The temper and character which prevail in our colonies are, I am afraid,
unalterable by any human art. We cannot, I fear, falsify the pedigree of
this fierce people, and persuade them that they are not sprung from a
nation in whose veins the blood of freedom circulates. The language in
which they would hear you tell them this tale would detect the
imposition; your speech would betray you. An Englishman is the unfittest
person on earth to argue another Englishman into slavery.
But let us suppose all these moral difficulties got over. The ocean
remains. You cannot pump this dry; and as long as it continues in its
present bed, so long all the causes which weaken authority by distance
will continue. If, then, the removal of the causes of this spirit of
American liberty be for the greater part, or rather entirely,
impracticable; if the ideas of criminal process be inapplicable--or, if
applicable, are in the highest degree inexpedient--what way yet remains?
No way is open but to comply with the American spirit as necessary; or,
if you please, to submit to it as a necessary evil.
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