Page:Journal of the First Congress of the American Colonies (1765).djvu/58

 nineties of an ingloriens imprisonment. These (say they) are'onr pleas foi support—these are the recommendations of our councils. 'We lay before, you the, disasters and evils which our past measures have produced, to-persuade you to place new confidence in our wisdom, and to give more liberal aid tn our judicious schemes for the future.”

These however, sir, are not the only 'blushing honors' which deck the brows of the present Administration. They have lately displayed the happy art of drawing arguments in their favor from the misfortunes of their friends, as well as from the success of their enemies, and thus prove themselves as incapable of gratitude as of justice. When gentlemen in this .House (influenced by motives of humanity,) recommended an exception of the friends of Government in the colonies from the rigorsof the late prohibitory bill, Administration suddenly changed its voice, and those who just before had boasted that a majority of the Americans were kimdly to their cause, and only waited an opportunity to declare it with safety, now pronounced that no distinction could be made, for that they had preserved at heat 'a shameful neutrality# and deserved to be subject to the common calamity of their country. I This, sir, was the liberal re. ward bestowed on men who espoused their cause from principle, and maintained it undaunted and unsupported through ohloquy and the most imminent danger to their lives, their fortunes and their families. By this impolioy, ,(to call it by no harsher name,) the command and management of the key to American affairs has been lost to this country; a speedy and effectual security of which might have saved us from the present gloomy prospect of intestine carnage and accumulating misery. Surely, sir, the representative body of the nation are bound in duty to their constituents to examine the reasons of such neglect and misconduct; and those in par. ticular who are the asserters of parliamentary supremacy are concerned to inquire why so efectual a method of weakening the opposition in Ame. rica and supporting their own adherents has been totally neglected.-But, sir, theredis no necessity of dwelling on this circumstance to prove the obligations this country is under to ministers. Disappointment and disgrace have marked all their measures, and, as if miracles had been wrought to strike conviction on this House, they have not even once blundered into success. It may, therefore, reasonably be hoped, that betbre we blindly proceed any lhrther, we may not only pause tc contemplate our present situation, and the ground we have already passed over, hut pay particular attention to that which lies before us. Admitting for the present, sir, that a 'force sufficient to subdue the colonies cs'n be sent cut->-admitting that this country will patiently bear the enormous weight of accumulated taxes, which so distant and unequal a war will reguiro-admitting that foreign powers (the natural enemies of B1'i1|in,)vill, with composure ss|d-sel£denial, neglect so favorable an