第37章

TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE, GENERAL CLINTON, ANDWILLIAM EDEN, ESQ., BRITISH COMMISSIONERSAT NEW YORK.THERE is a dignity in the warm passions of a Whig, which is never to be found in the cold malice of a Tory.In the one nature is only heated- in the other she is poisoned.The instant the former has it in his power to punish, he feels a disposition to forgive; but the canine venom of the latter knows no relief but revenge.This general distinction will, I believe, apply in all cases, and suits as well the meridian of England as America.

As I presume your last proclamation will undergo the strictures of other pens, I shall confine my remarks to only a few parts thereof.

All that you have said might have been comprised in half the compass.It is tedious and unmeaning, and only a repetition of your former follies, with here and there an offensive aggravation.Your cargo of pardons will have no market.It is unfashionable to look at them- even speculation is at an end.They have become a perfect drug, and no way calculated for the climate.

In the course of your proclamation you say, "The policy as well as the benevolence of Great Britain have thus far checked the extremes of war, when they tended to distress a people still considered as their fellow subjects, and to desolate a country shortly to become again a source of mutual advantage." What you mean by "the benevolence of Great Britain" is to me inconceivable.To put a plain question; do you consider yourselves men or devils? For until this point is settled, no determinate sense can be put upon the expression.You have already equalled and in many cases excelled, the savages of either Indies; and if you have yet a cruelty in store you must have imported it, unmixed with every human material, from the original warehouse of hell.

To the interposition of Providence, and her blessings on our endeavors, and not to British benevolence are we indebted for the short chain that limits your ravages.Remember you do not, at this time, command a foot of land on the continent of America.Staten Island, York Island, a small part of Long Island, and Rhode Island, circumscribe your power; and even those you hold at the expense of the West Indies.To avoid a defeat, or prevent a desertion of your troops, you have taken up your quarters in holes and corners of inaccessible security; and in order to conceal what every one can perceive, you now endeavor to impose your weakness upon us for an act of mercy.If you think to succeed by such shadowy devices, you are but infants in the political world; you have the A, B, C, of stratagem yet to learn, and are wholly ignorant of the people you have to contend with.Like men in a state of intoxication, you forget that the rest of the world have eyes, and that the same stupidity which conceals you from yourselves exposes you to their satire and contempt.

The paragraph which I have quoted, stands as an introduction to the following: "But when that country [America] professes the unnatural design, not only of estranging herself from us, but of mortgaging herself and her resources to our enemies, the whole contest is changed: and the question is how far Great Britain may, by every means in her power, destroy or render useless, a connection contrived for her ruin, and the aggrandizement of France.Under such circumstances, the laws of self-preservation must direct the conduct of Britain, and, if the British colonies are to become an accession to France, will direct her to render that accession of as little avail as possible to her enemy."I consider you in this declaration, like madmen biting in the hour of death.It contains likewise a fraudulent meanness; for, in order to justify a barbarous conclusion, you have advanced a false position.

The treaty we have formed with France is open, noble, and generous.It is true policy, founded on sound philosophy, and neither a surrender or mortgage, as you would scandalously insinuate.I have seen every article, and speak from positive knowledge.In France, we have found an affectionate friend and faithful ally; in Britain, we have found nothing but tyranny, cruelty, and infidelity.

But the happiness is, that the mischief you threaten, is not in your power to execute; and if it were, the punishment would return upon you in a ten-fold degree.The humanity of America has hitherto restrained her from acts of retaliation, and the affection she retains for many individuals in England, who have fed, clothed and comforted her prisoners, has, to the present day, warded off her resentment, and operated as a screen to the whole.But even these considerations must cease, when national objects interfere and oppose them.

Repeated aggravations will provoke a retort, and policy justify the measure.We mean now to take you seriously up upon your own ground and principle, and as you do, so shall you be done by.

You ought to know, gentlemen, that England and Scotland, are far more exposed to incendiary desolation than America, in her present state, can possibly be.We occupy a country, with but few towns, and whose riches consist in land and annual produce.The two last can suffer but little, and that only within a very limited compass.In Britain it is otherwise.Her wealth lies chiefly in cities and large towns, the depositories of manufactures and fleets of merchantmen.