y event have reason to
lament, what may have happened since. As to conquest, therefore, my
Lords, I repeat, it is impossible. You may swell every expense and
every effort still more extravagantly; pile and accumulate every
assistance you can buy or borrow; traffic and barter with every
little pitiful German prince that sells and sends his subjects to
the shambles of a foreign prince; your efforts are forever vain and
impotent--doubly so from this mercenary aid on which you rely; for
it irritates, to an incurable resentment, the minds of your enemies,
to overrun them with the mercenary sons of rapine and plunder,
devoting them and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling
cruelty! If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a
foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my
arms--never--never--never.

But, my Lords, who is the man, that, in addition to these disgraces
and mischiefs of our army, has dared to authorize and associate to
our arms the tomahawk and scalping-knife of the savage? to call into
civilized alliance the wild and inhuman savage of the woods; to
delegate to the merciless Indian the defence of disputed rights, and
to wage the horrors of his barbarous war against our brethren? My
Lords, these enormities cry aloud for redress and punishment. Unless
thoroughly done away, it will be a stain on the national character.
It is a violation of the Constitution. I believe it is against law.
It is not the least of our national misfortunes that the strength
and character of our army are thus impaired. Infected with the
mercenary spirit of robbery and rapine, familiarized to the horrid
scenes of savage cruelty, it can no longer boast of the noble and
generous principles which dignify a soldier, no longer sympathize
with the dignity of the royal banner, nor feel the pride, pomp, and
circumstance of glorious war, "that make ambition virtue!" What
makes ambition virtue?--the sense of honor. But is the sense of
honor consistent with a spirit of plunder, or the practice of
murder? Can it flow from mercenary motives, or can it prompt to
cruel deeds?

The independent views of America have been stated and asserted as the
foundation of this address. My Lords, no man wishes for the due
dependence of America on this country more than I do. To preserve it,
and not confirm that state of independence into which your measures
hitherto have driven them, is the object which we ought to unite in
attain