(l say again it is not the Nation’s) let the Head Constable of this Kingdom (the Dupe of all the Herd) for once receive Instruction from an Enemy. The Spaniards distinguish justly between a Sovereign’s Right of reducing refractory Subjects to just Obedience, and making War upon humble Supplicants who Petition for their RIGHTS. They discern a difference (and there is a wide One) between just Resistance and unnatural Rebellion. They tell us in Manly (to AMERICA they are tempting) Terms that AMERICA shall not Suffer unheared, unpitied, unredressed, and Innocent. Tho’a venal and Corrupt Majority, to gratify despotic Spleen, have in a BLOODY ACT, styled AMERICA Rebellious, yet what Sanction
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can such Laws derive from Venality and Corruption? Laws, to be Sacred and obligatory must be consistent with the Laws of God, Nature, Reason, sound Policy and the Constitution of the Kingdom. If they err in these respects it is an Error in the first Concoction, they are absolutely Null and void in themselves, and are no more to be regarded than “the Laws of a parcel of Drunken Porters.” I borrow this Elegant Comparison from the Mouth of a Great Man, who is, at one and the same Time, a privey Counsellor, a Pensioner, a Placeman, and SPEAKER of the House of Commons. Situations as compatible with that of SPEAKER, as Obligatory Laws are with Venality and Corruption.
I do not say that Rebellious SUBJECTS are not to be chastised; but they must first Rebel, all Civil Chastisment besides, must be inflicted by the Hand of Wisdom and Justice, not by the SCOURGE of the OPPRESSOR. The Wanton Power that Aggresses and Afflicts ought not to Punish, but Redress. What Political Wisdom is there in driving a whole Territory, a Great Nation of Obedient (tho’ not Passive) Subjects to Despair? What Wisdom in losing or exterminating? What Justice in refusing to hear the supposed Delinqnent before She turned SUPPLICATION into RAGE.
AMERICA professes all legal, but like the BRAVE ANCESTRY from whence she Springs, difdains passive Obedience, she honours and revers KINGS, but despises and defys TYRANTS.
If she conquers she will continue to support the LIBERTY she wins, if she falls, (believe me ye WRETCHED, ye SHALLOW MINISTERIAL POLITICIANS!) she will not fall unrevenged, the Crowns of FRANCE and SPAIN, will not continue neuter, they will be the providential means of punishing our Iniquity to AMERICA; they will embroil a CIVIL WAR here, and assist it there, they will conquer ENGLAND in AMERICA, they will be received there with open Arms; in the last Agonies of AMERICAN DESPAIR, They will be received as CONQURERS, and usurping TYRANNY, will be expelled for ever.
AMERICA will never condescend to enjoy the unessential Name of ENGLISHMEN under the Lawless Power, of a GRAND MOGUL, and his detested Divan.
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Printed and published for the Authors, by T. W. SHAW, in Fleet-Street, opposite Anderton’s Coffee House, where Letters to the Publisher will be thankfully received.
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THE
CRISIS
| NUMBER XX | To be continued Weekly. |
| SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1775 | [Price Two-pence Half-penny. |
To the KING.
SIR,
LIKE that fell Monster, and infernal TYRANT Charles the First, you are determined to Deluge the Land with INNOCENT BLOOD. Fired with Rage at the more than Savage Barbarity of your Mercenary Troops, your cursed Instruments of Slaughter in America, I can no longer keep within the Bounds of Decency; the Breast of every true Englishman must be filled with Indignation, and that Respect which is due to a King, will be lost in a noble zeal for the Preservation of our Country and Fellow Subjects.
Every Man must execrate a Tyrant, who can, without Remorse to satiate his Revenge, and gratify his lust of Power destroy Millions of his Subjects.
The Americans, Sir, are fighting for LIBERTY, the Birthright of every Man. they are fighting for the LAWS and the sacred CONSTITUTION of their Country, which you are, to your eternal Disgrace and Infamy, endeavouring to Destroy: Their Cause is just, it is the Cause of Heaven, and it never will be your Power, assisted by TEN THOUSAND Legion
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of TYRANTS besides, to fix your BLOODY Standard of Tyranny in America. England must take Part in this Bloody, this Unnatural CIVIL WAR, brought on through your Baseness and Ingratitude, and the Treachery, Corruption, and Villainy of your MINIONS; unless she does this, she is lost forever, your unrelenting Cruelty, and desire of being Absolute, will never let you stop, and if once the Americans can be reduced to Slavery, we shall be no longer FREE; you will not, you cannot rest, till you have brought the whole Empire into the same State of Vassalage and Bondage: But I hope for the Honour and Valour of my Countrymen, all your infamous Designs will be frustrated, and that by a Noble Exertion, in defence of their persecuted Brethren in America, they will soon CONVINCE you, how Difficult, Unsafe, and Dangerous it is to ATTEMPT to enslave a Brave and Free People, and to establish your Throne in INIQUITY and BLOOD.
I hope fired with the noble Spirit of their Ancestors, they will speedily carry to the Throne, something more than Petitions or Remonstrances; I trust they will tell you in manly Terms, in Terms, worthy of Britons; in Terms that may shake your Tyrant S—that they are determined to be FREE, that you SHALL withdraw your Troops from AMERICA; that your Ministers SHALL be delivered up to Justice, as some atonement for the Blood that has been inhumanly shed in England and America; that they WILL have all their Rights confirmed to them; that they WILL be governed by the LAWS of the Land, and not by the Arbitrary WILL of you or your Minions; that without these JUST and NECESSARY Requisitions are complied with, they are determined to appeal to Heaven, and OBLIGE you, as their Forefathers have other PRINCELY TYRANTS to govern according to Law and the SOLEMN OATH you took at your Coronation.
Englishmen, Sir, will soon be roused by the inhuman Slaughter of their Brethren and Fellow Subjects in America, from a state of Lethergy and Supineness; it will not be long in the Power of your infernal Tribe of Placemen and Pensioners, your Ministers and Minions, by all the Acts of Corruption and Debauchery to keep down the Glorious Spirit of LIBERTY; they will not, they cannot, if there is any Virtue in the Nation,
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longer remain idle inactive Spectators of such CRUEL and BLOODY Measures, in which they are so nearly, so deeply Interested; Measures which must end in the Destruction of LIBERTY and the Constitution, the Boast and Glory of this, and the Envy of every other Nation.
Your whole Reign has been one continued series of Tyranny, Oppression, Cruelty, and Injustice; the whole Business of your Ministers has been to deny right to the People, to sap the Constitution, to establish arbitrary Power upon the Ruins of PUBLIC LIBERTY in every part of the British Dominions; to feed your Avarice, to gratify your Ambition, and Satiate your Revenge against Individuals.
A King, weak, obstinate, perverse, and Cruel, deaf to the calls of Humanity, and regardless of the Sufferings of an oppressed, injured, and loyal People, disgraces the Dignity of human Nature; and is so far from possessing any of those Attributes which characterise Majesty, that he is only a Monster in human Shape, like the Devil, invested with Power, not for the Preservation, but the Destruction of Mankind.
The Breath of a TYRANT blasts and Poisons every thing, changes Blessings and Plenty into Curses and Misery, great Cities and flourishing Kingdoms, into Desarts, and gloomy Solitudes, and their rich Citizens into Beggars and Vagabonds. I could name Cities, which, while they governed THEMSELVES, could maintain Armies, and now enslaved, can scarce maintain the Poor proud Rascals who govern them. It is certain, that whatever Country or Place is subdued by a Prince, who governs by his WILL, is ruined by his Government.
You, Sir, like most other Princes, have been long introducing the Turkish Government into Europe; and have succeeded so well, that