to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned, we have

remonstrated, we have supplicated, we have prostrated ourselves before the

throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of

the Ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances

have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been

disregarded, and we have been spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne.

In vain, after these things, may we indulge in the fond hope of peace and

reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free, if

we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have

been so long contending; if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in

which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to

abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must

fight; I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms, and to the God of

Hosts, is all that is left us!

 

They tell us, sir, that we are weak--"unable to cope with so formidable an

adversary"! But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next

year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be

stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction?

Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our

backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies have bound us

hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means

which the God of Nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people,

armed in the holy cause of Liberty, and in such a country as that which we

possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.