from Great-Britain, and establishing Independent States. We fight not for Glory or for Conquest. We exhibit to Mankind the remarkable Spectacle of a People attacked by unprovoked Enemies, without any imputation or even suspicion of Offence. They boast of their Privileges and Civilization, and yet proffer no milder Conditions than Servitude or Death.
In our own native Land, in defence of the Freedom that is our Birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late Violation of it — for the protection of our Property, acquired solely by the honest Industry of our fore-fathers and ourselves, against Violence actually offered, we have taken up Arms. We shall lay them down when Hostilities shall cease on the part of the Aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.
Journals of Congress, Sept. 5, 1774-Jan. 1, 1776 (Philadelphia, 1777), I, 143-148 passim.
156. A Diatribe on the American Arguments (1775)
This piece, by the most eminent man of letters then living in the English-speaking world, is a reply to the declaration in No. 155, and an example of the fierce logic of the ultra-Tory party in England. — Bibliography of Johnson : Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, VI, 109; G. Birbeck Hill, Boswell's Johnson, II, 312-317.
THE Congress of Philadelphia, an assembly convened by its own authority, has promulgated a declaration, in compliance with which the communication between Britain and the greatest part of North America is now suspended. They ceased to admit the importation of English goods in December 1774, and determine to permit the exportation of their own no longer than to November 1775.
This might seem enough, but they have done more. They have declared, that they shall treat all as enemies who do not concur with them in disaffection and perveresness [perverseness], and that they will trade with none that shall trade with Britain. . . .
These hostile declarations they profess themselves ready to maintain by force. They have armed the militia of their provinces and seized the publick stores of ammunition. They are therefore no longer subjects, since they refuse the laws of their Sovereign, and in defence of that refusal are making open preparations for war. . . .
