XXI. To 1775. Feb. never for a moment doubting that the power of CHAP. Great Britain would trample down, repress, and overwhelm every movement of insurrection. crush the spirit of resistance by terror, and to diffuse a cowardly panic, Daniel Leonard, of Taunton, speaking for them all, held up the spectres of "high treason," "actual rebellion," and "anarchy." He ran through the history of the strife; argued that it was reasonable for America to share in the national burden as in the national benefit: that there was no oppressive exercise of the power of parliament; that the tax of threepence on tea was no tyranny, since a duty of a shilling, imposed as a regulation of trade, had just been taken off; that the bounties paid in England on American produce exceeded the American revenue more than fourfold; that no grievance was felt or seen; that in the universal prosperity, the merchants in the colonies were rich, the yeomanry affluent, the humblest able to gain an estate; that the population doubled in twenty-five years, building cities in the wilderness, and interspersing schools and colleges through the continent; that the country abounded with infallible marks of opulence and freedom; that even James Otis had admitted the authority of parliament over the colonies, and had proved the necessity and duty of obedience to its acts; that resistance to parliament by force would be treason; that rebels would deservedly be cut down like grass before the scythe of the mower, while the gibbet and the scaffold would make away with those whom the sword should spare; that Great Britain was resolved to maintain the power of parliament, and was able to do so; that the colonies south of Pennsylvania had XXI. Feb. CHAP. barely men enough to govern their numerous slaves, and defend themselves against the Indians; that the 1775. northern colonies had no military stores, nor money to procure them, nor discipline, nor subordination, nor generals capable of opposing officers bred to arms; that five thousand British troops would prevail against fifty thousand Americans; that the British navy on the first day of war would be master of their trade, fisheries, navigation, and maritime towns; that the Canadians and savages would prey upon the back settlements, so that a regular army could devastate the land like a whirlwind; that the colonies never would unite, and New England, perhaps even Massachusetts, would be left to fall alone; that even in Massachusetts thousands among the men of property and others, would flock to the royal standard, while the province would be drenched in the blood of rebels. The appeal of Leonard was read with triumph by the tories. But John Adams, kindling with indignation at his dastardly menaces and mode of reasoning, entered the lists as the champion of American freedom; employing the fruits of his long study of the British law, the constitution, and of natural right, and expressing the true sentiments of New England. 'My friends: Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty. The people can understand and feel the difference between true and false, right and wrong, virtue and vice. To the sense of this difference the friends of mankind appeal. 66 "That all men by nature are equal; that kings have but a delegated authority which the people may resume, are the revolution principles of 1688, are the principles of Aristotle and Plato, of Livy and Cicero, of Sydney, Harrington, and Locke, of nature CHAP. and eternal reason. XXI. Feb. "The people are in their nature so gentle, that 1775. there never was a government in which thousands of mistakes were not overlooked. Not ingratitude to their rulers, but much love is their constant fault. Popular leaders never could for any length of time persuade a large people that they were wronged, unless they really were so. They have acted on the defensive from first to last; are still struggling at the expense of their ease, health, peace, wealth, and preferment, and, like the Prince of Orange, resolve never to see their country in entire subjection to arbitrary power, but rather to die fighting against it in the last ditch. "Nor can the people be losers in the end. Should they be unsuccessful, they can but be slaves, as they would have been had they not resisted; if they die, death is better than slavery; if they succeed, their gains are immense, for they preserve their liberties. Without the resistance of the Romans to Tarquin, would the Roman orators, poets, and historians, the great teachers of humanity, the delight and glory of mankind, ever have existed? Did not the Swiss cantons gain by resistance to Albert and Gessler? Did not the Seven United Provinces gain by resistance to Philip, Alva, and Granvelle? Did not the English gain by resistance to John when Magna Charta was obtained? by resistance to Charles the First? to James the Second? "To the scheme of having a revenue in America by authority of parliament, the active, sagacious, and very able Franklin, the eminent philosopher, the disVOL. VII. 20* XXI. CHAP. tinguished patriot, in the administration of the busy, intriguing, enterprising Shirley, sent an answer in 1775. writing, which exhausted the subject. Feb. "If the parliament of Great Britain had all the natural foundations of authority, wisdom, goodness, justice, power, would not an unlimited subjection of three millions of people to that parliament at three thousand miles distance, be real slavery? But when both electors and elected are become corrupt, you would be the most abject of slaves to the worst of masters. The minister and his advocates call resistance to acts of parliament treason and rebellion. But the people are not to be intimidated by hard words; they know, that in the opinion of all the colonies parliament has no authority over them excepting to regulate their trade, and this merely by consent. "All America is united in sentiment. When a masterly statesman, to whom America has erected a statue in her heart for his integrity, fortitude, and perseverance in her cause, invented a committee of correspondence in Boston, did not every colony, nay every county, city, hundred, and town upon the whole continent, adopt the measure, as if it had been a revelation from above? Look over the resolves of the colonies for the past year; you will see, that one understanding governs, one heart animates the whole. "The congress at Philadelphia have assured us, that if force attempts to carry the late innovating measures against us, all America ought to support us. Maryland and Delaware have taken the powers of the militia into the hands of the people, and estab XXI. Feb. lished it by their own authority for the defence of CHAP. Massachusetts. Virginia and the Carolinas are preparing. The unanimity in congress can hardly be 1775. paralleled. The mighty questions of the revolution of 1688 were determined in the convention of parlia ment by small majorities of two or three, and four or five only; the almost unanimity in your assemblies and especially in the continental congress, are providential dispensations in our favor, the clearest demonstration of the cordial, firm, radical, and indissoluble union of the colonies. "If Great Britain were united, she could not subdue a country a thousand leagues off. How many years, how many millions, did it take to conquer the poor province of Canada, which yet would never have submitted but on a capitulation, securing religion and property? But Great Britain is not united against us. Millions in England and Scotland think it unrighteous, impolitic, and ruinous to make war upon us; and a minister, though he may have a marble heart, will proceed with a desponding spirit. London has bound her members under their hands to assist us; Bristol has chosen two known friends of America; many of the most virtuous of the nobility and gentry are for us, and among them a St. Asaph, a Camden, and a Chatham; the best bishop that adorns the bench, as great a judge as the nation can boast, and the greatest statesman it ever saw. "I would ask, by what law the parliament has authority over America? By the law in the Old and New Testament it has none; by the law of nature and nations it has none; by the common law of England it has none; by statute law it has none; for |