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- Herausgeber: Krill Press
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015
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THE WORKS OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON: VOLUME 1
Alexander Hamilton
FIREWORK PRESS
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Volume 1
HAMILTON CHRONOLOGY.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
PREFACE
A FULL VINDICATION
THE FARMER REFUTED;
ADVERTISEMENT.
THE FARMER REFUTED.
REMARKS ON THE QUEBEC BILL
NO. I
NO. II
PUBLIUS
THE GOVERNMENT AND THE CONSTITUTION
HAMILTON TO JAMES DUANE.
THE CONTINENTALIST
Published by Loudon’s New York Packet Company
NO. I
NO.II
NO. III
NO. IV
NO.V
NO. VI
RESOLUTIONS FOR A GENERAL CONVENTION OF THE STATES
SPEECHES AND RESOLUTIONS IN CONGRESS
OPEN DEBATE
MUTINY OF TROOPS
RESOLUTIONS FOR A GENERAL CONVENTION
MUTINY OF THE TROOPS
MUTINY OF THE TROOPS
Report
Instructions to Major Jackson
Report
VINDICATION OF CONGRESS
ADDRESS OF THE ANNAPOLIS CONVENTION
RESOLUTIONS OFFERED IN THE LEGISLATURE OF NEW YORK
FEDERAL CONVENTION
PROPOSITIONS FOR A CONSTITUTION OF GOVERNMENT
CONSTITUTION OF GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
First Draught of Hamilton, 1787
Article I
Article II
Article III
Article IV
Article V
Article VI
Article VII
Article VIII
Article IX
BRIEF OF SPEECH ON SUBMITTING HIS PLAN OF CONSTITUTION
Introduction
Supports of Government
Recapitulation
SPEECHES IN THE FEDERAL CONVENTION
IMPRESSIONS AS TO THE NEW CONSTITUTION
COMMENTS ON THE OPPOSITION TO THE CONSTITUTION
APPENDIX
The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Volume 1
By
Alexander Hamilton
The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Volume 1
Published by Firework Press
New York City, NY
First published circa 1804
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INTRODUCTION
UNFORTUNATELY, ONE OF THE BEST known aspects of Alexander Hamilton’s (1755-1804) life is the manner in which he died, being shot and killed in a famous duel with Aaron Burr in 1804. But Hamilton became one of the most instrumental Founding Fathers of the United States in that time, not only in helping draft and gain support for the U.S. Constitution but in also leading the Federalist party and building the institutions of the young federal government as Washington’s Secretary of Treasury.
One of the biggest battles was over the chartering of a national bank, a topic that seems trivial today given the size and scope of the federal government. At the founding, however, the Southern states and Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic Party were skeptical of the necessity of a national bank, while Hamilton’s Federalists insisted that it would help the nation pay off its debts and manage its finances. Eventually Hamilton won out, but the First U.S. Bank, located in Philadelphia, was nonetheless run by a private company, ensuring limits on government control.
This edition of Hamilton’s Works: Volume 1 includes his remarks to the Constitutional Convention and writings and speeches given during the Revolutionary War.
THE WORKS OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON: VOLUME 1
HAMILTON CHRONOLOGY.
Jan. 11, 1757. Alexander Hamilton born in the island of Nevis.
Oct., 1772. Arrives in New York.
1773. Enters college.
Dec. 15, 1774. Publishes the Full Vindication.
1775. Joins a volunteer corps.
1776. Takes command of artillery company.
March 1, 1777. Joins Washington’s Staff.
1779. Writes his first letter to Robert Morris on the National Bank.
Sept. 3, 1780. Letter to Duane on Government.
Dec. 14, 1780. Married to Miss Schuyler.
1782. Admitted to the bar.
June, 1782. Appointed Receiver of Taxes.
Nov., 1782. Enters Congress.
1783. Returns to practice of the law.
1786. Delegate to Annapolis Convention.
1786. Elected to the New York Legislature.
1787. Delegate to the Philadelphia Convention.
1787. Writes the Federalist.
1788. Delegate to the New York Convention.
Sept., 1789. Appointed Secretary of the Treasury.
Jan. 14, 1790. Transmits to the House the First Report on the Public Credit.
Jan. 31, 1795. Resigns the Secretaryship of the Treasury and returns to the practice of the law.
July 25, 1798. Appointed Inspector-General of the Army with the rank of Major-General.
July 2, 1800. Retires from the army.
July 11, 1804. Shot by Burr in a duel at Weehawken.
July 12, 1804. Death.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
IT IS EIGHTEEN YEARS SINCE the first publication of this edition of the Works of Alexander Hamilton. The letterpress edition at that time printed was limited to 500 copies, which were subscribed for within a very short time after the completion of the publication, and for a number of years no further sets have been available for sale. In connection with the continued demand for the writings of Hamilton, a demand that is now coming from a later generation than that for which the set was originally printed, the publishers have felt warranted in again bringing the work before the public. The volumes as now issued are, of necessity, printed from type newly set for the purpose. The text is in substance identical with that of the original issue, but such errors, typographical or other, as crept into the earlier volumes, have, so far as detected, been corrected. It would appear that the writings and correspondence presented in the volumes as first issued were substantially complete. The editor has no knowledge of further Hamilton material of sufficient compass or importance to warrant any fresh compilation or general revision.
The editor has no change, either, to make in the Preface written eighteen years ago, in which he tried to give an estimate of Hamilton’s influence and intellect and of his power and standing as an American statesman, or rather as a statesman of the closing years of the eighteenth century, for Hamilton is one of the representative minds of a period as well as of a country. But the increased demand for his Works which has called forth this second edition furnishes, when rightly considered, a text of such significance, that the editor of his Works is not willing to let it pass without comment.
Hamilton’s great contemporary reputation suffered after his death an almost complete eclipse. The unrestricted triumph of his chief opponent, Thomas Jefferson, and the course pursued by the Federalists in regard to the purchase of Louisiana and the War of 1812, were the chief causes of this result. The party of which he had been the chief and the champion sank out of existence, and even its name was lost except as a byword of political unpopularity. The early history of the United States, moreover, was little studied in the first half of the nineteenth century except by a few public men or by scholars and antiquarians thought to be possessed by strange fancies. After the Civil War, however, the American people, purged by a great ordeal of fire from the crude boasting which furnished the Dickenses and Trollopes a theme for their abuse, awoke to a full realization of the greatness of the work in which they had been engaged and of the meaning and power of the nation they had built up. In schools and universities, American history was taught as never before, and the popular interest in it became not only widespread but profound. One has but to turn to the catalogues of our libraries and our publishers to find proof of this, and to learn that every nook and corner of our history is being explored, and that all the most important periods have been and are being studied and written about with the utmost care and ability.
No one has profited by these changed conditions more than Hamilton. As the history of the United States has been investigated and developed, Hamilton has loomed ever larger upon the receding horizon of the days when that history began. His commanding figure has grown ever more luminous and more vital as the years have passed by, and the change is marked even in the eighteen which have elapsed since this edition was first published. He has been the subject of many biographies and in these later days has become the hero of fiction, which has discovered the romantic side of his career, and has made his name and deeds familiar to many to whom history is only a task.
Eighteen years ago, many persons probably would have hesitated to admit in full the editor’s estimate of Hamilton’s ability and power and of his standing among the statesmen of his time at home and abroad. The editor is inclined to think that few good judges to-day, whether or not they agreed with Hamilton in political principles, would seriously question that estimate and opinion as put forth in 1885. More and more have events justified Hamilton’s conception of the government of the United States; more and more has the soundness of his finance and of his principles of administration been silently accepted. Even upon the most contested of his policies, that of protection, to which the United States has always adhered, it would seem as if the world were gradually coming round to Hamilton’s position.
The Preface to this edition, written in 1885, says: “He studied Adam Smith and then wrote the Report on Manufactures, developing the theory as to the protection of nascent industries in its application to the United States, and standing firmly on the doctrine that this was a question which each nation must decide for itself.” All the nations of the earth, with but one exception, have in practice accepted this doctrine, and when the leader of one party in England says: “There is nothing sacred in Free Trade,” and the leader of the other is urging preferential colonial and imperial tariffs, it seems as if, despite the fervor of their Free-Trade protestations, they were drawing near to the great American statesman who a hundred years ago declared that Free Trade or Protection was a mere question of what was more profitable, and that each nation, in view of all the surrounding circumstances, must decide that question for itself.
Hamilton was a thinker as well as an actor. He did many great deeds. He cut his name deep in our history. His influence is felt to-day, as it always has been, in our government and our policies. But if he had never done anything personally his writings must always be studied as enduring contributions to finance, political economy, and the science of government.
H.C. Lodge.
Nahant,
July 8th, 1903.
Mrs. Alexander Hamilton
PREFACE
TWO SCHOOLS OF POLITICAL THOUGHT have existed in the United States, and their struggle for supremacy has made the history of the country. One was the national school, the other was the school of States’-rights. One believed in a liberal construction of the Constitution, and in a strong and energetic federal government, wielding all its powers to their full extent. The other believed in a strict construction of the Constitution, in a simple and restrained federal government, exercising in a limited way only such powers as were absolutely needful. One was founded by Alexander Hamilton, the other by Thomas Jefferson. On the one side it was maintained that the United States ought to be, and were, a nation; on the other, that the Union was a confederacy. The conflict between these opposing forces began at the close of the Revolution, was ardent in the convention which framed the Constitution, continued with ever-increasing intensity for seventy years, and then culminated in the Civil War. In that fierce battle the national principle, which had strengthened with every year from the time of the formation of the government, triumphed, and it is now supreme.
The dominant purpose of Hamilton’s life was the creation of a national sentiment, and thereby the making of a great and powerful nation from the discordant elements furnished by thirteen jarring States. To the accomplishment of this purpose every thing he said and did as a public man was steadily and strongly directed. The influence of the policy of Washington’s administration upon the establishment and development of this great nation of ours cannot be overestimated. Much of that policy was due to Hamilton alone, and in all parts of it he made himself deeply felt. Yet his masterly policy as Secretary of the Treasury, and as cabinet officer, as well as the active and influential part which he took in the Constitutional Convention, represent but a small portion of his services to the cause of nationality. Hamilton’s greatest work was in creating, forming, and guiding a powerful public opinion in support of a national system; and the sentiment thus brought into being went steadily on with ever-increasing force, until it prevailed over all its enemies. Hamilton achieved his success by the profound influence which he exerted on the public mind. No statesman in our history has ever swayed so many of the leading men among his contemporaries as Hamilton, and at the same time he appealed by his pen to the largest popular audience of any man of his time. He was the first teacher in the school of national politics. The sacred fire once lighted never went out, and the principles then inculcated were carried forward and ever raised higher through the after years.
This vast influence upon the political thought and the political history of the country Hamilton obtained by his writings, which range from elaborate Treasury reports to the brief utterances of private correspondence. The historical value and importance of these writings cannot be rated too highly, and are of themselves sufficient reason for the republication of his works, of which the original edition is now almost unobtainable.
But there is another side to Hamilton’s writings which makes them of even wider and more lasting worth than their effect upon the people of the United States. This is their intrinsic merit as contributions to the philosophy or science of government, as well as to finance and political economy. These were questions much meditated upon at the close of the eighteenth century, and they have engaged the best attention of the civilized world ever since. Hamilton ranks as one of the great thinkers in the days when political economy and the huge mechanism of modern finance came into being. He stands conspicuous in that all-important period, and in that broad field of thought, side by side with such men as Turgot, Pitt, and Adam Smith, and he does not suffer by comparison with these contemporaries, either in force and originality of ideas, or in practical success. He studied Adam Smith and then wrote the Report on Manufactures, developing the theory as to the protection of nascent industries in its application to the United States, and standing firmly on the doctrine that this was a question which each nation must decide for itself. He watched the policy of Pitt with close attention, but when he came to deal with our own financial problem, although he adopted the funding system and the sinking fund he used the latter simply as a plain business expedient, and cast aside the juggling pretences by which “the heaven-born minister” deluded a whole generation of Englishmen. Beyond the field of finance and political economy, he dealt with the far-reaching questions of federative systems of government to which many thinkers look to-day for a solution of the difficulties which great armies and recurring wars constantly present in Europe. As contributions to modern thought on the most important of modern themes the writings of Hamilton hold now and must always hold a very high position.
This is not the place nor is it needful here to say anything about Hamilton either as a statesman, writer, or man. His strong personality is becoming every day more familiar and more vivid to a posterity which is now beginning to understand and appreciate him, and his influence may be traced in every page of our history. He was every inch a statesman, intellectually second to no one of his own day in that high calling, where he still waits for his superior. But these are subjects for the historian or the biographer, and Hamilton’s personal history and public career have been written, rewritten, and minutely discussed from the island of Nevis down to the fatal glade at Weehawken. As for his writings they tell their won story, and their ability and force are obvious to every one who reads them.
It is enough for the editor of these volumes to say a very few words as to the general character and quality of Hamilton’s mind as they appear to him after careful and repeated study. Hamilton was pre-eminently a believer in Pope’s axiom that “order is heaven’s first law,” and his intellect was in the highest degree lucid, well-ordered, and systematic. Whatever defects they may have had, Hamilton’s arguments were invariably strong, cogent, compact, and most rigid in reasoning. His mind was penetrating and clear, and although every thing he ever wrote is simplicity itself in statement and thought, it is the simplicity of thorough knowledge and absolute command, and not that of superficiality and ignorance.
Statesmen, or rather leaders, of the destructive class can always be found when they are needed, which is, fortunately, not often. Great statesmen of the constructive order are, on the contrary, rare enough, and are always wanted. Hamilton was one of the latter kind. He was most conspicuously “cosmic, and not chaotic,” as Carlyle would have put it, and he had another quality which would have commended him still more to the great Scotchman: he saw, appreciated, and admitted facts. Never did he blink them out of sight or go upon a vain shadow-hunt, but always faced them and built upon them or did battle with them as the case might be. There is nothing vague or misty about Hamilton. Every thing is as clear-cut and well defined as the American landscape on a bright, frosty, autumn day. He had a powerful imagination for facts, if such an apparent contradiction in terms may be permitted.
That is, he saw and felt the realities of every situation so strongly himself that he never failed to depict them vividly, and bring them home sharply to the minds of others. With such mental qualities, backed by a relentless will, a strong and even passionate nature, and burning energy, it is not to be wondered at that Alexander Hamilton left so deep a mark upon our history, and that he is in every way so well worth our careful study.
It only remains to say a word in regard to the plan and arrangement of this edition. The first object was to bring all Hamilton’s writings under one roof. This has never been done hitherto, for the Federalist has always found shelter elsewhere. To accomplish this purpose in good print and within reasonable limits, it became necessary first to reduce the large amount of material gathered together in the edition of 1851 by John C. Hamilton. The omissions thus made from the earlier edition can be readily classified. All letters written by others to Hamilton, with one or two trifling exceptions, have been dropped. Many of these are, of course, historically speaking, very important, but those which deserve this description are for the most part to be found elsewhere in the works of their respective writers. All of them, however, whether valuable or worthless, were sacrificed because the edition was to embody Hamilton’s works and not the letters of his contemporaries. Of Hamilton’s own writings a small number have been omitted, but nothing which did not seem to the editor entirely valueless for history or any other purpose. Such are revenue circulars; reports on private claims against the government; bald statements of accounts, or estimates rendered to Congress; letters written during the Revolution and containing merely the current news or rumors of the day without opinion or comment; the letters of Washington written by Hamilton in his capacity of secretary, and attributed by the latter’s son to the aide-de-camp and not to the General who signed them; brief notes acknowledging the receipt of letters or transmitting reports and the like; and, finally, routine business letters to the Amsterdam bankers and others. A calendar of all letters and documents written by Hamilton, and printed in the John C. Hamilton edition, but omitted here, will follow the index. In addition to the Federalist there are certain other papers now included in Hamilton’s works for the first time. The most important is the famous Reynolds pamphlet. The editor hesitated long before deciding to include that publication in this edition, because he felt a strong distaste to even the appearance of reviving an old scandal. But the reasons for reprinting it seemed irresistible. Every one who is at all familiar with Hamilton’s career, or with our early history, has heard of the Reynolds affair. Comparatively few persons have read or have been able to obtain Hamilton’s own account of the matter. It was a melancholy but a very important incident in Hamilton’s life, and can never be separated from it. It involves questions of private and public morality which unhappily are always likely to arise, and it throws a bright light upon the strength of Hamilton’s character, as well as upon the errors into which he fell. His enemies used it at the time, and Mr. Parton has recently given copious selections from it in his Life of Fefferson. Hamilton published the story to the world to vindicate his honor as a public man. The justice which he thus sought to obtain from his contemporaries he has a right to demand at the hands of posterity. Inasmuch as the affair cannot be forgotten, and what Hamilton felt himself ought to be made public, his editor has not the right to suppress the pamphlet.
Besides the Reynolds pamphlet, there are some letters which have found their way into print since the edition of 1851 appeared. These, together with the heretofore unpublished letters still in the archives at Washington, are also included in this edition. The new letters, as well as the collation with the originals of those previously printed, are due to the untiring kindness of Mr. Theodore F. Dwight, the librarian of the State Department. To his care and thought the merit of this edition in regard to the accuracy and completeness of the private correspondence will be entirely due, and the editor cannot express too fully his indebtedness for such generous assistance. In the first volume the Continentalist, incomplete in the edition of 1851, is given in full. The speeches in the Federal convention, which were wholly omitted in the first edition, are now given entire from Madison and Yates, and John C. Hamilton’s imperfect publication of the speeches in the New York convention is now replaced by a complete report. The most important addition, however, in the first volume is an address to the electors in 1789, for which the editor is indebted to the thoughtful kindness of Mr. Henry A. Homes, State Librarian of New York. This address is reprinted here for the first time from a probably unique copy of the original pamphlet at Albany. It is of great importance because it shows, in connection with a previous address to the Albany Supervisors, and with the “H. G.” letters, the policy and work of the Federalists in their efforts to secure a first Congress favorable to the Constitution, and to break down all opposition.
The editor is satisfied that nothing of any value has been omitted unless by some inadvertence which cannot always be avoided. He is, however, by no means equally sure that, in his desire to make this edition a really complete collection of Hamilton’s writings, he has not included a number of papers which, for the comfort of the public it would have been better to consign to the dust-bins of the past. The work of selection is always difficult in such cases, but the editor’s purpose has been to make the edition complete without loading it with material of no earthly importance to any human being.
A purely chronological arrangement of the letters and papers would have led to inextricable confusion, through which no index could have piloted any one. The writings, therefore, except in the case of the Federalist, which has a volume to itself, and of the private correspondence, are arranged by subjects, and these subdivisions are in turn arranged chronologically. Hamilton’s writings lend themselves easily to such a classification, and this method of presenting them in groups seems to the editor to do them more justice, and to show better than any other the course and the results of the writer’s thoughts and influence. This arrangement also, it is thought, will be found the most convenient and manageable which could be devised for general use. Hamilton is not a writer who requires much annotation, for he tells his own story in almost every case a good deal better than any one can tell it for him. The editor’s notes, which are few, and, as a rule, very brief, have been inserted simply to explain the occasion of the letter or essay to which they are appended, to define some individual or occurrence therein mentioned, or to trace in outline the subsequent history of a policy which owed its inception or its establishment to Hamilton’s efforts. If these volumes serve to make better known the ability and the influence of one of America’s greatest statesmen, the purpose of this edition will be amply fulfilled.
The portrait in the first volume is from a picture by Trumbull, painted in 1792 for Mr. George Cabot. This portrait has always remained in the possession of Mr. Cabot’s descendants, and is now engraved for the first time.
Henry Cabot Lodge.
January 10, 1885.
A FULL VINDICATION
MEASURES OF CONGRESS FROM THE calumnies of their enemies, in answer to a letter under the signature of a Westchester Farmer; whereby his sophistry is exposed, his cavils confuted, his artifices detected, and his wit ridiculed, in a General Address to the inhabitants of America, and a Particular Address to the Farmers of the Province of New York. Veritas magna est et prevalebit—Truth is powerful and will prevail. New York: printed by James Rivington: 1774.
DECEMBER 15, 1774.
Friends and Countrymen:
It was hardly to be expected that any man could be so presumptuous as openly to controvert the equity, wisdom, and authority of the measures adopted by the Congress—an assembly truly respectable on every account, whether we consider the characters of the men who composed it, the number and dignity of their constituents, or the important ends for which they were appointed. But, however improbable such a degree of presumption might have seemed, we find there are some in whom it exists. Attempts are daily making to diminish the influence of their decisions, and prevent the salutary effects intended by them. The impotence of such insidious efforts is evident from the general indignation they are treated with; so that no material ill-consequences can be dreaded from them. But lest they should have a tendency to mislead, and prejudice the minds of a few, it cannot be deemed altogether useless to bestow some notice upon them.
And first, let me ask these restless spirits, Whence arises that violent antipathy they seem to entertain, not only to the natural rights of mankind, but to common-sense and common modesty? That they are enemies to the natural rights of mankind is manifest, because they wish to see one part of their species enslaved by another. That they have an invincible aversion to common-sense is apparent in many respects: they endeavor to persuade us that the absolute sovereignty of Parliament does not imply our absolute slavery; that it is a Christian duty to submit to be plundered of all we have, merely because some of our fellow-subjects are wicked enough to require it of us; that slavery, so far from being a great evil, is a great blessing; and even that our contest with Britain is founded entirely upon the petty duty of three pence per pound on East India tea, whereas the whole world knows it is built upon this interesting question, whether the inhabitants of Great Britain have a right to dispose of the lives and properties of the inhabitants of America, or not. And lastly, that these men have discarded all pretension to common modesty, is clear from hence: first, because they, in the plainest terms, call an august body of men, famed for their patriotism and abilities, fools or knaves; and of course the people whom they represented cannot be exempt from the same opprobrious appellations; and secondly, because they set themselves up as standards of wisdom and probity, by contradicting and censuring the public voice in favor of those men.
A little consideration will convince us that the Congress, instead of having “ignorantly misunderstood, carelessly neglected, or basely betrayed the interests of the colonies,” have, on the contrary, devised and recommended the only effectual means to secure the freedom, and establish the future prosperity of America upon a solid basis. If we are not free and happy hereafter, it must proceed from the want of integrity and resolution in executing what they have concerted, not from the temerity or impolicy of their determinations.
Before I proceed to confirm this assertion by the most obvious arguments, I will premise a few brief remarks. The only distinction between freedom and slavery consists in this: In the former state a man is governed by the laws to which he has given his consent, either in person or by his representative; in the latter, he is governed by the will of another. In the one case, his life and property are his own; in the other, they depend upon the pleasure of his master. It is easy to discern which of these two states is preferable. No man in his senses can hesitate in choosing to be free, rather than a slave.
That Americans are entitled to freedom is incontestable on every rational principle. All men have one common original: they participate in one common nature, and consequently have one common right. No reason can be assigned why one man should exercise any power or pre-eminence over his fellow-creatures more than another; unless they have voluntarily vested him with it. Since, then, Americans have not, by any act of theirs, empowered the British Parliament to make laws for them, it follows they can have no just authority to do it.
Besides the clear voice of natural justice in this respect, the fundamental principles of the English constitution are in our favor. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that the idea of legislation or taxation, when the subject is not represented, is inconsistent with that. Nor is this all; our charters, the express conditions on which our progenitors relinquished their native countries, and came to settle in this, preclude every claim of ruling and taxing us without our assent.
Every subterfuge that sophistry has been able to invent, to evade or obscure this truth, has been refuted by the most conclusive reasonings; so that we may pronounce it a matter of undeniable certainty, that the pretensions of Parliament are contradictory to the law of nature, subversive of the British constitution, and destructive of the faith of the most solemn compacts.
What, then, is the subject of our controversy with the mother country? It is this: Whether we shall preserve that security to our lives and properties, which the law of nature, the genius of the British constitution, and our charters, afford us; or whether we shall resign them into the hands of the British House of Commons, which is no more privileged to dispose of them than the Great Mogul. What can actuate those men who labor to delude any of us into an opinion that the object of contention between the parent state and the colonies is only three pence duty upon tea; or that the commotions in America originate in a plan, formed by some turbulent men, to erect it into a republican government? The Parliament claims a right to tax us in all cases whatsoever; its late acts are in virtue of that claim. How ridiculous, then, is it to affirm that we are quarrelling for the trifling sum of three pence a pound on tea, when it is evidently the principle against which we contend.
The design of electing members to represent us in general Congress was, that the wisdom of America might be collected in devising the most proper and expedient means to repel this atrocious invasion of our rights. It has been accordingly done. Their decrees are binding upon all, and demand a religious observance.
We did not, especially in this province, circumscribe them by any fixed boundary; and therefore, as they cannot be said to have exceeded the limits of their authority, their act must be esteemed the act of their constituents. If it should be objected that they have not answered the end of their election, but have fallen upon an improper and ruinous mode of proceeding, I reply by asking, Who shall be the judge? Shall any individual oppose his private sentiment to the united counsels of men in whom America has reposed so high a confidence? The attempt must argue no small degree of arrogance and self-sufficiency.
Yet this attempt has been made; and it is become, in some measure, necessary to vindicate the conduct of this venerable assembly from the aspersions of men who are their adversaries only because they are foes to America.
When the political salvation of any community is depending, it is incumbent upon those who are set up as its guardians to embrace such measures as have justice, vigor, and a probability of success to recommend them. If, instead of this, they take those methods which are in themselves feeble and little likely to succeed, and may, through a defect in vigor, involve the community in a still greater danger, they may be justly considered as its betrayers. It is not enough, in times of imminent peril, to use only possible means of preservation. Justice and sound policy dictate the use of probable means.
The only scheme of opposition suggested by those who have been and are averse from a non-importation and non-exportation agreement, is by remonstrance and petition. The authors and abettors of this scheme have never been able to invent a single argument to prove the likelihood of its succeeding. On the other hand, there are many standing facts and valid considerations against it.
In the infancy of the present dispute, we had recourse to this method only. We addressed the throne in the most loyal and respectful manner, in a legislative capacity; but what was the consequence? Our address was treated with contempt and neglect. The first American Congress did the same, and met with similar treatment. The total repeal of the stamp act, and the partial repeal of the revenue acts, took place not because the complaints of America were deemed just and reasonable, but because these acts were found to militate against the commercial interests of Great Britain. This was the declared motive of the repeal.
These instances are sufficient for our purpose; but they derive greater validity and force from the following:
The legal assembly of Massachusetts Bay presented, not long since, a most humble, dutiful, and earnest petition to his Majesty, requesting the dismission of a governor highly odious to the people, and whose misrepresentations they regarded as one chief source of all their calamities. Did they succeed in their request? No—it was treated with the greatest indignity, and stigmatized as “a seditious, vexatious, and scandalous libel.”
I know the men I have to deal with will acquiesce in this stigma. Will they also dare to calumniate the noble and spirited petition that came from the Mayor and Aldermen of the city of London? Will they venture to justify the unparalleled stride of power by which Popery and arbitrary dominion were established in Canada? The citizens of London remonstrated against it; they signified its repugnancy to the principles of the revolution; but, like ours, their complaints were unattended to. From thence we may learn how little dependence ought to be placed on this method of obtaining the redress of grievances.
There is less reason now than ever to expect deliverance, in this way, from the hand of oppression. The system of slavery, fabricated against America, cannot, at this time, be considered as the effect of inconsideration and rashness. It is the offspring of mature deliberation. It has been fostered by time and strengthened by every artifice human subtility is capable of. After the claims of Parliament had lain dormant for a while, they are again resumed and prosecuted with more than common ardor. The Premier has advanced too far to recede with safety. He is deeply interested to execute his purpose, if possible. We know he has declared that he will never desist till he has brought America to his feet; and we may conclude nothing but necessity will induce him to abandon his aims. In common life, to retract an error, even in the beginning, is no easy task; perseverance confirms us in it, and rivets the difficulty. But in a public station, to have been in an error and to have persisted in it when it is detected, ruins both reputation and fortune. To this we may add, that disappointment and opposition inflame the minds of men and attach them still more to their mistakes.
What can we represent which has not already been represented? What petitions can we offer that have not already been offered? The rights of America and the injustice of Parliamentary pretensions have been clearly and repeatedly stated, both in and out of Parliament. No new arguments can be framed to operate in our favor. Should we even resolve the errors of the Ministry and Parliament into the fallibility of human understanding, if they have not yet been convinced we have no prospect of being able to do it by anything further we can say. But if we impute their conduct to a wicked thirst of domination and disregard to justice, we have no hope of prevailing with them to alter it by expatiating on our rights and suing to their compassion for relief; especially since we have found, by various experiments, the inefficacy of such methods. Upon the whole, it is morally certain this mode of opposition would be fruitless and defective. The exigency of the times requires vigorous and probable remedies; not weak and improbable. It would, therefore, be the extreme of folly to place any confidence in, much less confine ourselves wholly to, it.
This being the case, we can have no resource but in a restriction of our trade, or in a resistance vi et armis. It is impossible to conceive any other alternative. Our Congress, therefore, have imposed what restraint they thought necessary. Those who condemn or clamor against it do nothing more nor less than advise us to be slaves.
I shall now examine the principal measures of the Congress, and vindicate them fully from the charge of injustice or impolicy.
Were I to argue in a philosophical manner, I might say the obligation to a mutual intercourse in the way of trade, with the inhabitants of Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies, is of the imperfect kind. There is no law, either of nature or of the civil society in which we live, that obliges us to purchase and make use of the products and manufactures of a different land or people. It is indeed a dictate of humanity to contribute to the support and happiness of our fellow creatures, and more especially those who are allied to us by the ties of blood, interest, and mutual protection; but humanity does not require us to sacrifice our own security and welfare to the convenience or advantage of others. Self-preservation is the first principle of our nature. When our lives and properties are at stake, it would be foolish and unnatural to refrain from such measures as might preserve them because they would be detrimental to others.
But we are justified upon another principle besides this. Though the manufacturers of Great Britain and Ireland and the inhabitants of the West Indies are not chargeable with any actual crime toward America, they may, in a political view, be esteemed criminal. In a civil society it is the duty of each particular branch to promote not only the good of the whole community, but the good of every other particular branch. If one part endeavors to violate the rights of another, the rest ought to assist in preventing the injury. When they do not but remain neutral, they are deficient in their duty, and may be regarded, in some measure, as accomplices.
The reason of this is obvious from the design of civil society; which is, that the united strength of the several members might give stability and security to the whole body, and each respective member; so that one part cannot encroach upon another without becoming a common enemy, and eventually endangering the safety and happiness of all the other parts.
Since, then, the persons who will be distressed by the methods we are using for our own protection, have, by their neutrality, first committed a breach of an obligation similar to that which bound us to consult their emolument, it is plain the obligation upon us is annulled, and we are blameless in what we are about to do.
With respect to the manufacturers of Great Britain, they are criminal in a more particular sense. Our oppression arises from that member of the great body politic of which they compose a considerable part. So far as their influence has been wanting to counteract the iniquity of their rulers, so far they acquiesced in it, and are deemed to be confederates in their guilt. It is impossible to exculpate a people that suffers its rulers to abuse and tyrannize over others.
It may not be amiss to add, that we are ready to receive with open arms any who may be sufferers by the operation of our measures, and recompense them with every blessing our country affords to honest industry. We will receive them as brethren, and make them sharers with us in all the advantages we are struggling for.
From these plain and indisputable principles, the mode of opposition we have chosen is reconcilable to the strictest maxims of justice. It remains now to be examined whether it has also the sanction of good policy.
To render it agreeable to good policy, three things are requisite. First, that the necessity of the times requires it; secondly, that it be not the probable source of greater evils than those it pretends to remedy; and lastly, that it have a probability of success.
That the necessity of the times demands it, needs but little elucidation. We are threatened with absolute slavery. It has been proved that resistance by means of remonstrance and petition would not be efficacious, and, of course, that a restriction on our trade is the only peaceable method in our power to avoid the impending mischief. It follows, therefore, that such a restriction is necessary.
That it is not the probable source of greater evils than those it pretends to remedy, may easily be determined. The most abject slavery, which comprehends almost every species of human misery, is what it is designed to prevent.
The consequences of the means are a temporary stagnation of commerce, and thereby a deprivation of the luxuries and some of the conveniences of life. The necessaries and many of the conveniences our own fertile and propitious soil affords us.
No person that has enjoyed the sweets of liberty can be insensible of its infinite value, or can reflect on its reverse without horror and detestation. No person that is not lost to every generous feeling of humanity, or that is not stupidly blind to his own interest, could bear to offer himself and posterity as victims at the shrine of despotism, in preference to enduring the short-lived inconveniences that may result from an abridgment, or even entire suspension, of commerce.
Were not the disadvantages of slavery too obvious to stand in need of it, I might enumerate and describe the tedious train of calamities inseparable from it. I might show that it is fatal to religion and morality; that it tends to debase the mind, and corrupt its noblest springs of action. I might show that it relaxes the sinews of industry, clips the wings of commerce, and introduces misery and indigence in every shape.
Under the auspices of tyranny the life of the subject is often sported with, and the fruits of his daily toil are consumed in oppressive taxes, that serve to gratify the ambition, avarice, and lusts of his superiors. Every court minion riots in the spoils of the honest laborer, and despises the hand by which he is fed. The page of history is replete with instances that loudly warn us to beware of slavery.
Rome was the nurse of freedom. She was celebrated for her justice and lenity; but in what manner did she govern her dependent provinces? They were made the continual scene of rapine and cruelty. From thence let us learn how little confidence is due to the wisdom and equity of the most exemplary nations.
Should Americans submit to become the vassals of their fellow-subjects in Great Britain, their yoke will be peculiarly grievous and intolerable. A vast majority of mankind is entirely biased by motives of self-interest. Most men are glad to remove any burthens off themselves, and place them upon the necks of their neighbors. We cannot, therefore, doubt but that the British Parliament, with a view to the ease and advantage of itself and its constituents, would oppress and grind the Americans as much as possible. Jealousy would concur with selfishness; and for fear of the future independence of America, if it should be permitted to rise to too great a height of splendor and opulence, every method would be taken to drain it of its wealth and restrain its prosperity. We are already suspected of aiming at independence, and that is one principal cause of the severity we experience. The same cause will always operate against us, and produce a uniform severity of treatment.
The evils which may flow from the execution of our measures, if we consider them with respect to their extent and duration, are comparatively nothing. In all human probability they will scarcely be felt. Reason and experience teach us that the consequences would be too fatal to Great Britain to admit of delay. There is an immense trade between her and the colonies. The revenues arising from thence are prodigious. The consumption of her manufactures in these colonies supplies the means of subsistence to a vast number of her most useful inhabitants. The experiment we have made heretofore shows us of how much importance our commercial connection is to her, and gives us the highest assurance of obtaining immediate redress by suspending it.
From these considerations it is evident she must do something decisive. She must either listen to our complaints and restore us to a peaceful enjoyment of our violated rights, or she must exert herself to enforce her despotic claims by fire and sword. To imagine she would prefer the latter implies a charge of the grossest infatuation, of madness itself. Our numbers are very considerable; the courage of Americans has been tried and proved. Contests for liberty have ever been found the most bloody, implacable, and obstinate. The disciplined troops Great Britain could send against us would be but few. Our superiority in number would overbalance our inferiority in discipline. It would be a hard, if not impracticable, task to subjugate us by force.
Besides, while Great Britain was engaged in carrying on an unnatural war against us, her commerce would be in a state of decay. Her revenues would be decreasing. An armament, sufficient to enslave America, would put her to an insupportable expense.
She would be laid open to the attacks of foreign enemies. Ruin, like a deluge, would pour in from every quarter. After lavishing her blood and treasure to reduce us to a state of vassalage, she would herself become a prey to some triumphant neighbor.
These are not imaginary mischiefs. The colonies contain above three millions of people. Commerce flourishes with the most rapid progress throughout them. This commerce Great Britain has hitherto regulated to her own advantage. Can we think the annihilation of so exuberant a source of wealth a matter of trifling import? On the contrary, must it not be productive of the most disastrous effects? It is evident it must. It is equally evident, that the conquest of so numerous a people, armed in the animating cause of liberty, could not be accomplished without an inconceivable expense of blood and treasure.
We cannot, therefore, suspect Great Britain to be capable of such frantic extravagance as to hazard these dreadful consequences; without which, she must necessarily desist from her unjust pretensions, and leave us in the undisturbed possession of our privileges.
Those who affect to ridicule the resistance America might make to the military force of Great Britain, and represent its humiliation as a matter the most easily to be achieved, betray either a mind clouded by the most irrational prejudices, or a total ignorance of human nature. However, it must be the wish of every honest man never to see a trial.
But should we admit a possibility of a third course, as our pamphleteer supposes,—that is, the endeavoring to bring us to a compliance by putting a stop to our whole trade, even this would not be so terrible as he pretends. We can live without trade of any kind. Food and clothing we have within ourselves. Our climate produces cotton, wool, flax, and hemp; which, with proper cultivation, would furnish us with summer apparel in abundance. The article of cotton, indeed, would do more; it would contribute to defend us from the inclemency of winter. We have sheep, which, with due care in improving and increasing them, would soon yield a sufficiency of wool. The large quantity of skins we have among us would never let us want a warm and comfortable suit. It would be no unbecoming employment for our daughters to provide silks of their own country. The silkworm answers as well here as in any part of the world. Those hands which may be deprived of business by the cessation of commerce, may be occupied in various kinds of manufactures and other internal improvements. If, by the necessity of the thing, manufactures should once be established, and take root among us, they will pave the way still more to the future grandeur and glory of America; and, by lessening its need of external commerce, will render it still securer against the encroachments of tyranny.
It is, however, chimerical to imagine, that the circumstances of Great Britain will admit of such a tardy method of subjugating us, for reasons which have been already given, and which shall be corroborated by others equally forcible.
I come now to consider the last and principal ingredient that constitutes the policy of a measure, which is, a probability of success. I have been obliged to anticipate this part of my subject in considering the second requisite; and, indeed, what I have already said seems to me to leave no room for doubting that the means we have used will be successful; but I shall here examine the matter more thoroughly, and endeavor to evince it more fully.
The design of the Congress in their proceedings, it cannot and need not be denied, was, either, by a prospect of the evil consequences, to influence the ministry to give up their enterprise, or, should they prove inflexible, to affect the inhabitants of Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies in such a manner as to rouse them from their state of neutrality, and engage them to unite with us in opposing the lawless hand of tyranny, which is extended to ravish our liberty from us, and might soon be extended for the same purpose against them.
The Farmer mentions, as one probable consequence of our measures, “clamors, discord, confusion, mobs, riots, insurrections, rebellions in Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies”; though at the same time he thinks it is, he also thinks it is not, a probable consequence. For my part, without hazarding any such seeming contradictions, I shall, in a plain way, assert that I verily believe a non-importation and a non-exportation will effect all the purposes they are intended for.
It is no easy matter to make any tolerably exact estimate of the advantages that accrue to Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies from their commercial intercourse with the colonies; nor, indeed, is it necessary. Every man, the least acquainted with the state and extent of our trade, must be convinced it is the source of immense revenues to the parent state, and gives employment and bread to a vast number of his Majesty’s subjects. It is impossible but that a suspension of it, for any time, must introduce beggary and wretchedness, in an eminent degree, both in England and Ireland. And as to the West India plantations, they could not possibly subsist without us. I am the more confident of this, because I have a pretty general acquaintance with their circumstances and dependencies.
We are told, “that it is highly improbable we shall succeed in distressing the people of Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies so far as to oblige them to join with us in getting the acts of Parliament which we complain of repealed. The first distress,” it is said, “will fall on ourselves; it will be more severely felt by us than any part of his Majesty’s dominions, and will affect us the longest. The fleets of Great Britain command respect throughout the globe. Her influence extends to every part of the earth. Her manufactures are equal to any, superior to most, in the world. Her wealth is great. Her people enterprising and persevering in their attempts to extend, and enlarge, and protect her trade. The total loss of our trade will be felt only for a time. Her merchants would turn their attention another way; new sources of trade and wealth would be opened; new schemes pursued. She would soon find a vent for all her manufactures in spite of all we could do. Our malice would hurt only ourselves. Should our schemes distress some branches of her trade, it would be only for a time; and there is ability and humanity enough in the nation to relieve those that are distressed by us, and put them in some other way of getting their living.”
The omnipotency and all-sufficiency of Great Britain may be pretty good topics for her passionate admirers to exercise their declamatory powers upon, for amusement and trial of skill; but they ought not to be proposed to the world as matters of truth and reality. In the calm, unprejudiced eye of reason, they are altogether visionary. As to her wealth, it is notorious that she is oppressed with a heavy national debt, which it requires the utmost policy and economy ever to discharge. Luxury has arrived to a great pitch; and it is a universal maxim, that luxury indicates the declension of a state. Her subjects are loaded with the most enormous taxes. All circumstances agree in declaring their distress. The continual emigrations from Great Britain and Ireland to the continent are a glaring symptom that those kingdoms are a good deal impoverished.
The attention of Great Britain has hitherto been constantly awake to expand her commerce. She has been vigilant to explore every region with which it might be her interest to trade. One of the principal branches of her commerce is with the colonies. These colonies, as they are now settled and peopled, have been the work of near two centuries. They are blessed with every advantage of soil, climate, and situation. They have advanced with an almost incredible rapidity. It is, therefore, an egregious piece of absurdity to affirm, that the loss of our trade would be felt for a time (which must only signify for a short time). No new schemes could be pursued that would not require, at least, as much time to repair the loss of our trade, as was spent in bringing it to its present degree of perfection, which is near two centuries. Nor can it be reasonably imagined, that the total and sudden loss of so extensive and lucrative a branch would not produce the most violent effects to a nation that subsists entirely upon its commerce.
It is said “there is ability and humanity enough in the nation to relieve those who are distressed by us, and to put them into some other way of getting their living.” I wish the gentleman had obliged his readers so much as to have pointed out this other way. I must confess, I have racked my brains to no purpose to discover it; and I am fully of opinion it is purely ideal. Besides the common mechanic arts, which are subservient to the ordinary uses of life, and which are the instruments of commerce, I know no other ways, in time of peace, in which men can be employed, except in agriculture and the liberal arts. Persons employed in the mechanic arts are those whom the abridgment of commerce would immediately affect; and as to such branches as might be less affected, they are already sufficiently stocked with workmen, and could give bread to no more. Not only so, but I can’t see by what legerdemain a weaver, a clothier, could be at once converted into a carpenter or blacksmith. With respect to agriculture, the lands of Great Britain and Ireland have been long ago distributed and taken up; nor do they require any additional laborers to till them, so that there could be no employment in this way. The liberal arts cannot maintain those who are already devoted to them; not to say, it is more than probable, the generality of mechanics would make but indifferent philosophers, poets, painters, and musicians.
What poor shifts is sophistry obliged to have recourse to! We are threatened with the resentment of those against whom our measures will operate. It is said that “instead of conciliating we shall alienate the affections of the people of Great Britain; of friends, we shall make them our enemies.” And further, that “we shall excite the resentment of the government at home against us, which will do us no good, but, on the contrary, much harm.”
Soon after we are told that “we shall probably raise the resentment of the Irish and West Indians. The passions of human nature,” it is said, “are much the same in all countries. If they find us disposed wantonly to distress them, to serve our own purposes, they will look out for some method to do without us. Will they not look elsewhere for a supply of those articles they used to take from us? They would deserve to be despised for their meanness, did they not.”
