tions, under GoD, depends their freedom; upon our exertions depends the important question, whether the rising empire of America, shall be an empire of slaves or of freemen. Indeed, my countrymen, the people of America defend her from their power, and transmit her have every thing to animate and encourage them blessings to millions upon millions of our posterity. in the present contest. Formidable as was once Let us then arouse to arms; for, upon our exerthe power of the British lion, he hath now lost his teeth; universal dissipation hath taken place of that simplicity of manners, and hardiness of integrity, for which the nation was once remarkable: the officers of the British army, instead of inuring Animated by these considerations, my friends themselves to discipline, and seeking for glory in and fellow-citizens, let us strain every nerve in the the blood-stained field, wish alone to captivate the service of our country! what are our lives when softer sex, and triumph over their virtue. The viewed in competition with the happiness of such legislature of Great Britain is totally corrupt; her an empire! what is our private interest when op: administration is arbitrary and tyrannical; the peo-posed to that of three millions of men! let our ple have lost their spirit of resentment; and, like bosoms glow with the warmth of patriotism; let the most contemptible of animals, bow the shoulder us sacrifice our ease, our fortunes, and our lives, to bear, and become servants unto tribute. The na- that we may save our country. tional resources are cut off; she is loaded with an intolerable public debt; she is become the scorn of those foreigners to whom she was once terrible; and it is easy to see that her glory is in the wane How different from this is the present state of selfish men hold most dear, to save this oppressed our country; descended from a race of hardy land! with firmness you have résisted every attack ancestors, who loved their freedom better than of arbitrary power! like the sturdy oak, you have they loved their lives, the Americans are jealous stood unmoved, and to you, under Go», will be of the least infringement of their rights; strangers owing the salvation of this extensive continent. to that luxury, which effeminates the mind and We feel, my beloved friends, our obligations to body, they are capable of enduring incredible hard-you! our hearts confess them; we cordially wish it ships; with eagerness they rush into the field of were in our power to reward you for your patriobattle, and brave, with coolness, every danger; they tism; to restore you to that ease and affluence of possess a rich and a fruitful country, sufficient to which, for our sakes, you have deprived yourselves supply them with every necessary and convenience it is not. But our morning and evening petitions; of life; they have inexhaustible resources for carry. to the guardian GoD of America shall be, that he ing on war, and bid fair soon to be courted for their will bless and reward you. That a spirit of public virtue may transcend every private consideration, you, the respected inhabitants of the town of Boston, have plainly manifested: with pleasure you have sacrificed what alliance, by the proudest monarchs of the earth. With transport, my countrymen, let us look Their statesmen are equal to the task of forming forward to the bright day, which shall hail us a and defending a free and extensive empire: their free and independent state. With earnestness let generals are brave and humane, intrepid and us implore the forgiveness and the patronage of prudent. When I name a WASHINGTON, my the Being of all beings, who holds the fate of emaudience will feel the justice of the remark, and acquit me of the charge of flattery. Possessed of these advantages, we should be inexcusable to Gon, to our posterity, to the whole world, if we hesitated, a single moment, in assert. ing our rights and repelling the attacks of lawless power. Freedom is offered to us, she invites us to accept her blessings; driven from the other regions of the globe, she wishes to find an asylum in the wilds of America; with open arms let us receive pires in his hands! with zeal let us exert ourselves ORATION DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1777, the persecuted fair; let us imitate the example of my inability to act the part I am to take, in this our venerable ancestors, who loved and courted day's solemnity, to those who might have remedied her into these desert climes. With determined the evil, by a more suitable appointment, I shall bravery, let us resist the attacks of her impudent offer my sentiments upon the subject with the same ravishers; by resolution and firmness we may freedom that I conceived them. The advantages of social life, are the result of refinemen', and learning, should ever be subdued such evident necessity, so extensively diffusive and by a power that never could have crept into life, universally felt, that all mankind will readily but through the channel of their indulgence. acknowledge their existence without the aid of But alas! their fate remains a standing MONUMENT metaphysics or history. of this truth; that freedom, at sufference, is a The right that every individual has to reasonsolecism in politics. freely upon the nature of that government he is To avoid the pain that humanity must suffer, called to submit to, having nature for its source, upon finding so few instances of virtue that have is no less obvious and perceptible-and hence, as been proof against the temptations to prostitute a a necessary foundation for the exercise of this delegated power, I am inclined to think, that the right, I define civil liberty to be, not "a govern-great FOUNDER of societies has caused the cURO ment by laws," made agreeable to charters, bills of infatuating ambition, and relentless cruelty, to of rights or compacts, but a power existing in the be entailed on those whose vanity may lead them people at large, at any time, for any cause, or for to assume his prerogative among any of his peono cause, but their own sovereign pleasure, to alter ple as they are cantoned about in the world, and to or annihilate both the mode and essence of any prevent mankind from paying that adoration and former government, and adopt a new one in its respect to the most dignified mortal, which is due only to infinite wisdom and goodness, in the direction stead. Placing ourselves then upon this broad basis of of almighty power, and therefore that he alone is fit civil liberty, founded on natural right, we will, to be a MONACH. unawed by the standing armies of any tyrant's Were we to traverse the whole field of human tools, or monarchs, deliberate freely upon the transactions, and expect any where to find an nature of their institutions, and their dangerous exemption from this general charge, we should tendency to the rights of man. most naturally fix our eyes upon the Romans-but Every military force must necessarily imply a how mortified do we find ourselves by the survey? right of exercising an arbitrary power, so far as At the very time this people were most famed respects the objects against which it is to be for their virtue and greatness-while they were directed; and what will be the objects, against regaling themselves with luxurious ease in the lap which it will be in constant exercise, in proportion of freedom-the provinces, they obtained by fraud to its extent, we may collect from the experience of and violence, were suffering under every species ages, and the well known source of human actions, of the vilest servitude, and made to contribute to that very ease and luxury at the discretion of the most merciless unfeeling task-masters. The page of history seldom groans with the calamities of mankind, but we may trace the source of their unhappiness to this engine of oppression. Projected in the blackest principles of the hu man mind, and supported by ambition and a lust of unbounded sway, this armed mons'er hath spread havoc and misery throughout the world. We find the bloody traces of its footsteps through all the ruins of greatness and freedom, either in ancient or modern times: the most free and opulent cities of the world, by conniving at its birth, have, at last, falien a prey to its relentless fury.t While we are ravished with the politeness, wis. dom, and greatness of the Grecian states, we can acarce believe that the productions of such art. But they themselves, by the same tools they had armed to execute their bloody purposes, in their turn, became the subjects of the same kind of oppression they so liberally dealt out to others, and stand recorded in history equal monuments of the greatness and depravity of human nature. Taught by the experience of former ages, that a general, at the head of an armed force, would ever make himself superior to the laws, Europe, for several centuries, raised effectual barriers against the danger (and, I may say, the possibility) of their usurpations; for the tenure of their lands, though they acknowledge a superior lord, was up. on conditions so abhorrent to the idea of stand. ing armies, that it offered at once, both a promise The petty states and princes who have raised their armies as a peasant would his game cocks, and a pledge against them. and sent them to market for a price, are in the most infamous sense of the word, tools. †Pisistratus of Athens, Dyonisius of Syracuse, and Cæsar of Rome, furnish a few among numberless examples, that history affords. But to convince us that no human institutions c ́n insure permanent felicity to mankind—security, The feudal tenure. the offspring of ease and freedom, opened the door pleasure in stripping others of the noblest orna. for one enterprising usurper after another, till the ments and gifts of nature, to countenance their own inhabitants of the whole eastern world had but little deformity and wretchedness. left of the property of their species but what they possessed in their shape. A trifling farce, therefore, upon the question of right in parliament, was all the previous parade Strange metamorphosis! but is it not much that was thought necessary to the introduction of stranger still, to see these pitiable wretches stript a standing army, with all the ensigns of war, into of every enjoyment that can render life a blessing, the bowels of our country. meanly courting favor and protection from the It is needless to recount the various preludes tyrants who enslaved them, and easily mistaking to hostilities, the fatal day we now commemorate, the chains of servitude for the garb of nature? opened a scene that filled every honest mind with The formalities of a free, and the ends of a despotic indignation, and every tender heart with distress.* state (says a modern writer) have often subsisted-It is impossible for any who were not witnesses together; Britain furnishes a most unhappy example of that shocking event, to conceive the terrors of of this shocking truth: as if the relish of liberty that dreadful night, and they who were must have was pampered to make slavery itself more intoler-images of horror upon the mind they never can ably loathsome, they feel all the mortifying conse communicate. quences of the basest servitude, and are left to The variety of contending passions that once console themselves with this consideration, that fall upon and distract the mind, upon the arrival the weight of their grievances can never be increas-of such an important crisis, can never be realized ed while they are complimented, or rather tantalized but once. with the name of freemen. These are some of the To see the peaceful inhabitants of a city, glorious effects of standing armies among foreign deliberately murdered by the very men, who, in nations. Let us now consider their consequences pretence, were supported for their protection-to in that part of the world, in whose affairs me take hear the piercing groans-to see the mangled a more interesting part. bodies and ghastly visages of the dying and the It is easy to conceive that those men who would dead-to hear the shrieks and cries of the timid, not scruple to make use of every artifice and with the promiscuous, mingling horrid sound of violence to reduce the very people to whose gene-arms, execrations, and vengeance, produced a rosity they were indebted for their splendor, scene of confusion and wretchedness, so comwealth, and greatness, to a state of vassalage, would plicated and complete, that the power of the richest never hesitate to make their conquests as exten- language must ever fail in describing it.t sive as their power;...they can feel the influence of no law but that of the sword, and therefore (what- the sufferings, and patriotism to pour the balm of The eye of pity is yet called to drop a tear at ever may be their pretensions) you will, in every charity over the wounds of half-murdered citizens, case, find them ultimately make an appeal to its dragging out a miserable life, and fresh bleeding decisions. with the blows aimed at our country. We could dwell, with a melancholy pleasure, on this sad catastrophe, did not a more ample field of violence, bloodshed, and cruelty, demand our attention. The palpable absurdity of making use of the name of a king, to give a sanction to those very operations which were carrying on against him, has been so sensibly felt, through all ranks of men, that we have not yet altogether got rid of its disagreea How can we expect that they who know nothing of the happiness of freedom themselves, should feel any reluctance at reducing all mankind to their own disgraceful situation? indeed the reverse is true, for we generally find them taking an unnatural ble effects. *Charles VII. Lewis XI. of France, baving set the example, all the crowned heads in Europe soon followed it. The murder of two or three people in St. George's fields, seems to be all the ceremony attending the death and burial of British liberty. And I must confess I should blush at the ludicrous Quis talia fando, Myrmidonum, dolopumve, aut duri miles Ulyssei, Temperet a lachrymis. Virgil. Non mihi si linguæ centum sint, oraque centum, Ferrea vox, omnes scelerum comprendere formas -possim. Virgi figure in which this part of our history must exhibit severity, which, however just, humanity shudders to view, in future time, were we not countenanced to inflict. But we cannot think it strange to find by the same, or more striking inconsis encies which are to be found attendant (and perhaps necessarily so) upon all important revolutions. We can easily conceive a mixture of prejudice and fear, that will excite such awful ideas of the person, to whom we have been taught from our cradles, to annex the properties of a most gracious sovereign, most sacred majesty, and a train of such Gon-like attributes, as would make us feel conscious of a degree of impiety, in calling a villain by his proper name, while shrouded under this garb of sanctity. people in the subordinate departments of life, in fluenced by such ridiculous notions, while their haughty masters seem to labor under the misfortune of the same infatuation. Slaves always rate the consequence of those they serve, by the treatment they receive from them, and wonder that others do not feel the weight of the same importance. To call men of distinguished rank, in any government, knaves, fools and scoundrels, however they may deserve it, is esteemed neither polite or decent: I am, therefore, at a loss for names while I am describing the oppressors of my country. Who, without deserving these reproachful appellations, could have conceived the horrid wish of decking his crown with the idle plume of foreign empire But it is exceedingly diverting to view the influence of this chimerical divinity in those who are made the immediate tools of supporting it they will tell you it is a task most ungrateful to men of their sensibility and refinement, to be made at the expense of the peace, wealth, and very being the instruments of sending fire and death indis. of a nation? and who but a pompous blockhead, in criminately among the innocent, the helpless, and the execution of this impious design, could expect the fair-but they have sworn to be faithful to to conquer a hardy, virtuous set of men, by ineffectheir sovereign, and were they ordered to scale the tual threats and empty promises, contained in a set walls of the new Jerusalem, they should not dare of proclamations, he wanted either courage or power to decline the impious attempt. to disperse among the people they were designed to subdue?* Were it not for this ridiculous faith in the omnipotence of the tyrant whom they serve, we must suppose them fools or madmen:--Indeed that very faith, would justify the charge of extreme madness and folly against all mankind, who had not been nurtured in this cradle of infatuation. Possibly they may conceive the length of their master's purse, at the rate of thirty crowns a man, to be equal to all the armed force of Europe, and therefore they should be able ultimately to effect that by the point of the bayonet, which they rather wished, than expected, to obtain on any other terms. Were it not for the indulgence that a generous mind will always shew to the weakness and prejudices of the worst of men, many whom the chance Here let us pause, and for the honor of our speof war has thrown into our hands, must have felt cies, give a moment to reflection upon this shockthe severity and comtempt of a justly enraged peo-ing idea! is it possible that any race of men, should ple, while they, with all their vanity and ostenta-be so lost to a sense of the rights of nature, and tion, remain the unhurt objects of our pity. the dignity of their rank in the chain of beings, as It is surely rather a subject of merry ridicule, to suffer themselves (like the horses which they than deserving of serious resentment, to see many ride) to be tutored to the field of war, to have a of this kind of gentry affecting to deny the cha- price set upon their lives, which their masters will racter of prisoners, and attributing that indulgence which is the effect of unparalleled generosity, to destroy the little credit they ever had for humanity; and the sufferings of some to which I have myself the mean motive of fear; but we will let them know, been a witness, exposed to all the inconveniences that they cannot provoke us even to justice in the and hazards of a languishing disease in confinement line of punishment, and we leave them to their own tions of their nearest friends, and a sympathizing on ship board, in view of the persons and habitaconsciences and the impartial censures of surround-parent turned over the side with reproaches, for ing nations, to make some returns for the un-attempting to speak to his sick. suffering, dying exampled cruelties that many of our friends have ble, humane admiral Graves, and his nephew Sarn, child, must give the characters of the polite, sensi suffered from their barbarous hands;* in lieu of that a stamp of infamy, which the power of time can never wipe away. *Captain Johnson and his crew, the prisoners in general at New York and Halifax, Mr. Lovell and many others in Boston, are instances sufficient to The generals Gage and Howe, have been play ing this warlike game ever since they have been in the country. receive, and then be sold into the service of lust, ambition and avarice, and become the tools of eter nal war against the lives, the properties, and free dom of the rest of mankind. But, thanks to heaven! this black combination of passions, supported by the unmasked tyrant of Bri tain, with all the mercenary forces of his powerful and extensive allies, have hitherto proved unsuccessful (and I trust in God they ever will) in every effort to contaminate the only column of free air in both hemispheres, however, one advantage we de rive from their open attempts, which is to expect no security for ourselves, but in their ruin; deliberate murders, indiscriminate plunder, and the most barbarous violence upon the delicacy and virtue of the fair, have marked the few paces of imaginary conquest they have trod. interest, domestic felicity, and all the consequent refined enjoyments of social life, to the exigencies of his country in the field of war:-the cheerfulness with which he has sustained all the hardships, anxieties, and disappointments of two important campaigns, against a formidable body of well disciplined veterans, with an army composed of men different in their manners, and unused to the discipline of a camp, without exciting the smallest jealousies in the CIVIL POWER on the one hand, or giving occasion for the faintest murmurs among his soldiers, on the other: and finally, when his enemies were at the zenith of their glory, and, in imagination, already in possession of a conquered world; with the remnant of his expiring army, to resume the field, and with this handful of his cho. sen followers, disperse, destroy, or captivate whole hosts of foes, must excite sentiments of affection, gratitude, and esteem, that border upon aderation. Did not a life of the most disinterested patriot Methinks I see the tender parent, frantic with rage, defying hosts of ruffians armed, and courting death in every form, rather than live the witness of his daughter's shame;-ah! hear the shrieks of vir.ism and unremitted ardor in the cause of virtue gin innocence calling in vain for succour from that arm which oft defended her! but see the helpless victim of their British lust, in wild despair, wring ing her guiltless hands, with looks to heaven, as if, without a crime, she had lost her only title to those pure abodes! where is the coward heart that does not beat to arms, and glow with unusual ardor for revenge? Where are friends to reconciliation, with these foes to virtue? they will tell us their power is formi. dable, and it is wise to accommodate ourselves to the requisitions of superior force-as soon I'd tamper with the power of hell! for "Tis the worst of slavery "Tamely to bend our necks beneath the yoke "And suffer fraud to talk us out of freedom." They wish not to sooth but to destroy us; and if this stale artifice of tyrants should succeed, we well deserve the ruin it insures:-they never ask for what they can demand, and impotence alone prevents a general carnage. Does courage want a stimulus in the defence of virtue? let us cast our eyes on the example of our illustrious general; equally beyond the reach of calumny and encomium, the tongue of slander has never dared to attack him, while the ablest panegyrist must blush when he is attempting to give him half the eulogiums which are his due. The generous sacrifice he has made of private *See accounts of their proceedings in the Jersies, and general orders in the orderly book taken at Trenton. and of mankind, point him out as an exception to the charge we have so fully supported against all who lived before him, I should dread more from the virtues of this great man, than from all the standing armies in the world. But so full a confidence do I possess in his inviolable attachment to the rights of humanity and the cause of freedom, that in some future emergencies of the state (produced perhaps by the shifting fortune of war) to his instinctive goodness and excentric operations, I would most cheerfully commit supreme command. I will explain my sentiments upon this subject by those of a friend, in his own words. "Tis best that reason govern man, Reason, tho' sure, too slow is found Yet that must not due bounds transgress, 'Twas thus the synod of our land, Yet as necessity impelled The step-when that is past |