may be employed to enslave you; but let not even this discour age you. Her arms, 'tis true, have filled the world with terror; her troops have reaped the laurels of the field; her fleets have rode triumphant on the sea; and when or where did you, my countrymen, depart inglorious from the field of fight? You, too, can show the trophies of your forefathers' victories and your own; can name the fortresses and battles you have won; and many of you count the honorable scars of wounds received whilst fighting for your king and country.

Where justice is the standard, heaven is the warrior's shield: but conscious guilt unnerves the arm that lifts the sword against the innocent. Britain, united with these colonies by commerce and affection, by interest and blood, may mock the threats of France and Spain; may be the seat of universal empire. But should America, either by force or those more dangerous engines, luxury and corruption, ever be brought into a state of vassalage, Britain must lose her free'dom also. No longer shall she sit the empress of the sea; her ships no more shall waft her thunders over the wide ocean; the wreath shall wither on her temples; her weakened arm shall be unable to defend her coasts; and she at last must bow her venerable head to some proud foreigner's despotic rule.

But if, from past events, we may venture to form a judgment of the future, we justly may expect that the devices of our enemies will but increase the triumphs of our country. I must indulge a hope that Britain's liberty, as well as ours, will eventually be preserved by the virtue of America.

The attempt of the British Parliament to raise a revenue from America, and our denial of their right to do it, have excited an almost universal inquiry into the right of mankind in general, and of British subjects in particular; the necessary 2

result of which must be such a liberality of sentiment and such a jealousy of those in power as will, better than an adamantine wall, secure us against the future approaches of despotism.

The malice of the Boston port-bill has been defeated, in a very considerable degree, by giving you an opportunity of deserving, and our brethren in this and our sister colonies an opportunity of bestowing those benefactions which have delighted your friends and astonished your enemies, not only in America, but in Europe also. And what is more valuable still, the sympathetic feelings for a brother in distress, and the grateful emotions excited in the breast of him who finds relief, must forever endear each to the other and form those indissoluble bonds of friendship and affection on which the preservation of our rights so evidently depend.

The mutilation of our charter has made every other colony jealous for its own; for this, if once submitted to by us, would set on float the property and government of every British settlement upon the continent. If charters are not deemed sacred, how miserably precarious is everything founded upon them! Even the sending troops to put these acts in execution is not without advantage to us. The exactness and beauty of their discipline inspire our youth with ardor in the pursuit of military knowledge. Charles the Invincible taught Peter the Great the art of war. The battle of Pultowa convinced Charles of the proficiency Peter had made.

Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends determining to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy

of yourselves. The faltering tongue of hoary age calls on you to support your country. The lisping infant raises its suppliant hands imploring defence against the monster slavery. Your fathers look from their celestial seats with smiling approbation on their sons, who boldly stand forth in the cause of virtue; but sternly frown upon the inhuman miscreant who, to secure the loaves and fishes to himself, would breed a serpent to destroy his children.

But, pardon me, my fellow citizens, I know you want not zeal or fortitude. You will maintain your rights or perish in the generous struggle. However difficult the combat, you never will decline it when freedom is the prize. An independence of Great Britain is not our aim. No, our wish is that Britain and the colonies may, like the oak and ivy, grow and increase in strength together. But whilst the infatuated plan of making one part of the empire slaves to the other is persisted in, the interests and safety of Britain, as well as the colonies, require that the wise measures recommended by the honorable the Continental Congress be steadily pursued; whereby the unnatural contest between a parent honored and a child beloved may probably be brought to such an issue as that the peace and happiness of both may be established upon a lasting basis. But if these pacific measures are ineffectual, and it appears that the only way to safety is through fields of blood, I know you will not turn your faces from your foes, but will, undauntedly, press forward until tyranny is trodden under foot, and you have fixed your adored goddess, Liberty, fast by a Brunswick's side, on the American throne.

You then, who have nobly espoused your country's cause, who generously have sacrificed wealth and ease; who have despised the pomp and show of tinselled greatness; refused the summons to the festive board; been deaf to the alluring calls

of luxury and mirth; who have forsaken the downy pillow to keep your vigils by the midnight lamp for the salvation of your invaded country, that you might break the fowler's snare and disappoint the vulture of his prey-you then will reap that harvest of renown which you so justly have deserved. Your country shall pay her grateful tribute of applause. Even the children of your most inveterate enemies, ashamed to tell from whom they sprang, while they, in secret, curse their stupid, cruel parents, shall join the general voice of gratitude to those who broke the fetters which their fathers forged.

Having redeemed your country, and secured the blessing to future generations, who, fired by your example, shall emulate your virtues and learn from you the heavenly art of making millions happy; with heartfelt joy, with transports all your own, you cry, the glorious work is done; then drop the mantle to some young Elisha, and take your seats with kindred spirits in your native skies!

WILSON

JAM

[AMES WILSON, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was born near Saint Andrew's, Scotland, in 1742. After obtaining his education at the Universities of Glasgow, Saint Andrew's, and Edinburgh, he emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1766, studied law in Philadelphia, and was admitted to the bar in 1768. He took a very active interest in political affairs and just before the opening of the first Continental Congress published anonymously a strong pamphlet entitled "Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament." Wilson was three times a member of the Continental Congress and rendered services of a most valuable nature to his adopted country at the period of the formation of the federal constitution. He belonged to the committee which drafted the constitution and sat in the Pennsylvania convention which ratified it. In 1789 he was appointed associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, and in 1790 became the first professor of law in the University of Pennsylvania. He died at Edenton, North Carolina, August 28, 1798. Wilson was the author, in addition to the pamphlet named, of a Public Address to the Citizens of Philadelphia " (1784); "Commentaries on the United States Constitution" (with T. McKean) (1792). A three-volume edition of his writings, including lectures, speeches, and orations, was issued in 1804, and one in two volumes, edited by J. Andrews, in 1896.

VINDICATION OF THE COLONIES

[The king, in his speech at the opening of Parliament in November, 1774, informed that assembly that "a most daring spirit of resistance and disobedience still prevailed in Massachusetts and had broken forth in fresh violences of a criminal nature; that the most proper and effectual methods had been taken to prevent these mischiefs; and that they, the Parliament, might depend upon a firm resolution to withstand every attempt to weaken or impair the supreme authority of Parliament over all the dominions of the Crown." The following speech in reference to this declaration of the king was delivered by Mr. Wilson, in January, 1775, in the Convention for the Province of Pennsylvania.]

R. CHAIRMAN.- Whence, sir, proceeds all the invid

M

ious and ill-grounded clamor against the colonists

of America? Why are they stigmatized in Britian

as licentious and ungovernable? Why is their virtuous opposition to the illegal attempts of their governors represented