by You for obtaining Redress.
Nor is this all that you have performed for Your native Land. Animated by a sacred Zeal, guided by Truth and supported by Justice, You have penetrated to the Foundations of the Constitution, have poured the clearest Light on the important Points, hitherto involved in a Darkness bewildering even the Learned, and have established with an amazing Force and Plainness of Argument, the TRUE DISTINCTIONS and GRAND PRINCIPLES, that will fully instruct Ages YET UNBORN, what Rights belong to them, and the best Methods of defending them.
To Merit far less distinguished, ancient Greece or Rome would have decreed Statues and Honours without Number: But it is Your Fortune and your Glory, Sir, that You live in such Times, and possess such exalted Worth, that the Envy of those, whose Duty it is to applaud You, can conceive no other Consolation, than by withholding those Praises in Public, which all honest Men acknowledge in Private that you have deserved.
We present to you, sir, a small gift of a Society not dignified by any legal authority; But when you consider this gift as expressive of the sincere Affection of many of your Fellow Citizens for Your Person, and of their unlimited Approbation of the noble Principles maintained in your unequalled Labours, we hope this Testimony of our Sentiments will be acceptable to you.
May that all-gracious Being, which in kindness to these colonies gave your valuable Life Existence at the critical Period when it will be most wanted, grant it a long Continuance, filled with every Felicity; and when your Country sustains its dreadful loss, may you enjoy the Happiness of Heaven, and on Earth may your Memory be cherished, as we doubt not it will be, to the latest Posterity.
Signed by the Order of the Society,
John Bayard, Secretary.
The box was finely decorated, and the Inscription neatly done in Letters of Gold. On the Top was represented the Cap of Liberty on a Spear, resting on a Cypher of the Letters I. D. Underneath the Cypher in a semicircular Label——Pro Patria——Around the whole the following words:
The Gift of the Governor and Society of Fort St. David's to the Author of the Farmer's Letters, in grateful Testimony of the very eminent Services thereby rendered to this Country, 1768.
On the Inside of the Top—
The Liberties of
The British Colonies in America
Asserted
With Attic Eloquence,
And Roman Spirit,
by
J-n D-k-ns-n[6] Esqr.; Barrister at Law.
On the Inside of the Bottom—
Ita Cuique Eveniat
ut de Republica Meruit.
On the Outside of the Bottom—A sketch of Fort St. David's.
To which the following Answer was returned.
Gentlemen,
I very gratefully receive the Favour you have been pleased to bestow upon me, in admitting me a Member of your Company; and I return you my heartiest Thanks for your Kindness.
The "Esteem" of worthy Fellow Citizens is a Treasure of greatest Price; and as no man can more highly value it than I do, Your Society in "expressing the Affection" of so many respectable Persons for me, affords Me the sincerest Pleasure.
Nor will this Pleasure be lessened by reflecting, that you may have regarded with a generous Partiality my Attempts to promote the Welfare of our Country; for the Warmth of your Praises in commending a Conduct you suppose to deserve them, gives Worth to these Praises, by proving your Merit, while you attribute Merit to another.
Your Characters, gentlemen, did not need this Evidence to convince Me, how much I ought to prize Your "Esteem" or how much You deserved Mine.
I think myself extremely fortunate, in having obtained your favorable Opinion, which I shall constantly and carefully endeavor to preserve.
I most heartily wish you every Kind of Happiness, and particularly that you may enjoy the comfortable Prospect of transmitting to your Posterity those "Liberties" dearer to You than your Lives, "which God gave to you, and which no inferior Power has a Right to take away."
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