal knighthood, the roots of our primitive Constitution, were +early transplanted into that soil, and grew and flourished there. Magna +Charta, if it did not give us originally the House of Commons, gave +us at least a House of Commons of weight and consequence. But your +ancestors did not churlishly sit down alone to the feast of Magna +Charta. Ireland was made immediately a partaker. This benefit of English +laws and liberties, I confess, was not at first extended to all Ireland. +Mark the consequence. English authority and English liberties had +exactly the same boundaries. Your standard could never be advanced an +inch before your privileges. Sir John Davis shows beyond a doubt that +the refusal of a general communication of these rights was the true +cause why Ireland was five hundred years in subduing; and after the +vain projects of a military government, attempted in the reign of Queen +Elizabeth, it was soon discovered that nothing could make that country +English, in civility and allegiance, but your laws and your forms of +legislature. It was not English arms, but the English Constitution, +that conquered Ireland. From that time Ireland has ever had a general +Parliament, as she had before a partial Parliament. You changed the +people; you altered the religion; but you never touched the form or the +vital substance of free government in that kingdom. You deposed kings; +[Footnote: 47] you restored them; you altered the succession to theirs, +as well as to your own Crown; but you never altered their Constitution, +the principle of which was respected by usurpation, restored with the +restoration of monarchy, and established, I trust, forever, by the +glorious Revolution. This has made Ireland the great and flourishing +kingdom that it is, and, from a disgrace and a burthen intolerable +to this nation, has rendered her a principal part of our strength and +ornament. This country cannot be said to have ever formally taxed her. +The irregular things done in the confusion of mighty troubles and on the +hinge of great revolutions, even if all were done that is said to have +been done, form no example. If they have any effect in argument, they +make an exception to prove the rule. None of your own liberties could +stand a moment, if the casual deviations from them at such times were +suffered to be used as proofs of their nullity. By the lucrative amount +of such casual breaches in the Constitution, judge what the stated and +fixed rule of supply has been in that kingdom. Your Irish pensioners +would starve, if they had no other fund to live on than taxes granted +by English authority. Turn your eyes to those popular grants from whence +all your great supplies are come, and learn to respect that only source +of public wealth in the British Empire. + +My next example is Wales. This country was said to be reduced by Henry +the Third. It was said more truly to be so by Edward the First. But +though then conquered, it was not looked upon as any part of the realm +of England. Its old Constitution, whatever that might have been, was +destroyed, and no good one was substituted in its place. The care of +that tract was put into the hands of Lords Marchers [Footnote: 48]--a +form of government of a very singular kind; a strange heterogeneous +monster, something between hostility and government; perhaps it has a +sort of resemblance, according to the modes of those terms, to that of +Commander-in-chief at present, to whom all civil power is granted as +secondary. The manners of the Welsh nation followed the genius of +the government. The people were ferocious, restive, savage, and +uncultivated; sometimes composed, never pacified. Wales, within itself, +was in perpetual disorder, and it kept the frontier of England in +perpetual alarm. Benefits from it to the state there were none. Wales +was only known to England by incursion and invasion. + +Sir, during that state of things, Parliament was not idle. They +attempted to subdue the fierce spirit of the Welsh by all sorts of +rigorous laws. They prohibited by statute the sending all sorts of arms +into Wales, as you prohibit by proclamation (with something more of +doubt on the legality) the sending arms to America. They disarmed the +Welsh by statute, as you attempted (but still with more question on the +legality) to disarm New England by an instruction. They made an Act to +drag offenders from Wales into England for trial, as you have done (but +with more hardship) with regard to America. By another Act, where one +of the parties was an Englishman, they ordained that his trial should be +always by English. They made Acts to restrain trade, as you do; and they +prevented the Welsh from the use of fairs and markets, as you do the +Americans from fisheries and foreign ports. In short, when the Statute +Book was not quite so much swelled as it is now, you find no less than +fifteen acts of penal regulation on the subject of Wales. + +Here we rub our hands.--A fine body of precedents for the authority of +Parliament and the use of it!--I admit it fully; and pray add likewise +to these precedents that all the while Wales rid this Kingdom like an +incubus, that it was an unprofitable and oppressive burthen, and that +an Englishman travelling in that country could not go six yards from the +high road without being murdered. + +The march of the human mind is slow. Sir, it was not until after two +hundred years discovered that, by an eternal law, providence had decreed +vexation to violence, and poverty to rapine. Your ancestors did however +at length open their eyes to the ill-husbandry of injustice. They found +that the tyranny of a free people could of all tyrannies the least be +endured, and that laws made against a whole nation were not the most +effectual methods of securing its obedience. Accordingly, in the +twenty-seventh year of Henry the Eighth the course was entirely altered. +With a preamble stating the entire and perfect rights of the Crown of +England, it gave to the Welsh all the rights and privileges of English +subjects. A political order was established; the military power gave way +to the civil; the Marches were turned into Counties. But that a nation +should have a right to English liberties, and yet no share at all in +the fundamental security of these liberties--the grant of their own +property--seemed a thing so incongruous that, eight years after, +that is, in the thirty-fifth of that reign, a complete and not +ill-proportioned representation by counties and boroughs was bestowed +upon Wales by Act of Parliament. From that moment, as by a charm, the +tumults subsided; obedience was restored; peace, order, and civilization +followed in the train of liberty. When the day-star of the English +Constitution had arisen in their hearts, all was harmony within and +without-- + + "--simul alba nautis + Stella refulsit, + Defluit saxis agitatus humor; + Concidunt venti, fugiuntque nubes, + Et minax (quod sic voluere) ponto + Unda recumbit." + [Footnote: 49] + +The very same year the County Palatine of Chester received the same +relief from its oppressions and the same remedy to its disorders. +Before this time Chester was little less distempered than Wales. The +inhabitants, without rights themselves, were the fittest to destroy the +rights of others; and from thence Richard the Second drew the standing +army of archers with which for a time he oppressed England. The people +of Chester applied to Parliament in a petition penned as I shall read to +you: + + "To the King, our Sovereign Lord, in most hunible wise + shewen unto your excellent Majesty the inhabitants of + your Grace's County Palatine of Chester: (1) That where + the said County Palatine of Chester is and hath been always + hitherto exempt, excluded, and separated out and + from your High Court of Parliament, to have any Knights + and Burgesses within the said Court; by reason whereof + the said inhabitants have hitherto sustained manifold + disherisons, losses, and damages, as well in their lands, + goods, and bodies, as in the good, civil, and politic governance + and maintenance of the commonwealth of their said + county; (2) And forasmuch as the said inhabitants have + always hitherto been bound by the Acts and Statutes + made and ordained by your said Highness and your most + noble progenitors, by authority of the said Court, as far + forth as other counties, cities, and boroughs have been, + that have had their Knights and Burgesses within your + said Court of Parliament, and yet have had neither Knight + ne Burgess there for the said County Palatine, the said + inhabitants, for lack thereof, have been oftentime touched + and grieved with Acts and Statutes made within the said + Court, as well derogatory unto the most ancient jurisdictions, + liberties, and privileges of your said County Palatine, + as prejudicial unto the commonwealth, quietness, + rest, and peace of your Grace's most bounden subjects + inhabiting within the same." + +What did Parliament with this audacious address?--Reject it as a libel? +Treat it as an affront to Government? Spurn it as a derogation from the +rights of legislature? Did they toss it over the table? Did they burn +it by the hands of the common hangman?--They took the petition of +grievance, all rugged as it was, without softening or temperament, +unpurged of the original bitterness and indignation of complaint--they +made it the very preamble to their Act of redress, and consecrated its +principle to all ages in the sanctuary of legislation. + +Here is my third example. It was attended with the success of the two +former. Chester, civilized as well as Wales, has demonstrated that +freedom, and not servitude, is the cure of anarchy; as religion, and +not atheism, is the true remedy for superstition. Sir, this pattern of +Chester was followed in the reign of Charles the Second with regard to +the County Palatine of Durham, which is my fourth example. This county +had long lain out of the pale of free legislation. So scrupulously was +the example of Chester followed that the style of the preamble is +nearly the same with that of the Chester Act, and, without affecting the +abstract extent of the authority of Parliament, it recognizes the equity +of not suffering any considerable district in which the British subjects +may act as a body, to be taxed without their own voice in the grant. + +Now if the doctrines of policy contained in these preambles, and the +force of these examples in the Acts of Parliaments, avail anything, what +can be said against applying them with regard to America? Are not the +people of America as much Englishmen as the Welsh? The preamble of +the Act of Henry the Eighth says the Welsh speak a language no way +resembling that of his Majesty's English subjects. Are the Americans not +as numerous? If we may trust the learned and accurate Judge Barrington's +account of North Wales, and take that as a standard to measure the rest, +there is no comparison. The people cannot amount to above 200,000; not a +tenth part of the number in the Colonies. Is America in rebellion? Wales +was hardly ever free from it. Have you attempted to govern America +by penal statutes? You made fifteen for Wales. But your legislative +authority is perfect with regard to America. Was it less perfect in +Wales, Chester, and Durham? But America is virtually represented. What! +does the electric force of virtual representation more easily pass over +the Atlantic than pervade Wales,--which lies in your neighborhood--or +than Chester and Durham, surrounded by abundance of representation that +is actual and palpable? But, Sir, your ancestors thought this sort of +virtual representation, however ample, to be totally insufficient for +the freedom of the inhabitants of territories that are so near, and +comparatively so inconsiderable. How then can I think it sufficient for +those which are infinitely greater, and infinitely more remote? + +You will now, Sir, perhaps imagine that I am on the point of proposing +to you a scheme for a representation of the Colonies in Parliament. +Perhaps I might be inclined to entertain some such thought; but a great +flood stops me in my course. Opposuit natura. [Footnote: 50 ]--I cannot +remove the eternal barriers of the creation. The thing, in that mode, I +do not know to be possible. As I meddle with no theory,[Footnote: 51] I +do not absolutely assert the impracticability of such a representation; +but I do not see my way to it, and those who have been more confident +have not been more successful. However, the arm of public benevolence is +not shortened, and there are often several means to the same end. What +nature has disjoined in one way, wisdom may unite in another. When +we cannot give the benefit as we would wish, let us not refuse it +altogether. If we cannot give the principal, let us find a substitute. +But how? Where? What substitute? + +Fortunately I am not obliged, for the ways and means of this substitute, +to tax my own unproductive invention. I am not even obliged to go to the +rich treasury of the fertile framers of imaginary commonwealths--not +to the Republic of Plato, [Footnote: 52] not to the Utopia of More, +[Footnote: 52] not to the Oceana of Harrington. It is before me--it is +at my feet, + + "And the rude swain Treads daily on it with his clouted shoon." + [Footnote: 53] + +I only wish you to recognize, for the theory, the ancient constitutional +policy of this kingdom with regard to representation, as that policy has +been declared in Acts of Parliament; and as to the practice, to return +to that mode which a uniform experience has marked out to you as best, +and in which you walked with security, advantage, and honor, until the +year 1763. [Footnote: 54] + +My Resolutions therefore mean to establish the equity and justice of a +taxation of America by GRANT, and not by IMPOSITION; to mark the LEGAL +COMPETENCY [Footnote: 55] of the Colony Assemblies for the support +of their government in peace, and for public aids in time of war; to +acknowledge that this legal competency has had a DUTIFUL AND BENEFICIAL +EXERCISE; and that experience has shown the BENEFIT OF THEIR GRANTS and +the FUTILITY OF PARLIAMENTARY TAXATION as a method of supply. + +These solid truths compose six fundamental propositions. There are three +more Resolutions corollary to these. If you admit the first set, you +can hardly reject the others. But if you admit the first, I shall be far +from solicitous whether you accept or refuse the last. I think these six +massive pillars will be of strength sufficient to support the temple of +British concord. I have no more doubt than I entertain of my existence +that, if you admitted these, you would command an immediate peace, and, +with but tolerable future management, a lasting obedience in America. +I am not arrogant in this confident assurance. The propositions are all +mere matters of fact, and if they are such facts as draw irresistible +conclusions even in the stating, this is the power of truth, and not any +management of mine. + +Sir, I shall open the whole plan to you, together with such observations +on the motions as may tend to illustrate them where they may want +explanation. The first is a Resolution-- + +"That the Colonies and Plantations of Great Britain in North America, +consisting of fourteen separate Governments, and containing two millions +and upwards of free inhabitants, have not had the liberty and privilege +of electing and sending any Knights and Burgesses, or others, to +represent them in the High Court of Parliament." + +This is a plain matter of fact, necessary to be laid down, and, +excepting the description, it is laid down in the language of the +Constitution; it is taken nearly verbatim from Acts of Parliament. + +The second is like unto the first-- + +"That the said Colonies and Plantations have been liable to, and bounden +by, several subsidies, payments, rates, and taxes given and granted +by Parliament, though the said Colonies and Plantations have not their +Knights and Burgesses in the said High Court of Parliament, of their own +election, to represent the condition of their country; by lack whereof +they have been oftentimes touched and grieved by subsidies given, +granted, and assented to, in the said Court, in a manner prejudicial to +the commonwealth, quietness, rest, and peace of the subjects inhabiting +within the same." + +Is this description too hot, or too cold; too strong, or too weak? Does +it arrogate too much to the supreme legislature? Does it lean too much +to the claims of the people? If it runs into any of these errors, +the fault is not mine. It is the language of your own ancient Acts of +Parliament. + + "Non meus hic sermo, sed quae praecepit Ofellus, + Rusticus, abnormis sapiens." + [Footnote: 56] + +It is the genuine produce of the ancient, rustic, manly, homebred sense +of this country.--I did not dare to rub off a particle of the venerable +rust that rather adorns and preserves, than destroys, the metal. It +would be a profanation to touch with a tool the stones which construct +the sacred altar of peace. I would not violate with modern polish the +ingenuous and noble roughness of these truly Constitutional materials. +Above all things, I was resolved not to be guilty of tampering, the +odious vice of restless and unstable minds. I put my foot in the tracks +of our forefathers, where I can neither wander nor stumble. Determining +to fix articles of peace, I was resolved not to be wise beyond what +was written; I was resolved to use nothing else than the form of sound +words, to let others abound in their own sense, and carefully to abstain +from all expressions of my own. What the law has said, I say. In all +things else I am silent. I have no organ but for her words. This, if it +be not ingenious, I am sure is safe. [Footnote: 57] + +There are indeed words expressive of grievance in this second +Resolution, which those who are resolved always to be in the right will +deny to contain matter of fact, as applied to the present case, although +Parliament thought them true with regard to the counties of Chester +and Durham. They will deny that the Americans were ever "touched and +grieved" with the taxes. If they consider nothing in taxes but their +weight as pecuniary impositions, there might be some pretence for +this denial; but men may be sorely touched and deeply grieved in their +privileges, as well as in their purses. Men may lose little in property +by the act which takes away all their freedom. When a man is robbed of a +trifle on the highway, it is not the twopence lost that constitutes +the capital outrage. This is not confined to privileges. Even ancient +indulgences, withdrawn without offence on the part of those who enjoyed +such favors, operate as grievances. But were the Americans then not +touched and grieved by the taxes, in some measure, merely as taxes? +If so, why were they almost all either wholly repealed, or exceedingly +reduced? Were they not touched and grieved even by the regulating duties +of the sixth of George the Second? Else, why were the duties first +reduced to one third in 1764, and afterwards to a third of that third +in the year 1766? Were they not touched and grieved by the Stamp Act? +I shall say they were, until that tax is revived. Were they not touched +and grieved by the duties of 1767, which were likewise repealed, and +which Lord Hillsborough tells you, for the Ministry, were laid contrary +to the true principle of commerce? Is not the assurance given by that +noble person to the Colonies of a resolution to lay no more taxes on +them an admission that taxes would touch and grieve them? Is not the +Resolution of the noble lord in the blue ribbon, now standing on your +Journals, the strongest of all proofs that Parliamentary subsidies +really touched and grieved them? Else why all these changes, +modifications, repeals, assurances, and resolutions? + +The next proposition is-- + +"That, from the distance of the said Colonies, and from other +circumstances, no method hath hitherto been devised for procuring a +representation in Parliament for the said Colonies." + +This is an assertion of a fact, I go no further on the paper, though, in +my private judgment, a useful representation is impossible--I am sure it +is not desired by them, nor ought it perhaps by us--but I abstain from +opinions. + +The fourth Resolution is-- + +"That each of the said Colonies hath within itself a body, chosen in +part, or in the whole, by the freemen, free-holders, or other free +inhabitants thereof, commonly called the General Assembly, or General +Court, with powers legally to raise, levy, and assess, according to the +several usage of such Colonies duties and taxes towards defraying all +sorts of public services." + +This competence in the Colony Assemblies is certain. It is proved by the +whole tenor of their Acts of Supply in all the Assemblies, in which +the constant style of granting is, "an aid to his Majesty", and Acts +granting to the Crown have regularly for near a century passed +the public offices without dispute. Those who have been pleased +paradoxically to deny this right, holding that none but the British +Parliament can grant to the Crown, are wished to look to what is done, +not only in the Colonies, but in Ireland, in one uniform unbroken tenor +every session. Sir, I am surprised that this doctrine should come from +some of the law servants of the Crown. I say that if the Crown could be +responsible, his Majesty--but certainly the Ministers,--and even these +law officers themselves through whose hands the Acts passed, biennially +in Ireland, or annually in the Colonies--are in an habitual course of +committing impeachable offences. What habitual offenders have been all +Presidents of the Council, all Secretaries of State, all First Lords of +Trade, all Attorneys and all Solicitors General! However, they are safe, +as no one impeaches them; and there is no ground of charge against them +except in their own unfounded theories. + +The fifth Resolution is also a resolution of fact-- + + "That the said General Assemblies, General Courts, or other + bodies legally qualified as aforesaid, have at sundry times + freely granted several large subsidies and public aids for + his Majesty's service, according to their abilities, when + required thereto by letter from one of his Majesty's + principal Secretaries of State; and that their right to grant the + same, and their cheerfulness and sufficiency in the said + grants, have been at sundry times acknowledged by Parliament." + +To say nothing of their great expenses in the Indian wars, and not to +take their exertion in foreign ones so high as the supplies in the year +1695--not to go back to their public contributions in the year 1710--I +shall begin to travel only where the journals give me light, resolving +to deal in nothing but fact, authenticated by Parliamentary record, and +to build myself wholly on that solid basis. + +On the 4th of April, 1748, a Committee of this House came to the +following resolution: + + "Resolved: That it is the opinion of this Committee that it is + just and reasonable that the several Provinces and Colonies + of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and + Rhode Island, be reimbursed the expenses they have been + at in taking and securing to the Crown of Great Britain, + the Island of Cape Breton and its dependencies." + +The expenses were immense for such Colonies. They were above L200,000 +sterling; money first raised and advanced on their public credit. + +On the 28th of January, 1756, a message from the King came to us, to +this effect: + + "His Majesty, being sensible of the zeal and vigor with which + his faithful subjects of certain Colonies in North America + have exerted themselves in defence of his Majesty's just + rights and possessions, recommends it to this House to + take the same into their consideration, and to enable his + Majesty to give them such assistance as may be a proper + reward and encouragement." + +On the 3d of February, 1756, the House came to a suitable Resolution, +expressed in words nearly the same as those of the message, but with the +further addition, that the money then voted was as an encouragement to +the Colonies to exert themselves with vigor. It will not be necessary to +go through all the testimonies which your own records have given to +the truth of my Resolutions. I will only refer you to the places in the +Journals: + + Vol. xxvii.--16th and 19th May, 1757. + Vol. xxviii.--June 1st, 1758; April 26th and 30th, 1759; + March 26th and 31st, and April 28th, 1760; + Jan. 9th and 20th, 1761. + Vol. xxix.--Jan. 22d and 26th, 1762; March 14th and 17th, + 1763. + +Sir, here is the repeated acknowledgment of Parliament that the +Colonies not only gave, but gave to satiety. This nation has formally +acknowledged two things: first, that the Colonies had gone beyond their +abilities, Parliament having thought it necessary to reimburse them; +secondly, that they had acted legally and laudably in their grants +of money, and their maintenance of troops, since the compensation is +expressly given as reward and encouragement. Reward is not bestowed for +acts that are unlawful; and encouragement is not held out to things that +deserve reprehension. My Resolution therefore does nothing more than +collect into one proposition what is scattered through your Journals. I +give you nothing but your own; and you cannot refuse in the gross what +you have so often acknowledged in detail. The admission of this, which +will be so honorable to them and to you, will, indeed, be mortal to +all the miserable stories by which the passions of the misguided people +[Footnote: 58] have been engaged in an unhappy system. The people heard, +indeed, from the beginning of these disputes, one thing continually +dinned in their ears, that reason and justice demanded that the +Americans, who paid no taxes, should be compelled to contribute. How did +that fact of their paying nothing stand when the taxing system began? +When Mr. Grenville began to form his system of American revenue, he +stated in this House that the Colonies were then in debt two millions +six hundred thousand pounds sterling money, and was of opinion they +would discharge that debt in four years. On this state, those untaxed +people were actually subject to the payment of taxes to the amount of +six hundred and fifty thousand a year. In fact, however, Mr. Grenville +was mistaken. The funds given for sinking the debt did not prove quite +so ample as both the Colonies and he expected. The calculation was too +sanguine; the reduction was not completed till some years after, and at +different times in different Colonies. However, the taxes after the war +continued too great to bear any addition, with prudence or propriety; +and when the burthens imposed in consequence of former requisitions were +discharged, our tone became too high to resort again to requisition. No +Colony, since that time, ever has had any requisition whatsoever made to +it. + +We see the sense of the Crown, and the sense of Parliament, on the +productive nature of a REVENUE BY GRANT. Now search the same Journals +for the produce of the REVENUE BY IMPOSITION. Where is it? Let us know +the volume and the page. What is the gross, what is the net produce? To +what service is it applied? How have you appropriated its surplus? What! +Can none of the many skilful index-makers that we are now employing find +any trace of it?--Well, let them and that rest together. But are the +Journals, which say nothing of the revenue, as silent on the discontent? +Oh no! a child may find it. It is the melancholy burthen and blot of +every page. + +I think, then, I am, from those Journals, justified in the sixth and +last Resolution, which is--- + +"That it hath been found by experience that the manner of granting the +said supplies and aids, by the said General Assemblies, hath been more +agreeable to the said Colonies, and more beneficial and conducive to the +public service, than the mode of giving and granting aids in Parliament, +to be raised and paid in the said Colonies." + +This makes the whole of the fundamental part of the plan. The conclusion +is irresistible. You cannot say that you were driven by any necessity to +an exercise of the utmost rights of legislature. You cannot assert that +you took on yourselves the task of imposing Colony taxes from the want +of another legal body that is competent to the purpose of supplying the +exigencies of the state without wounding the prejudices of the +people. Neither is it true that the body so qualified, and having that +competence, had neglected the duty. + +The question now, on all this accumulated matter, is: whether you will +choose to abide by a profitable experience, or a mischievous theory; +whether you choose to build on imagination, or fact; whether you prefer +enjoyment, or hope; satisfaction in your subjects, or discontent? + +If these propositions are accepted, everything which has been made to +enforce a contrary system must, I take it for granted, fall along with +it. On that ground, I have drawn the following Resolution, which, when +it comes to be moved, will naturally be divided in a proper manner: + +"That it may be proper to repeal an Act [Footnote: 59] made in the +seventh year of the reign of his present Majesty, entitled, An Act +for granting certain duties in the British Colonies and Plantations +in America; for allowing a drawback of the duties of customs upon the +exportation from this Kingdom of coffee and cocoa-nuts of the produce +of the said Colonies or Plantations; for discontinuing the drawbacks +payable on china earthenware exported to America; and for more +effectually preventing the clandestine running of goods in the said +Colonies and Plantations. And that it may be proper to repeal an Act +[Footnote: 60] made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present +Majesty, entitled, An Act to discontinue, in such manner and for such +time as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or +shipping of goods, wares, and merchandise at the town and within +the harbor of Boston, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in North +America. And that it may be proper to repeal an Act made in the +fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, entitled, An Act +for the impartial administration of justice [Footnote: 61] in the cases +of persons questioned for any acts done by them in the execution of the +law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in the Province of +Massachusetts Bay, in New England. And that it may be proper to repeal +an Act made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, +entitled, An Act for the better regulating [Footnote: 62] of the +Government of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England. +And also that it may be proper to explain and amend an Act made in the +thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, entitled, An +Act for the Trial of Treasons [Footnote: 63] committed out of the King's +Dominions." + +I wish, Sir, to repeal the Boston Port Bill, because--independently of +the dangerous precedent of suspending the rights of the subject during +the King's pleasure--it was passed, as I apprehend, with less regularity +and on more partial principles than it ought. The corporation of Boston +was not heard before it was condemned. Other towns, full as guilty as +she was, have not had their ports blocked up. Even the Restraining Bill +of the present session does not go to the length of the Boston Port +Act. The same ideas of prudence which induced you not to extend equal +punishment to equal guilt, even when you were punishing, induced me, +who mean not to chastise, but to reconcile, to be satisfied with the +punishment already partially inflicted. + +Ideas of prudence and accommodation to circumstances prevent you from +taking away the charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island, as you have +taken away that of Massachusetts Bay, though the Crown has far less +power in the two former provinces than it enjoyed in the latter, and +though the abuses have been full as great, and as flagrant, in +the exempted as in the punished. The same reasons of prudence +and accommodation have weight with me in restoring the charter of +Massachusetts Bay. Besides, Sir, the Act which changes the charter of +Massachusetts is in many particulars so exceptionable that if I did not +wish absolutely to repeal, I would by all means desire to alter it, +as several of its provisions tend to the subversion of all public and +private justice. Such, among others, is the power in the Governor to +change the sheriff at his pleasure, and to make a new returning officer +for every special cause. It is shameful to behold such a regulation +standing among English laws. + +The Act for bringing persons accused of committing murder, under the +orders of Government to England for trial, is but temporary. That Act +has calculated the probable duration of our quarrel with the Colonies, +and is accommodated to that supposed duration. I would hasten the happy +moment of reconciliation, and therefore must, on my principle, get rid +of that most justly obnoxious Act. + +The Act of Henry the Eighth, for the Trial of Treasons, I do not mean +to take away, but to confine it to its proper bounds and original +intention; to make it expressly for trial of treasons--and the greatest +treasons may be committed--in places where the jurisdiction of the Crown +does not extend. + +Having guarded the privileges of local legislature, I would next secure +to the Colonies a fair and unbiassed judicature, for which purpose, Sir, +I propose the following Resolution: + +"That, from the time when the General Assembly or General Court of any +Colony or Plantation in North America shall have appointed by Act of +Assembly, duly confirmed, a settled salary to the offices of the Chief +Justice and other Judges of the Superior Court, it may be proper that +the said Chief Justice and other Judges of the Superior Courts of such +Colony shall hold his and their office and offices during their good +behavior, and shall not be removed therefrom but when the said removal +shall be adjudged by his Majesty in Council, upon a hearing on complaint +from the General Assembly, or on a complaint from the Governor, or +Council, or the House of Representatives severally, or of the Colony in +which the said Chief Justice and other Judges have exercised the said +offices." + +The next Resolution relates to the Courts of Admiralty. It is this. + +"That it may be proper to regulate the Courts of Admiralty or Vice +Admiralty authorized by the fifteenth Chapter of the Fourth of George +the Third, in such a manner as to make the same more commodious to those +who sue, or are sued, in the said Courts, and to provide for the more +decent maintenance of the Judges in the same." + +These courts I do not wish to take away, they are in themselves proper +establishments. This court is one of the capital securities of the +Act of Navigation. The extent of its jurisdiction, indeed, has been +increased, but this is altogether as proper, and is indeed on many +accounts more eligible, where new powers were wanted, than a court +absolutely new. But courts incommodiously situated, in effect, deny +justice, and a court partaking in the fruits of its own condemnation is +a robber. The Congress complain, and complain justly, of this grievance. + +These are the three consequential propositions I have thought of two or +three more, but they come rather too near detail, and to the province +of executive government, which I wish Parliament always to superintend, +never to assume. If the first six are granted, congruity will carry the +latter three. If not, the things that remain unrepealed will be, I +hope, rather unseemly incumbrances on the building, than very materially +detrimental to its strength and stability. + +Here, Sir, I should close, but I plainly perceive some objections +remain which I ought, if possible, to remove. The first will be that, in +resorting to the doctrine of our ancestors, as contained in the preamble +to the Chester Act, I prove too much, that the grievance from a want +of representation, stated in that preamble, goes to the whole of +legislation as well as to taxation, and that the Colonies, grounding +themselves upon that doctrine, will apply it to all parts of legislative +authority. + +To this objection, with all possible deference and humility, and wishing +as little as any man living to impair the smallest particle of our +supreme authority, I answer, that the words are the words of Parliament, +and not mine, and that all false and inconclusive inferences drawn from +them are not mine, for I heartily disclaim any such inference. I have +chosen the words of an Act of Parliament which Mr. Grenville, surely +a tolerably zealous and very judicious advocate for the sovereignty of +Parliament, formerly moved to have read at your table in confirmation of +his tenets. It is true that Lord Chatham considered these preambles as +declaring strongly in favor of his opinions. He was a no less powerful +advocate for the privileges of the Americans. Ought I not from hence to +presume that these preambles are as favorable as possible to both, when +properly understood; favorable both to the rights of Parliament, and to +the privilege of the dependencies of this Crown? But, Sir, the object of +grievance in my Resolution I have not taken from the Chester, but from +the Durham Act, which confines the hardship of want of representation +to the case of subsidies, and which therefore falls in exactly with the +case of the Colonies. But whether the unrepresented counties were de +jure or de facto [Footnote: 64] bound, the preambles do not accurately +distinguish, nor indeed was it necessary; for, whether de jure or de +facto, the Legislature thought the exercise of the power of taxing as +of right, or as of fact without right, equally a grievance, and equally +oppressive. + +I do not know that the Colonies have, in any general way, or in any cool +hour, gone much beyond the demand of humanity in relation to taxes. It +is not fair to judge of the temper or dispositions of any man, or any +set of men, when they are composed and at rest, from their conduct +or their expressions in a state of disturbance and irritation. It +is besides a very great mistake to imagine that mankind follow up +practically any speculative principle, either of government or of +freedom, as far as it will go in argument and logical illation. We +Englishmen stop very short of the principles upon which we support any +given part of our Constitution, or even the whole of it together. I +could easily, if I had not already tired you, give you very striking +and convincing instances of it. This is nothing but what is natural and +proper. All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every +virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter. We +balance inconveniences; we give and take; we remit some rights, that we +may enjoy others; and we choose rather to be happy citizens than subtle +disputants. As we must give away some natural liberty to enjoy civil +advantages, so we must sacrifice some civil liberties for the advantages +to be derived from the communion and fellowship of a great empire. But, +in all fair dealings, the thing bought must bear some proportion to the +purchase paid. None will barter away the immediate jewel of his soul. +[Footnote: 65] Though a great house is apt to make slaves haughty, yet +it is purchasing a part of the artificial importance of a great empire +too dear to pay for it all essential rights and all the intrinsic +dignity of human nature. None of us who would not risk his life rather +than fall under a government purely arbitrary. But although there are +some amongst us who think our Constitution wants many improvements +to make it a complete system of liberty, perhaps none who are of that +opinion would think it right to aim at such improvement by disturbing +his country, and risking everything that is dear to him. In every +arduous enterprise we consider what we are to lose, as well as what +we are to gain; and the more and better stake of liberty every people +possess, the less they will hazard in a vain attempt to make it more. +These are the cords of man. Man acts from adequate motives relative to +his interest, and not on metaphysical speculations. Aristotle, the great +master of reasoning, cautions us, and with great weight and propriety, +against this species of delusive geometrical accuracy in moral arguments +as the most fallacious of all sophistry. + +The Americans will have no interest contrary to the grandeur and glory +of England, when they are not oppressed by the weight of it; and +they will rather be inclined to respect the acts of a superintending +legislature when they see them the acts of that power which is itself +the security, not the rival, of their secondary importance. In this +assurance my mind most perfectly acquiesces, and I confess I feel not +the least alarm from the discontents which are to arise from putting +people at their ease, nor do I apprehend the destruction of this Empire +from giving, by an act of free grace and indulgence, to two millions of +my fellow-citizens some share of those rights upon which. I have always +been taught to value myself. + +It is said, indeed, that this power of granting, vested in American +Assemblies, would dissolve the unity of the Empire, which was preserved +entire, although Wales, and Chester, and Durham were added to it. Truly, +Mr. Speaker, I do not know what this unity means, nor has it ever been +heard of, that I know, in the constitutional policy of this country. The +very idea of subordination of parts excludes this notion of simple and +undivided unity. England is the head; but she is not the head and the +members too. Ireland has ever had from the beginning a separate, but not +an independent, legislature, which, far from distracting, promoted the +union of the whole. Everything was sweetly and harmoniously disposed +through both islands for the conservation of English dominion, and +the communication of English liberties. I do not see that the same +principles might not be carried into twenty islands and with the same +good effect. This is my model with regard to America, as far as the +internal circumstances of the two countries are the same. I know no +other unity of this Empire than I can draw from its example during these +periods, when it seemed to my poor understanding more united than it is +now, or than it is likely to be by the present methods. + +But since I speak of these methods, I recollect, Mr. Speaker, almost +too late, that I promised, before I finished, to say something of the +proposition of the noble lord on the floor, which has been so lately +received and stands on your Journals. I must be deeply concerned +whenever it is my misfortune to continue a difference with the majority +of this House; but as the reasons for that difference are my apology for +thus troubling you, suffer me to state them in a very few words. I shall +compress them into as small a body as I possibly can, having already +debated that matter at large when the question was before the Committee. + +First, then, I cannot admit that proposition of a ransom [Footnote: 66] +by auction; because it is a mere project. It is a thing new, unheard of; +supported by no experience; justified by no analogy; without example +of our ancestors, or root in the Constitution. It is neither regular +Parliamentary taxation, nor Colony grant. Experimentum in corpore vili +[Footnote: 67] is a good rule, which will ever make me adverse to any +trial of experiments on what is certainly the most valuable of all +subjects, the peace of this Empire. + +Secondly, it is an experiment which must be fatal in the end to our +Constitution. For what is it but a scheme for taxing the Colonies in the +ante-chamber of the noble lord and his successors? To settle the quotas +and proportions in this House is clearly impossible. You, Sir, may +flatter yourself you shall sit a state auctioneer, with your hammer in +your hand, and knock down to each Colony as it bids. But to settle, on +the plan laid down by the noble lord, the true proportional payment for +four or five and twenty governments according to the absolute and the +relative wealth of each, and according to the British proportion of +wealth and burthen, is a wild and chimerical notion. This new taxation +must therefore come in by the back door of the Constitution. Each quota +must be brought to this House ready formed; you can neither add nor +alter. You must register it. You can do nothing further, for on what +grounds can you deliberate either before or after the proposition? You +cannot hear the counsel for all these provinces, quarrelling each on +its own quantity of payment, and its proportion to others If you should +attempt it, the Committee of Provincial Ways and Means, or by whatever +other name it will delight to be called, must swallow up all the time of +Parliament. + +Thirdly, it does not give satisfaction to the complaint of the Colonies. +They complain that they are taxed without their consent, you answer, +that you will fix the sum at which they shall be taxed. That is, you +give them the very grievance for the remedy. You tell them, indeed, that +you will leave the mode to themselves. I really beg pardon--it gives me +pain to mention it--but you must be sensible that you will not perform +this part of the compact. For, suppose the Colonies were to lay the +duties, which furnished their contingent, upon the importation of your +manufactures, you know you would never suffer such a tax to be laid. You +know, too, that you would not suffer many other modes of taxation, so +that, when you come to explain yourself, it will be found that you +will neither leave to themselves the quantum nor the mode, nor indeed +anything. The whole is delusion from one end to the other. + +Fourthly, this method of ransom by auction, unless it be universally +accepted, will plunge you into great and inextricable difficulties. In +what year of our Lord are the proportions of payments to be settled? To +say nothing of the impossibility that Colony agents should have general +powers of taxing the Colonies at their discretion, consider, I implore +you, that the communication by special messages and orders between these +agents and their constituents, on each variation of the case, when +the parties come to contend together and to dispute on their relative +proportions, will be a matter of delay, perplexity, and confusion that +never can have an end. + +If all the Colonies do not appear at the outcry, what is the condition +of those assemblies who offer, by themselves or their agents, to tax +themselves up to your ideas of their proportion? The refractory +Colonies who refuse all composition will remain taxed only to your old +impositions, which, however grievous in principle, are trifling as to +production. The obedient Colonies in this scheme are heavily taxed, the +refractory remain unburdened. What will you do? Will you lay new and +heavier taxes by Parliament on the disobedient? Pray consider in what +way you can do it. You are perfectly convinced that, in the way of +taxing, you can do nothing but at the ports. Now suppose it is Virginia +that refuses to appear at your auction, while Maryland and North +Carolina bid handsomely for their ransom, and are taxed to your quota, +how will you put these Colonies on a par? Will you tax the tobacco of +Virginia? If you do, you give its death-wound to your English revenue +at home, and to one of the very greatest articles of your own foreign +trade. If you tax the import of that rebellious Colony, what do you +tax but your own manufactures, or the goods of some other obedient and +already well-taxed Colony? Who has said one word on this labyrinth of +detail, which bewilders you more and more as you enter into it? Who +has presented, who can present you with a clue to lead you out of it? +I think, Sir, it is impossible that you should not recollect that the +Colony bounds are so implicated in one another,--you know it by +your other experiments in the bill for prohibiting the New England +fishery,--that you can lay no possible restraints on almost any of them +which may not be presently eluded, if you do not confound the innocent +with the guilty, and burthen those whom, upon every principle, you ought +to exonerate. He must be grossly ignorant of America who thinks that, +without falling into this confusion of all rules of equity and policy, +you can restrain any single Colony, especially Virginia and Maryland, +the central and most important of them all. + +Let it also be considered that, either in the present confusion you +settle a permanent contingent, which will and must be trifling, and +then you have no effectual revenue; or you change the quota at every +exigency, and then on every new repartition you will have a new quarrel. + +Reflect, besides, that when you have fixed a quota for every Colony, +you have not provided for prompt and punctual payment. Suppose one, two, +five, ten years' arrears. You cannot issue a Treasury Extent against +the failing Colony. You must make new Boston Port Bills, new restraining +laws, new acts for dragging men to England for trial. You must send out +new fleets, new armies. All is to begin again. From this day forward the +Empire is never to know an hour's tranquillity. An intestine fire will +be kept alive in the bowels of the Colonies, which one time or other +must consume this whole Empire. I allow indeed that the empire of +Germany raises her revenue and her troops by quotas and contingents; +but the revenue of the empire, and the army of the empire, is the worst +revenue and the worst army in the world. + +Instead of a standing revenue, you will therefore have a perpetual +quarrel. Indeed, the noble lord who proposed this project of a ransom +by auction seems himself to be of that opinion. His project was rather +designed for breaking the union of the Colonies than for establishing a +revenue. He confessed he apprehended that his proposal would not be to +their taste. I say this scheme of disunion seems to be at the bottom of +the project; for I will not suspect that the noble lord meant nothing +but merely to delude the nation by an airy phantom which he never +intended to realize. But whatever his views may be, as I propose the +peace and union of the Colonies as the very foundation of my plan, it +cannot accord with one whose foundation is perpetual discord. + +Compare the two. This I offer to give you is plain and simple. The other +full of perplexed and intricate mazes. This is mild; that harsh. This +is found by experience effectual for its purposes; the other is a new +project. This is universal; the other calculated for certain Colonies +only. This is immediate in its conciliatory operation; the other remote, +contingent, full of hazard. Mine is what becomes the dignity of a ruling +people--gratuitous, unconditional, and not held out as a matter of +bargain and sale. I have done my duty in proposing it to you. I have +indeed tired you by a long discourse; but this is the misfortune of +those to whose influence nothing will be conceded, and who must win +every inch of their ground by argument. You have heard me with goodness. +May you decide with wisdom! For my part, I feel my mind greatly +disburthened by what I have done to-day. I have been the less fearful +of trying your patience, because on this subject I mean to spare it +altogether in future. I have this comfort, that in every stage of the +American affairs I have steadily opposed the measures that have produced +the confusion, and may bring on the destruction, of this Empire. I now +go so far as to risk a proposal of my own. If I cannot give peace to my +country, I give it to my conscience. + +But what, says the financier, is peace to us without money? Your plan +gives us no revenue. No! But it does; for it secures to the subject the +power or refusal, the first of all revenues. Experience is a cheat, and +fact a liar, if this power in the subject of proportioning his grant, or +of not granting at all, has not been found the richest mine of revenue +ever discovered by the skill or by the fortune of man. It does not +indeed vote you L152,750 11s. 23/4d, nor any other paltry limited sum; +but it gives the strong box itself, the fund, the bank--from whence only +revenues can arise amongst a people sensible of freedom. Posita luditur +arca. [Footnote: 68] Cannot you, in England--cannot you, at this time +of day--cannot you, a House of Commons, trust to the principle which has +raised so mighty a revenue, and accumulated a debt of near 140,000,000 +in this country? Is this principle to be true in England, and false +everywhere else? Is it not true in Ireland? Has it not hitherto been +true in the Colonies? Why should you presume that, in any country, a +body duly constituted for any function will neglect to perform its +duty and abdicate its trust? Such a presumption [Footnote: 69] would +go against all governments in all modes. But, in truth, this dread of +penury of supply from a free assembly has no foundation in nature; for +first, observe that, besides the desire which all men have naturally of +supporting the honor of their own government, that sense of dignity and +that security to property which ever attends freedom has a tendency to +increase the stock of the free community. Most may be taken where most +is accumulated. And what is the soil or climate where experience has not +uniformly proved that the voluntary flow of heaped-up plenty, bursting +from the weight of its own rich luxuriance, has ever run with a more +copious stream of revenue than could be squeezed from the dry husks of +oppressed indigence by the straining of all the politic machinery in the +world? [Footnote: 70] + +Next, we know that parties must ever exist in a free country. We know, +too, that the emulations of such parties--their contradictions, their +reciprocal necessities, their hopes, and their fears--must send them all +in their turns to him that holds the balance of the State. The parties +are the gamesters; but Government keeps the table, and is sure to be the +winner in the end. When this game is played, I really think it is more +to be feared that the people will be exhausted, than that Government +will not be supplied; whereas, whatever is got by acts of absolute +power ill obeyed, because odious, or by contracts ill kept, because +constrained, will be narrow, feeble, uncertain, and precarious. + +"Ease would retract Vows made in pain, as violent and void." + +I, for one, protest against compounding our demands. I declare against +compounding, for a poor limited sum, the immense, ever-growing, eternal +debt which is due to generous government from protected freedom. And so +may I speed in the great object I propose to you, as I think it would +not only be an act of injustice, but would be the worst economy in the +world, to compel the Colonies to a sum certain, either in the way of +ransom or in the way of compulsory compact. + +But to clear up my ideas on this subject: a revenue from America +transmitted hither--do not delude yourselves--you never can receive it; +no, not a shilling. We have experience that from remote countries it +is not to be expected. If, when you attempted to extract revenue +from Bengal, you were obliged to return in loan what you had taken in +imposition, what can you expect from North America? For certainly, if +ever there was a country qualified to produce wealth, it is India; or +an institution fit for the transmission, it is the East India Company. +America has none of these aptitudes. If America gives you taxable +objects on which you lay your duties here, and gives you, at the same +time, a surplus by a foreign sale of her commodities to pay the duties +on these objects which you tax at home, she has performed her part to +the British revenue. But with regard to her own internal establishments, +she may, I doubt not she will, contribute in moderation. I say in +moderation, for she ought not to be permitted to exhaust herself. She +ought to be reserved to a war, the weight of which, with the enemies +[Footnote: 71] that we are most likely to have, must be considerable +in her quarter of the globe. There she may serve you, and serve you +essentially. + +For that service--for all service, whether of revenue, trade, or +empire--my trust is in her interest in the British Constitution. My hold +of the Colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, +from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These +are ties which, though light as air, [Footnote: 72] are as strong as +links of iron. Let the Colonists always keep the idea of their civil +rights associated with your government,--they will cling and grapple to +you, [Footnote: 73] and no force under heaven will be of power to tear +them from their allegiance. But let it be once understood that your +government may be one thing, and their privileges another, that these +two things may exist without any mutual relation, the cement is gone +[Footnote: 74]--the cohesion is loosened--and everything hastens to +decay and dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom to keep the +sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the +sacred temple consecrated to our common faith, wherever the chosen race +and sons of England worship freedom, they will turn their faces towards +you. The more they multiply, the more friends you will have; the more +ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be their obedience. +Slavery they can have anywhere--it is a weed that grows in every soil. +They may have it from Spain; they may have it from Prussia. But, until +you become lost to all feeling of your true interest and your natural +dignity, freedom they can have from none but you. This is the commodity +of price of which you have the monopoly. This is the true Act of +Navigation which binds to you the commerce of the Colonies, and +through them secures to you the wealth of the world. Deny them this +participation of freedom, and you break that sole bond which originally +made, and must still preserve, the unity of the Empire. Do not entertain +so weak an imagination as that your registers and your bonds, your +affidavits and your sufferances, your cockets and your clearances, are +what form the great securities of your commerce. Do not dream that your +letters of office, and your instructions, and your suspending clauses, +are the things that hold together the great contexture of the mysterious +whole. These things do not make your government. Dead instruments, +passive tools as they are, it is the spirit of the English communion +that gives all their life and efficacy to them. It is the spirit of the +English Constitution which, infused through the mighty mass, pervades, +feeds, unites, invigorates, vivifies every part of the Empire, even down +to the minutest member. + +Is it not the same virtue which does everything for us here in England? +Do you imagine, then, that it is the Land Tax Act which raises your +revenue? that it is the annual vote in the Committee of Supply which +gives you your army? or that it is the Mutiny Bill which inspires +it with bravery and discipline? No! surely no! It is the love of the +people; it is their attachment to their government, from the sense of +the deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, which gives you +your army and your navy, and infuses into both that liberal obedience +without which your army would be a base rabble, and your navy nothing +but rotten timber. + +All this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chimerical to the +profane herd [Footnote: 75] of those vulgar and mechanical politicians +who have no place among us; a sort of people who think that nothing +exists but what is gross and material, and who, therefore, far from +being qualified to be directors of the great movement of empire, are +not fit to turn a wheel in the machine. But to men truly initiated and +rightly taught, these ruling and master principles which, in the opinion +of such men as I have mentioned, have no substantial existence, are in +truth everything, and all in all. Magnanimity [Footnote: 76] in politics +is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go +ill together. If we are conscious of our station, and glow with zeal +to fill our places as becomes our situation and ourselves, we ought to +auspicate [Footnote: 77] all our public proceedings on America with +the old warning of the church, Sursum corda! [Footnote: 78] We ought to +elevate our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the order +of providence has called us. By adverting to the dignity of this high +calling our ancestors have turned a savage wilderness into a glorious +empire, and have made the most extensive and the only honorable +conquests--not by destroying, but by promoting the wealth, the number, +the happiness, of the human race. Let us get an American revenue as we +have got an American empire. English privileges have made it all that it +is; English privileges alone will make it all it can be. + +In full confidence of this unalterable truth, I now, quod felix +faustumque sit, [Footnote: 79] lay the first stone of the Temple of +Peace; and I move you-- + +"That the Colonies and Plantations of Great Britain in North America, +consisting of fourteen separate governments, and containing two millions +and upwards of free inhabitants, have not had the liberty and privilege +of electing and sending any Knights and Burgesses, or others, to +represent them in the High Court of Parliament." + + + + +FOOTNOTES + +[Footnote: 1. grand penal bill. This bill originated with Lord North. +It restricted the trade of the New England colonies to England and her +dependencies. It also placed serious limitations upon the Newfoundland +fisheries. The House of Lords was dissatisfied with the measure because +it did not include all the colonies.] + +[Footnote: 2. When I first had the honor. Burke was first elected +to Parliament Dec. 26, 1765. He was at the time secretary to Lord +Rockingham, Prime Minister. Previous to this he had made himself +thoroughly familiar with England's policy in dealing with her +dependencies--notably Ireland.] + +[Footnote: 3. my original sentiments. After many demonstrations both in +America and England the Stamp Act became a law in 1765. One of the first +tasks the Rockingham ministry set itself was to bring about a repeal of +this act. Burke made his first speech in support of his party. He argued +that the abstract and theoretical rights claimed by England in matters +of government should be set aside when they were unfavorable to the +happiness and prosperity of her colonies and herself. His speech was +complimented by Pitt, and Dr. Johnson wrote that no new member had ever +before attracted such attention.] + +[Footnote: 4. America has been kept in agitation. For a period of nearly +one hundred years the affairs of the colonies had been intrusted to a +standing committee appointed by Parliament. This committee was called +"The Lords of Trade." From its members came many if not the majority of +the propositions for the regulation of the American trade. To them the +colonial governors, who were appointed by the king, gave full accounts +of the proceedings of the colonial legislatures. These reports, often +colored by personal prejudice, did not always represent the colonists in +the best light. It was mainly through the influence of one of the former +Lords of Trade, Charles Townshend, who afterwards became the leading +voice in the Pitt ministry, that the Stamp Act was passed.] + +[Footnote: 5. a worthy member. Mr. Rose Fuller.] + +[Footnote: 6. former methods. Condense the thought in this paragraph. +Are such "methods" practised nowadays?] + +[Footnote: 7. paper government. Burke possibly had in mind the +constitution prepared for the Carolinas by John Locke and Earl of +Shaftesbury. The scheme was utterly impracticable and gave cause for +endless dissatisfaction.] + +[Footnote: 8. Refined policy. After a careful reading of the paragraph +determine what Burke means by "refined policy."] + +[Footnote: 9. the project. The bill referred to had been passed by the +House on Feb. 27. It provided that those colonies which voluntarily +voted contributions for the common defence and support of the English +government, and in addition made provision for the administration of +their own civil affairs, should be exempt from taxation, except such as +was necessary for the regulation of trade. It has been declared by some +that the measure was meant in good faith and that its recognition and +acceptance by the colonies would have brought good results. Burke, along +with others of the opposition, argued that the intention of the bill was +to cause dissension and division among the colonies. Compare 7, 11-12. +State your opinion and give reasons.] + +[Footnote: 10. the noble lord in the blue ribbon Lord North (1732-1792) +He entered Parliament at the age of twenty-two, served as Lord of the +Treasury, 1759; was removed by Rockingham, 1765; was again appointed +by Pitt to the office of Joint Paymaster of the Forces, became Prime +Minister, 1770, and resigned, 1781 Lord North is described both by +his contemporaries and later histonaus as an easy-going, indolent man, +short-sighted and rather stupid, though obstinate and courageous. He +was the willing servant of George III, and believed in the principle of +authority as opposed to that of conciliation. The blue ribbon was the +badge of the Order of the Garter instituted by Edward III Lord North +was made a Knight of the Garter, 1772. Burke often mentions the "blue +ribbon" in speaking of the Prime Minister. Why?] + +[Footnote: 11. Colony agents. It was customary for colonies to select +some one to represent them in important matters of legislation. Burke +himself served as the agent of New York. Do you think this tact accounts +in any way for his attitude in this speech?] + +[Footnote: 12. our address Parliament had prepared an address to the +king some months previous, in which Massachusetts was declared to be in +a state of rebellion. The immediate cause of this address was the +Boston Tea Party. The lives and fortunes of his Majesty's subjects were +represented as being in danger, and he was asked to deal vigorously not +only with Massachusetts but with her sympathizers.] + +[Footnote: 13. those chances. Suggested perhaps by lines in Julius +Caesar, IV., iii., 216-219:-- + + "There is a tide in the affairs of men, + Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; + Omitted, all the voyage of their life + Is bound in shallows and in miseries."] + +[Footnote: 14. according to that nature and to those circumstances. +Compare with 8. Point out the connection between the thought here +expressed and Burke's idea of "expediency."] + +[Footnote: 15. great consideration. This paragraph has been censured +for its too florid style. It may be rather gorgeous and rhetorical when +considered as part of an argument, yet it is very characteristic of +Burke as a writer. In no other passage of the speech is there such vivid +clear-cut imagery. Note the picturesque quality of the lines and detect +if you can any confusion in figures.] + +[Footnote: 16. It is good for us to be here. Burke's favorite books were +Shakespeare, Milton, and the Bible. Trace the above sentence to one of +these.] + +[Footnote: 17. + + "Facta parentun + Jam legere et quae sit poteris cognoscere virtus." + --VIRGIL'S Eclogues, IV., 26, 27] + +Notice the alteration. Already old enough to study the deeds of his +father and to know what virtue is. + +[Footnote: 18. before you taste of death. Compare 16.] + +[Footnote: 19. Roman charity. This suggests the more famous "Ancient +Roman honor" (Merchant of Venice, III., 11, 291). The incident referred +to by Burke is told by several writers. A father condemned to death by +starvation is visited in prison by his daughter, who secretly nourishes +him with milk from her breasts.] + +[Footnote: 20. complexions. "Mislike me not for my COMPLEXION."--M. V. +Is the word used in the same sense by Burke?] + +[Footnote: 21. the thunder of the state. What is the classical +allusion?] + +[Footnote: 22. a nation is not governed. + + "Who overcomes By force hath overcome but half his foe" + --Paradise Lost, 1, 648, 649.] + +[Footnote: 23. Our ancient indulgence. "The wise and salutary neglect," +which Burke has just mentioned, was the result of (a) the struggle of +Charles I. with Parliament, (b) the confusion and readjustment at the +Restoration, (c) the Revolution of 1688, (d) the attitude of France +in favoring the cause of the Stuarts, (e) the ascendency of the Whigs. +England had her hands full in attending to affairs at home. As a result +of this the colonies were practically their own masters in matters of +government. Also the political party known as the Whigs had its origin +shortly before William and Mary ascended the throne. This party favored +the colonies and respected their ideas of liberty and government.] + +[Footnote: 24. great contests. One instance of this is Magna Charta. +Suggest others.] + +[Footnote: 25. Freedom is to them Such keen analysis and subtle +reasoning is characteristic of Burke It is this tendency that justifies +some of his admirers in calling him "Philosopher Statesman". Consider +his thought attentively and determine whether or not his argument is +entirely sound. Is he correct in speaking of our Gothic ancestors?] + +[Footnote: 26. Abeunt studia in mores. Studies become a part of +character.] + +[Footnote: 27. winged ministers of vengeance. A figure suggested perhaps +by Horace, Odes, Bk. IV., 4: "Ministrum fulmims alitem"--the thunder's +winged messenger.] + +[Footnote: 28. the circulation. The Conciliation, as all of Burke's +writings, is rich in such figurative expressions. In every instance +the student should discover the source of the figure and determine +definitely whether or not his author is accurate and suggestive.] + +[Footnote: 29. its imperfections. + + "But sent to my account + With all my imperfections upon my head." + --Hamlet, I, v, 78, 79.] + +[Footnote: 30. same plan. The act referred to, known as the Regulating +Act, became a law May 10, 1774. It provided (a) that the council, or the +higher branch of the legislature, should be appointed by the Crown (the +popular assemblies had previously selected the members of the council); +(b) that officers of the common courts should be chosen by the royal +governors, and (c) that public meetings (except for elections) should +not be held without the sanction of the king. These measures were +practically ignored. By means of circular letters the colonies were +fully instructed through their representatives. As a direct result of +the Regulating Act, along with other high-handed proceedings of the same +sort, delegates were secretly appointed for the Continental Congress on +Sept. 1 at Philadelphia. The delegates from Massachusetts were Samuel +Adams, John Adams, Robert Paine, and Thomas Cushing.] + +[Footnote: 31. their liberties. Compare 24] + +[Footnote: 32. sudden or partial view. Goodrich, in his Select British +Eloquence, speaking of Burke's comprehensiveness in discussing his +subject, compares him to one standing upon an eminence, taking a large +and rounded view of it on every side. The justice of this observation is +seen in such instances as the above. It is this breadth and clearness of +vision more than anything else that distinguishes Burke so sharply from +his contemporaries.] + +[Footnote: 33. three ways. How does the first differ from the third?] + +[Footnote: 34. Spoliatis arma supersunt. Though plundered their arms +still remain.] + +[Footnote: 35. your speech would betray you. "Thy speech bewrayeth +thee"--Matt. xxvi 73. There is much justice in the observation that +Burke is often verbose, yet such paragraphs as this prove how well he +knew to condense and prune his expression. It is an excellent plan to +select from day to day passages of this sort and commit them to memory +for recitation when the speech has been finished.] + +[Footnote: 36. to persuade slaves. Does this suggest one of Byron's +poems?] + +[Footnote: 37. causes of quarrel. The Assembly of Virginia in 1770 +attempted to restrict the slave trade. Other colonies made the same +effort, but Parliament vetoed these measures, accompanying its action +with the blunt statement that the slave trade was profitable to England. +Observe how effectively Burke uses his wide knowledge of history.] + +[Footnote: 38. ex vi termini. From the force of the word.] + +[Footnote: 39. abstract right. Compare with 14; also 8. Point out +connection in thought.] + +[Footnote: 40. Act of Henry the Eighth. Burke alludes to this in his +letter to the sheriffs of Bristol in the following terms: "To try a man +under this Act is to condemn him unheard. A person is brought hither in +the dungeon of a ship hold; thence he is vomited into a dungeon on land, +loaded with irons, unfurnished with money, unsupported by friends, three +thousand miles from all means of calling upon or confronting evidence, +where no one local circumstance that tends to detect perjury can +possibly be judged of;--such a person may be executed according to form, +but he can never be tried according to justice."] + +[Footnote: 41. correctly right. Explain.] + +[Footnote: 42. Paradise Lost, II., 392-394.] + +[Footnote: 43. This passage should be carefully studied. Burke's theory +of government is given in the Conciliation by just such lines as these. +Refer to other instances of principles which he considers fundamental in +matters of government.] + +[Footnote: 44. exquisite. Exact meaning?] + +[Footnote: 45. trade laws. What would have been the nature of a change +beneficial to the colonies?] + +[Footnote: 46. English conquest. At Henry II.'s accession, 1154, Ireland +had fallen from the civilization which had once flourished upon her soil +and which had been introduced by her missionaries into England during +the seventh century. Henry II. obtained the sanction of the Pope, +invaded the island, and partially subdued the inhabitants. For an +interesting account of England's relations to Ireland the student should +consult Green's Short History of the English People.] + +[Footnote: 47. You deposed kings. What English kings have been deposed?] + +[Footnote: 48. Lords Marchers. March, boundary. These lords were given +permission by the English kings to take from the Welsh as much land as +they could. They built their castles on the boundary line between the +two countries, and when they were not quarrelling among themselves waged +a guerilla warfare against the Welsh. The Lords Marchers, because of +special privileges and the peculiar circumstances of their life, were +virtually kings--petty kings, of course.] + +[Footnote: 49. "When the clear star has shone upon the sailors, the +troubled water flows down from the rocks, the winds fall, the clouds +fade away, and, since they (Castor and Pollux) have so willed it, the +threatening waves settle on the deep."--HORACE, Odes, I., 12, 27-32.] + +[Footnote: 50. Opposuit natura. Nature opposed.] + +[Footnote: 51. no theory. Select other instances of Burke's impatience +with fine-spun theories in statescraft] + +[Footnote: 52. Republic of Plato Utopia of More Ideal states Consult the Century Dictionary] + +[Footnote: 53. "And the DULL swain + Treads daily on it with his clouted shoon" + --MILTON'S Comus, 6, 34, 35.] + +[Footnote: 54. the year 1763 The date marks the beginning of the active +struggle between England and the American colonies. The Stamp Act was +the first definite step taken by the English Parliament in the attempt +to tax the colonies without their consent.] + +[Footnote: 55. legal competency. This had been practically recognized by +Parliament prior to the passage of the Stamp Act. In Massachusetts the +Colonial Assembly had made grants from year to year to the governor, +both for his salary and the incidental expenses of his office. +Notwithstanding the fact that he was appointed (in most cases) by the +Crown, and invariably had the ear of the Lords of Trade, the colonies +generally had things their own way and enjoyed a political freedom +greater, perhaps, than did the people of England.] + +[Footnote: 56. This is not my doctrine, but that of Ofellus; a rustic, +yet unusually wise] + +[Footnote: 57. Compare in point of style with 43, 22-25; 44, 1-6 In what +way do such passages differ from Burke's prevailng style? What is the +central thought in each paragraph?] + +[Footnote: 58. misguided people. There is little doubt that the +colonists m many instances were misrepresented by the Lords of Trade and +by the royal governors. See an interesting account of this in Fiske's +American Revolution.] + +[Footnote: 59. an Act. Passed in 1767. It provided for a duty on +imports, including tea, glass, and paper.] + +[Footnote: 60 An Act. Boston Post Bill.] + +[Footnote: 61. impartial administration of justice. This provided that +if any person in Massachusetts were charged with murder, or any other +capital offence, he should be tried either in some other colony or in +Great Britain] + +[Footnote: 62. An Act for the better regulating See 87, 23. ] + +[Footnote: 63. Trial of Treasons See 50, 20.] + +[Footnote: 64. de jure. According to law. de facto. According to fact.] + +[Footnote: 65. jewel of his soul. + + "Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, + Is the immediate jewel of their souls" + --Othello, III, iii, 155,156.] + +[Footnote: 66. proposition of a ransom. See 8, 13.] + +[Footnote: 67. An experiment upon something of no value.] + +[Footnote: 68. They stake their fortune and play.] + +[Footnote: 69. Such a presumption Is Burke right in this? Select +instances which seem to warrant rest such a presumption. Discuss the +political parties of Burke's own day from this point of view.] + +[Footnote: 70. What can you say about the style of this passage? Note +the figure, sentence structure, and diction. Does it seem artificial and +overwrought? Compare it with 43, 22-25; 44. 1-6; also with 90, 23-25, +91, 1-25, 92, 1-23.] + +[Footnote: 71. enemies. France and Spain.] + +[Footnote: 72. light as air. + + "Trifles light as air + Are to the jealous confirmations strong + As proofs of holy writ" + --Othello, III, iii, 322-324] + +[Footnote: 73. + + grapple to you. + "The friends thou hast and their adoption tried + Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel" + --Hamlet, I., iii, 62,63.] + +[Footnote: 74. the cement is gone. Figure?] + +[Footnote: 75. profane herd. + + "Odi profanum volgus et arceo" + I hate the vulgar herd and keep it from me + --Horace, Odes, III, 1, 1] + +[Footnote: 76. Magnanimity. Etymology?] + +[Footnote: 77. auspicate Etymology and derivation?] + +[Footnote: 78. Sursum corda. Lift up your hearts.] + +[Footnote: 79. quod felix faustumque sit. May it be happy and +fortunate.] + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Burke's Speech on Conciliation with +America, by Edmund Burke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BURKE'S SPEECH *** + +***** This file should be named 5655.txt or 5655.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/5/5655/ + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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