From the day on which an accommodation takes place between England and America, on any other terms than as independent States, I shall date the ruin of this country.  A politic minister will study to lull us into security, by granting us the full extent of our petitions.  The warm sunshine of influence would melt down the virtue, which the violence of the storm rendered more firm and unyielding.  In a state of tranquillity, wealth, and luxury, our descendants would forget the arts of war and the noble activity and zeal which made their ancestors invincible.  Every art of corruption would be employed to loosen the bond of union which renders our resistance formidable.  When the spirit of liberty which now animates our hearts and gives success to our arms is extinct, our numbers will accelerate our ruin and render us easier victims to tyranny.  Ye abandoned minions of an infatuated ministry, if peradventure any should yet remain among us, remember that a Warren and Montgomery are numbered among the dead.  Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, What should be the reward of such sacrifices?  Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth?  If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom,—­go from us in peace.  We ask not your counsels or arms.  Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.  May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!

To unite the supremacy of Great Britain and the liberty of America is utterly impossible.  So vast a continent, and of such a distance from the seat of empire, will every day grow more unmanageable.  The motion of so unwieldy a body cannot be directed with any dispatch and uniformity without committing to the Parliament of Great Britain powers inconsistent with our freedom.  The authority and force which would be absolutely necessary for the preservation of the peace and good order of this continent would put all our valuable rights within the reach of that nation.

As the administration of government requires firmer and more numerous supports in proportion to its extent, the burdens imposed on us would be excessive, and we should have the melancholy prospect of their increasing on our posterity.  The scale of officers, from the rapacious and needy commissioner to the haughty governor, and from the governor, with his hungry train, to perhaps a licentious and prodigal viceroy, must be upheld by you and your children.  The fleets and armies which will be employed to silence your murmurs and complaints must be supported by the fruits of your industry.