Samuel Adams, an advocate for American Independence

[Max]

From one of our Founding Torchbearers.  Archaic but still inspiring.

August 1, 1776

"Our forefathers, 'tis said, consented to be subject to the laws of Great Britain. I will not at the present time dispute it, nor mark out
the limits and conditions of their submission; but will it be denied that they
contracted to pay obedience and to be under the control of Great Britain
because it appeared to them most beneficial in their then present circumstances
and situations? We, my countrymen, have the same right to consult and provide for
our happiness which they had to promote theirs. If they had a view to posterity
in their contracts, it must have been to advance the felicity of their
descendants. If they erred in their expectations and prospects, we can never be
condemned for a conduct which they would have recommended had they foreseen our
present condition.

 

Ye darkeners of counsel, who would make the property, lives, and religion of millions depend on the evasive interpretations of musty parchments; who would send us to antiquated charters of uncertain and
contradictory meaning, to prove that the present generation are not bound to be
victims to cruel and unforgiving despotism,--tell us whether our pious and
generous ancestors bequeathed to us the miserable privilege of having the rewards
of our honesty, industry, the fruits of those fields which they purchased and
bled for, wrested from us at the will of men over whom we have no check. Did
they contract for us that, with folded arms, we should expect that justice and
mercy from brutal and inflamed invaders which have been denied to our
supplications at the foot of the throne? Were we to hear our character as a
people ridiculed with indifference? Did they promise for us that our meekness
and patience should be insulted, our coasts harassed, our towns demolished and
plundered, and our wives and offspring exposed to nakedness, hunger, and death,
without our feeling the resentment of men, and exerting those powers of
self-preservation which God has given us?

 

No man had once a greater veneration for Englishmen than I entertained. They were dear to me as branches of the same parental trunk, and partakers of the same religion and laws; I still view with respect the remains
of the Constitution as I would a lifeless body which had once been animated by
a great and heroic soul. But when I am aroused by the din of arms; when I
behold legions of foreign assassins paid by Englishmen to imbrue their hands in
our blood; when I tread over the uncoffined bodies of my countrymen, neighbors,
and friends; when I see the locks of a venerable father torn by savage hands,
and a feeble mother, clasping her infants to her bosom, and on her knees
imploring their lives from her own slaves, whom Englishmen have allured to
treachery and murder; when I behold my country, once the seat of industry,
peace, and plenty, changed by Englishmen to a theater of blood and misery,
Heaven forgive me if I can not root out those passions which it has implanted
in my bosom, and detest submission to a people who have either ceased to be
human, or have not virtue enough to feel their own wretchedness and servitude!

 

Men who content themselves with the semblance of truth, and a display of words talk much of our obligations to Great Britain for protection. Had she a single eye to our advantage? A nation of shopkeepers are
very seldom so interested. Let us not be so amused with words! the extension of
her commerce was her object. When she defended our coasts, she fought for her
customers, and convoyed ourships loaded with wealth, which we had acquired for
her by our industry. She has treated us as beasts of burden, whom the lordly
masters cherish that they may carry a greater load. Let us inquire also against
whom she has protected us? Against her own enemies with whom we had no quarrel,
or only on her account, and against whom we always readily exerted our wealth
and strength when they were required. Were these Colonies backward in giving
assistance to Great Britain, when they were called upon in 1739 to aid the
expedition against Cartagena? They at that time sent three thousand men to join
the British army, altho the war commenced without their consent.

 

But the last war, 'tis said, was purely American. This is a vulgar error, which, like many others, has gained credit by being confidently repeated. The dispute between the courts of Great Britain and France related to the
limits of Canada and Nova Scotia. The controverted territory was not claimed by
any in the Colonies, but by the crown of Great Britain. It was therefore their
own quarrel. The infringement of a right which England had, by the treaty of
Utrecht, of trading in the Indian country of Ohio, was another cause of the
war. The French seized large quantities of British manufactures and took
possession of a fort which a company of British merchants and factors had
erected for the security of their commerce. The war was therefore waged in
defense of lands claimed by the Crown, and for the protection of British
property. The French at that time had no quarrel with America, and, as appears
by letters sent from their commander-in-chief to some of the Colonies, wished
to remain in peace with us.

 

The part, therefore, which we then took, and the miseries to which we exposed ourselves ought to be charged to our affection to Britain. These Colonies granted more than their proportion to the support of the war.
They raised, clothed, and maintained nearly twenty-five thousand men, and so
sensible were the people of England of our great exertions that a message was
annually sent to the House of Commons purporting "that his majesty, being
highly satisfied with the zeal and vigor with which his faithful subjects in
North America had exerted themselves in defense of his majesty's just rights
and possessions, recommends it to the House to take the same into consideration
and enable him to give them a proper compensation."

 

But what purpose can arguments of this kind answer? Did the protection we received annul our rights as men, and lay us under an obligation of being miserable?

 

Who among you, my countrymen, that is a father, would claim authority to make your child a slave because you had nourished him in infancy?

 

'Tis a strange species of generosity which requires a return infinitely more valuable than anything it could have bestowed; that demands as a reward for a defense of our property a surrender of those inestimable
privileges to the arbitrary will of vindictive tyrants, which alone give value
to that very property.

 

Courage, then, my countrymen; our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty. Dismissing, therefore, the
justice of our cause as incontestable, the only question is, What is best for
us to pursue in our present circumstances?

 

The doctrine of dependence on Great Britain is, I believe, generally exploded; but as I would attend to the honest weakness of the simplest of men, you will pardon me if I offer a few words on that subject.

 

We are now on this continent, to the astonishment of the world, three millions of souls united in one cause. We have large armies, well disciplined and appointed, with commanders inferior to none in military skill,
and superior in activity and zeal. We are furnished with arsenals and stores
beyond our most sanguine expectations, and foreign nations are waiting to crown
our success by their alliances. There are instances of, I would say, an almost
astonishing providence in our favor; our success has staggered our enemies, and
almost given faith to infidels; so we may truly say it is not our own arm which
has saved us.

 

The hand of Heaven appears to have led us on to be, perhaps, humble instruments and means in the great providential dispensation which is completing. We have fled from the political Sodom; let us not look back lest we
perish and become a monument of infamy and derision to the world. For can we
ever expect more unanimity and a better preparation for defense; more
infatuation of counsel among our enemies, and more valor and zeal among
ourselves? The same force and resistance which are sufficient to procure us our
liberties will secure us a glorious independence and support us in the dignity
of free imperial States. We can not suppose that our opposition has made a
corrupt and dissipated nation more friendly to America, or created in them a
greater respect for the rights of mankind. We can therefore expect a
restoration and establishment of our privileges, and a compensation for the
injuries we have received from their want of power, from their fears, and not
from their virtues. The unanimity and valor which will effect an honorable
peace can render a future contest for our liberties unnecessary. He who has
strength to chain down the wolf is a madman if he let him loose without drawing
his teeth and paring his nails.

 

From the day on which an accommodation takes place between England and America, on any other terms than as independent States, I shall date the ruin of this country. a politic minister will study to lull us into
security by granting us the full extent of our petitions. The warm sunshine of
influence would melt down the virtue which the violence of the storm rendered
more firm and unyielding. In a state of tranquillity, wealth, and luxury, our
descendants would forget the arts of war and the noble activity and zeal which
made their ancestors invincible. Every art of corruption would be employed to
loosen the bond of union which renders our resistance formidable. When the
spirit of liberty, which now animates our hearts and gives success to our arms,
is extinct, our numbers will accelerate our ruin and render us easier victims
to tyranny. Ye abandoned minions of an infatuated ministry, if peradventure any
should yet remain among us, remember that a Warren and Montgomery are numbered
among the dead. Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then
say, What should be the reward of such sacrifices? Bid us and our posterity bow
the knee, supplicate the friendship, and plow, and sow, and reap, to glut the
avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our
blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than
liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of
freedom--go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and
lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may
posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!

 

To unite the supremacy of Great Britain and the liberty of America is utterly impossible. so vast a continent and of such a distance from the seat of empire will every day grow more unmanageable. The motion of so
unwieldy a body can not be directed with any despatch and uniformity without
committing to the Parliament of Great Britain powers inconsistent with our
freedom. The authority and force which would be absolutely necessary for the
preservation of the peace and good order of this continent would put all our
valuable rights within the reach of that nation.

 

As the administration of government requires firmer and more numerous supports in proportion to its extent, the burdens imposed on us would be excessive, and we should have the melancholy prospect of their increasing on
our posterity. The scale of officers, from the rapacious and needy commissioner
to the haughty governor, and from the governor, with his hungry train, to
perhaps a licentious and prodigal viceroy, must be upheld by you and your
children. The fleets and armies which will be employed to silence your murmurs
and complaints must be supported by the fruits of your industry.

 

Britain is now, I will suppose, the seat of liberty and virtue, and its legislature consists of a body of able and independent men who govern with wisdom and justice. The time may come when all will be reversed;
when its excellent constitution of government will be subverted; when, pressed
by debts and taxes, it will be greedy to draw to itself an increase of revenue
from every distant province in order to ease its own burdens; when the
influence of the crown, strengthened by luxury and a universal profligacy of
manners, will have tainted every heart, broken down every fence of liberty and
rendered us a nation of tame and contented vassals; when a general election
will be nothing but a general auction of boroughs, and when the Parliament, the
grand council of the nation, and once the faithful guardian of the State, and a
terror to evil ministers, will be degenerated into a body if sycophants,
dependent and venal, always ready to confirm any measures, and little more than
a public court for registering royal edicts.

 

Such, it is possible, may some time or other be the state of Great Britain. What will, at that period, be the duty of the Colonies? Will they be still bound to unconditional submission? Must they always continue an
appendage to our government and follow it implicitly through every change that
can happen to it? Wretched condition, indeed, of millions of freemen as good as
ourselves! Will you say that we now govern equitably, and that there is no
danger of such revolution? Would to God that this were true! But you will not
always say the same. Who shall judge whether we govern equitably or not? Can
you give the Colonies any security that such a period will never come? No. The
period, countrymen, is already come! The calamities were at our door. The rod
of oppression was raised over us. We were roused from our slumbers, and may we
never sink into repose until we can convey a clear and undisputed inheritance
to our posterity! This day we are called upon to give a glorious example of what
the wisest and best of men were rejoiced to view only in speculation. This day
presents the world with the most august spectacle that its annals ever
unfolded--millions of freemen, deliberately and voluntarily forming themselves
into a society for their common defense and common happiness. Immortal spirits
of Hampden, Locke, and Sidney, will it not add to your benevolent joys to
behold your posterity rising to the dignity of men, and evincing to the world
the reality and expediency of your systems, and in the actual enjoyment of that
equal liberty, which you were happy when on earth in delineating and
recommending to mankind?

 

Other nations have received their laws from conquerors; some are indebted for a constitution to the suffering of their ancestors through revolving centuries. The people of this country, alone, have formally and
deliberately chosen a government for themselves, and with open and uninfluenced
consent bound themselves into a social compact. Here no man proclaims his birth
or wealth as a title to honorable distinction, or to sanctify ignorance and
vice with the name of hereditary authority. He who has most zeal and ability to
promote public felicity, let him be the servant of the public. This is the only
line of distinction drawn by nature. Leave the bird of night to the obscurity
for which nature intended him, and expect only from the eagle to brush the
clouds with his wings and look boldly in the face of the sun.

 

If there is any man so base or so weak as to prefer a dependence on Great Britain to the dignity and happiness of living a member of a free and independent nation, let me tell him that necessity now demands what
the generous principle of patriotism should have dictated.

 

We have no other alternative than independence, or the most ignominious and galling servitude. The legions of our enemies thicken on our plains; desolation and death mark their bloody career, while the mangled
corpses of our countrymen seem to cry out to us as a voice from heaven.

 

Our Union is now complete; our Constitution composed, established, and approved. You are now the guardians of your own liberties. We may justly address you as the decemviri did the Romans, and say: "Nothing
that we propose can pass into a law without your consent. Be yourselves, O Americans,
the authors of those laws on which your happiness depends."

 

You have now in the field armies sufficient to repel the whole force of your enemies and their base and mercenary auxiliaries. The hearts of your soldiers beat high with the spirit of freedom; they are animated
with the justice of their cause, and while they grasp their swords can look up
to Heaven for assistance. Your adversaries are composed of wretches who laugh
at the rights of humanity, who turn religion into derision, and would, for higher
wages, direct their swords against their leaders or their country. Go on, then,
in your generous enterprise with gratitude to Heaven for past success, and
confidence of it in the future. For my own part I ask no greater blessing than
to share with you the common danger and common glory. If I have a wish dearer
to my soul than that my ashes may be mingled with those of a Warren and
Montgomery, it is that these American States may never cease to be free and
independent."

[XLFD]

Proving that Samuel Adams was a master wordsmith.

Max, can I gauge your intent on posting this as an allegory to our current situation, where Adams' Great Britain is our current overpowered government, and Adams' rebelling colonists are the majority of the American people who believe that our government has overstepped its authority?

[Max]

Yes you can X. It is my hope that no one interpret this as a "call to arms" in the literal sense.

Would you rather I didn't post discussions such as this? I can see where someone could say that it could "incite" violence, however that surely is not my intent. As some may have guessed, I have a strong interest in history, especially American history and the founding of our government. It may be that I am in the minority on that subject.

[XLFD]

The only problem I see with posts like this is 1) that its length can be prohibitive to commentary, either due to the readers' attention span or because of the desire to reply to more than one topic therein (and yes, I'm guilty of some lengthy thread headings myself), or 2) the lack of debatable points due to the clarity of the heading.

The mission statement for the Ludington Torch implies we are here to confront ills of the local governments on up, along with affronts to the common citizenry, and your recantations of history show that our battles are not new, just long forgotten by most. I find your posts informational, cogent, and entertaining, or as the media moguls say: "infocotainment" at its finest.

[AQUAMAN]

10-4 X. This ancient call to arms/incitement to and of the citizenry, should not be necessarily construed in the present day to mean anarchy, but, for deliberate and constructive interactive groups to "wake up and be counted", whether it be a TEA party group, or any other group proposing the peaceful and strident efforts to preserve protect and defend that which is ours, freedom in it's purest form of goverment, for and by the people. To stand aside silent and let the depots of glory, fame, and greed extort and bend those freedoms into ashes, for a socialistic calling, is a truer form of anarchy in itself.

[AQUAMAN]

Not to mention Samuel Adams was a great brewmaster to boot. Har har har, burp....excuse me.

[Max]

Great one Aqua!

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

I think between Glen Beck, And Max I get to relearn ( I am sure I probably heard most of it in my school) The importance of not just school Teaching history but doing so in the light of what Americas constitutional scholars intended us to be as a limited Government Republic.
Even though I think it was implied about myself by some on the Left in Both LT and the soup. I am not at all in the mood( yet) to run out a slay the perceived enemies to our Republic quite yet. Lets let the Supreme s get a hold of those who called them out in Public where they couldn't legally defend themselves first hey?

[Edie Lindsey]

Forget the Supremes, Diana Ross was swearing like a sailor when she found out her Medicare funding was cut and her taxes raised.