AT a juncture like the present; when the na­tional reputation of Britain, as well as her absolute safety, stands tottering on the brink of destruction; when liberty and freedom, the great pillars of the constitution, are, by force and fraud undermined, and tumbling into ruins; when the bloody sword of tyranny is drawn against America, and soon to be plunged into the bowels of her innocent inhabitants; when the present So­vereign, aided by a despicable junto, the rebel, outcast, and refuse of Scotland, and a parliament not returned by the free suffrages of the people, are rioting with impunity in the spoils of an insult­ed powerful kingdom; when they, by cruel op­pression, have spread terror and civil war in every part of the British empire; when they have de­stroyed or suspended her trade, and sapped the credit of public security; when the most iniquitous and unjust laws are daily passed to curb the spirit, and bind in chains, the hands of a brave and free [Page 34]people; when St. James's is made the SLAUGH­TER HOUSE of AMERICA; when the Sover­eign is become a national executioner, and for a sceptre carries a bloody knife; when by a most scandalous and shameful profusion of the public money, we are hourly robbed and plundered, to answer all the purposes of King-craft and villany; when new taxes are daily imposed upon the peo­ple in time of peace, to the almost entire ruin of the state; when the minions of despotism a [...] in­creasing the land forces, for the open and avowed purpose of wading knee deep in blood, through the liberties of Britain; when the Protestant religion is openly subverted, and the British subjects in Canada deprived of those great securities of their personal liberty and property, the habeas corpus act, and trial by juries; when a suspending and dispensing power is assumed by the crown; when opposition, to the most cruel and wanton acts of lawless power, is deemed rebellion; when the Senators, designed the protectors of the people, are become their destroyers; when the appointed guardians of public freedom are become base apostates, and conspirators against the liberties of mankind; when neither oaths, nor conscience, can bind the Sovereign or his Ministers; when both public and private justice is denied to a subject, nay to the whole body of the people at large; when our lives are exposed to false accusa­tions, and our persons to arbitrary imprisonment, and heavy fines; when the judges before whom we are to stand upon life and death, and before whom all cases, concerning liberty and property, must be brought, too much devoted to the will and pleasure of the crown, and enemies to the na­tural [Page 35]rights of mankind; when juries, who are to decide our fate, packed, bribed, or modelled to the pernicious designs of a wicked and detestable ministry; when every post, civil, naval, and mi­litary, is filled by northern flatterers and their ad­herents, by men of no principles, by parasites, pimps, catamites, and the advocates for arbitrary power; when the people can see nothing but mise­ry and slavery before their eyes; when this vast and mighty empire, the admiration and envy of the world, is, through corruption and villany, fallen into ruins.

At such a juncture as this, and under these dreadful and alarming circumstances of experi­enced and impending danger, it becomes the duty of every Englishman to stand forth to defend his life, his liberty, and his property from lawless vio­lence, and to save his country from perdition.

So highly did our brave and virtuous ancestors value and esteem their rights, liberties and privi­leges, that they spared neither blood nor treasure in their defence, when invaded, as they too often were, by some of our Kings, who, in the pur­suit of lawless power, pulled down all the fences of liberty, and broke in, like the present Sover­eign, upon the constitution, so far that the lives, liberties, and properties of the subjects of this realm were hourly in danger, and many fell sa­crifices to royal or ministerial vengeance.

Then it was that our generous forefathers nobly associated themselves in defence of their in­herents and legal rights, and made an offering of the best and choicest blood in the kingdom to the shrine of Liberty, that we, their posterity, might be free and happy. To them, and the glorious [Page 36]struggles they made with power, we owe all the blessings we enjoy, and the English constitution, our greatest boast, and their greatest glory.

It was in such times as these, when our brave progenitors behaved like Britons, with a true pa­triot zeal, with which almost every breast was fired, they spurned the yoke, and broke the chains that were prepared for them, letting their king and his minions know, they would not suf­fer him nor them to destroy their birthrights, and dispense with the known laws of the land, by which they were resolved to be governed, and not by his will, or any other lawless power upon earth.

Let us at this time, in this hour of imminent danger, follow so bright and glorious an example, by a well timed noble resistance to the present royal and ministerial plan, for subverting the laws and religion, and overturning the constitu­tion of the British empire, in England and Ame­rica; a resistance that will secure freedom to poste­rity, and immortal honor to ourselves; the field of glory is open before us; let us rouse from a state of apathy, and exert ourselves in a manner becoming of Englishmen, worthy of men who love liberty, and deserve to be free. Let us shew to the world, we are not to be enslaved by one, nor by five thousand tyrants, for the sons of cru­elty, corruption, and despotism will pursue their bloody designs, with greater vigour, and with all the unrelenting malice of barbarians, against our fellow subjects in America, in proportion as we are tame and acquiescing; and if once they can succeed, through our baseness and cowardice, the sword will be immediately turned against us, the [Page 37]sacred constitution of our empire dissolved, and we shall fall despised, unlamented, and detested, into the same horrible gulph of arbitrary power.

Let us take advantage of the present opportuni­ty, while our resentments boil high, while every English breast is fired with indignation against those who are the authors of all our past and present cala­mities, which now convulse the state to its centre; let us by all proper, just, and legal means, exem­plary punish the paricides, and avowed enemies of mankind; let neither private acquaintance, nor personal alliance, stand between us and our duty to our country; let all, who have an interest in the public safety, join in common measures to defend the publc safety; let us pursue to disgrace, destruc­tion, and even death, all those who have brought this ruin upon us, let them be ever so great or ever so many; let us stamp, and deep engrave in cha­racters legible to all Europe at present, and to all posterity hereafter, what vengeance is due to crimes, which have no less objects in view than the ruin of nations, and the destruction of millions; let us frustrate their present desperate and wicked attempt to destroy America, by joining with our injured fellow subjects, and bravely striking one honest and bold stroke to destroy them; nay, although the designs of the conspirators should be laid deep as the centre, although they should raise hell itself, and should fetch legions of votaries from thence to avow their proceedings, yet let us not leave the pur­suit till we have their heads and their estates.

Hear part of the address of your injured and oppressed fellow subjects in America, to you upon this melancholy occasion, upon the dreadful pros­pect of impending ruin; then let every English­man lay his hand upon his heart, and declare whe­ther [Page 38]he does not think they have been most cruelly treated, and whether he can in justice, conscience, and humanity draw the sword against them; or whether he would not rather join with them, and endeavour to obtain a decisive victory over ty­ranny, or fall gloriously with the liberties of his country. These are their words.

"When a nation, led to greatness by the hand of liberty, and possessed of all the glory that he­roism, munificence, and humanity can bestow, de­scends to the ungrateful task of forging chains for her friends and children, and instead of giving sup­port to freedom, turns advocate for slavery and oppression, there is reason to suspect she has either ceased to be virtuous, or been extremely negligent in the appointment of her rulers.

"In almost every age, in repeated conflicts, in long and bloody wars, as well civil as foreign, against the many powerful nations, against the open assaults of enemies, and the more dangerous trea­chery of friends, have the inhabitants of your island, your great and glorious ancestors, maintained their independence, and transmitted the rights of men, and the blessings of liberty, to you their posterity.

"Be not surprised, therefore, that we who are descendents from the same common ancestors; that we, whose forefathers participated in all the rights, the liberties, and the constitution, you so justly boast, and who have carefully conveyed the same fair inheritance to us, guarantied by the plighted faith of government, and the most solemn compacts with British sovereigns, should refuse to surrender them to men, who found their claims on no prin­ciples of reason, and who prosecute them with a design, that by having our lives and property in [Page 39]their power, they may, with the greater facility, enslave you.

"The cause of America is now the object of uni­versal attention; it has at length become very se­rious. This unhappy country has not only been oppressed, but abused and misrepresented; and the duty we owe to ourselves and posterity, to your interest, and the general welfare of the British empire, leads us to address you on this very impor­tant subject.

"We call upon you yourselves, to witness our loyalty and attachment to the common interest of the whole empire; did we not, in the last war, add all the strength of this vast continent to the force which repelled our common enemy? Did we not leave our native shores, and meet disease and death, to pro­mote the success of the British arms in foreign cli­mates? Did you not thank us for our zeal, and even reimburse us large sums of money, which, you con­fessed, we had advanced beyond our proportion, and far beyond our abilities? You did.

"To what causes, then, are we to attribute the sudden change of treatment, and that system of slavery which was prepared for us at the restora­tion of peace.

"Let justice and humanity cease to be the boast of your nation, consult your history, examine your history, examine your records of former transactions, nay turn to the annals of the many arbitrary states and kingdoms that surround you, and shew us a single instance of men being condemned to suffer for imputed crimes, unheard, unquestioned, and without even the specious formality of a trial; and that too by laws made expresly for the purpose, and which had no existence at the time of the fact committed. If it be difficult to reconcile these proceedings to [Page 40]the genius and temper of your laws and constitu­tion, the task will become more arduous when we call upon our ministerial enemies to justify, not only condemning men untried, and by hearsay; but involving the innocent in one common punish­ment with the guilty, and for the act of thirty or forty, to bring poverty, distress and calamity on 30,000 souls, and those not your enemies, but your friends, brethren, and fellow subjects.

"Admit that the ministry, by the power of Britain, and the aid of our Roman Catholic neigh­bours, should be able to carry the point of taxa­tion, and reduce us to a state of perfect humilia­tion and slavery. Such an enterprize would doubt­less make some addition to your national debt, which already presses down your liberties, and fills you with pensioners and placemen, We pre­sume also that your commerce will somewhat be diminished. However, suppose you should prove victorious—in what condition will you then be? What advantages or what laurels will you reap from such a conquest?

May not a ministry with the same armies enslave you—it may be said, you will cease to pay them— but remember the taxes from America, the wealth, and we may add the men particularly the Roman Catholics of this vast continent, will then be in the power of your enemies—nor will you have any reason to expect, that after making slaves of us, many among us should refuse to assist in re­ducing you to the same abject state,"