TO THE INHABITANTS OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Philadelphia, August, 1774.

All vices have travelling names. Submission to the British Parliament, for a while, assumed the name of Moderation. After being detected and exposed under the garb of that necessary virtue, it has assumed the name of Petition and Remonstrance. It shall be the business of this Address to show the danger of relying upon those measures alone for a redress of American Grievances.

The scheme for enslaving the Colonies has been pursued with a subtlety and perseverance which indicate a determination and certainty of success. Every session of Parliament, and every Council Board at Whitehall, since the year 1762, have produced some new exertions of arbitrary power against America.

The Colonies began their opposition to the British Parliament by Petitions and Remonstrances, in their legislative capacities. The first American Congress confined their opposition to Petitions and Remonstrances only. They addressed our King, as a father, and the Parliament, as brethren. Their Petitions were humble, dutiful, and respectful. But what was their effect? They were rejected with contempt; and to show that they had no hand in obtaining a redress of our grievances, the Stamp and Revenue Acts were repealed, only because they were found to be hurtful to the commercial interests of Great Britain.

The inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay lately presented a most humble, dutiful, and respectful Petition to the King, praying that Governour Hutchinson might be removed from their Province. But what was its effect? It was pronounced at Whitehall a "seditious, vexatious, and scandalous libel." The Governour, it is true, was removed, but it was only to be rewarded for his treachery.

It might not be foreign to our purpose to mention the contempt with which Petitions have been treated, when coming even from the citizens of London, in order to show that that mode of obtaining redress of grievances has now lost its influence.

Petitions and Remonstrances promise less at the present juncture than ever. Our King has been inflamed against us. Both Houses of Parliament breathe vengeance, and are impatient to seal our subjection with the sword. If Petitions and Remonstrances from our Assemblies did no good, in the infancy of our dispute with Great Britain, what can be expected from them when they come from a Congress of Deputies of all the Colonies? To pay the least regard to Petitions or Remonstrances from that body, would be an acknowledgement of its usefulness and authority.

Much might be lost by a delay of six months, The publick spirit will subside. Boston must resist or yield. Bribery will stretch her cursed hand across the Ocean; for we have too much reason to fear that in the present struggle the greatest enemies to American Liberty will be found, or created, among ourselves.

I could name the persons who first broached the scheme of petitioning and remonstrating only: but I spare them the weight of popular vengeance. They are men who prefer one more cargo of British Goods to the salvation of America. They are men who have friends soliciting favours at Court, or who expect to rise into importance upon the ruins of American Liberty. There are men, ho nest men too, amongst us, who have adopted this scheme from a mistaken zeal for unanimity, with persons of such principles as those we have, described.

Great Britain stands upon her commerce. The American Colonies are the pillars of that commerce While this is the case, let us not barely implore, but demand, our liberty. It was in this manner the Barons obtained the Magna Charta from King John, at Runny Mead. It is in this manner only that we shall act like freemen, and show that we feel our weight in the scale of the British Empire. Posterity would blush to receive their liberty from our hands, should we establish it upon the precarious tenure of a Sovereign's mercy.

Awake, my countrymen, to a sense of your danger. Let Pennsylvania share with her sister Colonies in the glory of saving America. Let no obstacles from our city be thrown in the way of an immediate Non-importation Agreement. Let the foreign Members of the Congress see that the Pennsylvanians are not behind their native Colonies in publick spirit; and let us show what may appear paradoxical, but is certainly true, that the Resolves of our Provincial Committee, for petitioning and remonstrating only, do not contain the sentiments of above fifty men in the whole Province.

SIDNEY.

TO THE HONOURABLE DELEGATES OR SHORTLY WILL BE, CONVENED IN GENERAL CONGRESS.

Connecticut, August, 1774.

HONORABLE SIRS: Sometimes a gleam, of light will appear from the midst of darkness; and the Councils of Kings have been known to receive benefit from persons of the greatest obscurity; then suffer an Individual to approach you, nor reject him with disdain, till you are convinced his presumption deserves your neglect. On you, great sirs, and your important decisions, the eyes and expectations of millions are fixed; on your present resolutions depend the fate of this great Empire, and the fate of the parent Empire also; death or life, liberty or bond age, must be the important alternatives of your firm virtue, or your supine relaxation; if you clothe yourselves with the first, you will shine like fixed stars in the Heavens; but if you descend to the latter, infamy and dishonor, shame and disgrace, nay, perhaps death itself, will be the reward of the attempt without success.

Then permit me to ask, what are you met for? Is it to redress the wrongs and oppressions of this injured land? Is this solemn purpose strongly impressed on every one of your own hearts; and are you certain it is the ardent desire of your constituents also? If this is the case, what method must you, or will you, take to accomplish the important end? Must it be by Petition, Remonstrance, or an abject submission to power? O that ye knew the temper of your adversaries! I trust you do, and then you will shun these modes, as so many rocks and shallows, which ever have, and ever will, fail to produce any thing but delusion, to our utter destruction. Or shall negotiation take place? This will be branded as the highest presumption and insolence, and will be punished with ten-fold rigor. No, ye patriots, all these attempts will be as fruitless in experiment, as they are idle Is contemplation. But Heaven and nature are still your guardians, and have pointed put the only path. A Non-importation, if firmly adhered to, will do much, but alone will not answer the intended end; the design of its operation can be artfully evaded "by our enemies, and lengthened out for a long season, till, by our own impatience, we are split into divisions, and prove (as one of them has emphatically expressed it) only a rope of sand. But Non-exportation is entirely in our own power, and by adopting it in the fullest latitude, we can most certainly preserve ourselves, and at the same time absolutely defeat our enemies, without being either insolent or mean. This, indeed, will be striking the axe to the root of the tree, and here only will be found our own importance, I know it will be urged, that this will be a present grievance to our selves, and the utmost cruelty to the West Indies, Ireland, and other places; but the injury to us will be only temporary and trifling, for it must be very short, and will ensure, success; and with respect to our neighbours, when two houses are equally in flames, whose shall we endeavour to extinguish first, our own or that of our friend?"

I know many objections to a plan of this kind will be started by self-interested men; but is this a time for us to think of accumulating fortunes, or even adding to our estates? If we can subsist, 'tis all we ought to expect. This land is blessed with plenty, and can furnish food and employment for all its inhabitants for a long time, without any foreign traded at all. Then Jet not, the bounties of Heaven, which have crowned this present year with joy and gladness, become a snare for us, in the hands of the tempter, and prompt us to say, now our stoics and graneries are full, and our oxen and fatlings are ready, let us fear nothing, but commit them to the seas and the winds; we will have present profit though we pay for it with future ages of misery and pain. O! ye noble guardians of our rights, think on these things; do something that will prove effectual, or do nothing. To you we all look up; your country, virtue, honour, fame, life, and liberty, or all their woful contrasts are before you; and, as you shall conduct