[print edition page 193]
When the humble Supplications of an oppressed People are treated with Contempt, and a deaf Ear turned to their Complaints, when their RIGHTS are Daily invaded, their Property unlawfully wrested from them, and their Blood inhumanly shed, it is incumbent on them, it is a Duty they owe to God and their Country, to take the Field and resist their Oppressors, to shew themselves BRAVE, when Bravery is required, and dare to be Resolute in the Hour of Danger. Remember, my Fellow Countrymen, our Predecessors led the Way, the Americans have followed their noble Example, and we are Bound to follow them. Where would have been LIBERTY and PROPERTY, if it had not been for the Virtue, Bravery, and Resolution of our Ancestors? they stood FORTH in the glorious Cause, and many of them secured it to Posterity by their BLOOD. Shall we then, TAMELY submit to have those Privileges for which they FOUGHT and FELL, ravished from us by a Lawless tribe of Men, who call themselves Senators or Ministers, and who taking Advantage of their Prince, are laying waste their Country, and spreading Desolation through the Land? Shall it be said in after-Times, that the Year ONE THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED and SEVENTY FIVE, was less Glorious than that of SIXTEEN HUNDRED and EIGHTY EIGHT; and that as the Age grew more and more enlightened, it became more and more PUSILLANIMOUS. Forbid it Heaven!
Let me intreat you, O! Englishman, to rouse from that state of Supineness in which you have so long lain; open your Eyes to the Danger that surrounds you, and stand forth the Defenders of AMERICAN VIRTUE and PUBLIC LIBERTY. HAVOC is now the Cry at St. James’s and the Dogs of War are let loose to tear out the Vitals of our Brethren; America through the abandoned Cruelty of an accursed Administration, and an unrelenting King, is become a FIELD of BLOOD, overspread with Desolation and Slaughter. It is in your Power to put an end to this horrid, unnatural CIVIL WAR, it must owe its extinction or continuance to you, if you are Virtuous, Brave, and Resolute, the Lives, Liberties, and Properties of your Fellow-Subjects, may be preserved, and your Country saved from Destruction; if on the Contrary, you should be irresolute and Pusillanimous at this Time, (unworthy the Name of Englishmen) Thousands, many thousand Lives must be lost; the Liberties of
[print edition page 194]
England will be no more, and your Property taken from you at the Will and Pleasure of the King and his Ministers.
It can only be from the Virtue and UNITED efforts of England and America, that the Constitution of Great Britain, and all our invaluable Privileges can be preserved; should you remain quiet Spectators of the present inhuman Massacres, and destructive Measures, you will deserve the worst of Slavery, and the cruelest Punishment ever inflicted on a People.
If you have any Honour, if you have any Virtue, or any Bravery, you will now stand forth and resist the Tyrants, you will demand the Heads of those Men, who advised those sanguinary, fatal, and ruinous Measures; you will declare to the World, you will not consent to Arbitrary invasions of your Liberties, Arbitrary dispensings with the Laws, and Arbitrary governing by an Army; that you owe no Submission to a King, beyond the Bounds of Law; that your Lives, Liberties, and Estates, shall not be disposed of at his PLEASURE, and that you are Bound by the Laws of God and Man, to resist a Tyrant; that you will oppose all unjust Violence, and those who attempt the Life of the Constitution, as the great Enemies of their Country; this has been practiced in all Ages, and all Nations determine, that when Kings invade the Lives, Liberties, or Properties of their Subjects, that tear up the Foundations of Public Freedom, and the sacred Constitution of their Country, MAY BE RESISTED, either by calling in and joining with Foreign Assistance, or by taking Arms in Defence of the Law and common Liberty; this is what was declared at the REVOLUTION, and this is the Foundation upon which the People took Arms in the Time of Charles the First.
The Axe is now at the Root of the Tree; the overthrow of the Constitution is the great Design of the King and his Ministers, the open and avowed Enemies to the natural Rights of Mankind, who have already sufficiently proved to the World, that they mean the Subversion of the universal Right of Christians and of Subjects. Let those, my Countrymen, who plead for Tyrants, submit to their Power; but let us esteem Liberty, Religion, and Property, equally with our Lives, every Mans Birthright by Nature; no Government ever received a LEGAL Authority
[print edition page 195]
to abridge or take it away; nor has God vested any single or confederated Power in any Hands to destroy it; and it is in Defence of these glorious Privileges, these common Rights, I have written this Paper, and to preserve them unviolated by the polluted Hands of Lawless Tyrants, I would lay down my Life, for Life is a burthen in any other State than that of FREEDOM.
It is notoriously known, notwithstanding all the Royal and ministerial Falshoods which have been, and are Daily advanced, to our Disgrace, it is known that we do not enjoy, undiminished, one single Privilege purchased by the Blood of our Ancestors, and confirmed to us by MAGNA CHARTA and the BILL of RIGHTS. Every Man then, who remains passive at this Time, is an Enemy and a Traitor to his Country. I loose all kind of Patience when I reflect upon the melancholy Situation of England and America, and the villainous Principles of those Men, intrusted by the Sovereign with the Management of the Affairs of this once great, free, and powerful Kingdom. I am fired with a just Indignation against the Authors of our Misfortunes; and if I appear too Warm, I hope it will be imputed to my Zeal in the Public Cause, and not to any Malice or Resentment, against Individuals, for I here declare to have none, but I most sincerely wish to stop the further Effusion of Human Blood, and would willingly sacrifice my Life, could I rescue my Country from the Hands of PARRICIDES and TRAITORS, and from that Destruction which now threatens it.
To the PUBLIC.
THE Necessity, Utility, and National Advantage of a political Paper in Defence of the natural Rights of Mankind at this IMPORTANT ÆRA, must appear greater than at the last glorious Revolution. We now see, and with infinite Concern, the King and Ministry, the Lords and Commons, all united, and firmly resolved, on persuing Measures, which (without a noble Opposition from the People) must end in the Destruction of the Laws, Rights, and Liberties, of the whole British Empire, in England and America. It is therefore only necessary to say, this Paper will be carried on by two Gentlemen of literay Abilities, alike Enemies to the Arbitary efforts of ONE, or a purchased Majority of FIVE HUNDRED
[print edition page 196]
and FIFTY EIGHT TYRANTS, to whom they, and they hope, their Fellow-Subjects, never will submit.
Potior visa est periculosa libertas quieto servitio.
SALLUST1
The CRISIS will be continued with Spirit, in defiance of every exertion of Lawless Power, upon the true Principles of the Constitution, against the secret Machinations, and despotic Designs, of the present corrupt Court and Ministry. The Authors being determined, even at the risk of every thing that is dear to Man, to rescue the Liberty of the Press, the natural Rights of Mankind, and the Constitution of the British Empire, in England and America, from that Ruin, with which they are now threatened. In order with more Ease to accomplish these great Ends, they earnestly beg the Assistance of those, who are real Friends to the Laws, Liberties, and Constitution of their Country.
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.
[print edition page 197]
THE
CRISIS
| NUMBER XXIII | To be continued Weekly. |
|
SATURDAY, JUNE
|
