Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

o laws, but thofe to which he, ether in perfon or by bis reprefen tative, hath given his confent; and this I will venture to affert, is the grand basis of British freedom; it is interwoven with the conftitution; and whenever this is loft, the conftitution must be deftroyed.

12. Let us now allow ourselves a few moments to examine the late acts of the British parliament for taxing America. Let us with candprjudge whether they are conftitutionally binding up on us; if they are, in the name of judice, let us submit to them without one murmuring word.

13. First, I would ask, whether the members of the British houfe of commons, are the democracy of this province? If they are, they are either the people of this province, or are clected by the people of this province, to reprefent them, and have therefore a conftitutional right to originate a bill for taxing them; it is most certainly they are neither; and therefore nothing done by them can be faid to be done by the domocratic branch of our conftitution.

14. I would next afk, whether the lords, who compose the aristocratic branch of the legislature, are peers of America? I never heard it was (even in thefe extraordinary times) fo much es pretended; and if they are not, certainly no act of theirs can be faid to be the act of the aristocratic branch of our conftitu tion.

15. The power of the monarchie branch we with pleafare acknowledge, refides in the king, who may act either in perfon or by his representative; and I freely confefs that I can fee no reafon why a PROCLAMATION for raifing money in America, ilfued by the king's fele authority, would not be equally confiftent with our conflitution, and therefore equally binding upon us with the late acts of Parliament for taxing us. For it is plain, that if there is any validity in those ads, it must arife altogeth er from the monarchical branch of the legislature. And I fur ther think, that it would be at least as equitable; for I do not conceive it to be of the leaft importance to us by whom our prope erty is taken away, fo long as it is taken away without our con fent.

16. I am very much at a lofs to know by what figure of rhetoric, the inhabitants of this province can be called free fubjes, when they are obliged to obey implicitly, fuch laws as are made for them by men three thoufand miles off, whom they know not, and whom they never have empowered toact for them; or how they can be faid to have property, when a

[ocr errors]

body of men, over whom they have not the leaft control, and who are not in any way accountable to them, fhall oblige them to deliver up any part, or the whole of their fubftance, without even asking their confent,

17. And yet, whoever pretends that the late acts of the Brit. ifh parliament for taxing America, ought to be deemed bind. ing upon us, muft admit at once that we are abfolute flaves, and have no property of our own; or elfe that we may be free. men, and at the fame time under the neceffity of obeying the ar bitrary commands of thofe over whom we have no control or in fluence; and that we may have property of our own, which is entirely at the disposal of another.

18. Such grofs abfurdities, I believe, will not be relished in this enlightened age; and it can be no great matter of wonder, that the people quickly perceived, and feriously complained of the inroads which thefe acts mut unavoidably make upon their liberty, and of the hazard to which their whole property is by them expofed; for if they may be taxed without their con. fent, even in the smallest trifle, they may alfowithout their confent, be deprived of every thing they poffefs, altho ever so val. uable, ever fo dear.

19. Certainly it never entered the hearts of our ancestors, that after fo many dangers in this then defolate wilderness, their hard earned property fhould be at the difpofal of the British par liament. And as it was foon found that this taxation could not be fupported by reafon and argument, it feemed neceffary that one act of oppreffion should be enforced by another; and therefore, contrary to our juft rights, as poffeffing, or at leaft having a juft title to poffefs, all the liberties and immunities of British fubjects, a ftanding army was established among us in time of peace, and evidently for the purpofe of effecting that which it was one principal defign of the founders of the conftitution to prevent (when they declared a ftanding army in time of peace to be again law) namely, for the enforcement of obedience to acts, which upon fair examination, appeared to be unjuft and unconflitutional.

20. The fuinous confequences of standing armies to free communities, may be feen in the hiftories of Syracufe, Rome, and many other once flourishing States; fome of which have now fcarce a name! Their baneful influence is molt fuddenly felt, when they are placed in populous cities; for by a corruption of morals, the public happinefs is immediately affected.

21. That this is one of the effects of quartering troops. a

populous city, is a truth, to which many a mourning parent, many a loft defpairing child in this metropolis, muft bear a very melancholy teftimony. Soldiers are alfo taught to confider arms as the only arbiters by which every difpute is to be de eided between contending ftates; they are inftru&ted implicitly to obey their commanders, without enquiring into the juftice of the caufe they are engaged to fupport. Hence it is that they are ever to be dreaded as the ready engines of tyranny and oppreffion,

22. And it is too obfervable that they are prone to introduce the fame mode of dicifion in the difputes of individuals, and from thence have arifen great animofities between them and the inhabitants, who whilft in a naked defenceless state, are frequently infulted and abufed by an armed foldiery. And this will be more especially the cafe, when the troops are informed that the intention of their being ftationed in any city is to overawe the inhabitants.

25. That this was the avowed defign of stationing an armed fore in this town, is fufficienely known; and we, my fellowcitizens, have feen, we have felt the tragical effects! The FA TAL FIFTH OF MARCH, 1770, can never be forgotten! The horrors of that dreadful night are but too deeply impreffed on our hearts-Language is too feeble to paint the emotions of our fouls, when our streets were ftained with the blood of our brethren when our ears were wounded by the groans of the dying, and our eyes were tormented with the fight of the mangled bodies of the dead.

24. When our alarmed imagination prefented to our view our houfes wrapt in flames-our children fubjected to the bar barous caprice of the raging foldiery-our beauteous virgins expofed to all the infolence of unbridled paffion-our virtuous wives, endered to us by every tender tie, falling a facrafice to worfe than brutal violence, and perhaps like the famed Lucretia, diftracted with auguifh and defpair, ending their wretched lives by their own fair hands.

25. When we beheld the authors of our diftrefs parading in our streets, or drawn up in regular battalia, as tho in a hoftile city, our hearts beat to arms; we fnatched our weapons almolt refolved, by one decifive ftroke, to avenge the death of our flaughtered brethren, and to fecure from future danger, all that we held moft dear; but propitious Heaven forbade the bloody carnage, and faved the threatened victims of our too keen refentment ; not by their discipline, not by their regu

lar array-no, it was royal George's livery that proved their hield-it was that which turned the pointed engines of deAruction from their breasts.

26. Thoughts of vengeance were foon buried in our inbred affection to Great Britain, and calm reafon dictated a method of removing the troops, more mild than an immediate recourfe to the fword. With united efforts you urged the immediate -departure of the troops from the town-you urged it with a resolution which infured fuccefs-you obtained your wishes, and the removal of the troops was effected, without one drop of their blood being fhed by the inhabitants.

27. The immediate actors in the tragedy of that night were furrendered to juftice. It is not mine to fay how far they were guilty! They have been tried by the country and ACQUITTED of murder; and they are not again to be arraigned at an earthly bar; but furely the men who have promifcuously fcattered death amidst the innocent inhabitants of a populous city, ought to fee well to it, that they be prepared to stand at the bar of an omniscient Judge! and all who contrived or encouraged the ftationing of troops in this place, have reafons of eternal importance, to reflect with deep contrition, on their bafe defigns and humbly to repent of their impious machina.

tions.

28. The voice of your fathers' blood cries to you from the ground; My fans, foorn to be SLAVES! In vain, we met the frowns of tyrants-in vain we croffed the boisterous ocean, found a new world and prepared it for the happy refidence of Liberty-in vain we toiled-in vain we fought-we bled in vain, if you, our offspring, want valor to repel the affaults. of her invaders Stain not the glory of your worthy ances, tors, but like them resolve never to part with your birthrightbe wife in your deliberations, and determined in your exertions for the prefervation of your liberty.

29. Follow not the dictates of paffion, but inlift yourselves under the facred banner of reafons; ufe every method in your power to fecure your rights; at least prevent the curfes of pofterity from being heaped upon your memories.

30. If you with united zeal and fortitude, oppofe the to: rent of oppreffion--if you feel the true fire of patriotism burning in your breafts--if you from your fouls difpife the moft gaudy drefs that flavery can wear-if you really prefer the lonely cottage (whilft bleft with liberty) to gilded palaces furrounded with the enfigns of flavery, you must have the ful

148

AMERICAN SELECTION.

133

le affurance that tyranny, with her whole accurfed train, will hide her hideous head, in coufufion, fhame and despair.

31. If you perform your part, you must have the strongest confidence, that the fame Almighty Being, who protected your pious and venerable forefathers, who enabled them to turn a barren wilderness into a fruitful field, who fo often made bare his arm for their falvation, will still be mindful of you their offspring.

32. May this ALMIGHTY BEING graciously prefide, in all our councils-may he direct us to fuch meafures as he him. felf fhall approve, and be pleafed to blefs. May we ever be favored of God. May our land be a land of liberty, the feat of virtue, the afylum of the oppreffed, a name and a praise in the whole earth, until the laft fhock of time fhall bury the em pires of the world in undiftinguished ruin !

ORATION, delivered at Bofton, March 5, 1774, by the honor able JOHN HANCOCK, Efq. in commemoration of the evening of the 5th of March, 1770, when a number of the citizens were killed by a party of British troops, quartered among them in a time of peace.

Men, Brethren, Fathers and Fellow-Countrymen!

HE attentive gravity-the venerable appearance of this

countenances of fo many in this great affembly-the folemnity of the occafion upon which we have met together, joined to a confideration of the part I am to take in the important bufinefs of this day, fill me with an awe hitherto unknown; and heighten the fenfe which I have ever had, of my unwor thinefs to fill this facred desk.

2. But, allured by the call of fome of my refpected fellowcitizens, with whofe requeft it is alway my greatest pleasure to comply, I almoft forgot my want of ability to perform what they required. In this fituation I find my only fupport in af furing myfelf that a generous people will not feverely cenfure what they know was well intended, tho its want of merit fhould .prevent their being able to applaud it, And I pray, that my fincere attachment to the intereft of my country, and my hearty deteftation of every defign formed againft her liberties, may be admitted as fome apology for my appearance in this place. 3. I have always, from my earliest youth, rejoiced in the

M

« AnteriorContinuar »