Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/285

 pointed out. Finally, after ostentatiously enumerating the advantages derived by America from her connection with Great Britain, and leaving out of sight the counterbalancing restraints upon her commerce, which had all along been so unwillingly acquiesced in, Mr. Charles Townshend, one of the ministers, propounded this inquiry:—"And now, will these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished up by our indulgence, till they are grown to a degree of strength and opulence, and protected by our arms—will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy weight of that burden which we lie under?"

Instantly Colonel Isaac Barré arose to reply. He had before spoken, and was one of the very few who knew how to appreciate the Americans. His words were listened to with the attention they deserved. Taking up Townshend's interrogation, he exclaimed:

"They planted by care! No; your oppressions planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny, to a then uncultivated and inhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to all the hardships to which human nature is liable, and, among others, to the cruelties of a savage foe, the most subtle, and I will take upon me to say, the most formidable of any people upon the face of God's earth; yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country, from the hands of those who should have been their friends.

"They nourished up by indulgence! They grew by your neglect of them. As soon as you began to care for them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule them in one department and another, who were, perhaps, the deputies of deputies, to some members of this House, sent to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them—men whose behavior, on many occasions, has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them—men promoted to the highest seats of justice; some who, to my knowledge, were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape being brought to the bar of a court of justice in their own.

"They protected by arms! Those sons of liberty have nobly taken up arms in your defence, have exerted their valor amidst their constant and laborious industry for the defence of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood, while its interior parts yielded all its little savings to your emolument. And believe me remember, I this day told you so,—that same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first, will accompany them still;—but prudence forbids me to explain myself further. God knows, I do not at this time speak from any motives of party heat; what I deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me, in general knowledge and experience, the respectable body of this House may be, yet I claim to know more of America than most of you, having seen and been conversant with that country. The people, I believe, are as truly loyal as any subjects the king has, but a people jealous of their