Page:Letters from a farmer in Pennsylvania - Dickinson - 1768.djvu/73

[&emsp;67&emsp;] stillness of overweening sloth, and the feverish activity of that ill informed zeal, which busies itself in maintaining little, mean and narrow opinions. Let us, with a truly wise generosity and charity, banish and discourage all illiberal distinctions, which may arise from differences in situation, forms of government, or modes of religion. Let us consider ourselves as separated from the rest of the world, and firmly bound together by the same rights, interests and dangers. Let these keep our attention inflexibly fixed on the, which we must , in order to preserve those rights, to promote those interests, and to avert those dangers.

these truths be indelibly impressed on our mindsthat we cannot be, without being that we cannot be free, without being secure in our propertythat we cannot be secure in our property, if, without our consent, others may, as by right, take it awaythat taxes imposed on us by parliament, do thus take it awaythat duties laid for the sole purpose of raising money, are taxesthat attempts to lay such duties should be instantly and firmly opposedthat this opposition can never be effectual, unless it is the united effort of these provincesthat therefore of temper towards each other, and  of counsels, are essential to the welfare of the wholeand lastly, that for this reason, every man amongst us, who in any manner would encourage either dissension, diffidence, or indifference, between these colonies, is an enemy to himself, and to his country.

belief of these truths, I verily think, my countrymen, is indispensably necessary to your happiness. I beseech you, therefore, “teach them diligently unto your children, and talk of them when you sit in your houses, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.”

have these colonies to ask, while they continue free? Or what have they to dread, but insidious attempts to subvert their freedom? Their prosperity does not depend on ministerial favors doled out to particular provinces. They form one political body, of which each colony is a member. Their happiness is founded on their constitution; and is to be promoted, by preserving that constitution in unabated vigor, throughout every part. A spot, a speck of decay, however small the limb on which it appears, and however remote it may seem from the vitals, should be alarming. We have all the rights requisite for our prosperity. The legal authority of Great-Britain may indeed lay hard restrictions upon us; but, like the spear of Telephus, it will cure as well as wound. Her unkindness will instruct and compel us, after some time, to discover, in our industry and frugality, surprising remediesif our rights continue unviolated: For as long as the products of our labor, and the