THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT STATE OF AMERICAN AFFAIRS

 In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain
 arguments, and common sense; and have no other Preliminaries
 to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of
 prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his
 feelings to determine for themselves; that he will put ON, or
 rather that he will not put OFF the true character of a man, and
 generously enlarge his views beyond the present day.

 Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between
 England and America. Men of all ranks have embarked in the
 controversy, from different motives, and with various designs; but
 all have been ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed.
 Arms, as the last resource, decide this contest; the appeal was
 the choice of the king, and the continent hath accepted the
 challenge.

 It hath been reported of the late Mr. Pelham (who tho' an able
 minister was not without his faults) that on his being attacked in
 the house of commons, on the score, that his measures were only
 of a temporary kind, replied "THEY WILL LAST MY TIME."
 Should a thought so fatal and unmanly possess the colonies in the
 present contest, the name of ancestors will be remembered by
 future generations with detestation.

 The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the
 affair of a city, a county, a province, or a kingdom, but of a
 continent - of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. 'Tis
 not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually
 involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to
 the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed-time of
 continental union, faith and honour. The least fracture now will be
 like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of
 a young oak; the wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity
 read it in full grown characters.

 By referring the matter from argument to arms, a new aera for
 politics is struck; a new method of thinking hath arisen. All plans,
 proposals, &c. prior to the nineteenth of April, i. e. to the
 commencement of hostilities, are like the almanacs of the last
 year; which, though proper then are superseded and useless now.
 Whatever was advanced by the advocates on either side of the
 question then, terminated in one and the same point. viz. a union
 with Great-Britain: the only difference between the parties was
 the method of effecting it; the one proposing force, the other
 friendship; but it hath so far happened that the first hath failed,
 and the second hath withdrawn her influence.

 As much hath been said of the advantages of reconciliation which,
 like an agreeable dream, hath passed away and left us as we
 were, it is but right, that we should examine the contrary side of
 the argument, and inquire into some of the many material injuries
 which these colonies sustain, and always will sustain, by being
 connected with, and dependent on Great Britain: To examine that
 connection and dependence, on the principles of nature and
 common sense, to see what we have to trust to, if separated, and
 what we are to expect, if dependant.

 I have heard it asserted by some, that as America hath flourished
 under her former connection with Great Britain that the same
 connection is necessary towards her future happiness, and will
 always have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than
 this kind of argument. We may as well assert that because a child
 has thrived upon milk that it is never to have meat, or that the first
 twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next
 twenty. But even this is admitting more than is true, for I answer
 roundly, that America would have flourished as much, and
 probably much more, had no European power had any thing to
 do with her. The commerce, by which she hath enriched herself,
 are the necessaries of life, and will always have a market while
 eating is the custom of Europe.

 But she has protected us, say some. That she has engrossed us is
 true, and defended the continent at our expense as well as her
 own is admitted, and she would have defended Turkey from the
 same motive, viz. the sake of trade and dominion.

 Alas, we have been long led away by ancient prejudices, and
 made large sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted the
 protection of Great Britain, without considering, that her motive
 was INTEREST not ATTACHMENT; that she did not protect
 us from OUR ENEMIES on OUR ACCOUNT, but from HER
 ENEMIES on HER OWN ACCOUNT, from those who had no
 quarrel with us on any OTHER ACCOUNT, and who will
 always be our enemies on the SAME ACCOUNT. Let Britain
 wave her pretensions to the continent, or the continent throw off
 the dependence, and we should be at peace with France and
 Spain were they at war with Britain. The miseries of Hanover last
 war ought to warn us against connections.

 It has lately been asserted in parliament, that the colonies have no
 relation to each other but through the parent country, i. e. that
 Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, and so on for the rest, are sister
 colonies by the way of England; this is certainly a very
 round-about way of proving relationship, but it is the nearest and
 only true way of proving enemyship, if I may so call it. France
 and Spain never were. nor perhaps ever will be our enemies as
 AMERICANS, but as our being the subjects of GREAT
 BRITAIN.

 But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame
 upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor
 savages make war upon their families; wherefore the assertion, if
 true, turns to her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only
 partly so and the phrase PARENT or MOTHER COUNTRY
 hath been jesuitically adopted by the king and his parasites, with a
 low papistical design of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous
 weakness of our minds. Europe, and not England, is the parent
 country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the
 persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from EVERY
 PART of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender
 embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and
 it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the
 first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still.

 In this extensive quarter of the globe, we forget the narrow limits
 of three hundred and sixty miles (the extent of England) and carry
 our friendship on a larger scale; we claim brotherhood with every
 European Christian, and triumph in the generosity of the
 sentiment.

 It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradations we surmount
 the force of local prejudice, as we enlarge our acquaintance with
 the world. A man born in any town in England divided into
 parishes, will naturally associate most with his fellow-parishioners
 (because their interests in many cases will be common) and
 distinguish him by the name of NEIGHBOUR; if he meet him but
 a few miles from home, he drops the narrow idea of a street, and
 salutes him by the name of TOWNSMAN; if he travel out of the
 county, and meet him in any other, he forgets the minor divisions
 of street and town, and calls him COUNTRYMAN, i. e.
 COUNTRYMAN; but if in their foreign excursions they should
 associate in France or any other part of EUROPE, their local
 remembrance would be enlarged into that of ENGLISHMEN.
 And by a just parity of reasoning, all Europeans meeting in
 America, or any other quarter of the globe, are
 COUNTRYMEN; for England, Holland, Germany, or Sweden,
 when compared with the whole, stand in the same places on the
 larger scale, which the divisions of street, town, and county do on
 the smaller ones; distinctions too limited for continental minds.
 Not one third of the inhabitants, even of this province, are of
 English descent. Wherefore I reprobate the phrase of parent or
 mother country applied to England only, as being false, selfish,
 narrow and ungenerous.

 But admitting, that we were all of English descent, what does it
 amount to? Nothing. Britain, being now an open enemy,
 extinguishes every other name and title: And to say that
 reconciliation is our duty, is truly farcical. The first king of
 England, of the present line (William the Conqueror) was a
 Frenchman, and half the Peers of England are descendants from
 the same country; therefore, by the same method of reasoning,
 England ought to be governed by France.

 Much hath been said of the united strength of Britain and the
 colonies, that in conjunction they might bid defiance to the world.
 But this is mere presumption; the fate of war is uncertain, neither
 do the expressions mean any thing; for this continent would never
 suffer itself to be drained of inhabitants, to support the British
 arms in either Asia, Africa, or Europe.
 

 Besides what have we to do with setting the world at defiance?
 Our plan is commerce, and that, well attended to, will secure us
 the peace and friendship of all Europe; because, it is the interest
 of all Europe to have America a FREE PORT. Her trade will
 always be a protection, and her barrenness of gold and silver
 secure her from invaders.

 I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation, to shew, a
 single advantage that this continent can reap, by being connected
 with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge, not a single advantage
 is derived. Our corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe,
 and our imported goods must be paid for, buy them where we
 will.

 But the injuries and disadvantages we sustain by that connection,
 are without number; and our duty to mankind at large, as well as
 to ourselves, instruct us to renounce the alliance: Because, any
 submission to, or dependence on Great Britain, tends directly to
 involve this continent in European wars and quarrels; and sets us
 at variance with nations, who would otherwise seek our
 friendship, and against whom, we have neither anger nor
 complaint. As Europe is our market for trade, we ought to form
 no partial connection with any part of it. It is the true interest of
 America to steer clear of European contentions, which she never
 can do, while by her dependence on Britain, she is made the
 make-weight in the scale of British politics.

 Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms to be long at peace,
 and whenever a war breaks out between England and any foreign
 power, the trade of America goes to ruin, BECAUSE OF HER
 CONNECTION WITH ENGLAND. The next war may not turn
 out like the last, and should it not, the advocates for reconciliation
 now, will be wishing for separation then, because, neutrality in
 that case, would be a safer convoy than a man of war. Every
 thing that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of
 the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'TIS TIME TO
 PART. Even the distance at which the Almighty hath placed
 England and America, is a strong and natural proof, that the
 authority of the one, over the other, was never the design of
 Heaven. The time likewise at which the continent was discovered,
 adds weight to the argument, and the manner in which it was
 peopled increases the force of it. The reformation was preceded
 by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant
 to open a sanctuary to the Persecuted in future years, when home
 should afford neither friendship nor safety.

 The authority of Great Britain over this continent, is a form of
 government, which sooner or later must have an end: And a
 serious mind can draw no true pleasure by looking forward under
 the painful and positive conviction, that what he calls "the present
 constitution" is merely temporary. As parents, we can have no
 joy, knowing that THIS GOVERNMENT is not sufficiently
 lasting to ensure any thing which we may bequeath to posterity:
 And by a plain method of argument, as we are running the next
 generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we
 use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our
 duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our
 station a few years farther into life; that eminence will present a
 prospect, which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from
 our sight.

 Though I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offense, yet I
 am inclined to believe, that all those who espouse the doctrine of
 reconciliation, may be included within the following descriptions.
 Interested men, who are not to be trusted; weak men, who
 CANNOT see; prejudiced men, who WILL NOT see; and a
 certain set of moderate men, who think better of the European
 world than it deserves; and this last class, by an ill-judged
 deliberation, will be the cause of more calamities to this continent,
 than all the other three.

 It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scene of
 sorrow; the evil is not sufficient brought to their doors to make
 THEM feel the precariousness with which all American property
 is possessed. But let our imaginations transport us far a few
 moments to Boston, that seat of wretchedness will teach us
 wisdom, and instruct us for ever to renounce a power in whom
 we can have no trust. The inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who
 but a few months ago were in ease and affluence, have now, no
 other alternative than to stay and starve, or turn and beg.
 Endangered by the fire of their friends if they continue within the
 city, and plundered by the soldiery if they leave it. In their present
 condition they are prisoners without the hope of redemption, and
 in a general attack for their relief, they would be exposed to the
 fury of both armies.

 Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses
 of Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out,
 "COME, COME, WE SHALL BE FRIENDS AGAIN, FOR
 ALL THIS." But examine the passions and feelings of mankind,
 Bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the touchstone of nature,
 and then tell me, whether you can hereafter love, honor, and
 faithfully serve the power that hath carried fire and sword into
 your land? If yon cannot do all these, then are you only deceiving
 yourselves, and by your delay bringing ruin upon posterity. Your
 future connection with Britain, whom you can neither love nor
 honor will be forced and unnatural, and being formed only on the
 plan of present convenience, will in a little time fall into a relapse
 more wretched than the first. But if you say, you can still pass the
 violations over, then I ask, Hath your house been burnt? Hath
 your property been destroyed before your face! Are your wife
 and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on?
 Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the
 ruined and wretched survivor! If you have not, then are you not a
 judge of those who have. But if you have, and still can shake
 hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of
 husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank
 or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a
 sycophant.

 This is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but trying them by
 those feelings and affections which nature justifies, and without
 which, we should be incapable of discharging the social duties of
 life, or enjoying the felicities of it. I mean not to exhibit horror for
 the purpose of provoking revenge, but to awaken us from fatal
 and unmanly slumbers, that we may pursue determinately some
 fixed object. It is not in the power of Britain or of Europe to
 conquer America, if she do not conquer herself by DELAY and
 TIMIDITY. The present winter is worth an age if rightly
 employed, but if lost or neglected, the whole continent will
 partake of the misfortune; and there is no punishment which that
 man will not deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that
 may be the means of sacrificing a season so precious and useful.
 
 

 It is repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things, to all
 examples from former ages, to suppose, that this continent can
 longer remain subject to any external power. The most sanguine
 in Britain does not think so. The utmost stretch of human wisdom
 cannot, at this time, compass a plan short of separation, which
 can promise the continent even a year's security. Reconciliation is
 NOW a fallacious dream. Nature hath deserted the connection,
 and Art cannot supply her place. For, as Milton wisely expresses,
 "never can true reconcilement grow, where wounds of deadly
 hate have pierced so deep."

 Every quiet method for peace hath been ineffectual. Our prayers
 have been rejected with disdain; and only tended to convince us,
 that nothing Batters vanity, or confirms obstinacy in Kings more
 than repeated petitioning-and nothing hath contributed more than
 that very measure to make the Kings of Europe absolute: Witness
 Denmark and Sweden. Wherefore, since nothing but blows will
 do, for God's sake, let us come to a final separation, and not
 leave the next generation to be cutting throats, under the violated
 unmeaning names of parent and child.

 To say, they will never attempt it again is idle and visionary, we
 thought so at the repeal of the stamp-act, yet a year or two
 undeceived us; as well may we suppose that nations, which have
 been once defeated, will never renew the quarrel.

 As to government matters, it is not in the power of Britain to do
 this continent justice: The business of it will soon be too weighty,
 and intricate, to be managed with any tolerable degree of
 convenience, by a power so distant from us, and so very ignorant
 of us; for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us. To be
 always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a
 petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which when
 obtained requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few
 years be looked upon as folly and childishness--There was a time
 when it was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease.

 Small islands not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper
 objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is
 something very absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually
 governed by an island. In no instance hath nature made the
 satellite larger than its primary planet, and as England and
 America, with respect to each other, reverses the common order
 of nature, it is evident they belong to different systems; England to
 Europe, America to itself.

 I am not induced by motives of pride, party, or resentment to
 espouse the doctrine of separation and independance; I am
 clearly, positively, and conscientiously persuaded that it is the true
 interest of this continent to be so; that every thing short of THAT
 is mere patchwork, that it can afford no lasting felicity, --that it is
 leaving the sword to our children, and shrinking back at a time,
 when, a little more, a little farther, would have rendered this
 continent the glory of the earth.

 As Britain hath not manifested the least inclination towards a
 compromise, we may be assured that no terms can be obtained
 worthy the acceptance of the continent, or any ways equal to the
 expense of blood and treasure we have been already put to.

 The object, contended for, ought always to bear some just
 proportion to the expense. The removal of North, or the whole
 detestable junto, is a matter unworthy the millions we have
 expended. A temporary stoppage of trade, was an
 inconvenience, which would have sufficiently balanced the repeal
 of all the acts complained of, had such repeals been obtained; hut
 if the whole continent must take up arms, if every man must be a
 soldier, it is scarcely worth our while to fight against a
 contemptible ministry only. Dearly, dearly, do we pay for the
 repeal of the acts, if that is all we fight for; for in a just estimation,
 it is as great a folly to pay a Bunker-hill price for law, as for land.
 As I have always considered the independancy of this continent,
 as an event, which sooner or later must arrive, so from the late
 rapid progress of the continent to maturity, the event could not be
 far off. Wherefore, on the breaking out of hostilities, it was not
 worth while to have disputed a matter, which time would have
 finally redressed, unless we meant to be in earnest; otherwise, it is
 like wasting an estate on a suit at law, to regulate the trespasses
 of a tenant, whose lease is just expiring. No man was a warmer
 wisher for reconciliation than myself, before the fatal nineteenth of
 April 1775, but the moment the event of that day was made
 known, I rejected the hardened, sullen tempered Pharaoh of
 England for ever; and disdain the wretch, that with the pretended
 title of FATHER OF HIS PEOPLE can unfeelingly hear of their
 slaughter, and composedly sleep with their blood upon his soul.

 But admitting that matters were now made up, what would be the
 event? I answer, the ruin of the continent. And that for several
 reasons.

 FIRST. The powers of governing still remaining in the hands of
 the king, he will have a negative over the whole legislation of this
 continent. And as he hath shewn himself such an inveterate enemy
 to liberty. and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power; is he,
 or is he not, a proper man to say to these colonies, "YOU
 SHALL MAKE NO LAWS BUT WHAT I PLEASE.' And is
 there any inhabitant in America so ignorant as not to know, that
 according to what is called the PRESENT CONSTITUTION,
 that this continent can make no laws but what the king gives leave
 to; and is there any man so unwise, as not to see, that
 (considering what has happened) he will suffer no law to be made
 here, but such as suit HIS purpose. We may be as effectually
 enslaved by the want of laws in America, as by submitting to laws
 made for us in England. After matters are made up (as it is called)
 can there be any doubt, but the whole power of the crown will be
 exerted, to keep this continent as low and humble as possible?
 Instead of going forward we shall go backward, or be perpetually
 quarrelling or ridiculously petitioning. --WE are already greater
 than the king wishes us to be, and will he not hereafter endeavour
 to make us less? To bring the matter to one point. Is the power
 who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us?
 Whoever says No to this question, is an INDEPENDANT, for
 independancy means no more, than, whether we shall make our
 own laws, or whether the king, the greatest enemy this continent
 hath, or can have, shall tell us "THERE SHALL BE NO LAWS
 BUT SUCH AS I LIKE."

 But the king you will say has a negative in England; the people
 there can make no laws without his consent. In point of right and
 good order, there is something very ridiculous, that a youth of
 twenty-one (which hath often happened) shall say to several
 millions of people, older and wiser than himself, I forbid this or
 that act of yours to be law. But in this place I decline this sort of
 reply, though I will never cease to expose the absurdity of it, and
 only answer, that England being the King's residence, and
 America not so, makes quite another case. The king's negative
 HERE is ten times more dangerous and fatal than it can be in
 England, for THERE he will scarcely refuse his consent to a bill
 for putting England into as strong a state of defense as possible,
 and in America he would never suffer such a bill to be passed.

 America is only a secondary object in the system of British
 politics, England consults the good of THIS country, no farther
 than it answers her OWN purpose. Wherefore, her own interest
 leads her to suppress the growth of OURS in every case which
 doth not promote her advantage, or in the least interferes with it.
 A pretty state we should soon be in under such a secondhand
 government, considering what has happened! Men do not change
 from enemies to friends by the alteration of a name: And in order
 to shew that reconciliation now is a dangerous doctrine, I affirm,
 THAT IT WOULD BE POLICY IN THE KING AT THIS
 TIME, TO REPEAL THE ACTS FOR THE SAKE OF
 REINSTATING HIMSELF IN THE GOVERNMENT OF
 THE PROVINCES; in order, that HE MAY ACCOMPLISH
 BY CRAFT AND SUBTLETY, IN THE LONG RUN, WHAT
 HE CANNOT DO BY FORCE AND VIOLENCE IN THE
 SHORT ONE. Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related.

 SECONDLY. That as even the best terms, which we can expect
 to obtain, can amount to no more than a temporary expedient, or
 a kind of government by guardianship, which can last no longer
 than till the colonies come of age, so the general face and state of
 things, in the interim, will be unsettled and unpromising. Emigrants
 of property will not choose to come to a country whose form of
 government hangs but by a thread, and who is every day tottering
 on the brink of commotion and disturbance; and numbers of the
 present inhabitants would lay hold of the interval, to dispense of
 their effects, and quit the continent.

 But the most powerful of all arguments, is, that nothing but
 independence, i.e. a continental form of government, can keep
 the peace of the continent and preserve it inviolate from civil
 wars. I dread the event of a reconciliation with Britain now, as it
 is more than probable, that it will be followed by a revolt
 somewhere or other, the consequences of which may be far more
 fatal than all the malice of Britain.
 
 

 Thousands are already ruined by British barbarity; (thousands
 more will probably suffer the same fate) Those men have other
 feelings than us who have nothing suffered. All they NOW
 possess is liberty, what they before enjoyed is sacrificed to its
 service, and having nothing more to lose, they disdain submission.
 Besides, the general temper of the colonies, towards a British
 government, will be like that of a youth, who is nearly out of his
 time; they will care very little about her. And a government which
 cannot preserve the peace, is no government at all, and in that
 case we pay our money for nothing; and pray what is it that
 Britain can do, whose power will he wholly on paper. should a
 civil tumult break out the very day after reconciliation! I have
 heard some men say, many of whom I believe spoke without
 thinking, that they dreaded an independence, fearing that it would
 produce civil wars. It is but seldom that our first thoughts are truly
 correct, and that is the case here; for there are ten times more to
 dread from a patched up connection than from independence. I
 make the sufferers case my own, and I protest, that were I driven
 from house and home, my property destroyed, and my
 circumstances ruined, that as man, sensible of injuries, I could
 never relish the doctrine of reconciliation, or consider myself
 bound thereby.

 The colonies have manifested such a spirit of good order and
 obedience to continental government, as is sufficient to make
 every reasonable person easy and happy on that head. No man
 can assign the least pretence for his fears, on any other grounds,
 than such as are truly childish and ridiculous, viz. that one colony
 will be striving for superiority over another.

 Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority,
 perfect equality affords no temptation. The republics of Europe
 are all (and we may say always) in peace. Holland and
 Switzerland are without wars, foreign or domestic: Monarchical
 governments, it is true, are never long at rest; the crown itself is a
 temptation to enterprising ruffians at HOME; and that degree of
 pride and insolence ever attendant on regal authority, swells into a
 rupture with foreign powers, in instances, where a republican
 government, by being formed on more natural principles, would
 negotiate the mistake.

 If there is any true cause of fear respecting independence, it is
 because no plan is yet laid down. Men do not see their way out--
 Wherefore, as an opening into that business, I offer the following
 hints; at the same time modestly affirming, that I have no other
 opinion of them myself, than that they may be the means of giving
 rise to something better. Could the straggling thoughts of
 individuals be collected, they would frequently form materials for
 wise and able men to improve into useful matter.

 LET the assemblies be annual, with a President only. The
 representation more equal. Their business wholly domestic, and
 subject to the authority of a Continental Congress.

 Let each colony be divided into six, eight, or ten, convenient
 districts, each district to send a proper number of delegates to
 Congress, so that each colony send at least thirty. The whole
 number in Congress will be at least 390. Each Congress to sit
 and to choose a president by the following method. When the
 delegates are met, let a colony be taken from the whole thirteen
 colonies by lot, after which, let the whole Congress choose (by
 ballot) a president from out of the delegates of that province. In
 the next Congress, let a colony be taken by lot from twelve only,
 omitting that colony from which the president was taken in the
 former Congress, and so proceeding on till the whole thirteen
 shall have had their proper rotation. And in order that nothing
 may pass into a law but what is satisfactorily just not less than
 three fifths of the Congress to be called a majority-- He that will
 promote discord, under a government so equally formed as this,
 would have joined Lucifer in his revolt.

 But as there is a peculiar delicacy, from whom, or in what
 manner, this business must first arise, and as it seems most
 agreeable and consistent, that it should come from some
 intermediate body between the governed and the governors, that
 is, between the Congress and the people. let a CONTINENTAL
 CONFERENCE be held, in the following manner, and for the
 following purpose.

 A committee of twenty-six members of Congress, viz. two for
 each colony. Two Members from each House of Assembly, or
 Provincial Convention; and five representatives of the people at
 large, to be chosen in the capital city or town of each province,
 for and in behalf of the whole province, by as many qualified
 voters as shall think proper to attend from all parts of the
 province for that purpose; or, if more convenient, the
 representatives may be chosen in two or three of the most
 populous parts thereof. In this conference, thus assembled, will
 be united, the two grand principles of business KNOWLEDGE
 and POWER. The members of Congress, Assemblies, or
 Conventions, by having had experience in national concerns, will
 be able and useful counsellors, and the whole, being empowered
 by the people, will have a truly legal authority.

 The conferring members being met, let their business be to frame
 a CONTINENTAL CHARTER, Or Charter of the United
 Colonies; (answering to what is called the Magna Carta of
 England) fixing the number and manner of choosing members of
 Congress, members of Assembly, with their date of sitting, and
 drawing the line of business and jurisdiction between them:
 (Always remembering, that our strength is continental, not
 provincial:) Securing freedom and property to all men, and above
 all things, the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of
 conscience; with such other matter as is necessary for a charter to
 contain. Immediately after which, the said Conference to dissolve,
 and the bodies which shall be chosen comformable to the said
 charter, to be the legislators and governors of this continent for
 the time being: Whose peace and happiness may God preserve,
 Amen.
 

 Should any body of men be hereafter delegated for this or some
 similar purpose, I offer them the following extracts or that wise
 observer on governments DRAGONETTI. "The science" says he
 "of the politician consists in fixing the true point of happiness and
 freedom. Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who
 should discover a mode of government that contained the greatest
 sum of individual happiness, with the least national expense.
 [Dragonetti on virtue and rewards]

 But where, says some, is the King of America? I'll tell you.
 Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind
 like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be
 defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart
 for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the
 divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by
 which the world may know, that so far we approve of monarchy,
 that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute
 governments the King is law, so in free countries the law
 OUGHT to be King; and there ought to be no other. But lest any
 ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of
 the ceremony, be demolished, and scattered among the people
 whose right it is.

 A government of our own is our natural right: And when a man
 seriously reacts on the precariousness of human affairs, he will
 become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a
 constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we
 have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time
 and chance. If we omit it now, some [Thomas Anello otherwise
 Massanello a fisherman of Naples, who after spiriting up his
 countrymen in the public marketplace, against the oppressions of
 the Spaniards, to whom the place was then subject prompted
 them to revolt, and in the space of a day became king.]
 Massanello may hereafter arise, who laying hold of popular
 disquietudes, may collect together the desperate and the
 discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of
 government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a
 deluge. Should the government of America return again into the
 hands of Britain, the tottering situation of things will be a
 temptation for some desperate adventurer to try his fortune; and
 in such a case, that relief can Britain give? Ere she could hear the
 news, the fatal business might be done; and ourselves suffering
 like the wretched Britons under the oppression of the Conqueror.
 Ye that oppose independence now, ye know not what ye do; ye
 are opening a door to eternal tyranny, by keeping vacant the seat
 of government. There are thousands, and tens of thousands, who
 would think it glorious to expel from the continent that barbarous
 and hellish power, which hath stirred up the Indians and Negroes
 to destroy us; the cruelty hath a double guilt, it is dealing brutally
 by us, and treacherously by them.

 To talk of friendship with those in whom our reason forbids us to
 have faith, and our affections wounded through a thousand pores
 instruct us to detest, is madness and folly. Every day wears out
 the little remains of kindred between us and them, and can there
 be any reason to hope, that as the relationship expires, the
 affection will increase, or that we shall agree better, when we
 have ten times more and greater concerns to quarrel over than
 ever?

 Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation, can ye restore to us
 the time that is past? Can ye give to prostitution its former
 innocence? Neither can ye reconcile Britain and America. The
 last cord now is broken, the people of England are presenting
 addresses against us. There are injuries which nature cannot
 forgive; she would cease to be nature if she did. As well can the
 lover forgive the ravisher of his mistress, as the continent forgive
 the murders of Britain. The Almighty hath implanted in us these
 unextinguishable feelings for good and wise purposes. They are
 the guardians of his image in our hearts. They distinguish us from
 the herd of common animals. The social compact would dissolve,
 and justice be extirpated the earth, or have only a casual
 existence were we callous to the touches of affection. The
 robber, and the murderer, would often escape unpunished, did
 not the injuries which our tempers sustain, provoke us into justice.

 O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the
 tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is
 overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the
 globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her--Europe regards
 her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart.
 O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for
 mankind.