Historical voices

It certainly ought to be a conscientious as well political consideration with America, not to dip her hands in the bloody work of Europe.

It is a shocking situation to live in, that one country must be brought into all the wars of another, whether the measure be right or wrong, or whether she will or not; yet this, in the fullest extent, was, and ever would be, the…

It is to independence that every Tory owes the present safety which he lives in; for by that, and that only, we emerged from a state of dangerous suspense, and became a regular people.

Had independence been delayed a few months longer, this continent would have been plunged into irrecoverable confusion: some violent for it, some against it, till, in the general cabal, the rich would have been ruined, and the poor…

We had no other law than a kind of moderated passion; no other civil power than an honest mob; and no other protection than the temporary attachment of one man to another.

All Europe was interested in reducing us as rebels, and all Europe (or the greatest part at least) is interested in supporting us as independent States.

If the grievances justified the taking up arms, they justified our separation; if they did not justify our separation, neither could they justify our taking up arms.

The calling ourselves subjects, and at the same time fighting against the power which we acknowledged, was a dangerous precedent to all Europe.

The necessity, likewise, of being independent, even before it was declared, became so evident and important, that the continent ran the risk of being ruined every day that she delayed it.

By an independence we clear the whole at once--put an end to the business of unanswered petitions and fruitless remonstrances--exchange Britain for Europe--shake hands with the world--live at peace with the world--and trade to any market…

A governor sent from England, or receiving his authority therefrom, ought never to have been considered in any other light than that of a genteel commissioned spy, whose private business was information, and his public business a kind of…

America hath been one continued scene of legislative contention from the first king's representative to the last; and this was unavoidably founded in the natural opposition of interest between the old country and the new.

To know whether it be the interest of the continent to be independent, we need only ask this easy, simple question: Is it the interest of a man to be a boy all his life?

The clamor of protection, likewise, was all a farce; because, in order to make that protection necessary, she must first, by her own quarrels, create us enemies.

And America owes no more to Britain for her present maturity, than the ward would to the guardian for being twenty-one years of age.

She began to view this country with the same uneasy malicious eye, with which a covetous guardian would view his ward, whose estate he had been enriching himself by for twenty years, and saw him just arriving at manhood.

America, by her own internal industry, and unknown to all the powers of Europe, was, at the beginning of the dispute, arrived at a pitch of greatness, trade and population, beyond which it was the interest of Britain not to suffer her to…

The natural right of the continent to independence, is a point which never yet was called in question.

It is a much pleasanter task to prevent vice than to punish it, and, however our tempers may be gratified by resentment, or our national expenses eased by forfeited estates, harmony and friendship is, nevertheless, the happiest condition a…

But till such time as they can show some real reason, natural, political, or conscientious, on which their objections to independence are founded, we are not obliged to give them credit for being Tories of the first stamp, but must set…

These men, ashamed to own the sordid cause from whence their disaffection springs, add thereby meanness to meanness, by endeavoring to shelter themselves under the mask of hypocrisy; that is, they had rather be thought to be Tories from…

Can any thing be a greater inducement to a miserly man, than the hope of making his Mammon safe?

And shall disaffection only be rewarded with security?

But there are a certain species of Tories with whom conscience or principle has nothing to do, and who are so from avarice only.