^ NATURAL AND CIVIL 



'^ allegknce to the British crown, and that ali 

 " political connection between them and the 

 ** state of Great Britain, is, and ought to be, 

 *^ totally dissolved." Having made this decla- 

 ration, neither the threatnings or the speeches 

 of the British king or parliament, the insidious 

 arts of their ministers and commissioners, or the 

 victories and ravages of their fleets and armies^- 

 could make any impression to shake theii- reso- 

 lution, or abate their perseverance. They had 

 determined they would not be subject to a king,- 

 parliament and nation, that would arm the N'e- 

 groes, Indians and Germans, to destroy and sub- 

 due them. To this determination they steadily 

 adhered amidst every defeat or success, promise' 

 or threatning, good fortune or bad. And in the 

 most distressing situations and prospects to 

 which they were ever reduced, nothing altered 

 or abated their lesolutions- or viev/s. At no 

 time, and on no occasion did the Congress, the 

 government of any one of the states, a single 

 county, city, town, or village, deviate from the 

 general resolution ; or ever propose or express 

 to the enemy, a design or wish for reconciliation 

 or accommodation, on any other terms than 

 those of Independence. 



The Grecian vivacity, or the Roman inso- 

 lence, may have produced a higher tone of af- 

 fected haughtiness ; but in what part of ancient 

 or modern history shall we find the country, the 

 time, the place, or the occasion, in Vv^hich politi- 

 cal virtue and magnanimity acted with more de- 

 cision, was carried to a greater extent, or was 

 marked with a more dignified aspect ? With a 

 calm, ^serene, determined virtue and perseverance, > 



