If there be, on the part of Administration, any sincere desire of peace, I will endeavour to join issue with the noble Lord, and offer terms of accommodation, by which, if the Ministry will consent to replace America to their state in 1763, I shall, on the other part, propose that America shall give full satisfaction to the point of honour; and I think myself authorized to engage for everything that can in reason be required from the Americans, under that declaration in their Petition to the King, that they do not even wish for reconciliation, notwithstanding all their distresses, upon terms inconsistent with the dignity of Great Britain. Taking my ground from this declaration, I shall propose a recognition, not in words, but in fact, which shall effectually replace the authority of this country (be it more or less, without any invidious line drawn) where it was in 1763. The test which I shall propose will be the registering some act of Parliament by the Assembly of each Province, supposing the act of Parliament in view, to be formed upon principles of justice, and such as the Colonies would have received with a silent and thankful compliance in 1763. All recognitions in words being unavoidably both invidious and insidious, a test bringing no line of authority or obedience into question, would be the only safe proposition. The Americans shall be as they were in 1763, if they will likewise admit an act of test, such as they would not have had the least scruple to have admitted in 1763. Let us throw a veil over all the theoretical disputes of the rights of subjects, either as Colonists or as men at large; let us not discuss the rights reserved, or, supposed to be reserved, at their emigration, whether tacitly or explicitly; let mutual concessions on both sides bring the two parties together; let the Americans be replaced where they were in 1763, if they will admit and register in their Assemblies such an act of Parliament as they themselves shall confess that they would have admitted in 1763. It is not an unreasonable request to make to America, that they should treat an act of Parliament, flowing from principles of general humanity and justice, with a different reception to what has been given to acts of grievance.

It is certainly dangerous to disturb questions of the rights and extent of empire or obedience, because, after that, even acts of acquiescence may be construed to involve hazardous concessions, supposed to be included in the principles which have been brought under contest. But in the state of human affairs, we must not always be too scrupulous. Something must be given up for peace. A civil war never comes too late. Let the Americans take their situation as it was in 1763, for better and for worse. In the present miserable prospect of things, that is a fair and equitable bargain. The object of the act of Parliament to be proposed to America may be perhaps in the event the abolition, but at present can only be considered as the first step to correct a vice, which has spread through the continent of North-America, contrary to the laws of God and man, and to the fundamental principles of the British Constitution. That vice is slavery. It would be infinitely absurd to send over to America an act to abolish slavery at one word, because, however repugnant the practice may be to the laws of morality or policy, yet to expel an evil which has spread so far, and which has been suffered for such a length of time, requires information of facts and circumstances, and the greatest discretion to root it out; and, moreover, the necessary length of settling such a point would defeat the end of its being proposed as an act of compromise to settle the present troubles; therefore, the act to be proposed to America as an auspicious beginning to lay the first stone of universal liberty to mankind, should be what no American could hesitate an instant to comply with, viz: That every slave in North-America should be entitled to his trial by jury in all criminal cases. America cannot refuse to accept and to enroll such an act as this, and thereby to re-establish peace and harmony with the parent State. Let us all be reunited in this, as a foundation to extirpate slavery from the face of the earth. Let those who seek justice and liberty for themselves, give that justice and liberty to their fellow-creatures. With respect to the idea of putting a final period to slavery in North-America, it should seem best, that when this country had led the way by the act for jury, that each Colony, knowing their own peculiar circumstances, should undertake the work in the most practicable way, and that they should endeavour to establish some system, by which slavery should be in a certain term of years abolished. Let the only contention henceforward between Great Britain and America be, which shall exceed the other in zeal for establishing the fundamental rights of liberty to all mankind.

Sir, before I make my motions I will just give you a breviate of them in the order in which I shall offer them to the House. They speak for themselves. The first is for a suspension of arms during the treaty of pacification; for how can men deliberate with the bayonet at the breast? Hew can they treat with freedom while their towns are sacked, when daily instances of injustice and oppression disturb the slower operations of reason?

The second is, to restore the right of electing an Assembly and Council to the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay, whose charter you have confiscated. As I wish to act the part of a mediator, to soften matters between irritated parties, and not to require any concessions that might even be thought too humiliating, I have been very cautious in this second motion. Thinking, as I do, that this country (I should say the Ministry of this country) has been the aggressor in everything, I might move for a total repeal of the Charter Act; but instead of that, I simply ask for no more than is absolutely necessary to proceed by mutual concessions, by putting the proscribed Colony into a capacity of reconciliation. Give them an Assembly and Council, and when they have registered the act for jury to slaves, let not only the Charter Act be ipso facto repealed, but all other acts since 1763.

These are my third and fourth motions. Let there be no ambiguity; let everything be definite. When your authority is replaced as it was in 1763, let the Colonies likewise be replaced as they were in 1763, without equivocation or abatement.

I propose to you fair and equitable terms, as a dispassionate mediator. If I required of you to repeal and rescind every act unconditionally, I might be thought a partisan, and not a mediator; but in everything that is consistent with justice I would wish most scrupulously to consult the dignity of this country. The part of a mediator between a parent State and its Colonies, is to afford to one an honourable occasion of exerting its justice and generosity, and to restore to the other the wished-for opportunity of evincing the sincerity of their professions by every testimony of devotion becoming the most dutiful subjects and the most affectionate Colonists. Could I but hope that you would allow a plan of mutual concession and pacification to proceed thus far, who would not run foremost in an act of oblivion? It would be the blessed olive-branch of peace, and a festival of commemoration to our latest posterity.

As to my last motion, for requisitions, it is to the same intent with the draft of a letter of requisition which I had the honour of offering to the House last year, and which, if they had accepted, (instead of the noble Lord’s compulsory proposition,) all might have been peace now; for the Americans have again assured his Majesty, in their Petition which is now before you, that whenever requisitions are made in the accustomed and constitutional way, they will be ready and willing, as they ever have been, with their lives and fortunes, to assert and maintain the interests of his Majesty and of their mother country. I have put it in order, as the last resolution, to take away every idea of constraint, and to reinstate the Commons of America in the inestimable privilege of freely giving and granting their own property, as the Commons of Great Britain and of Ireland do, and as the Americans have always hitherto done. They never have been reluctant to contribute their full proportion to the common defence in a constitutional way. This, sir, is the substance of my propositions. I hope the plan may be thought definite, satisfactory, and practicable. It will be a test of sincerity to both sides. The objects of the plan are, to support the dignity of Great Britain as the parent State, to afford redress of grievances to America, to restore peace to this distracted empire, and to reunite its common interests and exertions into one common cause.

He moved—

“That an Address be presented to his Majesty, humbly setting forth, that his Majesty’s subjects in North-America, having, in the most dutiful manner, laid their grievances before his Majesty, and having humbly besought the gracious interposition of his Royal authority and influence to procure