APPENDIX
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Sihe publication of the first edition of this pamphlet, or rather, on the same day on which it came out, the Kings Speech made its appearan this city. Had the spirit of prophecy directed the birth of this produ, it could not have brought it forth, at a more seasonable juncture, or a more necessary time.The bloody mindedness of the one, shew the y of pursuing the doe of the other. Men read by way of revenge.
And the Speech, instead of terrifying, prepared a way for the manly principles of Independance.
Ceremony, and even, silence, from whatever motive they may arise, have a hurtful tendency, when they give the least degree of teo base and wicked performances; wherefore, if this maxim be admitted, it naturally follows, that the Kings Speech, as being a piece of finished villany, deserved, and still deserves, a general execration both by the gress and the people. Yet, as the domestic tranquillity of a nation, depends greatly, on the CHASTITY of what may properly be called NATIONAL MANNERS, it is ofteer, to pass some things over in silent disdain, than to make use of suew methods of dislike, as might introduce the least innovation, on that guardian of our pead safety. And, perhaps, it is chiefly owing to this prudent delicacy, that the Kings Speech, hath not, before now, suffered a public execution.
The Speech if it may be called one, is nothier than a wilful audac<cite></cite>ious libel against the truth, the on good, and the existenankind; and is a formal and pompous method of up human sacrifices to the pride of tyrants.
But this general massaankind. is one of the privileges, and the certain sequence of Kings; for as nature knows them NOT, they know NOT HER, and although they are beings of our OWing, they know not US, and are bee the gods of their creators.
The Speech hath one good quality, which is, that it is not calculated to deceive, her we, even if we would, be deceived by it.
Brutality and tyranny appear on the face of it. It leaves us at no loss: And every line vinces, even in the moment of reading, that He, who hunts the woods for prey, the naked and untutored Indian, is less a Savage than the King of Britain.
Sir John Dalrymple, the putative father of a whiniical piece, fallaciously called, "THE ADDRE<q>..</q>SS OF THE PEOPLE OF _ENGLAND_ TO THE INHABITANTS OF _AMERICA_," hath, perhaps, from a vain supposition, that the people here were to be frighte the pomp and description of a king, given, (though very unwisely on his part) the real character of the present one: "But" says this writer, "if you are ined to pay pliments to an administration, which we do not plain of," (meaning the Marquis of Roghams at the repeal of the Stamp Act) "it is very unfair in you to withhold them from that prince by WHOSE _NOD ALOHEY WERE PERMITTED TO DO ANY THING." This is toryism with a witness! Here is idolatry even without a mask: And he who calmly hear, and digest such doe, hath forfeited his claim to rationality an apostate from the order of manhood; and ought to be sidered as one, who hath not only given up the prnity of man, but sunk himself beh the rank of animals, and ptibly crawl through the world like a worm.
However, it matters very little now, what the king of Englaher says or does; he hath wickedly broken through every moral and human obligation, trampled nature and sce beh his feet; and by a steady and stitutional spirit of insolend cruelty, procured for himself an universal hatred. It is NOW the i of America to provide for herself.
She hath already a large and young family, whom it is more her duty to take care of, than to be granting away her property, to support a power who is bee a reproach to the names of men and christians--YE, whose office it is to watch over the morals of a nation, of whatsoever sect or denomination ye are of, as well as ye, who, are more immediately the guardians of the public liberty, if ye wish to preserve your native try uninated by European corruption, ye must i wish a separation--But leaving the moral part to private refle, I shall chiefly fine my farther remarks to the following heads.
First. That it is the i of America to be separated from Britain.
Sedly. Which is the easiest and most practicable plan, RECILIATION OR INDEPENDANCE? With some occasional remarks.
In support of the first, I could, if I judged it proper, produce the opinion of some of the ablest and most experienced men on this ti; and whose ses, on that head, are not yet publicly known. It is iy a self-evident position: For no nation in a state of fn dependance, limited in its erce, and cramped aered in its legislative powers, ever arrive at any material eminence. America doth not yet knoulence is; and although the progress which she hath made stands unparalleled in the history of other nations, it is but childhood, pared with what she would be capable of arriving at, had she, as she ought to have, the legislative powers in her own hands.
England is, at this time, proudly coveting what would do her no good, were she to aplish it; and the ti hesitating on a matter, which will be her final ruin if ed. It is the erd not the quest of America, by whigland is to he beed, and that would in a great measure tinue, were the tries as independant of each other as Frand Spain; because in many articles, her go to a better market. But it is the independance of this try on Britain or any other, which is now the main and only object worthy of tention, and which, like all other truths discovered by y, will appear clearer and stronger every day.
First. Because it will e to that oime or other.
Sedly. Because, the lo is delayed the harder it will be to aplish.
I have frequently amused myself both in publid private panies, with silently remarking, the specious errors of those who speak without refleg. And among the many which I have heard, the following seems the most general, viz.
that had this rupture happened forty or fifty years hence, instead of NOW, the ti would have been more able to have shaken off the dependao which I reply, that our military ability, AT THIS TIME, arises from the experience gained in the last war, and whi forty or fifty years time, would have been totally extinct. The ti, would not, by that time, have had a General, or even a military officer left; and we, or those who may succeed us, would have been as ignorant of martial matters as the a Indians: And this single position, closely atteo, will unanswerably prove, that the present time is preferable to all others. The argument turns thus--at the clusion of the last war, we had experience, but wanted numbers; and forty or fifty years hence, we should have numbers, without experience; wherefore, the proper point of time, must be some particular poiweewo extremes, in which a sufficy of the former remains, and a proper increase of the latter is obtained: And that point of time is the present time.
The reader will pardon this digression, as it does not properly e uhe head I first set out with, and to which I agaiurn by the following position, viz.
Should affairs he patched up with Britain, and she to remain the g and sn power of America, (which, as matters are now circumstanced, is giving up the poiirely) we shall deprive ourselves of the very means of sinking the debt we have, or may tract. The value of the back lands whie of the provinces are destinely deprived of, by the unjust extension of the limits of ada, valued only at five pounds sterling per hundred acres, amount to upwards of twenty-five millions, Pennsylvania currency; and the quit-rents at one penny sterling per acre, to two millions yearly.
It is by the sale of those lands that the debt may be sunk, without burthen to any, and the quit-rent reserved thereon, will always lessen, and in time, will wholly support the yearly expence of gover. It matters not how long the debt is in paying, so that the lands when sold be applied to the discharge of it, and for the execution of which, the gress for the time being, will be the tial trustees. .
I proceed now to the sed head, viz. Which is the easiest and most practicable plan, RECILIATION or lNDEPENDANCE; With some occasional remarks.
He who takes nature for his guide is not easily beaten out of his argument, and on that ground, I answer GENERALLY--THAT _INDEPENDANCE_ BEING A _SINGLE SIMPLE LINE,_ TAINED WITHIN OURSELVES; AND RECILIATION, A MATTER EXCEEDINGLY PERPLEXED AND PLICATED, AND IN WHICH, A TREACHEROUS CAPRICIOUS COURT IS TO INTERFERE, GIVES THE ANSWER WITHOUT A DOUBT.
The present state of America is truly alarming to every man who is capable of reflexion. Without law, without gover, without any other mode of power than what is founded on, and granted by courtesy.
Held together by an unexampled currence of se, which, is heless subject to ge, and which, every secret enemy is endeav to dissolve. Our present dition, is, Legislation without law; wisdom without a plan; a stitution without a name; and, what is strangely astonishing, perfedependance tending for dependahe instance is without a pret; the case never existed before; and who tell what may be the event? The property of no man is secure in the present unbraced system of things. The mind of the multitude is left at random, and seeing no fixed object before them, they pursue such as fancy or opinion starts. Nothing is criminal; there is no such thing as treason; wherefore, every ohinks himself at liberty to act as he pleases. The Tories dared not have assembled offensively, had they known that their lives, by that act, were forfeited to the laws of the state. A line of distin should be drawween, English soldiers taken in battle, and inhabitants of America taken in arms.
The first are prisoners, but the latter traitors.
The one forfeits his liberty, the other his head.
Notwithstanding our wisdom, there is a visible feebleness in some of our proceedings which gives encement to dissensions.
The tial Belt is too loosely buckled. And if something is not done in time, it will be too late to do any thing, and we shall fall into a state, in whieither RECILIATION nor INDEPENDANCE will be practicable. The king and his worthless adherents are got at their old game of dividing the ti, and there are not wanting among us, Printers, who will be busy in spreading specious falsehoods. The artful and hypocritical letter which appeared a few months ago in two of the New York papers, and likewise in two others, is an evidehat there are men who waher judgment or hoy.
It is easy getting into holes and ers and talking of reciliation: But do such men seriously sider, how difficult the task is, and how dangerous it may prove, should the ti divide thereon. Do they take within their view, all the various orders of men whose situation and circumstances, as .well as their own, are to be sidered therein.
Do they put themselves in the place of the sufferer whose ALL is ALREADY gone, and of the soldier, who hath quitted ALL for the defence of his try. If their ill judged moderation be suited to their own private situations only, regardless of others, the event will vihem, that "they are reing without their Host." Put us, says some, on the footing we were on in sixty-three: To which I ahe request is not now in the power of Britain to ply with, her will she propose it; but if it were, and even should be granted, I ask, as a reasonable question, By what means is such a corrupt and faithless court to be kept to its es? Another parliament, nay, even the present, may hereafter repeal the obligation, on the pretense, of its being violently obtained, or unwisely granted; and in that case, Where is our redress?--No going to law with nations; ohe barristers of s; and the sword, not of justice, but of war, decides the suit.
To be on the footing of sixty-three, it is not suffit, that the laws only be put on the same state, but, that our circumstances, likewise, be put on the same state; Our burnt aroyed towns repaired or built up, our private losses made good, our public debts (tracted for defence) discharged; otherwise, we shall be millions worse than we were at that enviable period. Such a request, had it been plied with a year ago, would have won the heart and soul of the ti - but now it is too late, "The Rubi is passed." Besides, the taking up arms, merely to enforce the repeal of a peiary law, seems as unwarrantable by the divine law, and as repugnant to human feelings, as the taking up arms to enforce obediehereto. The object, oher side, doth not justify the means; for the lives of meoo valuable to be cast away on such trifles. It is the violence which is done and threateo our persons; the destru of our property by an armed force; the invasion of our try by fire and sword, which stiously qualifies the use of arms: And the instant, in which such a mode of defence became necessary, all subje to Britain ought to have ceased; and the independanerica, should have been sidered, as dating its aera from, and published by, THE FIRST MUSKET THAT WAS FIRED AGAINST HER. This line is a line of sisteneither drawn by caprior extended by ambition; but produced by a of events, of which the ies were not the authors.
I shall clude these remarks with the following timely and well intended hints. We ought to reflect, that there are three different ways by whi independancy may hereafter be effected; and that ONE of those THREE, will one day or other, be the fate of America, viz. By the legal voice of the people in gress; by a military power; or by a mob--It may not always happen that OUR soldiers are citizens, and the multitude a body of reasonable men; virtue, as I have already remarked, is not hereditary, her is it perpetual. Should an independancy be brought about by the first of those means, we have every opportunity and every encement before us, to form the purest stitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our power to begin the world ain. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened sihe days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand, and a raen, perhaps as numerous as all Europe tains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the event of a few months.
The Reflexion is awful--and in this point of view, How trifling, how ridiculous, do the little, paltry cavillings, of a few weak or ied men appear, when weighed against the business of a world.
Should we he present favourable and inviting period, and an Independance be hereafter effected by any other means, we must charge the sequeo ourselves, or to those rather, whose narrorejudiced souls, are habitually opposing the measure, without either inquiring or refleg. There are reasons to be given in support of Independance, which men should rather privately think of, than be publicly told of. We ought not now to be debating whether we shall be independant or not, but, anxious to aplish it on a firm, secure, and honorable basis, and uneasy rather that it is not yet began upon.
Every day vinces us of its y. Eveories (if such beings yet remain among us) should, of all mehe most solicitous to promote it; for, as the appoi of ittees at first, protected them from popular rage, so, a wise and well established form of gover, will be the only certain means of tinuing it securely to them.
WHEREFORE, if they have not virtue enough to be WHIGS, they ought to have prudenough to wish for Independance.
In short, Independance is the only BOND that tye and keep us together. We shall then see our object, and our ears will be legally shut against the schemes of an intriguing, as well, as a cruel enemy. We shall then too, be on a proper footing, to treat with Britain; for there is reason to clude, that the pride of that court, will be less hurt by treating with the Ameri states for terms of peace, than with those, whom she denominates, "rebellious subjects," for terms of aodation.
It is our delaying it that ences her to hope for quest, and our backwardends only to prolong the war. As we have, without any good effect therefrom, withheld our trade to obtain a redress of rievances, let us now try the alternative, by independantly redressing them ourselves, and then to operade. The mertile and reasonable part in England, will be still with us; because, peace with trade, is preferable to war without it. And if this offer be not accepted, other courts may be applied to.
On these grounds I rest the matter. And as no offer hath yet been made to refute the doe tained in the former editions of this pamphlet, it is a ive proof, that either the doe ot be refuted, or, that the party in favour of it are too numerous to be opposed. WHEREFORE, instead of gazing at each other with suspicious or doubtful curiosity; let each of us, hold out to his neighbour the hearty hand of friendship, and unite in drawing a line, which, like an act of oblivion shall bury in fetfulness every former dissension.
Let the names of Whig and Tory be extinct; a her be heard among us, than those of A GOOD CITIZEN, AN OPEN AND RESOLUTE FRIEND, AND A VIRTUOUS SUPPORTER OF THE RIGHTS OF MANKIND AND OF THE _FREE AND INDEPENDANT STATES OF AMERICA_.
To the Representatives of the Religious Society of the People called Quakers, or to so many of them as were ed in publishing the late piece, entitled "THE AESTIMONY and PRlNCIPLES of the People called QUAKERS renewed, with Respect to the KING and GOVER, and toug the OTIONS now prevailing in these and other parts of AMERICA addressed to the PEOPLE IN GENERAL." The Writer of this, is one of those few, who never dishonours religioher by ridig, or cavilling at any denomination whatsoever.
To God, and not to man, are all men atable on the score ion.
Wherefore, this epistle is not so properly addressed to you as a religious, but as a political body, dabbling in matters, which the professed Quietude of your Principles instruct you not to meddle with. As you have, without a proper authority for so doing, put yourselves in the place of the whole body of the Quakers, so, the writer of this, in order to be on an equal rank with yourselves, is uhe y, of putting himself in the place of all those, who, approve the very writings and principles, against which, your testimony is directed: Ah chosen this singular situation, in order, that you might discover in him that presumption of character which you ot see in yourselves. For her he nor you have any claim or title to POLITICAL REPRESENTATION.
When men have departed from the right way, it is no wohat they stumble and fall. And it is evident from the manner in which ye have managed your testimony, that politics, (as a religious body of men) is not your proper Walk; for however well adapted it might appear to you, it is, heless, a jumble of good and bad put uogether, and the clusion drawn therefrom, both unnatural and unjust.
The two first pages, (and the whole doth not make four) we give you credit for, and expect the same civility from you, because the love and desire of peace is not fio Quakerism, it is the natural, as well the religious wish of all denominations of men. And on this ground, as men lab to establish an Independant stitution of our own, do we exceed all others in our hope, end, and aim. OUR PLAN IS PEACE FOR EVER.
We are tired of tention with Britain, and see no real end to it but in a final separation. We act sistently, because for the sake of introdug an endless and uninterrupted peace, do we bear the evils and burthens of the present day. We are endeav, and will steadily tio endeavour, to separate and dissolve a exion which hath already filled our land with blood; and which, while the name of it remains, will he the fatal cause of future mischiefs to both tries.
We fight her for revenge nor quest; her from pride nor passion; we are not insulting the world with our fleets and armies, ning the globe for plunder. Beh the shade of our own vines are we attacked; in our own houses, and on our own lands, is the violenitted against us. We view our enemies in the character of Highwaymen and Housebreakers, and having no defence for ourselves in the civil law, are obliged to punish them by the military one, and apply the sword, in the very case, where you have before nolied the halter-- Perhaps we feel for the ruined and insulted sufferers in all and every part of the ti, with a degree of tenderness which hath not yet made its way into some of your bosoms. But be ye sure that ye mistake not the cause and ground of your Testimony. Call not ess of soul, religion; nor put the BIGOT in the place of the CHRISTIAN.
O ye partial ministers of your own aowledged principles. If the bearing arms be sinful, the first going to war must be more so, by all the differeween wilful attack, and unavoidable defence.
Wherefore, if ye really preach from sce, and mean not to make a political hobbyhorse of your religion vihe world thereof, by proclaiming your doe to our enemies, FOR THEY LIKEWISE BEAR _ARMS_.
Give us proof of your siy by publishing it at St. Jamess, to the anders in chief at Boston, to the Admirals and Captains iratically ravaging our coasts, and to all the murdering mists who are ag in authority under HIM whom ye profess to serve.
Had ye the ho soul of BARCLAY ye would preach repentao YOUR king; Ye would tell the Royal Wretch his sins, and warn him of eternal ruin.
["Thou hast tasted of prosperity and adversity; thou k what it is to be bahy native try, to be over-ruled as well as to rule, a upohrone; and being oppressed thou hast reason to know how hateful the oppressor is both to God and man: If after all these warnings and advertisements, thou dost not turn unto the Lord with all thy heart, but fet him who remembered thee in thy distress, and give up thyself to fallow lust and vanity, surely great will be thy nation.-- Against whiare, as well as the temptation of those who may or do feed thee, and prompt thee to evil, the most excellent and prevalent remedy will be, to apply thyself to that light of Christ which shih in thy sce, and whieither , nor will flatter thee, nor suffer thee to be at ease in thy sins."--Barclays address to Charles II.] Ye would not spend your partial iives against the injured and the insulted only, but, like faithful ministers, would cry aloud and SPARE NONE. Say not that ye are persecuted, her endeavour to make us the authors of that reproach, which, ye are bringing upon yourselves; for we testify unto all men, that we do not plain against you because ye are Quakers, but because ye pretend to be and are NOT Quakers.
Alas! it seems by the particular tendency of some part of your testimony, and other parts of your duct, as if, all sin was reduced to, and prehended in, THE ACT OF BEARING ARMS, and that by the people only.
Ye appear to us, to have mistaken party for sce; because, the general tenor of your as wants uniformity--And it is exceedingly difficult to us to give credit to many of your pretended scruples; because, we see them made by the same men, who, in the very instant that they are exclaiming against the mammon of this world, are heless, hunting after it with a step as steady as Time, and an appetite as keen as Death.
The quotation which ye have made from Proverbs, ihird page of your testimony, that, "when a mans lease the Lord, he maketh even his eo be at peace with him"; is very unwisely chosen on your part; because, it amounts to a proof, that the kings ways (whom ye are desirous of supp) do NOT please the Lord, otherwise, his reign would be in peace.
I now proceed to the latter part of your testimony, and that, for which all the foing seems only an introdu viz.
"It hath ever been our judgment and principle, since we were called to profess the light of Christ Jesus, maed in our sces unto this day, that the setting up and putting down kings and govers, is Gods peculiar prerogative; for causes best known to himself: And that it is not our busio have any hand or trivaherein; nor to be busy bodies above our station, much less to plot and trive the ruin, or overturn of any of them, but to pray for the king, and safety of our nation. and good of all men - That we may live a peaceable and quiet life, in all godliness and hoy; UHE GOVER WHICH GOD IS PLEASED TO SET OVER US" - If these are REALLY your principles why do ye not abide by them? Why do ye not leave that, which ye call Gods Work, to be managed by himself? These very principles instruct you to wait with patiend humility, for the event of all public measures, and to receive that event as the divine will towards you. Wherefore, what occasion is there for your POLITICAL TESTIMONY if you fully believe what it tains? And the very publishing it proves, that either, ye do not believe what ye profess, or have not virtue enough to practise what ye believe.
The principles of Quakerism have a direct tendenake a man the quiet and inoffensive subject of any, and every gover WHICH IS SET OVER HIM. And if the setting up and putting down of kings and govers is Gods peculiar prerogative, he most certainly will not be robbed thereof by us: wherefore, the principle itself leads you to approve of every thing, which ever happened, or may happen to kings as being his work. OLIVER WELL thanks you. CHARLES, then, died not by the hands of man; and should the present Proud Imitator of him, e to the same untimely end, the writers and publishers of the Testimony, are bound, by the doe it tains, to applaud the fact. Kings are not taken away by miracles, her are ges in govers brought about by any other means than such as are on and human; and such as we are now using. Even the dispersion of the Jews, though foretold by our Saviour, was effected by arms. Wherefore, as ye refuse to be the means on one side, ye ought not to be meddlers oher; but to wait the issue in silence; and unless ye produce divihority, to prove, that the Almighty who hath created and placed this new world, at the greatest dista could possibly sta a, from every part of the old, doth, heless, disapprove of its being indepe of the corrupt and abandoned court of Britain, unless I say, ye shew this, how ye on the ground of your principles, justify the exg and stirring up the people "firmly to unite in the abhorrence of all such writings, and measures, as evidence a desire and design to break off the happy exion we have hitherto enjoyed, with the kingdom of Great-Britain, and our just and necessary subordination to the king, and those who are lawfully placed in authority under him." .９9ｌiｂ? a slap of the face is here! the men, who in the very paragraph before, have quietly and passively resigned up the , altering, and disposal of kings and govers, into the hands of God, are now, recalling their principles, and putting in for a share of the business.
Is it possible, that the clusion, which is here justly quoted, any ways follow from the doe laid down? The insistency is too glaring not to be seen; the absurdity too great not to be laughed at; and such as could only have been made by those, whose uandings were darkened by the narrow and crabby spirit of a despairing political party; for ye are not to be sidered as the whole body of the Quakers but only as a faal and fraal part thereof.
Here ends the examination of your testimony; (which I call upon no man to abhor, as ye have done, but only to read and judge of fairly;) to which I subjoin the following remark; "That the setting up and putting down of kings," most certainly mean, the making him a king, who is yet not so, and the making him no king who is already one. And pray what hath this to do in the present case? We her mean to set up nor to pull dowher to make nor to unmake, but to have nothing to do with them.
Wherefore, your testimony in whatever light it is viewed serves only to dishonor your judgement, and for many other reasons had better have bee alohan published.
First, Because it tends to the decrease and reproach of all religion whatever, and is of the utmost dao society to make it a party in political disputes.
Sedly, Because it exhibits a body of men, numbers of whom disavow the publishing political testimonies, as being ed therein and approvers thereof.
Thirdly, because it hath a tendency to undo that tial harmony and friendship which yourselves by your late liberal and charitable donations hath lent a hand to establish; and the preservation of which, is of the utmost sequeo us all.
And here without anger or rese I bid you farewell.
Sincerely wishing, that as men and christians, ye may always fully and uninterruptedly enjoy every civil and religiht; and be, in your turn, the means of seg it to others; but that the example which ye have unwisely set, of mingling religion with politics, MAY BE DISAVOWED AND REPROBATED BY EVERY INHABITANT OF _AMERICA._ F I N I S. .
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