The American Crisis | Page 8

those who have nobly
stood, and are yet determined to stand the matter out: I call not upon a few, but upon all:
not on this state or that state, but on every state: up and help us; lay your shoulders to the
wheel; better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake. Let it
be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue
could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth
to meet and to repulse it. Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands;
throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but "show your faith by your works,"
that God may bless you. It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the
evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the
back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is
dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when
a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I love the man that can smile
in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the
business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience
approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. My own line of reasoning is
to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as
I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if
a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill
me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will,
am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common
man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an individual villain,
or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither
can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the
other. Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer
the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one
whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man. I conceive

likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being, who at the last day shall be
shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the
orphan, the widow, and the slain of America.
There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons,
too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves
with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly, to
expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest
is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence
of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both. Howe's first object is, partly by
threats and partly by promises, to terrify or seduce the people to deliver up their arms and
receive mercy. The ministry recommended the same plan to Gage, and this is what the
tories call making their peace, "a peace which passeth all understanding" indeed! A peace
which would be the immediate forerunner of a worse ruin than any we have yet thought
of. Ye men of Pennsylvania, do reason upon these things! Were the back counties to give
up their arms, they would fall an easy prey to the Indians, who are all armed: this perhaps
is what some Tories would not be sorry for. Were the home counties to deliver up their
arms, they would be exposed to the resentment of the back counties who would then have
it in their power to chastise their defection at pleasure. And were any one state to give up
its arms, that state must be garrisoned by all Howe's army of Britons and Hessians to
preserve it from the anger of the rest. Mutual fear is the principal link in the chain of
mutual love, and woe be to that state that breaks the compact. Howe is mercifully inviting