Chapter 16:
The fourteenth parliament of Great Britain.October—December, 1774.
‘it is the united voice of America to preserve theirChap. XVI.} 1774. |
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freedom, or lose their lives in defence of it. Their resolutions are not the effect of inconsiderate rashness, but the sound result of sober inquiry and deliberation.
The true spirit of liberty was never so universally diffused through all ranks and orders of people in any country on the face of the earth, as it now is through all North America.
If the late acts of parliament are not to be repealed, the wisest step for both countries is to separate, and not to spend their blood and treasure in destroying each other.
It is barely possible that Great Britain may depopulate North America; she never can conquer the inhabitants.’
So wrote Joseph Warren, and his words were the mirror of the passions of his countrymen.
They were addressed to the younger Quincy, who as a private man had crossed the Atlantic to watch the disposition of the ministry; they were intended to be made known in England, in the hope of awakening
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1860.
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