Master, Doctor, who played Falstaff, after he had deluded a late unhappy LORD CHANCELOR of England into Suicide, can sanctify dramatic Pleasantry, at the Expence of LIFE, LIBERTY, PROPERTY, and a whole COUNTRY.2
“Kill the next Piercy yourself,” my Lord, is a species of Drollery, in a Case of BLOOD, unworthy even of a Hackney Writer; as to you, Doctor Johnson,—I do not expect you will write HONESTLY, but write Sensibly. Treat Subjects, (which might Affect even the Humanity of a
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Scotchman) no more ludicrously, indecently, unfeelingly, and abandonly.3—With your leave, Doctor, I once more call America a NATION, and a great NATION; too far distant from her Mother Country, to receive from her either immediate, or timely Assistance on any sudden foreign Attack, SHE must, in such a Case, find Succour within herself, or PERISH. And shall SHE, whose ABILITIES we do not know, whose Country, on an emergency, we cannot Defend, shall SHE be denied the BRITISH RIGHT of Representation in our Parliament, if SHE must be TAXED by our Parliament: suppose it will not avail her, if she had it, and she would, notwithstanding, be borne down and overwhelmed (as Doctor Johnson tells us) by a Majority of CORRUPT VOICES: yet, let her have the Pleasure of seeing the UNCLEAN Hands, if not the TRAITEROUS HEARTS, of those by whom she is to FALL.—It is her BIRTHRIGHT.—Shall SHE, so situated, so circumstanced, be denied the INHERENT PRIVILEGE, that INDUBITABLE RIGHT, of MEETING, CONSULTING, and RESOLVING for herself, at all Times, much less when we have wantonly assailed her? Is this REBELLION, let me cooly ask, Who was the first Agressor? Did we first consult, resolve, nay, act against America, or America against us? Here Administration must be dumb.
If UNWARRANTABLE OPPRESSION may be RESISTED, upon Revolution Principles, the Tye between England and America, is actually dissolved, our PROTECTION is withdrawn, our TYRANNIC Sword unsheathed, and Common Sense proclaims aloud, that OBEDIENCE in America is no more.
Why have we thus attacked her with unmerited Hostilities? because SHE would not PASSIVELY hold out her Hands to receive our CHAINS.
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SHE is wise,—SHE saw those CHAINS forging, and CONSULTED.—SHE sees them now actually ready to be rivitted, and is RESOLVED.
The Memory of a Cromwell warms my soul! America wants one at this Instant.4—Was there not a Period, long before those weak and wicked Monarchs Charles the First, and James the Second, were RESISTED, when England might have been truly said to have owed no Obedience to those Sovereigns? This cannot be denied.—But, Subjects were then to PRAY, and to APPEAL TO HEAVEN against TYRANTS, because they styled themselves GODS VICEGERENTS upon Earth. We seem to be coming round to the same Species of ADULATION and IDOLATRY again. As a Revolutionist, and a Whig, I hold a KING to be no more (upon Revolution Principles he is no more) than the HEAD CONSTABLE of the Realm. If he is a PATRIOT KING, he ought to be HONOURED and REVERED; but if he is less than that, he is no more to be WORSHIPPED than a CALF.5
In the Case of America we have been the Aggressors clearly. The Protection stipulated by the Sovereign AT THE ALTAR; extends to the LIVES, the LIBERTIES, and PROPERTY of the Subject. ALL THESE have been FIRST violated BY US, WANTONLY, WEAKLY, and WICKEDLY in America. Such a Violation is TREASON; (nay, start not, my Lords Bute and Mansfield) I say it is TREASON by the Laws of England.—Laws (my Lord Mansfield) not so easily erased as a Record. Whilst
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these Laws stand, every actual Breach of the COMPACT between King and People, committed by the SOVEREIGN, is TREASON AGAINST THE PEOPLE, and worse than TREASON; it is a Sin against HEAVEN, as well as against the SUBJECT. It is ROYAL PERJURY.
After such a Breach, does Obedience exist among Subjects? Answer me—not ye Mansfields and Machiavels, but ye venerable Shades, who bled for LIBERTY and JUSTICE; even the fanciful Montesquieu (as Doctor Johnson calls him) would turn a PERJURED MONARCH pale with his Reply.6—The Contention now (says the Doctor) is for Power. But is Power (before gentle Means are tried) to be maintained by FAMINE and by BLOOD! are the earliest Supplications of suffering Subjects to be slighted, rejected, and derided? Surely not.—Yet this has been the Fate of America. These humble Applications from distressed America have finally fallen down through the Fingers of MAJESTY, ADMINISTRATION, and the LEGISLATURE, to that consummate Politician, and Representative of the three great Estates of this Kingdom, Doctor Johnson; who has the unparalleled-impudence to treat them with low Humour, open Laughter, and Scurrility, in his late patriotic Publication, called Taxation no Tyranny. Thus, and only thus, have the Americans received a verbal Answer; received it from the hackney Pen of a scribbling Prostitute. They are, it seems, to receive
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a DECESIVE ONE in the FIELD.—Alas! had any TREASON been committed, Bills of Attainder would have passed? What? without hearing? Certainly. The consistent Spirit of Administration, and the MANLY PERSEVERANCE of their Sovereign, who confides in a smuggled and corrupt Parliament, would have requested it. Government now cannot be supported without Injustice. Besides, the hungry Myrmidons,7 the ministerial Bloodhounds, are looking for their Prey. They are already gaping for forfeited Lands in America.—Had there been but a glimmering of Treason, Bills of Attainder must have passed. The Fishery Bill is almost as penal. America is at this Moment suffering without an hearing, and without a Crime.
The Means used by Administration are, most humanely, and sagaciously, Preventive. They are now carrying Famine and Desolation into America, for fear she should resist, and punishing her as a REBEL, for fear she should Rebel. Her Supplications spurned, all conciliating Measures rejected, despotic Measures alone pursued, what resourse has She now, but in herself? General Gage, the Commander first sent against them, has from natural Honour, Justice, and Humanity, exceeded his Commission: in his Heart he is more an Advocate than an Enemy.—He has offended—He has desired to be recalled.—Administration are disappointed in their Man; yet dare not discover and declare their Disappointment, by recalling him. This General, with a handful of Soldiers, was wisely commissioned to bully all America.—He disdained it.—It is a Task fitter for Burgoyne, who has learned it at the gaming Table, and practiced it at Preston. But this favourite Commander will make an admirable Figure for Mat. Darley, left, like a solitary Quixote, in the Field by his honest Troops, who will never sheath their Swords in the Bowels of their Countrymen.8
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Had we acted like a Parent, we should have heard, admonished, advised, and (if possible) reclaimed, mistaken America; but still protected her. Instead of this, we have not only withdrawn our Protection (without trying one lenient Measure) but commenced War against her.—She sensibly withheld her former commercial Intercourses with England, and threatened to do the same with the West India Colonies.—Thus (says Doctor Johnson) they have defrauded their Creditors here, and condemned our Merchants to Bankruptcy. If Creditors and Merchants suffer, if Manufacturers complain, they must recurr to the first Cause. These are the pernicious Effects of the wise Steps, taken first by the ministerial Aggressors in this Country. Nor is it to be wondered at, if the Consequence of these rash and unjust Proceedings by the Harpies of Power, should produce (in case of an approaching War with France and Spain) a general Bankruptcy of this Nation.—A Thought by no means Chemerical, but truly Melancholy; a Thought, which can neither be baffled by the buffoonery of Hackney Scriblers, the grave Sarcasms of Statesmen, or the cruel Pleasantry of thoughtless Majesty itself.
CASCA.
Printed and published for the Authors, by T. W. SHAW, in Fleet-Street, opposite Anderton’s Coffee House, where Letters to the Publisher will be thankfully received.
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THE
