gentlemen object to the
latitude of this description, because in the southern colonies the
Church of England forms a large body, and has a regular establishment.
It is certainly true. There is, however, a circumstance attending these
colonies, which, in my opinion, fully counterbalances this difference,
and makes the spirit of liberty still more high and haughty than in
those to the northward. It is, that in Virginia and the Carolinas they
have a vast multitude of slaves. Where this is the case in any part of
the world, those who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of
their freedom. Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of
rank and privilege. Not seeing there, that freedom, as in countries
where it is a common blessing, and as broad and general as the air, may
be united with much abject toil, with great misery, with all the
exterior of servitude, liberty looks, amongst them, like something that
is more noble and liberal. I do not mean, Sir, to commend the superior
morality of this sentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue
in it; but I cannot alter the nature of man. The fact is so; and these
people of the southern colonies are much more strongly, and with an
higher and more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty, than those to the
northward. Such were all the ancient commonwealths; such were our Gothic
ancestors; such in our days were the Poles; and such will be all masters
of slaves, who are not slaves themselves. In such a people, the
haughtiness of domination combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies
it, and renders it invincible.

Permit me, Sir, to add another circumstance in our colonies, which
contributes no mean part towards the growth and effect of this
untractable spirit: I mean their education. In no country, perhaps, in
the world is the law so general a study. The profession itself is
numerous and powerful, and in most provinces it takes the lead. The
greater number of the deputies sent to the Congress were lawyers. But
all who read, and most do read, endeavor to obtain some smattering in
that science. I have been told by an eminent bookseller, that in no
branch of his business, after tracts of popular devotion, were so many
books as those on the law exported to the plantations. The colonists
have now fallen into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear
that they have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's "Commentaries" in
America as in England. General Gage