of each line of the quoted material). We have silently corrected typographical errors that appeared in the original source. The editor has created footnotes to provide the reader with information about people and events that will help put the writings in their historical context and also serve as a complement to the texts themselves. We have kept the footnotes that appeared in The Crisis in their original format (symbols, such as asterisks or daggers); new editorial notes appear beneath The Crisis notes and are indicated by arabic numerals.
For works cited frequently in the footnotes, the following shortened citations have been used:
Blackstone, Commentaries: William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 4 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1765–1769; orig. ed.) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979).
Cobbett, Parliamentary History: William Cobbett et al., eds., The Parliamentary History of England, 36 vols. (London: T. C. Hansard, 1806–1820).
[print edition page xxxiv]
Labaree, Papers of Franklin: Leonard Labaree et al., eds., The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 39 vols. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959—).
Namier and Brooke, House of Commons: Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke, The House of Commons, 1754–1790, 3 vols. (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1964).
Oxford DNB: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 60 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
Pickering, Statutes: Danby Pickering, ed., The Statutes at Large, 46 vols. (Cambridge: Joseph Bentham, 1762–1807).
Simmons and Thomas, Proceedings and Debates: R. C. Simmons and P. D. G. Thomas, eds., Proceedings and Debates of the British Parliament Respecting North America, 1754–1783, 6 vols. (White Plains, N.Y.: Kraus International Publications, 1982).6
[print edition page xxxv]
THE
CRISIS
[print edition page xxxvi]
[print edition page 1]
THE
CRISIS
| NUMBER I | To be continued Weekly. |
| FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1775 1 | [Price Two-pence Halfpenny. |
Potior visa est Periculosa libertas quieto servitio
SALLUST2.
To the People of ENGLAND and AMERICA.
Friends and Fellow Subjects,
IT is with the greatest Propriety I address this Paper to you: It is in your Defence, at this GREAT, this IMPORTANT CRISIS, I take the Pen in hand: A CRISIS big with the Fate of the most glorious Empire known in the Records of Time; and by your FIRMNESS and RESOLUTION ONLY,
[print edition page 2]
it can be saved from DESTRUCTION: By your FIRMNESS and RESOLUTION, you may preserve to yourselves, your immediate Offspring, and latest Posterity, all the glorious Blessings of FREEDOM, given by Heaven to undeserving Mortals: By your SUPINENESS and PUSSILANIMITY, you will entail on yourselves, your Children, and Millions yet unborn, MISERY and SLAVERY.
It is in your Defence I now stand forth to oppose, the most sanguinary, and despotic Court that ever disgraced a free Country.
It is in your Defence I now unsheath the Sword of Justice, to oppose the most profligate and abandoned Administration, that ever shewed the Weakness, or abused the Confidence of a Prince.
It is in your Defence I now stand forth, with a Firmness and Resolution becoming an Englishman determined to be free, to oppose every ARBITRARY. and every UNCONSTITUTIONAL Act, of a venal and corrupt Majority, smuggled into the present new fangled Court Parliament, through the Villainy of Lord North,3 and purchased with the PUBLIC MONEY, to
[print edition page 3]
betray their TRUST, enslave the People, subvert the Protestant Religion, and destroy the Glory, Honor, Interest, and Commerce, both foreign and domestic, of England and America; and all this villainous Sacrifice of a great Empire, a brave People, and the glorious Truths of Heaven; to comply with the ambitious Views, and gratify the mean vindictive Spirit of ONE, assisted by a numerous Train of deputy TYRANTS, whose sole aim has been, to trample under Foot the sacred Rights of Mankind, and the English CONSTITUTION.
It is in your Defence, and in Defence of the Liberties of my Country, that I now stand forth, with a fixed Resolution to oppose, and shew to the World, unawed by Fear the dangerous Tendency of every Act of lawless Power, whether it shall proceed from the King, the Lords, or the Commons.
I will endeavour in Conjunction with my fellow Labourer in this great Work, to rescue the Liberty of the Press, (that Bulwark of Freedom)4 from the RUIN with which it is now threatened, by Special Juries of Middlesex, and the arbitrary Decisions of a Scotch Chief Justice,5 the glorious
[print edition page 4]
Advocate for despotic Sway. The heavy Fines, and cruel Imprisonment of the two Woodfall’s,6 without even the Appearance of Guilt, and contrary to the Intention of the Jury, will be faithfully recorded by the Pen of Truth, and fill many Pages in the black Catalogue of Murray’s Crimes.
It shall be my Endeavour in this degenerate Age, to revive the dying Embers of Freedom, and rouse my Countrymen in England, from that lethargic State of Supineness and Inattention, in which they seem to sleep, at this Time of national Danger, when a mighty Kingdom, and all the dearest Rights of Men are hastening to their RUIN; that they may yet stand high on the Roll of FAME, equal with their brave and virtuous Brethren in America, who are now struggling in the glorious Cause of Liberty, against the cruel Oppressions, and destructive Designs of exalted Villains, whose Actions will be transmitted to Posterity in Characters of Blood, and their Names forever branded with eternal Marks of Infamy; while America will remain the Glory and Admiration of the World, and be held in the highest Veneration to the end of Time. Let not the long envied Glory of Britain, O! my Countrymen, be eclipsed by the virtuous Actions of the Americans in the new World; our Danger is the same, their Cause, is our Cause, with the constitutional Rights of America, must fall, the Liberties of England; let us then, shew ourselves equal to them
[print edition page 5]
in Virtue, Courage, Firmness, and Resolution, and as they have done, prove to the World, we are alike Enemies to Tyranny, and lawless Power, and that we never will be Slaves to One, nor to a Majority of FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-EIGHT TYRANTS.7
We will strain every Nerve, and brave every Danger, to stimulate our Countrymen this Side the Atlantic, to a noble Exertion of their Rights as Freemen; to shew them the Danger; as well as the Infamy of remaining quiet Spectators of their OWN DESTRUCTION; and to remove that dark Cloud of Slavery, which now obscures the glorious Light of Freedom; and, but for the Virtue of our Forefathers, would Ages ago, have overwhelmed this Kingdom, like the States around us, in a long, a lasting Night of MISERY and RUIN.
Upon this Plan, and with these Principles we set out, and intend to proceed, that the present, (if not too far degenerated) and future Generations, may enjoy undiminished ALL the BLESSINGS of LIBERTY; To accomplish this End, we will risk every Thing that is dear to Man, and brave both Royal and Ministerial Vengeance, to preserve from RUIN (if possible) the NATURAL RIGHTS of MANKIND, THE Sacred Constutition of the British Empire, and the Freedom of our Country.
[print edition page 6]
Agreeable to our Motto we shall ever think, “Liberty with Danger, preferable to Servitude with Security.” 8
We should glory in the Smiles of our Sovereign, but will never purchase them at the Expence of our Liberty; nor will