The colonies assert to themselves an independent
constitution and a free trade. They must be constrained by troops.
In what chapter of your code of the rights of men are they able to
read that it is a part of the rights of men to have their commerce
monopolized and restrained for the benefit of others? As the colonists
rise on you, the Negroes rise on them. Troops again- massacre,
torture, hanging! These are your rights of men! These are the fruits
of metaphysic declarations wantonly made, and shamefully retracted! It
was but the other day that the farmers of land in one of your
provinces refused to pay some sort of rents to the lord of the soil.
In consequence of this, you decree that the country people shall pay
all rents and dues, except those which as grievances you have
abolished; and if they refuse, then you order the king to march troops
against them. You lay down metaphysic propositions which infer
universal consequences, and then you attempt to limit logic by
despotism. The leaders of the present system tell them of their
rights, as men, to take fortresses, to murder guards, to seize on
kings without the least appearance of authority even from the
Assembly, whilst, as the sovereign legislative body, that Assembly was
sitting in the name of the nation- and yet these leaders presume to
order out the troops which have acted in these very disorders, to
coerce those who shall judge on the principles, and follow the
examples, which have been guaranteed by their own approbation.
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