“ There are so many facts, attested by so many respectable witnesses, that there is no room to doubt, but that the Britons lost the day; a terrible loss indeed to a nation, who have the empire of the sea to maintain, in order almost to preserve their existence. It is not being equal to France at sea; they must support a clear and decided superiority, not only to France, but to France and Spain in conjunction, not to mention our States, in order to preserve their rank among the powers of Europe. My tenderest respects to all good men. ”

“ America will grow with astonishing rapidity, and England, France, and every other nation in Europe will be the better for her prosperity. Peace, which is her dear delight, will be her wealth and her glory, for I cannot see the seed of a war with any part of the world in future, but with Great Britain, and such States as may be weak enough, if any such there should be, to become her allies. ”

“ You expect with reason, that the people of New York should do your merchants justice in the payment of their old debts; consider the injustice you do them in keeping them so long out of their habitations, and out of their business, by which they might have been enabled to make payment. There is no truth more clear to me than this, that the great interests of our two countries is a thorough reconciliation. Restraints on the freedom of commerce and intercourse between us, can afford no advantage equivalent to the mischief they will do, by keeping up ill humor and promoting a total alienation. ”

“ The events of war are uncertain at sea, more than even by land; but America has resources for the final defence of her liberty, which Britain will never be able to exhaust, though she should exhaust France and Spain, and it may not impossibly be our hard fate, but it will be our unfading glory finally to turn the scale of the war, to humble the pride, which is so terrible to the commercial nations of Europe, and to produce a balance of power on the seas. To this end Americans must be soldiers and seamen. ”

“ I am persuaded, that neither Nova Scotia nor Canada will remain long under the government of England; and it is to be feared, that in contending for them we shall still further embroil affairs. Nova Scotia is not worth the trouble of keeping it, and it will require continual succors. Canada will occasion us more expense than it will bring us in profit, and will never become flourishing under an European government; at least unless the whole country should be recovered. We deceive ourselves if we imagine, that by emancipating the Americans we shall lose our American islands. ”

“ The news of the day is, that Rodney has gone with his whole fleet to the West Indies, that Du Chaffault is to command the French fleet in America, and the Count d'Estaing in the channel; that a large force is to go to America, either to the Islands or to the Continent, both of ships and troops in two divisions; that the last letters from Holland breathe a spirit somewhat warlike, and indeed the English have treated them with so much indignity and contempt as well as injustice, that one would think it was not always to be borne. ”

“ I have the honor to enclose to Congress the latest gazettes. We have no other intelligence, than is contained in them.
Since the 11th of July, the date of Lord Howe's announcing the arrival of the Count d'Estaing off Sandy Hook, we have not a syllable from America, by the way of England. In France, we have nothing from America since July 3d. This long interval leaves a vast scope for imagination to play, and, accordingly, there is no end to the speculations prompted by the hopes and fears of the nations of Europe. We are weary of conjectures, and must patiently wait for time to end them. ”

“ Taxes, my dear Sir, taxes. Pray let our countrymen consider and be wise; every farthing they pay in taxes is a farthing's worth of wealth and good policy. If it were possible to hire money in Europe to discharge the bills, it would be a dreadful drain to the country to pay the interest of it. But I fear it will not be. The house of Austria has sent orders to Amsterdam to hire a very great sum, England is borrowing great sums, and France is borrowing largely. Amidst such demands for money, and by powers who offer better terms, I fear we shall not be able to succeed. ”

“ I believe, Sir, I am enough known to you, for you to believe me, when I say, that there has not been from the beginning a single person more averse to the unhappy war, or who wishes more earnestly than I do, for a return of peace and mutual amity between Great Britain and America. ”

“ In short, one branch of commerce has been lopped off after another, and one political interest sacrificed after another, She resembles the melancholy spectacle of a great wide spreading tree, that has been girded at the root. Her endeavors to regain these advantages, will continually keep alive in her breast the most malevolent passions towards us. ”

“ America, you have fought me until I despair of beating you, you have made an alliance with the first power of Europe, which is a great honor to your country and a great stability to your cause, so great that it has excited my highest resentment, and has determined me to go to war with France. ”

“ There is nothing more astonishing than the inconsistencies of the patriots in England. Those, who are most violent against the Ministry, are not for making peace with France and Spain, but they would wish to allure America into a separate peace, and persuade her to join them against the House of Bourbon. One would think it impossible, that one man of sense in the world could seriously believe, that we could thus basely violate our truth, thus unreasonably quarrel with our best friends, thus madly attach ourselves to our belligerent enemies. ”

“ By a debate in the House of Commons on the 14th of this month, one would think that the nation was nearly on the brink of a civil war. Yet, I confess, I cannot think that there are any characters at present in whom the nation have sufficient confidence, to venture themselves any lengths under their guidance, and I believe that this spirited conduct of the King will defeat the measures of the counties, unless, indeed, in the course of the next campaign, his arms, especially by sea, should meet with any signal defeat, which would perhaps reanimate the people. ”

“ It is said by the Baron de Bielfield, that piracies and robberies at sea are so odious, so atrocious, and so destructive to the interest of all the European nations, that everything is permitted to repress them. Providence has not granted to any people an exclusive empire upon the seas. To aim at setting up a master there, to prescribe laws to other free nations, is an outrage to all Europe. ”

“ There are two reflections, which the English cannot bear, one is that of losing the domination of the colonies as indispensable to the support of their naval superiority over France and Spain, or either of them, in possession of a powerful fleet at the peace. Their maxim is to make themselves terrible at sea to all nations, and they are convinced that if they make a peace leaving America independent, and France and Spain powerful at sea, they shall never again be terrible to any maritime power. These reasons convince me, that Great Britain will hazard all rather than make peace at present. ”

“ The latter, infamous and detestable as it is, has been established between a nation, once generous, humane, and brave, and certain princes, as avaricious of money as they are prodigal of the blood of their subjects; and such is the scarcity of cash, and the avidity for it in Germany, and so little are the rights of humanity understood and respected, that sellers will probably be found as long as buyers. America will never be found in either class. The State of Germany, with which we may have commerce of an honorable kind, is the House of Austria, one of the most powerful in Europe. ”

“ Is Great Britain to be annihilated? No such thing. A revolution in her government may possibly take place. But whether in favor of despotism or republicanism, is the question. The scarcity of virtue, and even the semblance of it, seems an [262] invincible obstacle to the latter. But the annihilation of a nation never takes place. It depends wholly on herself to determine whether she shall sink down into the rank of the middling powers of Europe, or whether she shall maintain the second place in the scale. ”

“ It is our duty to remark these great changes in the system of mankind, which have already happened in consequence of the American war. The alienation of Portugal from England, the peace of Germany, and that between Petersburg and Constantinople, by all which events England has lost, and France gained, such a superiority of influence and power, are owing entirely to the blind division of that policy and wealth, which the English might have still enjoyed, from the objects of their true interests and honor, to the ruinous American war. ”

“ A celebrated philosophical writer remarks, that when he considered the wars made in Africa, for prisoners to raise sugars in America, the numbers slain in those wars, the numbers that, being crowded in ships, perish in the transportation, and the numbers that die under the severities of slavery, he could scarce look on a morsel of sugar without conceiving it spotted with human blood. If he had considered also the blood of one another, which the white nations shed in fighting for those islands, he would have imagined his sugar not as spotted only, but as thoroughly dyed red. ”

“ It appears to us, that the desire of monopolising commerce was the only motive, which could make England imagine that she had a right to usurp a legitimate authority over this kingdom, and from the moment when she renounced this monopoly, she has taken away the principal obstacle, which opposed our liberty, and consequently the British nation will not continue to itself an arbitrary power, from which she can derive nothing but reducing this kingdom to slavery. ”