In this situation, let us seriously and coolly ponder. What is it we
have got by all our menaces, which have been many and ferocious? What
advantage have we derived from the penal laws we have passed, and which,
for the time, have been severe and numerous? What advances have we made
towards our object, by the sending of a force, which, by land and sea,
is no contemptible strength? Has the disorder abated? Nothing
less.--When I see things in this situation, after such confident hopes,
bold promises, and active exertions, I cannot, for my life, avoid a
suspicion that the plan itself is not correctly right.
If, then, the removal of the causes of this spirit of American liberty
be, for the greater part, or rather entirely, impracticable,--if the
ideas of criminal process be inapplicable, or, if applicable, are in the
highest degree inexpedient, what way yet remains? No way is open, but
the third and last,--to comply with the American spirit as necessary,
or, if you please, to submit, to it as a necessary evil.
If we adopt this mode, if we mean to conciliate and concede, let us see
of what nature the concession ought to be. To ascertain the nature of
our concession, we must look at their complaint. The colonies complain
that they have not the characteristic mark and seal of British freedom.
They complain that they are taxed in a Parliament in which they are not
represented. If you mean to satisfy them at all, you must satisfy them
with regard to this complaint.
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