Historical voices

The continual spectacle of woe blunts the finer feelings, and the necessity of bearing with the sight, renders it familiar.

It is not among the least of the calamities of a long continued war, that it unhinges the mind from those nice sensations which at other times appear so amiable.

Not beneath the cypress shade of disappointment, but to enjoy in her own land, and under her own vine, the sweet of her labors, and the reward of her toil.--In this situation, may she never forget that a fair national reputation is of as…

Let, then, the world see that she can bear prosperity: and that her honest virtue in time of peace, is equal to the bravest virtue in time of war.

The world has seen her great in adversity; struggling, without a thought of yielding, beneath accumulated difficulties, bravely, nay proudly, encountering distress, and rising in resolution as the storm increased.

The remembrance, then, of what is past, if it operates rightly, must inspire her with the most laudable of all ambition, that of adding to the fair fame she began with.

But America need never be ashamed to tell her birth, nor relate the stages by which she rose to empire.

Plunder and rapine made her rich, and her oppression of millions made her great.

Rome, once the proud mistress of the universe, was originally a band of ruffians.

It is not every country (perhaps there is not another in the world) that can boast so fair an origin.

Never, I say, had a country so many openings to happiness as this.

In this pause then of recollection--while the storm is ceasing, and the long agitated mind vibrating to a rest, let us look back on the scenes we have passed, and learn from experience what is yet to be done.

There are but few instances, in which the mind is fitted for sudden transitions: it takes in its pleasures by reflection and comparison and those must have time to act, before the relish for new scenes is complete.

The long and raging hurricane that should cease in a moment, would leave us in a state rather of wonder than enjoyment; and some moments of recollection must pass, before we could be capable of tasting the felicity of repose.

THE times that tried men's souls,"* are over--and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished.

It was the least atonement that you could possibly make to America, and the greatest kindness you could do to yourselves; for you will save millions by a general peace, and you will lose as many by continuing the war.

It is holding up the character of the House of Commons to public infamy, and warning all men not to credit them.

It is a proclamation that the king of England is not to be believed; that the spirit of lying is the governing principle of the ministry.

The management of Lord Shelburne, whatever may be his views, is a caution to us, and must be to the world, never to regard British assurances.

The one went greedily into the passion of revenge, the other into the subtleties of low contrivance; till, between the crimes of both, there is scarcely left a man in America, be he Whig or Tory, who does not despise or detest the conduct…

The prosecution of the war by the former ministry was savage and horrid; since which it has been mean, trickish, and delusive.

The fraud, on your part, might be worth attempting, but the sacrifice to obtain it is too high.

There were thousands in America who predicted the delusion, and looked upon it as a trick of treachery, to take us from our guard, and draw off our attention from the only system of finance, by which we can be called, or deserve to be…

To say, after this, that the sun of Great Britain will be set whenever she acknowledges the independence of America, when the not doing it is the unqualified lie of government, can be no other than the language of ridicule, the jargon of…