Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/378

 354 SKETCIITES OF THE

war against us in this manner? We did openly say- we mean to confiscate your debts^ and modify them, because they have lost their perfect external quality — - they are imperfect — we claim that right, as a sovereign people, over that species of your property. Sir, it was not done in a corner. It was understood by our ene- mies. They had a right to retaliate on any species of our property they could find. The right of retaliation, or just retortion, for equivalent damage on any part of an enemy ^s property, is permitted to every nation. What right has the British nation (for if the nation has not the right, none of its people have) to demand a breach of faith in the American government to its citi- zens? I have already mentioned the engagement of the government with its citizens respecting the paper money — If you take if, it shall he money. Shall it be judged now not to be money? Shall this compact be broken for the sake of the British nation? No, sir, the language of national law is otherwise. Sir, the laws of confiscation and paper money, made together one system, connected and sanctioned by the legisla- ture, on which depended once the fate of our coun- try, and on which depend now, the happiness, the ease, and comfort, of thousands of your fellow-citizens. Will it not be a breach of the compact with your people, to say that the money is not to keep up to its original standard in the quality given it by law? What were the effects of this system? W^hat would have been the effects, had your citizens been apprized that British debts must be paid? Would they have taken the mo- ney? Would they have deposited the money in the loan office, if they had been warned by law, that they must deposit it, subject to the future regulations of peace; that it should not release them from the ere-

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