of their cause inspires; they do not jeopard their salary besides that which the general court should lives for a master who considers them only as the grant them; and if they did not make this declarainstruments of his ambition, and whom they regard tion, that it would be the duty of the house to imonly as the daily dispenser of the scanty pittance peach them. Great expectations were also formed from the artful scheme of allowing the East India company to export tea to America, upon their own account. This certainly, had it succeeded, would have effected the purpose of the contrivers, and gratified the most sanguine wishes of our adversaries. We soon should have found our trade in the hands of of bread and water. No, they fight for their houses, their lands, for their wives, their children, for all who claim the tenderest names, and are held. dearest in their hearts, they fight proarvus et focis, for their liberty, and for themselves, and for their God. And let it not offend, if I say, that no militia ever appeared in more flourishing condition, than that of this province now doth; and pardon me if I say foreigners, and taxes imposed on every thing which -of this town in particular.-I mean not to boast; I would not excite envy but manly emulation. We have all one common cause; let it therefore be our only contest, who shall most contribute to the se. curity of the liberties of America. And may the same kind Providence which has watched over this country from her infant state, still enable us to de feat our enemies. I cannot here forbear noticing the signal manner in which the designs of those who wish not well to us have been discovered. The dark deeds of a treacherous cabal, have been brought to public view. You now know the serpents who, whilst cherished in your bosoms, were darting their envenomed stings into the vitals of the constitution. But the representatives of the people have fixed a mark on these ungrateful monsters, which, though it may not make them so secure as Cain of old, yet renders them at least as infamous. Indeed it would be affrontive to the tutelar deity of this country even to despair of saving it from all the snares which human policy can lay. True it is, that the British ministry have annexed a salary to the office of the governor of this province, to be paid out of a revenue, raised in Ameri. ca, without our consent. They have attempted to render our courts of justice the instruments of extending the authority of acts of the British parliament over this colony, by making the judges dependent on the British administration for their support. But this people will never be enslaved with their eyes open. The moment they knew that the governor was not such a governor as the charter of the province points out, he lost his power of hurting them. They were alarmed; they suspect. ed him, have guarded against him, and he has found that a wise and a brave people, when they know their danger, are fruitful in expedients to escape it. we consumed; nor would it have been strange, if, in a few years, a company in London should have purchased an exclusive right of trading to America. But their plot was soon discovered. The people soon were aware of the poison which, with so much craft and subtility, had been concealed: loss and disgrace ensued: and, perhaps, this long-concerted master-piece of policy, may issue in the total disuse of tea, in this country, which will eventually be the saving of the lives and the estates of thousandsyet while we rejoice that the adversary has not hitherto prevailed against us, let us by no means put off the harness. Restless malice, and disap. pointed ambition, will still suggest new measures to our inveterate enemies. Therefore let us also be ready to take the field whenever danger calls; let us be united and strengthen the hands of each other, by promoting a general union among us. Much has been done by the committees of correspondence for this and the other towns of this province, towards uniting the inhabitants; let them still go on and prosper. Much has been done by the committees of correspondence, for the houses of assembly, in this and our sister colonies, for uniting the inhabitants of the whole continent, for the security of their common interest. May success ever attend their generous endeavors. But permit me here to suggest a general congress of deputies, from the several houses of assembly, on the continent, as the most effectual method of establishing such an union, as the present posture of our affairs require. At such a congress a firm foundation may be laid for the security of our rights and liberties; a system may be formed for our common safety, by a strict adherence to which, we shall be able to frustrate any attempts to overthrow our constitution; restore peace and harmony to America, and secure honor and wealth to Great The courts of judicature also so far lost their dignity, by being supposed to be under an undue Britain, even against the inclinations of her minisinfluence, that our representatives thought it absoers, whose duty it is to study her welfare; and we lutely necessary to resolve that they were bound shall also free ourselves from those unmannerly to declare that they would not receive any other pillagers who impudently tell us, that they are lisave his country, the heaviest misfortune which can befal a genuine patriot, cannot entirely prevent him from receiving. censed by an act of the British parliament, to thrust which even a want of success in his endeavors to their dirty hands into the pockets of every American. But, I trust, the happy time will come, when, with the besom of destruction, those noxious vermin will be swept forever from the streets of Boston. Surely you never will tamely suffer this country to be a den of thieves. Remember, my friends, from whom you sprang.-Let not a meanness of spirit, unknown to those whom you boast of as your fathers, excite a thought to the dishonor of your mothers. I conjure you by all that is dear, by all that is honorable, by all that is sacred, not only that ye pray, but that you act; that, if necessary, ye fight, and even die, for the prosperity of our Jeru salem. Break in sunder, with noble disdain, the bonds with which the Philistines have bound you. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed by the soft I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty, will terminate gloriously for America. And let us play the man for our God, and for the cities of our Gon; while we are using the means in our power, let us humbly commit our righteous cause to the great Lond of the universe, who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity. And having secured the approbation of our hearts, by a faithful and unwearied dis. charge of our duty to our country, let us joyfully leave our concerns in the hands of Him who rais. eth up and putteth down the empires and kingdoms of the world as He pleases; and, with cheerful submission to His sovereign will, devoutly say, arts of luxury and effeminacy, into the pit digged "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall for your destruction. Despise the glare of wealth. fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, That people who pay greater respect to a wealthy villain, than to an honest upright man in poverty, almost deserve to be enslaved; they plainly shew that wealth, however it may be acquired, is, in their esteem, to be preferred to virtue. But I thank God, that America abounds in men who are superior to all temptation, whom nothing can divert from a steady pursuit of the interest of their country; who are at once its ornament and safe-guard. And sure I am, I should not incur your displeasure, if I paid a respect so justly due to their much honored characters in this place; and the field shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cu: off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet we will rejoice in the LORD, we will joy in the GOD of our salvation." ORATION DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MARCH 6, 1775. Qui, metuens, vivit, liber mihi non erit unquam. MY EVER HONORED FELLOW-CITIZENS, It is not without the most humiliating conviction of my want of ability that I now appear before you: but the sense I have of the obligation I am under to obey the calls of my country at all times, together with an animating recollection of your indulgence, exhibited upon so many occasions, has induced me, once more, undeserving as I am, to throw myself upon that candor, which looks with kindness on the feeblest efforts of an honest mind. but when I name an ADAMS, such a numerous host of fellow patriots rush upon my mind, that I fear it would take up too much of your time, should I attempt to call over the illustrious roll: but your grateful hearts will point you to the men; and their revered names, in all succeeding times, shall grace the annals of America. From them, let us, my friends, take example; from them, let us catch the divine enthusiasm, and feel, each for himself, the Gon-like pleasure of diffusing happiness on all around us; of delivering the oppressed from the iron grasp of tyranny; of changing the hoarse complaints and bitter moans of wretched slaves, into those cheerful songs, which freedom and contentment must inspire. There is a heart-felt satisfaction in reflecting on our exertions for the public weal, which all the sufferings an enraged tyrant can inflict, will never take away; which the ingratitude and reproaches of those whom we have sav That personal freedom is the natural right of ed from ruin, cannot rob us of. The virtuous as every man, and that property, or an exclusive sertor of the rights of mankind, merits a reward, right to dispose of what he has honestly acquired You will not now expect the elegance, the learn. ing, the fire, the enrapturing strains of eloquence which charmed you when a LOVELL, A CHURCH, or a HANCOCK spake; but you will permit me to say that with a sincerity equal to theirs, I mourn over my bleeding country: With them I weep at her distress, and with them deeply resent the many injuries she has received from the hands of cruel and unreasonable men. y his own labor, necessarily arises therefrom, are the service of hell. They taught that princ s, botruths which common sense has placed beyond the nored with the name of Christian, might bid defireach of contradiction. And no man or body of ance to the founder of their faith, might pillage men can, without being guilty of flagrant injustice, Pagan countries and deluge them with blood, only claim a right to dispose of the persons or acquisi- because they boasted themselves to be the discitions of any other man or body of men, unless it ples of that teacher who strictly charged his fol. can be proved that such a right has arisen from lowers to do to others as they would that others should some compact between the parties in which it has do unto them. been explicitly and freely granted. This country having been discovered by an Eng If I may be indulged in taking a retrospective lish subject, in the year 1620, was (according to view of the first settlement of our country, it will be easy to determine with what degree of justice the late parliament of Great Britain have assumed the power of giving away that property which the Americans have earned by their labor. Our Fathers having nobly resolved never to wear the system which the blind superstition of those times supported) deemed the property of the crown of England. Our ancestors, when they resolved to quit their native soil, obtained from king James, agrant of certain lands in North America. This they probably did to silence the cavils of their enemies, for it cannot be doubted, but they despised the pretended right which he claimed thereto. Certain it is, that he might, with equal propriety and justice, have made them a grant of the planet Jupiter. And their subsequent conduct plainly shews that they were too well acquainted with humanity, and the principles of natural equity, to suppose that the grant gave them any right to take possession; they therefore entered into a treaty with the natives, and bought from them the lands: nor have I ever yet obtained any informa. the yoke of despotism, and seeing the European world, at that time, through indolence and cowardice, falling a prey to tyranny, bravely threw themselves upon the bosom of the ocean, deter. mined to find a place in which they might enjoy their freedom, or perish in the glorious attempt. Approving heaven beheld the favorite ark dancing upon the waves, and graciously preserved it until the chosen families were brought in safety to these western regions. They found the land swarming with savages, who threatened death with every tion that our ancestors ever pleaded, or that the kind of torture. But savages, and death with tor- natives ever regarded the grant from the English ture, were far less terrible than slavery: nothing crown: the business was transacted by the parties was so much the object of their abhorrence as a in the same independent manner that it would tyrant's power: they knew it was more safe to dwell have been, bad neither of them ever known or with man in his most unpolished state, than in a country where arbitrary power prevails. Even anarchy itself, that bugbear held up by the tools of power (tough truly to be deprecated) is infinitely less dangerous to mankind than arbitrary government. Anarchy can be but of a short duration; for when men are at liberty to pursue that course which is most conducive to their own happiness, they will soon come into it, and from the rudest state of nature, order and good government must soon arise. But tyranny, when once established, entails its curses on a nation to the latest period of time; unless some daring genius, inspired by heaven, shall, unappalled by danger, bravely form and exe. cute the arduous design of restoring liberty and life to his enslaved, murdered country. heard of the island of Great Britain. Having become the honest proprietors of the soil, they immediately applied themselves to the cultivation of it; and they soon beheld the virgin earth teeming with richest fruits, a grateful recompense for their unwearied toil. The fields began to wave with ripening harvests, and the late barren wilderness was seen to blossom like the rose. The savage natives saw with wonder the delight. ful change, and quickly formed a scheme to obtain that by fraud or force, which nature meant as the reward of industry alone. But the illustrious emigrants soon convinced the rude invaders, that they were not less ready to take the field for battle than for labor; and the insidious foe was driven from their borders as often as he ventured to dis. turb them. The crown of England looked with indifference on the contest; our ancestors were left alone to combat with the natives. Nor is there The tools of power, in every age, have racked their inventions to justify the few in sporting with the happiness of the many; and, having found their sophistry too weak to hold mankind in bondage, any reason to believe, that it ever was intended have impiously dared to force religion, the daugh- by the one party, or expected by the other, that ter of the king of heaven, to become a prostitute in the grantor should defend and maintain the gran Some demon, in an evil hour, suggested to a tees in the peaceable possession of the lands named cent being, by whom kings reign and princes decree in the patents. And it appears plainly, from the justice. history of those times, that neither the prince nor These pleasing connections might have continued; the people of England, thought themselves much these delightsome prospects might have been interested in the matter. They had not then any every day extended; and even the reveries of the idea of a thousandth part of those advantages most warm imagination might have been realized; which they since have, and we are most heartily but, unhappily for us, unhappily for Britain, the willing they should still continue to reap from us. madness of an avaricious minister of state, has drawn a sable curtain over the charming scene, But when, at an i finite expense of toil and blood, and in its stead has brought upon the stage, dis. this widely extended continent had been culti cord, envy, hatred and revenge, with civil war close vated and defended: when the hardy adventurers in their rear. justly expected that they and their descendants should peaceably have enjoyed the harvest of those short-sighted financier, the hateful project of transfields which they had sown, and the fruit of those ferring the whole property of the king's subjects vineyards which they had planted, this country in America, to his subjects in Britain. The claim was then thought worthy the attention of the Bri- of the British parliament to tax the colonies, can tish ministry; and the only justifiable and only suc- never be supported but by such a TRANSFER; for cessful means of rendering the colonies serviceable the right of the h use of commons of Great Britain, to Britain were adopted. By an intercourse of to originate any tax or grant money, is altogether friendly offices, the two countries became so united derived from their being elected by the people of in affection, that they thought not of any distinct Great Britain to act for them, and the people of or separate interests, they found both countries Great Britain cannot confer on their representatives flourishing and happy. Britain saw her commerce a right to give or grant any thing which they themextended, andher wealth increased; herlands raised selves have not a right to give or grant personally. to an immense value; her fleets riding triumphant Therefore it follows, that if the members chosen on the ocean; the terror of her arms spreading to by the people of Great Britain, to represent them every quarter of the globe. The colonist found in parliament, have, by virtue of their being so himself free, and thought himself secure: he dwelt chosen, any right to give or grant American prounder his own vine, and under his own fig-tree, and perty, or to lay any tax upon the lands or persons had none to make him afraid: he knew indeed, that of the colonists, it is because the lands and people by purchasing the manufactures of Great Britain, in the colonies are, bona fide, owned by, and justly he contributed to its greatness: he knew that all belonging to the people of Great Britain. But (as the wealth that his labor produced centered in has been before observed) every man has a right to Great Britain: But that, far from exciting his envy, personal freedom, consequently a right to enjoy what filled him with the highest pleasure; that thought is acquired by his own labor. And it is evident supported him in all his toils. When the business that the property in this country has been acquired of the day was past, he solaced himself with the by our own labor; it is the duty of the people of contemplation, or perhaps entertained his listening Great Britain, to produce some compact in which family with the recital of some great, some glorious we have explicitly given up to them a right to dis. transaction which shines conspicuous in the history pose of our persons or property. Until this is done, of Britain: or, perhaps, his elevated fancy led him every attempt of theirs, or of those whom they to foretel, with a kind of enthusiastic confidence, have deputed to act for them, to give or grant the glory, power, and duration of an empire which any part of our property, is directly repugnant to should extend from one end of the earth to the every principle of reason and natural justice. But other: he saw, or thought he saw, the British na- I may boldly say, that such a compact never extion risen to a pitch of grandeur which cast a veil isted, no, not even in imagination. Nevertheless, over the Roman glory, and, ravished with the præ the representatives of a nation, long famed for jus. view, boasted a race of British kings, whose names tice and the exercise of every noble virtue, have should echo through those realms where Cyrus, been prevailed on to adopt the fatal scheme; and Alexander, and the Casars were unknown; princes, although the dreadful consequences of this wicked for whom millions of grateful subjects redeemed policy have already shaken the empire to its centre, from slavery and Pagan ignorance, should, with yet still it is persisted in. Regardless of the voice thankful tongues, offer up their prayers and of reason-deaf to the prayers and supplicationspraises to that transcendently great and benefi- and unaffected with the flowing tears of suffering millions, the British ministry still hag the darling Approach we then the melancholy walk of death. idol; and every rolling year affords fresh instances of the absurd devotion with which they worship it. Alas! how has the folly, the distraction of the Bri tish councils, blasted our swelling hopes, and spread a gloom over this western hemisphere. The hearts of Britons and Americans, which Hither let me call the gay companion; here let him drop a farewell tear upon that body which so late he saw vigorous and warm with social mirth -hither let me lead the tender mother to weep over her beloved son-come widowed mourner, here satiate thy grief; behold thy murdered husband lately felt the generous glow of mutual confidence gasping on the ground, and to complete the pompous and love, now burn with jealousy and rage. Though show of wretchedness, bring in each hand thy infant but of yesterday, I recollect (deeply affected at children to bewail their father's fate-take heed, the ill-boding change) the happy hours that past ye orphan babes, lest, whilst your streaming eyes whilst Britain and America rejoiced in the prospe- are fixed upon the ghastly corpse, your feet slide rity and greatness of each other (heaven grant those on the stones bespaltered with your father's brains.* halcyon days may soon return.) But now the Bri- Enough! this tragedy need not be heightened by ton too often looks on the American with an en- an infant weltering in the blood of him that gave vious eye, taught to consider his just plea for the it birth. Nature reluctant, shrinks already from enjoyment of his earnings, as the effect of pride the view, and the chilled blood rolls slowly backand stubborn opposition to the parent country. ward to its fountain. We wildly stare about, and Whilst the American beholds the Briton, as the ruf- with amazement, ask who spread this ruin round fian, ready first to take away his property, and next, us? what wretch has dared deface the image of his what is still dearer to every virtuous man, the li- Gon? has haughty France, or cruel Spain, sent berty of his country. forth her myrmidons? has the grim savage rushed again from the far distant wilderness? or does some fiend, fierce from the depth of hell, with all the rancorous malice which the apestate damned can feel, twang her destructive bow, and hurl her When the measures of administration had disgusted the colonies to the highest degree, and the people of Great Britain bad, by artifice and false hood, been irritated against America, an army was sent over to enforce submission to certain acts of deadly arrows at our breast? no; none of these the British parliament, which reason scorned to countenance, and which placemen and pensioners were found unable to support. but, how astonishing! it is the hand of Britain that inflicts the wound. The arms of George, our rightful king, have been employed to shed that blood, when justice, or the honor of his crown, had called his subjects to the field. But pity, grief, astonishment, with all the softer movements of the soul, must now give way to stronger passions. Say, fellow-citizens, what dread Martial law and the government of a well regulated city, are so entirely different, that it has al. ways been considered as improper to quarter troops in populous cities; frequent disputes must neces sarily arise between the citizen and the soldier, even if no previous animosities subsist. And it is ful thought now swells your heaving bosoms-you further certain, from a consideration of the nature fly to arms-sharp indignation flashes from each of mankind, as well as from constant experience, eye-revenge gnashes her iron teeth-death grins that standing armies always endanger the liberty an hideous smile, secure to drench his greedy jaws of the subject. But when the people on the one in human gore-whilst hovering furies darken all part, considered the army as sent to enslave them, and the army on the other, were taught to look on the people as in a state of rebellion, it was but just to fear the most disagreeable consequences. Our fears, we have seen, were but too well grounded. The many injuries offered to the town, I pass over in silence. I cannot now mark out the path which led to that unequalled scene of horror, the sad remembrance of which, takes the full posses sion of my soul. The sanguinary theatre again opens itself to view. The baleful images of terror croud around me-and discontented ghosts, with hollow groans, appear to solemnize the anniversary the air. But stop, my bold adventurous countrymen, stain not your weapons with the blood of Britons. Attend to reason's voice-humanity puts in her claim-and sues to be again admitted to her wonted seat, the bosom of the brave. Revenge is far beneath the noble mind. Many, perhaps, compelled to rank among the vile assassins, do from their inmost souls, detest the barbarous action. The winged death, shot from your arms, may chance to pierce of the FIFTH OF MARCH, *After Mr. Gray had been shot through the body, and had fallen dead on the ground, a bayonet was pushed through his skull; part of the bone being broken, his brains fell out upon the pavement. |