of your grandeur? When your Troops were few and defenceless, did we take advantage of their distress and expel them our towns? Or have we permitted them to fortify, to receive new aid, and to acquire additional strength?

Let not your enemies and ours persuade you, that in this we were influenced by fear, or any other unworthy motive. The lives of Britons are still dear to us. They are the children of our parents, and an uninterrupted intercourse of mutual benefits had knit the bonds of friendship. When hostilities were commenced, when on a late occasion we were wantonly attacked by your Troops, though we repelled their assaults and returned their blows, yet we lamented the wounds they obliged us to give; nor have we yet learned to rejoice at a victory over Englishmen.

As we wish not to colour our actions, or disguise our thoughts, we shall, in the simple language of truth, avow the measures we have pursued, the motives upon which we have acted, and our future designs.

When our late petition to the Throne produced no other effect than fresh injuries, and votes of your Legislature, calculated to justify every severity; when your fleets and your armies were prepared to wrest from us our property, to rob us of our liberties or our lives; when the hostile attempts of General Gage evinced his designs, we levied armies for our security and defence. When the powers vested in the Governour of Canada gave us reason to apprehend danger from that quarter; and we had frequent intimations, that a cruel and savage enemy was to be let loose upon the defenceless inhabitants of our frontiers; we took such measures as prudence dictated, as necessity will justify. We possessed ourselves of Crown Point and Ticonderoga. Yet give us leave most solemnly to assure you, that we have not yet lost sight of the object we have ever had in View—a reconciliation with you on constitutional principles, and a restoration of that friendly intercourse, which, to the advantage of both, we till lately maintained.

The inhabitants of this Country apply themselves chiefly to agriculture and commerce. As their fashions and manners are similar to yours, your markets must afford them the conveniences and luxuries for which they exchange the produce of their labours. The wealth of this extended Continent centres with you; and our trade is so regulated as to ho subservient only to your interest. You are too reasonable to expect, that by taxes (in addition to this) we should contribute to your expense; to believe, after diverting the fountain, that the streams can flow with unabated force.

It has been said, that we refuse to submit to the restrictions on our commerce. From whence is this inference drawn? Not from our words, we have repeatedly declared the contrary; and we again profess our submission to the several acts of trade and navigation, passed before the year 1763, trusting, nevertheless, in the equity and justice of Parliament, that such of them as, upon cool and impartial consideration, shall appear to have imposed unnecessary or grievous restrictions, will, at some happier period, be repealed or altered. And we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of the British Parliament as shall be restrained to the regulation of our external commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial advantages of the whole Empire to the Mother Country, and the commercial benefits of its respective members; excluding every idea of taxation, internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in America without their consent.

It is alleged that we contribute nothing to the common defence. To this we answer, that the advantages which Great Britain receives from the monopoly of our trade far exceed our proportion of the expense necessary for that purpose. But should these advantages be inadequate thereto, let the restrictions on our trade be removed, and we will cheerfully contribute such proportion when constitutionally required.

It is a fundamental principle of the British Constitution, that every man should have at least a representative share in the formation of those laws by which he is bound. Were it otherwise, the regulation of our internal police by a British Parliament, who are and ever will be unacquainted with our local circumstances, must be always inconvenient, and frequently oppressive, working our wrong, without yielding any possible advantage to you.

A plan of accommodation (as it has been absurdly called) has been proposed by your Ministers to our respective Assemblies. Were this proposal free from every other objection but that which arises from the time of the offer, it would not be unexceptionable. Can men deliberate with the bayonet at their breast? Can they treat with freedom, while their Towns are sacked; when daily instances of injustice and oppression disturb the slower operations of reason?

If this proposal is really such as you would offer and we accept, why was it delayed till the Nation was put to useless expense, and we were reduced to our present melancholy situation? If it holds forth nothing, why was it proposed? Unless indeed to deceive you into a belief, that we were unwilling to listen to any terms of accommodation. But what is submitted to our consideration? We contend for the disposal of our property. We are told that our demand is unreasonable, that our Assemblies may indeed collect our money, but that they must at the same time offer, not what your exigencies or ours may require, but so much as shall be deemed sufficient to satisfy the desires of a Minister and enable him to provide for favourites and dependants. A recurrence to your own Treasury will convince you how little of the money already extorted from us has been applied to the relief of your burdens. To suppose that we would thus grasp the shadow and give up the substance, is adding insult to injuries.

We have nevertheless again presented an humble and dutiful Petition to our Sovereign, and to remove every imputation of obstinacy, have requested His Majesty to direct some mode by which the united applications of his faithful Colonists may be improved into happy and permanent reconciliation. We are willing to treat on such terms as can alone render an accommodation lasting, and we flatter ourselves that our pacifick endeavours will be attended with a removal of Ministerial Troops, and a repeal of those laws, of the operation of which we complain, on the one part, and a disbanding of our Army, and a dissolution of our commercial associations, on the other.

Yet conclude not from this that we propose to surrender our property into the hands of your Ministry, or vest your Parliament with a power which may terminate in our destruction. The great bulwarks of our Constitution we have desired to maintain by every temperate, by every peaceable means; but your Ministers (equal foes to British and American freedom) have added to their former oppressions an attempt to reduce us by the sword to a base and abject submission. On the sword, therefore, we are compelled to rely for protection. Should victory declare in your favour, yet men trained to arms from their infancy, and animated by the love of liberty, will afford neither a cheap nor easy conquest. Of this at least we are assured, that our struggle will be glorious, our success certain; since even in death we shall find that freedom which in life you forbid us to enjoy.

Let us now ask, what advantages are to attend our reduction? The trade of a ruined and desolate Country is always inconsiderable, its revenue trifling; the expense of subjecting and retaining it in subjection certain and inevitable. What, then, remains but the gratification of an ill-judged pride, or the hope of rendering us subservient to designs on your liberty.

Soldiers who have sheathed their swords in the bowels of their American brethren, will not draw them with more reluctance against you. When too late you may lament the loss of that freedom which we exhort you, while still in your power, to preserve.

On the other hand, should you prove unsuccessful; should that connexion, which we most ardently wish to maintain, be dissolved; should your Ministers exhaust your treasures and waste the blood of your countrymen in vain attempts on our liberty; do they not deliver you, weak and defenceless, to your natural enemies?

Since, then, your liberty must be the price of your victories; your ruin, of your defeat; what blind fatality can urge you to a pursuit destructive of all that Britons hold dear?

If you have no regard to the connexion that has for ages subsisted between us; if you have forgot the wounds we have received fighting by your side for the extension of the