s to Boston; that seat of wretchedness will teach us wisdom,
and instruct us forever to renounce a power in whom we can have no
trust. The inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who, but a few
months ago, were in ease and affluence, have now no other
alternative than to stay and starve, or turn out to
beg--endangered by the fire of their friends if they continue
within the city, and plundered by the soldiery if they leave it.
In their present situation they are prisoners without the hope of
redemption, and in a general attack for their relief, they would
be exposed to the fury of both armies.

"Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of
Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out,
'_Come, come; we shall be friends again for all this_.' But
examine the passions and feelings of mankind, bring the doctrine
of reconciliation to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me
whether you can hereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the
power that hath carried fire and sword into your land? If you can
not do all these, then you are only deceiving yourselves, and, by
your delay, bringing ruin upon your posterity. Your future
connection with Britain, whom you can neither love nor honor, will
be forced and unnatural, and, being formed only on the plan of
present convenience, will, in a little time, fall into a relapse
more wretched than the first. But if you say you can still pass
the violations over, then I ask, hath your house been burnt? Hath
your property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and
children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have
you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the
ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a
judge of those who have. But if you have, and can still shake
hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of
husband, father, friend, or lover; and, whatever may be your rank
or title in life, you have the heart of a coward and the spirit of
a sycophant.

"This is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but trying them by
those feelings and affections which nature justifies, and without
which we should be incapable of discharging the social duties of
life or enjoying the felicities of it. I mean not to exhibit
horror for the purpose of provoking revenge, but to awaken us from
fatal and unmanly slumbers, that