Will they tell us what
they call indulgences?
they call indulgences?
Edmund Burke
Preserving my
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 201
principles unshaken, I reserve my activity for rational endeavors; and I hope that my past conduct
has given sufficient evidence, that, if I am a single day
from my place, it is not owing to indolence or love
of dissipation. The slightest hope of doing good is
sufficient to recall me to what I quitted with regret.
In declining for some time my usual strict attendance, I do not in the least condemn the spirit of those gentlemen who, with a just confidence in their abilities,:(in which I claim a sort of share from my love and admiration of them,) were of opinion that their
exertions in this desperate case might be of some service. They thought that by contracting the sphere of its application they might lessen the malignity of'an evil principle. Perhaps they were in the right. But when my opinion was so very clearly to the. contrary, for the reasons I have just stated, I am sure my attendance would have been ridiculous.
I must add, in further explanation of my conducts
that, far from softening the features of such a principle, and thereby removing any part of the popular odium or natural terrors attending it, I should be
sorry that. anything framed in contradiction to the
spirit of our Constitution did not instantly produce,
in fact, the grossest of the evils with which it was
pregnant in its nature. It is by lying dormant a
long time, or being at first very riarely. exercised,
that arbitrary power steals upon a people. On the
next unconstitutional. act, all the fashionable world
will be ready to say, "'Your prophecies are ridiculous, your fears are vain, you see how little of the mischiefs which you formerlyTforeboded are come to
pass. " Thus, by degrees, that artful softening of all
arbitrary power, the alleged infrequency or narrow
? ? ? ? 202 LETTER TO T. HE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
extent of its operation, will be received as a sort of
aphorism, - and Mr. Hume will not be singular in
telling us, that the felicity of mankind is no more
disturbed by it than by earthquakes or thunder, or
the other more unusual accidents of Nature.
The act of which: I speak is among the fruits of the
American war, - a war in my humble opinion produc-,
tive of many mischiefs, of a kind which distinguish'
it from all others. Not only our policy is deranged,
and our empire distracted, but our laws and our legislative spirit appear to have been totally perverted by it. We have made war on our colonies, not by
arms only, but by laws. As hostility and law are not
very concordant ideas, every step we have taken in
this business has been made by trampling on some
maxim of justice or some capital principle of wise
government. What precedents were established, and
what principles overturned, (I will not say of English
privilege, but of general justice,) in the Boston Port,
the Massachusetts Charter, the Military Bill, and all
that long array of hostile acts of Parliament by which
the war with America has been begun and supported!
Had the principles of any of these acts been first exerted on English ground, they would probably have expired as soon as they touched it. But by being
removed from our persons, they have rooted in our
laws, and the latest posterity will taste the fruits of
them.
Norris it the worst effect of this unnatural contention, that our laws are corrupted. Whilst manners remain entire, they will correct the vices of law, and
soften it at length to their own temper. But we have
to lament that in most of the late proceedings we see
very few traces of that generosity, humanity, and dig
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 203
nity of mind, which formerly characterized this nation. r War suspends the rules of moral obligation,
and what is long suspended is in danger of being
totally abrogated. Civil wars strike deepest of all
into the manners of the people. They vitiate their
politics; they corrupt their morals; they pervert
even the natural taste and relish of equity and justice. By teaching us to consider our fellow-citizens
in an hostile light, the whole body of our nation becomes gradually less dear to us. The very names of
affection and kindred, which were the bond of charity whilst we agreed, become new incentives to hatred
and rage when the communion of our country is dissolved. We may flatter ourselves that we shall not
fall into tlhis misfortune. But we have no charter of
exemption, that I know of, from the ordinary frailties
of our nature.
What but that blindness of heart which arises from
the frenzy of civil contention could have made ally
persons conceive the present situation of the British
affairs as an object of triumph to themselves or of
congratulation to their sovereign? Nothing surely
could be more lamentable to those who remember the
flourishing days of this kingdom than to see the insane joy of several unhappy people, amidst the sad
spectacle which our affairs and conduct exhibit to the
scorn of Europe. We behold (and it seems some
people rejoice in beholding) our native land, which
used to sit the envied arbiter of all her neighbors, re#duced to a servile dependence on their mercy, - acquiescing in assurances of friendship which she, does not trust, - complaining of hostilities which she dares
not resent,- deficient to her allies, lofty to her subjects, and submissive to her enemies,-whilst the
? ? ? ? 204 - LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF: BRISTOL.
liberal government of this free nation is supported by
the hireling sword of German boors and vassals, and
three millions of the subjects of Great Britain are
seeking for protection to English privileges in the
arms of France!
These circumstances appear to me more like shocking prodigies than natural changes in human affairs.
Men of firmer minds may see them without staggering or astonishment. Some may think them matters of congratulation and complimentary addresses; but I trust your candor will be so indulgent to my
weakness as not to have the worse opinion of me for
my declining to participate in this joy, and my rejecting all share whatsoever in such a triumph. I am
too old, too stiff in my inveterate partialities, to be
ready at all the fashionable evolutions of opinion. I
scarcely know how to adapt my mind to the feelings
with which the Court Gazettes mean to impress the
people. It is not instantly that I can be brought to
rejoice, when I hear of the slaughter and captivity
of long lists of those names which have been familiar
to my ears from my infancy, and to rejoice that they
have fallen under the sword of strangers, whose barbarous appellations I scarcely know how to pronounce.
The glory acquired at the White Plains by Colonel
Rahl has no charms for me, and I fairly acknowledge thatI have not yet learned to delight in finding Fort Kniphausen in the heart of the British dominions.
It might be some consolation for the loss of our old
regards, if our reason were enlightened in proportion
as our honest prejudices are removed. Wanting feelings for the honor of our country, we might then in
cold -blood be brought to think a little of our interests
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 205
as individual citizens and our private conscience as
moral agents.
Indeed, our affairs are in a bad condition. I do assure those gentlemen who have prayed for war, and obtained the blessing they have sought, that they are
at this instant in very great straits. The abused
wealth of this country continues a little longer to feed
its distemper. As yet they, and their German allies
of twenty hireling states, have contended only with
the unprepared strength of our own infant colonies
But America is not subdued. Not one unattacked
village which was originally adverse throughout that
vast continent has yet submitted from love or terror.
You have the ground you encamp on, and you haVe
no more. The cantonments of your troops and your
dominions are exactly of the same extent. You spread
devastation, but you do not enlarge the sphere of authority.
The events of this war are of so much greater magnitude than those who either wished or feared it ever looked for, that this alone ought to fill every considerate mind with anxiety and diffidence. Wise men often tremble at the very things which fill the thoughtless with security. For many reasons I do not choose to expose to public view all the particulars of the state.
in which you stood with regard to foreign powers.
during the whole course of the last year. Whether
you are yet wholly out of danger from them is more
than I know, or than your rulers can divine. But
even if I were certain of my safety, I could not easily
forgive those who had brought me into the most
dreadful perils, because by accidents, unforeseen by
them or me, I have escaped.
Believe me, Gentlemen,: the way still before you is.
? ? ? ? 206 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOU.
intricate, dark, and fill of perplexed' and treacherous
mazes. Those who think they have the. clew may
lead usutof this labyrinth. We may trust them as
amply as we. think proper; but as they have most
certainly a call for all the reason which their stock
can furnish, why should we think it proper to disturb
its operation by inflaming their passions? I may be
unable to lend an helping hand to those who direct
the state; but I should be ashamed to make myself
one of a noisy multitude to halloo and hearten them
into doubtful and dangerous courses. A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood.
He would feel some apprehension at being called to a
tremendous account for engaging in so deep a play
without any sort of knowledge of the game. It is no
excuse for presumptuous ignorance, that it is directed
by insolent passion. The poorest being that crawls
on earth, contending to save itself from injustice and
oppression, is an object respectable in the eyes of God
and man. But I cannot conceive any existence under heaven (which in the depths of its wisdom tolerates all sorts of things) that is more truly odious and disgusting than an impotent, helpless creature,
without civil wisdom or military skill, without a consciousness of any other qualification for power but'his
servility to it, bloated with pride and arrogance, calling for battles which he is not to fight, contending
for a violent dominion which he can never exercise,
and satisfied to be himself mean and miserable, in order to render others contemptible and wretched.
If you and I find our talents not of the great and
ruling kind, our conduct, at least, is conformable to
our faculties. No man's life pays the forfeit of our
rashness. No desolate widow weeps tears of blood
? ? ? ? LET'i'ER rTO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 207
over our ignorance. Scrupulous and sober in a we]lgrounded distrust of ourselves, we would keep in the
port of peace and security; and perhaps in recommending to others something of the same diffidence,
we should show ourselves more charitable to their
welfare than injurious to their abilities.
There are many circumstances in the zeal shown
for civil war which seem to discover but little of real
magnanimity. The addressers offer their own persons, and they are satisfied with hiring Germans.
They promise their private fortunes, and they mortgage their country. They have all the merit of volunteers, without risk of person or charge of contribution; and when the unfeeling arm of a foreign soldiery pours out their kindred blood like water, they exult and triumph as if they themselves had performed some notable exploit. I am really ashamed of
the fashionable language which has been held for
some time past, which, to say the best of it, is full of
levity. You know that I allude to the general cry
against the cowardice of the Americans, as if we despised them for not making the king's soldiery purchase the advantage they have obtained at a dearer
rate. It is not, Gentlemen, it is not to respect the
dispensations of Providence, nor to provide any decent retreat in the mutability of human affairs. It
leaves no medium between insolent victory and infamous defeat. It tends to alienate our minds further
and further from our natural regards, and to make
an eternal rent and schism in the British nation.
Those who do not wish for such a separation would
not dissolve that cement of reciprocal esteem and
regard which can alone bind together the parts of
this great fabric. It ought to be our wish, as it is
? ? ? ? 208 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
our duty, not only to forbear this style of outrage
ourselves, but to make every one as sensible as we
can of the impropriety and unworthiness of the tempers which give: rise to it, and which designing men are laboring with such malignant industry to diffuse
amongst us. . It is our business to counteract them,
if possible,-if possible, to awake our natural regards,
and to revive the old partiality to the English name.
Without something of this kind I do not see how it
is ever practicable really to reconcile with those
whose affection, after all, must be the surest hold of
our government, and which is a thousand times more
worth to us than the mercenary zeal of all the circles of Germany.
I can well conceive a country completely overrun,
and miserably wasted, without approaching in the
least to settlement. In my apprehension, as long as
English government is attempted to be supported over
Englishmen by the sword alone, things will thus continue. I anticipate in my mind the moment of the final triumph of foreign military force. When that
hour arrives, (for it may arrive,) then it is that all this
mass of weakness and violence will appear in its full
light. If we should be expelled from America, the delusion of the partisans of military government might still continue. They might still feed'their imaginations with the possible good consequences which might have attended- success. Nobody could prove the contrary by facts. But in case the sword should do all that the sword can do, the success of their arms and the
defeat of their policy will be one and the same thing.
You will never see any revenue from America. Some
increase of the means of corruption, without ease of
the public burdens, is the very best that can happen.
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 209:Is it for this that we are at war,- and in such a
war?
As to the difficulties of laying once more the foundations of that government which, for the sake of
conquering what was our own, has been voluntarily and wantonly pulled down by a court faction
-here, I tremble to. look at them. Has any of these
gentlemen who aie: So eager to govern all mankind
shown himself possessed of the first qualification
towards government, some kniowledge of the object,
and of the difficulties which occur in the task they
have undertaken?
I assure you, that, on the most prosperous issue of
your arms, you will not be where you stood when
you called in war to supply the defects of your political establishment. Nor wbuld any disorder or disobedience to government which could arise from the most abject concession on our part ever equal those
which will be felt after the most triumphant violence. You have got all the intermediate evils of
war into the bargain.
I think I know America,-if I do not, my ignorance is incurable, for I have spared no pains to
understand it,- and I do most solemnly assure those
of my collstituents who put any sort of confidence in
my industry anid integrity, that everything that has
been done there has arisen from a total misconception of the object: that our means of originally holdring America, that our means of reconciling'with it after quarrel, of recovering it after separation, of
keeping it after victory, did depend, and must depend, in their several stages and periods, upon a total
renunciation of that unconditional submission which
has taken such possession of the minds of violent
VOL. I1. 14
? ? ? ? 210 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
nmen. The whole of those maxims upon which we
have made and continued this war must be abandoned. Nothing, indeed, (for I would not deceive
you,) can place us in our former situation. That
hope must be laid aside. But there is a difference
between bad and the worst of all. Terms relative to
the cause of the war ought to be offered by the
authority of Parliament. An arrangement at home
promising some security for them ought to be made.
By doing this, without the least impairing of our
strength, we add to the credit of our moderation,
which, in itself, is always strength more or less.
I know many have been taught to think that moderation in a case like this is a sort of treason,-and
that all arguments for it are sufficiently answered by
railing at rebels and rebellion, and by charging all
the present or future miseries which we may suffer
on the resistance of our brethren. But I would wish
them, in this grave matter, and if peace is not wholly
removed from their hearts, to consider seriously, first,
that to criminate and recriminate never yet was the
road to reconciliation, in any difference amongst men.
In the. next place, it would be right to reflect that
the American English (whom they may abuse, if
they think it honorable to revile the absent) can, as
things now stand, neither be provoked at our railing
or bettered by our instruction. All communication
is cut off between us. But this we know with certainty, that, though we cannot reclaim them, we may reform ourselves. If measures of peace are necessary, they must begin somewhere; and a conciliatory temper must precede and prepare every plan of reconciliation. Nor do I conceive that we suffer anything by thus regulating our own minds. We are not dis
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 211
armed by being disencumbered of our passions. Declaiming on rebellion never added a bayonet or a charge of powder to your military force; but I am
afraid that it has been the means of taking up many
muskets against you.
This outrageous language, which has been encouraged and kept alive by every art, has already done incredible mischief. For a long time, even amidst
the desolations of war, and the insults of hostile laws
daily accumulated on one another, the American
leaders seem to have had the greatest difficulty in
bringing up their people to a declaration of total
independence. But the Court Gazette accomplished
what the abettors of independence had attempted
in vain. When that disingenuous compilation and
strange medley of railing and flattery was adduced
as a proof of the united sentiments of the people of
Great Britain, there was a great change throughout
all' America. The tide of popular affection, which
had still set towards the parent country, began immediately to turn, and to flow with great rapidity in a contrary course. Far from concealing these wild
declarations of enmity, the author of the celebrated
pamphlet which prepared the minds of the people
for independence insists largely on'the multitude
and the spirit of these addresses; and he draws an
argument from them, which, if the fact were as he
supposes, must be irresistible. For I never knew a
writer on the theory of government so partial to
authority as not to allow that the hostile mind of the
rulers to their people did fully justify a change of
government; nor can any reason whatever be given
why one people should voluntarily yield any degree
of preeminence to another but on a supposition of
? ? ? ? 212 LETTER TO'THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
great affection and benevolence towards them. Un.
fortunately, your rulers, trusting to other things, took
no notice of this great principle of connection. From
the beginning of this affair, theyf have done all they
could to alienate your minds from your own kindred; and if they could excite hatred enough in one
of the parties towards the other, they seemed to be,
of opinion that they had gone half the way towards
reconciling the quarrel.
I know it is said, that your kindness is only alienated on account of their resistance, and therefore, if the colonies surrender at discretion, all sort of regard,
and even much indulgence, is meant towards them
in future. But can those who, are partisans for
continuing a war to enforce such a surrender be
responsible (after all that has passed) for such a
future use of a power that is bound by no-. compacts
and restrained by no terror?
Will they tell us what
they call indulgences? Do they not at this instant
call the. present war -and all its horrors a lenient
and merciful proceeding?
No conqueror that I ever heard of has professed
to make a cruel, harsh,,and insolent use of his conquest. No! The man of the most declared pride scarcely dares to trust his own heart with this dreadful secret of ambition. But it will appear in its
time; and no man who professes to reduce another
to the insolent mercy of a foreign arm ever had any
sort? of good-will towards him. The profession of
kindness, with that sword in his hand, and that demand of surrender, is one of the most provoking acts of his hostility. I shall be told thatall this is lenient
as against rebellious adversaries. But are the leaders
of their faction more lenient to those who submit?
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL, 213. Lord Howe and General Howe have powers, under an act of Parliament, to restore to the king's peace
and to free trade ally men or district which shall
submit. ' Is this done? We have been over and over
informed by the authorized gazette, that the city of
New. York and the countries of Staten and Long
Island have submitted voluntarily and cheerfully, and
that many are very full of zeal to the cause of administration. Were they instantly restored to trade? Are they yet restored to it? Is not the benignity of two
cbmmissioners, naturally most humane and generous
men, some way fettered by instructions, equally
against their dispositions and the spirit of Parliamentary faith, when Mr. Tryon, vaunting of the fidelity of the city in which he is governor, is obliged to apply to
ministry for leave to protect the king's loyal subjects,
and to grant to them, not the disputed rights and privileges of freedom, but the common rights of men, by the name of graces? Why do not the commissioners
restore them on the spot? Were they not named as
commissioners for that express purpose? But we see
well enough to what the whole leads. The trade of
America is to:be dealt out in private indulgences and
graces, -- that is, in jobs to recompense the incendiaries
of war. They will be informed of the proper time in
which to send out their merchandise. From a national, the American trade is to be turned into a personal monopoly, and one set of merchants are to be rewarded for the pretended zeal of which another set
are the dupes; and thus, between craft and credulity,
the voice of reason is stifled, and all the misconduct,
all the calamities of the war are covered and continued.
If I had not lived long enough to be little surprised
at anything, I should have been in some degree as
? ? ? ? 214 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
tonished at the continued rage of several gentlemen,
who, not satisfied with carrying fire and sword into
America; are animated nearly with the same fury
against those neighbors of theirs whose only crime it
is, that they have charitably and humanely wished
them to entertain more reasonable sentiments, and
not always to sacrifice their interest to their passion.
All this rage against unresisting dissent convinces me,
that, at bottom, they are far from satisfied they are
in the right. For what is it they would have? A
war? They certainly have at this moment the blessing of something that is very like one; and if the war
they enjoy at present be not sufficiently hot and extensive, they may shortly have it as warm and as spreading as their hearts can desire. Is it the force of the kingdom they call for? They have it already; and
if they choose to fight their battles in their own person, nobody prevents their setting sail to America in
the next transports. ]96they think that the service
is stinted for want of liberal supplies? Indeed they
complain without reason. The table of the House of
Commons will glut them, let their appetite for expense
be never so keen. And I assure them further, that
those who think with them in the House of Commons
are full as easy in the control as they are liberal in
the vote of these expenses. If this be not supply or
confidence sufficient, let them open their own private
purse-strings, and give, from what is. left to them, as
largely and with as little care as they think proper.
Tolerated in their passions, let them learn not to
persecute the moderation of their fellow-citizens. If
all the world joined them in a full cry against rebellion, and were as hotly inflamed against the whole
theory and enjoyment of freedom as those who are
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 215
the most factious for servitude, it could not, in my
opinion, answer any one end whatsoever in this contest. The leaders of this war could not hire (to gratify their friends) one German more than they do, or inspire him with less feeling for the persons or less
value for the privileges of their revolted brethren.
If we all adopted their sentiments to a man, their
allies, the savage Indians, could not be more ferocious than they are: they could not murder one
more helpless woman or child, or with more exquisite refinements of cruelty torment to death one more
of their English flesh and blood, than they do already.
The public money is given to purchase this alliance;
- and they have their bargain.
They are continually boasting of unanimity, or
calling for it. But before this unanimity can be
matter either of wish or congratulation, we ought
to be pretty sure that we are engaged in a rational
pursuit. Frenzy does not become a slighter distemper on account of the number of those who may
be infected with it. Delusion and weakness produce
not one mischief the less because they are universal.
I declare that I cannot discern the least advantage
which could accrue to us, if we were able to persuade
our colonies that they had not a single friend in Great
Britain. On the contrary, if the affections and opinions of mankind be not exploded as principles of connection, I conceive it would be happy for us, if they were taught to believe that there was even a formed
American party in England, to whom they could always look for support. Happy would it be for us, if,
in all tempers, they might turn their eyes to the parent state, so that their very turbulence and sedition
should find vent in no other place than this'! I be
? ? ? ? 216 LETTER TO. THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
lieve there is not a man (except those who prefer the
interest of some paltry faction to the very being of,
their country) who would not wish that the Americans should from time to time carry many points,
and even some of them not quite reasonable, by the
aid of any denomination of men here, rather than
they should be driven to seek for protection against
the fury of foreign mercenaries and the waste of savages in the arms of France.
When any community is subordinately connected
with another, the great danger of the connection is
the extreme pride and self-complacency of the superior, which in all matters of controversy will probably decide in its own favor. It is a powerful corrective
to such a very rational cause of fear, if the inferior
body can be made to believe that the party inclination or political views of several in the principal
state will induce them in some degree to counteract
this blind and tyrannical partiality. There is no danger that any one acquiring consideration or power in the presiding state should carry this leaning to the inferior too far. The fault of human nature is not of that sort. Power, in whatever hands, is rarely guilty
of too strict limitations on itself. But one great advantage to the support of authority attends such an amicable and protecting connection: that those who
have conferred favors obtain influence, and from the
foresight of future events can persuade men who
have received obligations sometimes to return them.
Thus, by the mediation of those healing principles,
(call them good or evil,) troublesome discussions are
brought to some sort of adjustment, and every hot
controversy is not a civil war.
But, if the colonies (to bring the general matter
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 217
nome to us) could see that in Great Britain the
mass of the people is melted into its government, and
that every dispute with the ministry must of necessity be always a quarrel with the nation, they can. stand no longer in the equal and friendly relation of fellow-citizens to the subjects of this kingdom. Hum-'ole as this relation may appear to some, when it is
once broken, a strong tie is dissolveld. Other sort of
connections will be sought. For there are very few
in the world who will not prefer an useful ally to an
insolent master.
Such discord has been the effect of the unanimity
into which so many have of late been seduced or bullied, or into'the appearance of which they have sunk
through mere despair. They have been told that
their dissent from violent measures is an encouragement to rebellion. Men of great presumption and
little knowledge'will hold a language which is contradicted by the whole course of history. General
rebellions and revolts of an whole people never were
encouraged, now or at any time. They are always provoked. But if this unheard-of doctrine of the encouragement of rebellion were true, if it were true that an assurance of the friendship of numbers in this
country towards the colonies could become an encouragement to them to'break off all connection with
it, what is the inference? Does anybody seriously
maintain, that, charged with my share of the public
councils, I am obliged not to resist projects which I
think. mischievous, lest men who suffer should be encouraged to resist? The very tendency of such projects to produce rebellion is one of the'chief reasons against them. Shall that reason not be given? Is it,
then, a rule, that no man in this nation shall open his
? ? ? ? 218 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
mouth in favor of the colonies, shall defend their
rights, or complain of their sufferings,-or when war
finally breaks out, no man shall express his desires of
peace? Has this been the law of our past, or is it to
be the terms of our future connection? Even looking no further than ourselves, can it be true loyalty
to any government, or true patriotism towards any
country, to degrade their solemn councils into servile
drawing-rooms, to flatter their pride and passions
rather than to enlighten their reason, and to prevent
them from being cautioned against violence lest others should be encouraged to resistance? By such acquiescence great kings and mighty nations have
been undone; and if any are at this day in a perilous
situation from rejecting truth and listening to flattery, it would rather become them to reform the errors under which they suffer than to reproach
those who forewarned them of their danger.
But the rebels looked for assistance from this country. -They did so, in the beginning of this controversy, most certainly; and they sought it by earnest supplications to government, which dignity rejected, and by a suspension of commerce, which the wealth of
this nation enabled you to despise. When they found
that neither prayers nor menaces had any sort of
weight, but that a firm resolution-was taken to reduce
them to unconditional obedience by a military force,
they came to the last extremity. Despairing of us,
they trusted in themselves. Not strong enough themselves, they sought succor in France. In proportion as all encouragement here lessened, their distance
from this country increased. The enicouragement is
over; the alienation is complete.
In order to produce this favorite unanimity in delu
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 219
sion, and to prevent all possibility of a return to our
ancient happy concord, arguments for our continuance in this course are drawn from the wretched situation itself into which we have been betrayed. It is said, that, being at war with the colonies, whatever our
sentiments might have been before, all ties between
us are now dissolved, and all the policy we have left
is to strengthen the hands of government to reduce
them. On the principle of this argument, the more
mischiefs we suffer from any administration, the more
our trust in it is to be confirmed. Let them but once
get us into a war, and then their power is safe, and an
act of oblivion passed for all their misconduct.
But is it really true that government is always to
be strengthened with the instruments of war, but
never furnished with the means of peace? In former
times, ministers, I allow,'have been sometimes driven
by the popular voice to assert by arms the national
honor against foreign powers. But the wisdom of
the nation has been far more clear, when those ministers have been compelled to consult its interests by
treaty. We all know that the sense of the nation
obliged the court of Charles the Second to abandon
the Dutch war: a war, next to the present, the most
impolitic which we ever carried on. The good people of England considered Holland as a sort of dependency on this kingdom; they dreaded to drive it to the protection or subject it to the power of France
by their own inconsiderate hostility. They paid but
little respect to the court jargon of that day; nor
were they inflamed by the pretended rivalship of the
Dutch in trade, - by the massacre at. Amboyna, acted
on the stage to provoke the public vengeance, -nor
by declamations against the ingratitude of the United
? ? ? ? 220 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
Provinces for the benefits England had conferred upon them in their infant state. They were not moved
from their evident interest by all these arts; nor was
it enough to tell them, they were at war, that they
must go through with it, and that the cause of the
dispute was lost in the consequences. The people of
England were then, as they are now, called upon to
make government strong. They thought it a great:deal better to make it wise and honest.
When I was amongst my constituents at the last
summer assizes, I remember that men of all descriptions did then express a very strong desire for peace,
and no slight hopes of attaining it from the commission sent out by my Lord Howe. And it is' not a
little remarkable,:that, in proportion as every person
showed a zeal for the court measures, he was then
earnest in circulating an opinion of the extent of the
supposed powers of that commission. When I told
them that Lord Howe had no powers to treat, or to
promise satisfaction on any point whatsoever of the
controversy, I was hardly credited,-so strong and
general' was the desire of terminating this war by
the method of accommodation. As far as I could
discover, this was the temper then prevalent through
the kingdom. The king's forces, it must be observed, had at that time been obliged to evacuate
Boston. The superiority of the former campaign
rested wholly with the colonists. If such powers of
treaty were to be wished whilst success was very
doubtful, how came they to be less: so, since his Majesty's arms have been crowned with many considerable advantages? Have these successes induced us to alter our mind, as thinking the season of victory
not the time for treating with honor or advantage?
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 221
Whatever changes have happened in the national
character, it can scarcely be our wish that terms of
accommodation never should be proposed to our enemy, except when they must' be attributed solely to
our fears. It has happened, let me say unfortunately, that we read of his Majesty's commission for
making peace, and his troops evacuating his last
town in the Thirteen Colonies, at the'same hour and
in the same gazette. It was still more unfortunate
that no commission went- to America to settle the
troubles there, until several months after an act had
been passed to put the colonies out of the protection
of this government, and to divide their trading property, without a possibility of restitution, as spoil
among the seamen of the navy. 'The most abject
submission on- the part of the colonies could not redeem them. There was no man on that whole continent, or within three thousand miles of it, qualified
by law to follow allegiance. with protection or submission with pardon. A proceeding of this kind has
no example in history. Independency, and independency with an enmity, (which, putting ourselves out
of the question, would be called natural and much
provoked,) was the inevitable consequence. How
this came to pass the nation may be one day in an
humor to inquire.
All the attempts made this session to. give fuller
powers of peace to the commanders in America were:
stifled by the fatal confidence of victory and the wild
hopes of unconditional submission. There was a moment favorable to the'king's arms, when, if any powers of concession had existed on' the other side of the Atlantic, even after all our errors, peace in all probability might have been restored. : But calamity is un
? ? ? ? 222 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
happily the usual season of reflection; and the pride
of men will not often suffer reason to have any scope,
until it can be no longer of service.
I have always wished, that as the dispute had its
apparent origin from things done in Parliament, and
as the acts passed there had provoked the war, that
the foundations of peace should be laid in Parliament
also. I have been astonished to find that those
whose zeal for the dignity of our body was so hot as
to light up the flames of civil war should even publicly declare that these delicate points ought to be wholly left to the crown. Poorly as I may be thought
affected to the authority of Parliament, I shall never
admit that our' constitutional rights can ever become
a matter of ministerial negotiation.
I am charged with being an American. If warm
affection towards those over whom I claim any share
of authority be a crime, I am guilty of this charge.
But I do assure you, (and they who know me publicly
and privately will bear witness to me,) that, if ever one
man lived more zealous than another for the supremacy of Parliament and the rights of this imperial crown, it was myself. Many others, indeed, might be
more knowing in the extent of the foundation of
these rights. I do not pretend to be an antiquary,
a lawyer, or qualified for the chair of professor in
metaphysics. I never ventured to put your solid interests upon speculative grounds. My having con stantly declined to do so has been attributed to my
incapacity for such disquisitions; and I am inclined
to believe it is partly the cause. I never shall be
ashamed to confess, that, where I am ignorant, I am
diffident. I am, indeed, not very solicitous to clear
myself of this imputed incapacity; because men even
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF. BRISTOL. 223
less conversant than I am in this kind of'subtleties,
and placed in stations to which I ought not to aspire,
have, by the mere force of civil discretion, often conducted the affairs of great nations with distinguished
felicity and glory. .
When I first came into a public trust, I found
your Parliamentin possession of'an unlimited legislative power over the colonies. I could not open the
statute-book without seeing the actual exercise of it,
more or less, in all: cases whatsoever. This possession passed with me for a title. It does so'in all human affairs. No man examines into the defects of his title to his paternal estate or to his established government. Indeed, common sense taught me that a
legislative authority not actually limited by the express terms of its foundation, or by its own subsequent acts, cannot have its powers parcelled out by argumentative distinctions, so as to enable us to say
that here theyv can and there they cannot bind. Nobody was so obliging as to produce to me any record
of such distinctions, by compact or otherwise, either
at the successive formation of the several colonies or
during the existence of ally of them. If any gentlemen were able to see how one power could be given
up (merely on abstract reasoning) without giving up
the rest, I can only say that they saw further than I
could. Nor did I ever presume to condemn any one
for being clear-sighted when I was blind. I praise
their penetration and learning, and hope that their
practice has been correspondent to their theory.
I had, indeed, very earnest wishes to keep the whole
body of this authority perfect and entire as I found
it, - and to keep it so, not for our advantage solely,
but principally for the sake of those on whose ac
? ?
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 201
principles unshaken, I reserve my activity for rational endeavors; and I hope that my past conduct
has given sufficient evidence, that, if I am a single day
from my place, it is not owing to indolence or love
of dissipation. The slightest hope of doing good is
sufficient to recall me to what I quitted with regret.
In declining for some time my usual strict attendance, I do not in the least condemn the spirit of those gentlemen who, with a just confidence in their abilities,:(in which I claim a sort of share from my love and admiration of them,) were of opinion that their
exertions in this desperate case might be of some service. They thought that by contracting the sphere of its application they might lessen the malignity of'an evil principle. Perhaps they were in the right. But when my opinion was so very clearly to the. contrary, for the reasons I have just stated, I am sure my attendance would have been ridiculous.
I must add, in further explanation of my conducts
that, far from softening the features of such a principle, and thereby removing any part of the popular odium or natural terrors attending it, I should be
sorry that. anything framed in contradiction to the
spirit of our Constitution did not instantly produce,
in fact, the grossest of the evils with which it was
pregnant in its nature. It is by lying dormant a
long time, or being at first very riarely. exercised,
that arbitrary power steals upon a people. On the
next unconstitutional. act, all the fashionable world
will be ready to say, "'Your prophecies are ridiculous, your fears are vain, you see how little of the mischiefs which you formerlyTforeboded are come to
pass. " Thus, by degrees, that artful softening of all
arbitrary power, the alleged infrequency or narrow
? ? ? ? 202 LETTER TO T. HE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
extent of its operation, will be received as a sort of
aphorism, - and Mr. Hume will not be singular in
telling us, that the felicity of mankind is no more
disturbed by it than by earthquakes or thunder, or
the other more unusual accidents of Nature.
The act of which: I speak is among the fruits of the
American war, - a war in my humble opinion produc-,
tive of many mischiefs, of a kind which distinguish'
it from all others. Not only our policy is deranged,
and our empire distracted, but our laws and our legislative spirit appear to have been totally perverted by it. We have made war on our colonies, not by
arms only, but by laws. As hostility and law are not
very concordant ideas, every step we have taken in
this business has been made by trampling on some
maxim of justice or some capital principle of wise
government. What precedents were established, and
what principles overturned, (I will not say of English
privilege, but of general justice,) in the Boston Port,
the Massachusetts Charter, the Military Bill, and all
that long array of hostile acts of Parliament by which
the war with America has been begun and supported!
Had the principles of any of these acts been first exerted on English ground, they would probably have expired as soon as they touched it. But by being
removed from our persons, they have rooted in our
laws, and the latest posterity will taste the fruits of
them.
Norris it the worst effect of this unnatural contention, that our laws are corrupted. Whilst manners remain entire, they will correct the vices of law, and
soften it at length to their own temper. But we have
to lament that in most of the late proceedings we see
very few traces of that generosity, humanity, and dig
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 203
nity of mind, which formerly characterized this nation. r War suspends the rules of moral obligation,
and what is long suspended is in danger of being
totally abrogated. Civil wars strike deepest of all
into the manners of the people. They vitiate their
politics; they corrupt their morals; they pervert
even the natural taste and relish of equity and justice. By teaching us to consider our fellow-citizens
in an hostile light, the whole body of our nation becomes gradually less dear to us. The very names of
affection and kindred, which were the bond of charity whilst we agreed, become new incentives to hatred
and rage when the communion of our country is dissolved. We may flatter ourselves that we shall not
fall into tlhis misfortune. But we have no charter of
exemption, that I know of, from the ordinary frailties
of our nature.
What but that blindness of heart which arises from
the frenzy of civil contention could have made ally
persons conceive the present situation of the British
affairs as an object of triumph to themselves or of
congratulation to their sovereign? Nothing surely
could be more lamentable to those who remember the
flourishing days of this kingdom than to see the insane joy of several unhappy people, amidst the sad
spectacle which our affairs and conduct exhibit to the
scorn of Europe. We behold (and it seems some
people rejoice in beholding) our native land, which
used to sit the envied arbiter of all her neighbors, re#duced to a servile dependence on their mercy, - acquiescing in assurances of friendship which she, does not trust, - complaining of hostilities which she dares
not resent,- deficient to her allies, lofty to her subjects, and submissive to her enemies,-whilst the
? ? ? ? 204 - LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF: BRISTOL.
liberal government of this free nation is supported by
the hireling sword of German boors and vassals, and
three millions of the subjects of Great Britain are
seeking for protection to English privileges in the
arms of France!
These circumstances appear to me more like shocking prodigies than natural changes in human affairs.
Men of firmer minds may see them without staggering or astonishment. Some may think them matters of congratulation and complimentary addresses; but I trust your candor will be so indulgent to my
weakness as not to have the worse opinion of me for
my declining to participate in this joy, and my rejecting all share whatsoever in such a triumph. I am
too old, too stiff in my inveterate partialities, to be
ready at all the fashionable evolutions of opinion. I
scarcely know how to adapt my mind to the feelings
with which the Court Gazettes mean to impress the
people. It is not instantly that I can be brought to
rejoice, when I hear of the slaughter and captivity
of long lists of those names which have been familiar
to my ears from my infancy, and to rejoice that they
have fallen under the sword of strangers, whose barbarous appellations I scarcely know how to pronounce.
The glory acquired at the White Plains by Colonel
Rahl has no charms for me, and I fairly acknowledge thatI have not yet learned to delight in finding Fort Kniphausen in the heart of the British dominions.
It might be some consolation for the loss of our old
regards, if our reason were enlightened in proportion
as our honest prejudices are removed. Wanting feelings for the honor of our country, we might then in
cold -blood be brought to think a little of our interests
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 205
as individual citizens and our private conscience as
moral agents.
Indeed, our affairs are in a bad condition. I do assure those gentlemen who have prayed for war, and obtained the blessing they have sought, that they are
at this instant in very great straits. The abused
wealth of this country continues a little longer to feed
its distemper. As yet they, and their German allies
of twenty hireling states, have contended only with
the unprepared strength of our own infant colonies
But America is not subdued. Not one unattacked
village which was originally adverse throughout that
vast continent has yet submitted from love or terror.
You have the ground you encamp on, and you haVe
no more. The cantonments of your troops and your
dominions are exactly of the same extent. You spread
devastation, but you do not enlarge the sphere of authority.
The events of this war are of so much greater magnitude than those who either wished or feared it ever looked for, that this alone ought to fill every considerate mind with anxiety and diffidence. Wise men often tremble at the very things which fill the thoughtless with security. For many reasons I do not choose to expose to public view all the particulars of the state.
in which you stood with regard to foreign powers.
during the whole course of the last year. Whether
you are yet wholly out of danger from them is more
than I know, or than your rulers can divine. But
even if I were certain of my safety, I could not easily
forgive those who had brought me into the most
dreadful perils, because by accidents, unforeseen by
them or me, I have escaped.
Believe me, Gentlemen,: the way still before you is.
? ? ? ? 206 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOU.
intricate, dark, and fill of perplexed' and treacherous
mazes. Those who think they have the. clew may
lead usutof this labyrinth. We may trust them as
amply as we. think proper; but as they have most
certainly a call for all the reason which their stock
can furnish, why should we think it proper to disturb
its operation by inflaming their passions? I may be
unable to lend an helping hand to those who direct
the state; but I should be ashamed to make myself
one of a noisy multitude to halloo and hearten them
into doubtful and dangerous courses. A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood.
He would feel some apprehension at being called to a
tremendous account for engaging in so deep a play
without any sort of knowledge of the game. It is no
excuse for presumptuous ignorance, that it is directed
by insolent passion. The poorest being that crawls
on earth, contending to save itself from injustice and
oppression, is an object respectable in the eyes of God
and man. But I cannot conceive any existence under heaven (which in the depths of its wisdom tolerates all sorts of things) that is more truly odious and disgusting than an impotent, helpless creature,
without civil wisdom or military skill, without a consciousness of any other qualification for power but'his
servility to it, bloated with pride and arrogance, calling for battles which he is not to fight, contending
for a violent dominion which he can never exercise,
and satisfied to be himself mean and miserable, in order to render others contemptible and wretched.
If you and I find our talents not of the great and
ruling kind, our conduct, at least, is conformable to
our faculties. No man's life pays the forfeit of our
rashness. No desolate widow weeps tears of blood
? ? ? ? LET'i'ER rTO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 207
over our ignorance. Scrupulous and sober in a we]lgrounded distrust of ourselves, we would keep in the
port of peace and security; and perhaps in recommending to others something of the same diffidence,
we should show ourselves more charitable to their
welfare than injurious to their abilities.
There are many circumstances in the zeal shown
for civil war which seem to discover but little of real
magnanimity. The addressers offer their own persons, and they are satisfied with hiring Germans.
They promise their private fortunes, and they mortgage their country. They have all the merit of volunteers, without risk of person or charge of contribution; and when the unfeeling arm of a foreign soldiery pours out their kindred blood like water, they exult and triumph as if they themselves had performed some notable exploit. I am really ashamed of
the fashionable language which has been held for
some time past, which, to say the best of it, is full of
levity. You know that I allude to the general cry
against the cowardice of the Americans, as if we despised them for not making the king's soldiery purchase the advantage they have obtained at a dearer
rate. It is not, Gentlemen, it is not to respect the
dispensations of Providence, nor to provide any decent retreat in the mutability of human affairs. It
leaves no medium between insolent victory and infamous defeat. It tends to alienate our minds further
and further from our natural regards, and to make
an eternal rent and schism in the British nation.
Those who do not wish for such a separation would
not dissolve that cement of reciprocal esteem and
regard which can alone bind together the parts of
this great fabric. It ought to be our wish, as it is
? ? ? ? 208 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
our duty, not only to forbear this style of outrage
ourselves, but to make every one as sensible as we
can of the impropriety and unworthiness of the tempers which give: rise to it, and which designing men are laboring with such malignant industry to diffuse
amongst us. . It is our business to counteract them,
if possible,-if possible, to awake our natural regards,
and to revive the old partiality to the English name.
Without something of this kind I do not see how it
is ever practicable really to reconcile with those
whose affection, after all, must be the surest hold of
our government, and which is a thousand times more
worth to us than the mercenary zeal of all the circles of Germany.
I can well conceive a country completely overrun,
and miserably wasted, without approaching in the
least to settlement. In my apprehension, as long as
English government is attempted to be supported over
Englishmen by the sword alone, things will thus continue. I anticipate in my mind the moment of the final triumph of foreign military force. When that
hour arrives, (for it may arrive,) then it is that all this
mass of weakness and violence will appear in its full
light. If we should be expelled from America, the delusion of the partisans of military government might still continue. They might still feed'their imaginations with the possible good consequences which might have attended- success. Nobody could prove the contrary by facts. But in case the sword should do all that the sword can do, the success of their arms and the
defeat of their policy will be one and the same thing.
You will never see any revenue from America. Some
increase of the means of corruption, without ease of
the public burdens, is the very best that can happen.
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 209:Is it for this that we are at war,- and in such a
war?
As to the difficulties of laying once more the foundations of that government which, for the sake of
conquering what was our own, has been voluntarily and wantonly pulled down by a court faction
-here, I tremble to. look at them. Has any of these
gentlemen who aie: So eager to govern all mankind
shown himself possessed of the first qualification
towards government, some kniowledge of the object,
and of the difficulties which occur in the task they
have undertaken?
I assure you, that, on the most prosperous issue of
your arms, you will not be where you stood when
you called in war to supply the defects of your political establishment. Nor wbuld any disorder or disobedience to government which could arise from the most abject concession on our part ever equal those
which will be felt after the most triumphant violence. You have got all the intermediate evils of
war into the bargain.
I think I know America,-if I do not, my ignorance is incurable, for I have spared no pains to
understand it,- and I do most solemnly assure those
of my collstituents who put any sort of confidence in
my industry anid integrity, that everything that has
been done there has arisen from a total misconception of the object: that our means of originally holdring America, that our means of reconciling'with it after quarrel, of recovering it after separation, of
keeping it after victory, did depend, and must depend, in their several stages and periods, upon a total
renunciation of that unconditional submission which
has taken such possession of the minds of violent
VOL. I1. 14
? ? ? ? 210 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
nmen. The whole of those maxims upon which we
have made and continued this war must be abandoned. Nothing, indeed, (for I would not deceive
you,) can place us in our former situation. That
hope must be laid aside. But there is a difference
between bad and the worst of all. Terms relative to
the cause of the war ought to be offered by the
authority of Parliament. An arrangement at home
promising some security for them ought to be made.
By doing this, without the least impairing of our
strength, we add to the credit of our moderation,
which, in itself, is always strength more or less.
I know many have been taught to think that moderation in a case like this is a sort of treason,-and
that all arguments for it are sufficiently answered by
railing at rebels and rebellion, and by charging all
the present or future miseries which we may suffer
on the resistance of our brethren. But I would wish
them, in this grave matter, and if peace is not wholly
removed from their hearts, to consider seriously, first,
that to criminate and recriminate never yet was the
road to reconciliation, in any difference amongst men.
In the. next place, it would be right to reflect that
the American English (whom they may abuse, if
they think it honorable to revile the absent) can, as
things now stand, neither be provoked at our railing
or bettered by our instruction. All communication
is cut off between us. But this we know with certainty, that, though we cannot reclaim them, we may reform ourselves. If measures of peace are necessary, they must begin somewhere; and a conciliatory temper must precede and prepare every plan of reconciliation. Nor do I conceive that we suffer anything by thus regulating our own minds. We are not dis
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 211
armed by being disencumbered of our passions. Declaiming on rebellion never added a bayonet or a charge of powder to your military force; but I am
afraid that it has been the means of taking up many
muskets against you.
This outrageous language, which has been encouraged and kept alive by every art, has already done incredible mischief. For a long time, even amidst
the desolations of war, and the insults of hostile laws
daily accumulated on one another, the American
leaders seem to have had the greatest difficulty in
bringing up their people to a declaration of total
independence. But the Court Gazette accomplished
what the abettors of independence had attempted
in vain. When that disingenuous compilation and
strange medley of railing and flattery was adduced
as a proof of the united sentiments of the people of
Great Britain, there was a great change throughout
all' America. The tide of popular affection, which
had still set towards the parent country, began immediately to turn, and to flow with great rapidity in a contrary course. Far from concealing these wild
declarations of enmity, the author of the celebrated
pamphlet which prepared the minds of the people
for independence insists largely on'the multitude
and the spirit of these addresses; and he draws an
argument from them, which, if the fact were as he
supposes, must be irresistible. For I never knew a
writer on the theory of government so partial to
authority as not to allow that the hostile mind of the
rulers to their people did fully justify a change of
government; nor can any reason whatever be given
why one people should voluntarily yield any degree
of preeminence to another but on a supposition of
? ? ? ? 212 LETTER TO'THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
great affection and benevolence towards them. Un.
fortunately, your rulers, trusting to other things, took
no notice of this great principle of connection. From
the beginning of this affair, theyf have done all they
could to alienate your minds from your own kindred; and if they could excite hatred enough in one
of the parties towards the other, they seemed to be,
of opinion that they had gone half the way towards
reconciling the quarrel.
I know it is said, that your kindness is only alienated on account of their resistance, and therefore, if the colonies surrender at discretion, all sort of regard,
and even much indulgence, is meant towards them
in future. But can those who, are partisans for
continuing a war to enforce such a surrender be
responsible (after all that has passed) for such a
future use of a power that is bound by no-. compacts
and restrained by no terror?
Will they tell us what
they call indulgences? Do they not at this instant
call the. present war -and all its horrors a lenient
and merciful proceeding?
No conqueror that I ever heard of has professed
to make a cruel, harsh,,and insolent use of his conquest. No! The man of the most declared pride scarcely dares to trust his own heart with this dreadful secret of ambition. But it will appear in its
time; and no man who professes to reduce another
to the insolent mercy of a foreign arm ever had any
sort? of good-will towards him. The profession of
kindness, with that sword in his hand, and that demand of surrender, is one of the most provoking acts of his hostility. I shall be told thatall this is lenient
as against rebellious adversaries. But are the leaders
of their faction more lenient to those who submit?
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL, 213. Lord Howe and General Howe have powers, under an act of Parliament, to restore to the king's peace
and to free trade ally men or district which shall
submit. ' Is this done? We have been over and over
informed by the authorized gazette, that the city of
New. York and the countries of Staten and Long
Island have submitted voluntarily and cheerfully, and
that many are very full of zeal to the cause of administration. Were they instantly restored to trade? Are they yet restored to it? Is not the benignity of two
cbmmissioners, naturally most humane and generous
men, some way fettered by instructions, equally
against their dispositions and the spirit of Parliamentary faith, when Mr. Tryon, vaunting of the fidelity of the city in which he is governor, is obliged to apply to
ministry for leave to protect the king's loyal subjects,
and to grant to them, not the disputed rights and privileges of freedom, but the common rights of men, by the name of graces? Why do not the commissioners
restore them on the spot? Were they not named as
commissioners for that express purpose? But we see
well enough to what the whole leads. The trade of
America is to:be dealt out in private indulgences and
graces, -- that is, in jobs to recompense the incendiaries
of war. They will be informed of the proper time in
which to send out their merchandise. From a national, the American trade is to be turned into a personal monopoly, and one set of merchants are to be rewarded for the pretended zeal of which another set
are the dupes; and thus, between craft and credulity,
the voice of reason is stifled, and all the misconduct,
all the calamities of the war are covered and continued.
If I had not lived long enough to be little surprised
at anything, I should have been in some degree as
? ? ? ? 214 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
tonished at the continued rage of several gentlemen,
who, not satisfied with carrying fire and sword into
America; are animated nearly with the same fury
against those neighbors of theirs whose only crime it
is, that they have charitably and humanely wished
them to entertain more reasonable sentiments, and
not always to sacrifice their interest to their passion.
All this rage against unresisting dissent convinces me,
that, at bottom, they are far from satisfied they are
in the right. For what is it they would have? A
war? They certainly have at this moment the blessing of something that is very like one; and if the war
they enjoy at present be not sufficiently hot and extensive, they may shortly have it as warm and as spreading as their hearts can desire. Is it the force of the kingdom they call for? They have it already; and
if they choose to fight their battles in their own person, nobody prevents their setting sail to America in
the next transports. ]96they think that the service
is stinted for want of liberal supplies? Indeed they
complain without reason. The table of the House of
Commons will glut them, let their appetite for expense
be never so keen. And I assure them further, that
those who think with them in the House of Commons
are full as easy in the control as they are liberal in
the vote of these expenses. If this be not supply or
confidence sufficient, let them open their own private
purse-strings, and give, from what is. left to them, as
largely and with as little care as they think proper.
Tolerated in their passions, let them learn not to
persecute the moderation of their fellow-citizens. If
all the world joined them in a full cry against rebellion, and were as hotly inflamed against the whole
theory and enjoyment of freedom as those who are
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 215
the most factious for servitude, it could not, in my
opinion, answer any one end whatsoever in this contest. The leaders of this war could not hire (to gratify their friends) one German more than they do, or inspire him with less feeling for the persons or less
value for the privileges of their revolted brethren.
If we all adopted their sentiments to a man, their
allies, the savage Indians, could not be more ferocious than they are: they could not murder one
more helpless woman or child, or with more exquisite refinements of cruelty torment to death one more
of their English flesh and blood, than they do already.
The public money is given to purchase this alliance;
- and they have their bargain.
They are continually boasting of unanimity, or
calling for it. But before this unanimity can be
matter either of wish or congratulation, we ought
to be pretty sure that we are engaged in a rational
pursuit. Frenzy does not become a slighter distemper on account of the number of those who may
be infected with it. Delusion and weakness produce
not one mischief the less because they are universal.
I declare that I cannot discern the least advantage
which could accrue to us, if we were able to persuade
our colonies that they had not a single friend in Great
Britain. On the contrary, if the affections and opinions of mankind be not exploded as principles of connection, I conceive it would be happy for us, if they were taught to believe that there was even a formed
American party in England, to whom they could always look for support. Happy would it be for us, if,
in all tempers, they might turn their eyes to the parent state, so that their very turbulence and sedition
should find vent in no other place than this'! I be
? ? ? ? 216 LETTER TO. THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
lieve there is not a man (except those who prefer the
interest of some paltry faction to the very being of,
their country) who would not wish that the Americans should from time to time carry many points,
and even some of them not quite reasonable, by the
aid of any denomination of men here, rather than
they should be driven to seek for protection against
the fury of foreign mercenaries and the waste of savages in the arms of France.
When any community is subordinately connected
with another, the great danger of the connection is
the extreme pride and self-complacency of the superior, which in all matters of controversy will probably decide in its own favor. It is a powerful corrective
to such a very rational cause of fear, if the inferior
body can be made to believe that the party inclination or political views of several in the principal
state will induce them in some degree to counteract
this blind and tyrannical partiality. There is no danger that any one acquiring consideration or power in the presiding state should carry this leaning to the inferior too far. The fault of human nature is not of that sort. Power, in whatever hands, is rarely guilty
of too strict limitations on itself. But one great advantage to the support of authority attends such an amicable and protecting connection: that those who
have conferred favors obtain influence, and from the
foresight of future events can persuade men who
have received obligations sometimes to return them.
Thus, by the mediation of those healing principles,
(call them good or evil,) troublesome discussions are
brought to some sort of adjustment, and every hot
controversy is not a civil war.
But, if the colonies (to bring the general matter
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 217
nome to us) could see that in Great Britain the
mass of the people is melted into its government, and
that every dispute with the ministry must of necessity be always a quarrel with the nation, they can. stand no longer in the equal and friendly relation of fellow-citizens to the subjects of this kingdom. Hum-'ole as this relation may appear to some, when it is
once broken, a strong tie is dissolveld. Other sort of
connections will be sought. For there are very few
in the world who will not prefer an useful ally to an
insolent master.
Such discord has been the effect of the unanimity
into which so many have of late been seduced or bullied, or into'the appearance of which they have sunk
through mere despair. They have been told that
their dissent from violent measures is an encouragement to rebellion. Men of great presumption and
little knowledge'will hold a language which is contradicted by the whole course of history. General
rebellions and revolts of an whole people never were
encouraged, now or at any time. They are always provoked. But if this unheard-of doctrine of the encouragement of rebellion were true, if it were true that an assurance of the friendship of numbers in this
country towards the colonies could become an encouragement to them to'break off all connection with
it, what is the inference? Does anybody seriously
maintain, that, charged with my share of the public
councils, I am obliged not to resist projects which I
think. mischievous, lest men who suffer should be encouraged to resist? The very tendency of such projects to produce rebellion is one of the'chief reasons against them. Shall that reason not be given? Is it,
then, a rule, that no man in this nation shall open his
? ? ? ? 218 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
mouth in favor of the colonies, shall defend their
rights, or complain of their sufferings,-or when war
finally breaks out, no man shall express his desires of
peace? Has this been the law of our past, or is it to
be the terms of our future connection? Even looking no further than ourselves, can it be true loyalty
to any government, or true patriotism towards any
country, to degrade their solemn councils into servile
drawing-rooms, to flatter their pride and passions
rather than to enlighten their reason, and to prevent
them from being cautioned against violence lest others should be encouraged to resistance? By such acquiescence great kings and mighty nations have
been undone; and if any are at this day in a perilous
situation from rejecting truth and listening to flattery, it would rather become them to reform the errors under which they suffer than to reproach
those who forewarned them of their danger.
But the rebels looked for assistance from this country. -They did so, in the beginning of this controversy, most certainly; and they sought it by earnest supplications to government, which dignity rejected, and by a suspension of commerce, which the wealth of
this nation enabled you to despise. When they found
that neither prayers nor menaces had any sort of
weight, but that a firm resolution-was taken to reduce
them to unconditional obedience by a military force,
they came to the last extremity. Despairing of us,
they trusted in themselves. Not strong enough themselves, they sought succor in France. In proportion as all encouragement here lessened, their distance
from this country increased. The enicouragement is
over; the alienation is complete.
In order to produce this favorite unanimity in delu
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 219
sion, and to prevent all possibility of a return to our
ancient happy concord, arguments for our continuance in this course are drawn from the wretched situation itself into which we have been betrayed. It is said, that, being at war with the colonies, whatever our
sentiments might have been before, all ties between
us are now dissolved, and all the policy we have left
is to strengthen the hands of government to reduce
them. On the principle of this argument, the more
mischiefs we suffer from any administration, the more
our trust in it is to be confirmed. Let them but once
get us into a war, and then their power is safe, and an
act of oblivion passed for all their misconduct.
But is it really true that government is always to
be strengthened with the instruments of war, but
never furnished with the means of peace? In former
times, ministers, I allow,'have been sometimes driven
by the popular voice to assert by arms the national
honor against foreign powers. But the wisdom of
the nation has been far more clear, when those ministers have been compelled to consult its interests by
treaty. We all know that the sense of the nation
obliged the court of Charles the Second to abandon
the Dutch war: a war, next to the present, the most
impolitic which we ever carried on. The good people of England considered Holland as a sort of dependency on this kingdom; they dreaded to drive it to the protection or subject it to the power of France
by their own inconsiderate hostility. They paid but
little respect to the court jargon of that day; nor
were they inflamed by the pretended rivalship of the
Dutch in trade, - by the massacre at. Amboyna, acted
on the stage to provoke the public vengeance, -nor
by declamations against the ingratitude of the United
? ? ? ? 220 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
Provinces for the benefits England had conferred upon them in their infant state. They were not moved
from their evident interest by all these arts; nor was
it enough to tell them, they were at war, that they
must go through with it, and that the cause of the
dispute was lost in the consequences. The people of
England were then, as they are now, called upon to
make government strong. They thought it a great:deal better to make it wise and honest.
When I was amongst my constituents at the last
summer assizes, I remember that men of all descriptions did then express a very strong desire for peace,
and no slight hopes of attaining it from the commission sent out by my Lord Howe. And it is' not a
little remarkable,:that, in proportion as every person
showed a zeal for the court measures, he was then
earnest in circulating an opinion of the extent of the
supposed powers of that commission. When I told
them that Lord Howe had no powers to treat, or to
promise satisfaction on any point whatsoever of the
controversy, I was hardly credited,-so strong and
general' was the desire of terminating this war by
the method of accommodation. As far as I could
discover, this was the temper then prevalent through
the kingdom. The king's forces, it must be observed, had at that time been obliged to evacuate
Boston. The superiority of the former campaign
rested wholly with the colonists. If such powers of
treaty were to be wished whilst success was very
doubtful, how came they to be less: so, since his Majesty's arms have been crowned with many considerable advantages? Have these successes induced us to alter our mind, as thinking the season of victory
not the time for treating with honor or advantage?
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 221
Whatever changes have happened in the national
character, it can scarcely be our wish that terms of
accommodation never should be proposed to our enemy, except when they must' be attributed solely to
our fears. It has happened, let me say unfortunately, that we read of his Majesty's commission for
making peace, and his troops evacuating his last
town in the Thirteen Colonies, at the'same hour and
in the same gazette. It was still more unfortunate
that no commission went- to America to settle the
troubles there, until several months after an act had
been passed to put the colonies out of the protection
of this government, and to divide their trading property, without a possibility of restitution, as spoil
among the seamen of the navy. 'The most abject
submission on- the part of the colonies could not redeem them. There was no man on that whole continent, or within three thousand miles of it, qualified
by law to follow allegiance. with protection or submission with pardon. A proceeding of this kind has
no example in history. Independency, and independency with an enmity, (which, putting ourselves out
of the question, would be called natural and much
provoked,) was the inevitable consequence. How
this came to pass the nation may be one day in an
humor to inquire.
All the attempts made this session to. give fuller
powers of peace to the commanders in America were:
stifled by the fatal confidence of victory and the wild
hopes of unconditional submission. There was a moment favorable to the'king's arms, when, if any powers of concession had existed on' the other side of the Atlantic, even after all our errors, peace in all probability might have been restored. : But calamity is un
? ? ? ? 222 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL.
happily the usual season of reflection; and the pride
of men will not often suffer reason to have any scope,
until it can be no longer of service.
I have always wished, that as the dispute had its
apparent origin from things done in Parliament, and
as the acts passed there had provoked the war, that
the foundations of peace should be laid in Parliament
also. I have been astonished to find that those
whose zeal for the dignity of our body was so hot as
to light up the flames of civil war should even publicly declare that these delicate points ought to be wholly left to the crown. Poorly as I may be thought
affected to the authority of Parliament, I shall never
admit that our' constitutional rights can ever become
a matter of ministerial negotiation.
I am charged with being an American. If warm
affection towards those over whom I claim any share
of authority be a crime, I am guilty of this charge.
But I do assure you, (and they who know me publicly
and privately will bear witness to me,) that, if ever one
man lived more zealous than another for the supremacy of Parliament and the rights of this imperial crown, it was myself. Many others, indeed, might be
more knowing in the extent of the foundation of
these rights. I do not pretend to be an antiquary,
a lawyer, or qualified for the chair of professor in
metaphysics. I never ventured to put your solid interests upon speculative grounds. My having con stantly declined to do so has been attributed to my
incapacity for such disquisitions; and I am inclined
to believe it is partly the cause. I never shall be
ashamed to confess, that, where I am ignorant, I am
diffident. I am, indeed, not very solicitous to clear
myself of this imputed incapacity; because men even
? ? ? ? LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF. BRISTOL. 223
less conversant than I am in this kind of'subtleties,
and placed in stations to which I ought not to aspire,
have, by the mere force of civil discretion, often conducted the affairs of great nations with distinguished
felicity and glory. .
When I first came into a public trust, I found
your Parliamentin possession of'an unlimited legislative power over the colonies. I could not open the
statute-book without seeing the actual exercise of it,
more or less, in all: cases whatsoever. This possession passed with me for a title. It does so'in all human affairs. No man examines into the defects of his title to his paternal estate or to his established government. Indeed, common sense taught me that a
legislative authority not actually limited by the express terms of its foundation, or by its own subsequent acts, cannot have its powers parcelled out by argumentative distinctions, so as to enable us to say
that here theyv can and there they cannot bind. Nobody was so obliging as to produce to me any record
of such distinctions, by compact or otherwise, either
at the successive formation of the several colonies or
during the existence of ally of them. If any gentlemen were able to see how one power could be given
up (merely on abstract reasoning) without giving up
the rest, I can only say that they saw further than I
could. Nor did I ever presume to condemn any one
for being clear-sighted when I was blind. I praise
their penetration and learning, and hope that their
practice has been correspondent to their theory.
I had, indeed, very earnest wishes to keep the whole
body of this authority perfect and entire as I found
it, - and to keep it so, not for our advantage solely,
but principally for the sake of those on whose ac
? ?
