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jects in Great Britain may give us their friendly aid in many ways—by instructions
to their representatives in parliament, or choice of new ones when the present parlia-
ment is dissolved, &c. &c.
" And, were these measures pursued with wisdom and rigor, I apprehend we should
not long have any room or occasion for a further question : Whether
we may not go on
to enjoy and improve our rights and privileges as usual ? . . . Or, another
question, whether, relief failing, the American governments or inhabitants may not
(after the example of the old Barons and others), associate for the mutual security and
defence of their birthright liberties and privileges ? In general, does not this maxim
' That a person or people, collectively, may enjoy and defend their own ' seem
as
plain as the law of self-preservation on which it is built ? Is not the glorious revolu-
tion, and the right of our sovereign, and of all his royal predecessors of the house
of Brunswick, to the British throne, founded and built upon this principal ? And
are not all our legal processes founded upon this maxim ? . . . But as to the
other question :
What
British subjects in America likely will do, if this act is forced
upon them ... I say, what they will do is not, perhaps, within human foresight to
determine. Yet, when we reflect upon the violent efforts incident to human nature
under the apprehensions of most heavy oppressions—and the tumultuous consequences
of the Cyder Act in England. . . . And also consider the spirited
resolves of the Virginians '°' and some others, and especially how the hearts of
Americans in general are cut to the quick by this act—we have reason to fear very
interesting and terrible consequences, tho' by no means equal to tyranny or slavery .
However, this we may be sure of, that the importing of foreign forces further to
insult and oppress us (as urged by the tools of the late M y) will not prevent,
but increase and aggravate, the evils manifold. . . . Such
a measure would far
more likely produce a distrust ana hatred, terminating in a hopeless, desperate irreconcileable
enmity, than any good consequences. Nor can the forcing the act fail of producing
great tumults and violences in England, as well as America, when their trade, their
woollen and other manufactures fail for want of market.
" But I waive this as more immediately their own concern, and pass on, 3'"'', To
inquire what the governments have done, may, and, we humbly conceive may do well
to, do further. . . . Several governments have well stated, and unanswerably
defended, their constitutional and essential rights, infringed by the Stamp Act, in
their several tracts published. They sent them over to their agents (we take it), to be
laid before our gracious King and the British parliament, before the passing of this
'"'' History of the United States. ... By George Bancroft. . . . Last Revision. New York,
1883, iii. 93.
339