CASSANDRA TO CATO.—NO. II.

Philadelphia, April 13, 1776.

SIR: Though the Common Man’s advice has come rather too late; though his manner of stating the points to be discussed decides to which party he belongs; though he has studiously evaded the main question, and thereby shown the publick that security to our rights forms no share of the debate he wishes to open; and though the manner in which he attempts to expose Cato and Cassandra evidently proves whose faults he is most inclined to conceal, yet I heartily join him in his censure on personal reflections. I thank him, too, for his candour in tacitly informing the publick that you have not come to the point as yet, though you have already published five letters, and heartily close with his proposal of laying aside all personality. I shall therefore proceed to the main point; and if you are willing to enter the lists as a fair antagonist, and meet me on the ground of reason and argument, on that ground will Cassandra meet you: but if, contrary to your own proposal, and the advice of your friend, you continue to amuse your countrymen with declamation and assertion, and study to terrify rather than inform, to address their passions rather than enlighten their understandings, I shall still be personal Your talent lies in strong painting and declamation, and you expect to hold up such a terrifick picture to the imaginations of the people, as will effectually frighten them into submission; but the exhibition of your person at the side of your productions will ever prove a perfect antidote to their poison. Giving you this fair warning, I shall now proceed to your third, fourth, and fifth letters, and nothing which can point out the man shall drop from my pen until Cato gives occasion for it.

I agree with the Common Man thus far, that some propositions he mentions ought, one day, to be discussed; but as there is one point, not only prior to any of them, but of infinitely greater importance than them all, viz: an absolute security for the enjoyment of our liberties, I must and will insist on the discussion of this point first, as not only prior in order, but most essential; and when it shall be fairly proved that our rights can be as effectually secured in a state of dependancy as in an independent state, then, and not before, will be the proper time to examine which would be most to our advantage. We entered the contest with a determination to secure our rights at every hazard. This is, therefore, what we are to provide for. If two ways of equal security should present themselves, then will come on the other question, viz: Which will not only secure our liberties but bring us the greatest advantages besides? Now, when Cato, the Common Man, or any other man, shall exhibit a plan by which we can absolutely secure our liberties and continue dependant, then Cassandra will be ready to enter upon the discussion of this point. But Cassandra assures Cato, the Common Man, and every other man, that no sophistical proposals of any man will turn his eyes from the main object until he sees a way of permanent security to our rights; and he trusts his countrymen, who first armed for this purpose, will still continue of that mind, and then he fears neither the threats nor efforts of Cato and the aristocratical junto, who are straining every nerve to frustrate our virtuous endeavours, and to make the common and middle class of people their beasts of burden. Those freemen who nobly refuse to be ridden by a King, Lords, and Commons, will scarcely be tame enough to take Cato and his party on their backs. I shall therefore proceed.

Passing, for the present, those parts of your letters which contain nothing but the most illiberal abuse and scurrilous invectives against Committees, Conventions, &c., I shall take up your political creed, and examine, with the greatest freedom, the arguments on which you have founded your faith. You believe “that the true interest of America lies in a reconciliation with Great Britain on constitutional principles; and that you wish it upon none else.” Sir, I earnestly entreat you, as you wish not to mislead your dear countrymen, to explain what you understand by a reconciliation on constitutional principles, that I may not mistake your meaning. It will save much writing on both sides to give such definitions of general terms as we are determined to abide by. I wish to see the whole truth laid fairly before the people, that they may coolly consider, and, with the utmost impartiality, weigh every circumstance, and choose that alone which promises the greatest security to their rights and privileges, and affords them the surest prospect of wealth and happiness. I shall, therefore, cheerfully define every term which Cato may think dubious, or calculated to mislead; and I demand the same of Cato. If he is the honest man he wishes to appear, he will not refuse me. Let us canvass everything to the bottom; and let not dark hints, unproved assertions, or ungenerous inuendoes, against the designs of incorruptible patriots, be hereafter palmed on the people for argument; but when truth is exhibited to them in the fullest and fairest manner, let them judge for themselves. Upon due information, I doubt not, they will judge right; and that judgment I am resolved to abide by.

But why does Cato labour so incessantly to bias his reader by so many and such long and pathetick harangues of the horrors of war, and its powers of desolation? Slavery is certainly a much more terrible evil, in every respect, than war; for the evils of war are both tolerable and temporary; while the miseries of slavery are intolerable and endless. War may cut off thousands in the bloom of their youth; but slavery destroys the very seeds of generation, not only in the animal, but vegetable world. How does it look, Cato, in a patriot of your magnitude, to be continually haranguing on the horrors of war, at a time when everything we hold dear and valuable depends on the success of our arms? Were you in your beloved mother country, and the Pretender, with a foreign force, (suppose Russians,) ravaging her coasts, would you harangue on these horrors to discourage resistance? I confess myself at great uncertainty what part you would act on such an occasion; but I strongly presume that in case you did, you would be accounted a disaffected traitor, and treated accordingly. But I ask pardon, sir; you do not like to be questioned. Surely, were you in the councils of the enemy, your native appetite for peace would soon put an end to their murderous designs! You are not conscientiously scrupulous, neither; for you declare you will turn out against us if there be any attempt to set the French and English by the ears. Take no help! Take no help! Fight alone, Whigs, till you are all cut off; and then we Tories will submit and have the whole. This is the language of Cato, Now, though I am as confident that your publications are intended to reduce us to slavery as you can be that mine propose a continuation of the war; and though I can more easily prove the one than you can the other; yet I have not endeavored, by alarming descriptions of the miseries of slavery, to prejudice my reader against the arguments of my opponents. Cassandra has no point to carry, and, therefore, detests such shifts. God. forbid that I should ever consider my own interest as separate from the general interest of mankind! And with equal fervency of devotion I pray that all who have, may be finally defeated in their at tempts against these Colonies. You have filled nearly the one-half of the five letters you have already published with horrible descriptions alone. Do you imagine, Cato, that we are all affected with nervous complaints, and that you can do more for your cause by alarming our fears than informing our judgments? If this be not your design, pray publish as many, as terrible, and as animated descriptions of the miseries of slavery as you have done on the horrors of war, and then leave the people to judge which they would choose. Do not let us throw them into a panick and confusion, and then desire them to examine with coolness and deliberation. There is a dignity in honesty, and a pleasing fortitude in conscious integrity, which I could wish Cato to experience. The subject demands a clear, plain, full, rational, and manly discussion; and it ought to have it. It is certainly worthy of all the labour we can bestow upon it. Liberty or slavery is now the question. Let us but fairly discover to the inhabitants of these Colonies on which side Liberty has erected her banner, and we will leave it to them to determine whether they would choose liberty, though accompanied with war, or slavery, attended by peace.

The present contest is a contest of Constitutions, and the war a war of Legislatures. The common wars of nations are the wars of one crowned head against another, in which the people have little share, and are as little consulted. The crowned head on each side declares war, or negotiates peace, without conferring with them. But this war is a war between the British Parliament and the Colonial Assemblies; it is, in fact, become a war between the People of Great Britain and the People of America; and though both have heretofore acknowledged the same King, (and he, in duty,