will be to perpetuate
a prudent, active, and just legislature, and which will never expire
until you yourselves lose the virtues which give it existence.

And, brethren and fellow-countrymen, if it was ever granted to mortals
to trace the designs of Providence, and interpret its manifestations in
favor of their cause, we may, with humility of soul, cry out, "Not unto
us, not unto us, but to thy Name be the praise." The confusion of the
devices among our enemies, and the rage of the elements against them,
have done almost as much towards our success as either our councils or
our arms.

The time at which this attempt on our liberties was made, when we were
ripened into maturity, had acquired a knowledge of war, and were free
from the incursions of enemies in this country, the gradual advances of
our oppressors enabling us to prepare for our defence, the unusual
fertility of our lands and clemency of the seasons, the success which at
first attended our feeble arms, producing unanimity among our friends
and reducing our internal foes to acquiescence,--these are all strong
and palpable marks and assurances, that Providence is yet gracious unto
Zion, that it will turn away the captivity of Jacob.

We have now no other alternative than independence, or the most
ignominious and galling servitude. The legions of our enemies thicken on
our plains; desolation and death mark their bloody career; whilst the
mangled corpses of our countrymen seem to cry out to us as a voice from
heaven: "Will you permit our posterity to groan under the galling chains
of our murderers? Has our blood been expended in vain? Is the only
reward which our constancy, till death, has obtained for our country,
that it should be sunk into a deeper and more ignominious vassalage?"
Recollect who are the men that demand your submission; to whose decrees
you are invited to pay obedience! Men who, unmindful of their relation
to you as brethren, of your long implicit submission to their laws; of
the sacrifice which you and your forefathers made of your natural
advantages for commerce to their avarice,--formed a deliberate plan to
wrest from you the small pittance of property which they had permitted
you to acquire. Remember that the men who wish to rule over you are they
who, in pursuit of this plan of despotism, annulled the sacred contracts
which had been made with your ancestors; conveyed into your cities a
mercenary soldiery to compel you to submission by insu