bstinacy, yet our
real and intrinsick strength continues the same; nor are there yet any
preparations made against us by the enemy, with views beyond their own
security and defence. It does not yet appear, sir, that our enemies,
however insolent, look upon us as the proper objects of a conquest, or
that they imagine it possible to besiege us in our own ports, or to
confine us to the defence of our own country. We are not, therefore, to
have recourse to measures, which, if they are ever to be admitted, can
be justified by nothing but the utmost distress, and can only become
proper, as the last and desperate expedient. The enemy, sir, ought to
appear not only in our seas, but in our ports, before it can be
necessary that one part of the nation should be enslaved for the
preservation of the rest.

To destroy any part of the community, while it is in our power to
preserve the whole, is certainly absurd, and inconsistent with the
equity and tenderness of a good government: and what is slavery less
than destruction? What greater calamity has that man to expect, who has
been already deprived of his liberty, and reduced to a level with
thieves and murderers? With what spirit, sir, will he draw his sword
upon his invaders, who has nothing to defend? Or why should he repel the
injuries which will make no addition to his misery, and will fall only
on those to whom he is enslaved?

It is well known that gratitude is the foundation of our duty to our
country, and to our superiours, whom we are obliged to protect upon some
occasions, because, upon others, we receive protection from them, and
are maintained in the quiet possession of our fortunes, and the security
of our lives. But what gratitude is due to his country from a man
distinguished, without a crime, by the legislature, from the rest of the
people, and marked out for hardships and oppressions? From a man who is
condemned to labour and to danger, only that others may fatten with
indolence, and slumber without anxiety? From a man who is dragged to
misery without reward, and hunted from his retreat, as the property of
his master?

Where gratitude, sir, is not the motive of action, which may easily
happen in minds not accustomed to observe the ends of government, and
relations of society, interest never fails to preside, which may be
distinguished from gratitude, as it regards the immediate consequences
of actions, and confines the view to present advantages. But what
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