Thomas Storrow Brown

“ Thus we have seen British rulers, with a cowardice and a perfidy unworthy of the Representatives of a powerful nation, continuing to allure the people of Canada, by deceptive promises, in times of pressing necessity, and, when the emergency had passed, resorting to every unwarrantable expedient to defer, or avoid the fulfilment of, their solemn engagements.
After seventy-seven years of British rule, we behold our country miserable, compared with the prosperous Republics who wisely threw off the yoke of Monarchy. We feel that our population is equal in capacity to theirs. ”

“ The trial by Jury, which we have been taught to look upon as the palladium of our liberties, is made a vain illusion, or instrument of despotism, inasmuch as Sheriffs, creatures of the Executive, upon which they depend daily for a continuance in an office to which vast emoluments are attached, can select and summon such Jurors as they please, and thereby become themselves the arbiters in state prosecutions instituted against the people by their oppressors. ”

“ A Legislative Council, the members of which are nominated by authorities ignorant of the country, residing 3000 miles off, composed mostly of persons who do not sympatize with the country, still exists as an impotent screen between the Governor and the governed, and nullifies all attempts at useful legislation. An Executive Council nominated in the same manner, whose influence has poisoned the mind of each succeeding Governor, remains unchanged, to protect the cumulation of office and abuses that are connected with every public department. ”

“ A corrupt Executive has constantly sought to render our House of Assembly an instrument to decide unalterably the slavery of its constituents, and failing in this wicked design, has rendered its action nugatory by frequent prorogations and dissolutions, and by refusing an assent to laws useful to the people, and passed unanimously by their Representatives. ”

“ The authority of a parent state over a colony can exist only during the pleasure of the Colonists; for the country being established and settled by them, belongs to them of right, and may be separated from all foreign connection, whenever the inconveniences resulting from an Executive power residing abroad, ceasing to harmonise with a local Legislature, makes such a step necessary to the inhabitants for the protection of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. ”

“ Immense funds, bestowed by a provident government, or by generous individuals, on the late order of the Jesuits, for purposes of education, have been diverted from this commendable object, and made an instrument of corruption for the reward of useless or reprehensible officials, while the children of the Province, deprived of the funds provided for their instruction, have grown up without the benefit of school education, to be now taunted with want of learning. ”

“ The Young Men's Association of Montreal adopting the title of "THE SONS OF LIBERTY" is not intended to be a private cabal, or a secret junto, but an active Democratic body comprising all young men in the city patriotically alive to the interests of their country, whatever may be their creed, country, or the nation of their ancestors. ”

“ We see Emigrants from beyond seas, of the same class, wretched if they remain here, happy if they join the great Democratic family, and we have daily evidence that our ill fortunes are attributable to the desolating action of a Colonial government. A pretended protection has withered our energies. ”

“ Hosts of officers, appointed without consent of the People, to whom they are too frequently obnoxious and never responsible, and holding commissions during the pleasure of an irresponsible Executive, are placed in authority over us, with salaries enormously disproportioned both to our means and to their services, whereby office is made a means of family or personal aggrandizement, instead of being suited to the resources and wants of the people. ”

“ Regulations for the trade of the country, adopted by a foreign Parliament, are enforced without our consent. We are thus confined to certain markets, and are deprived of the power of extending our commerce to all parts of the world when the markets of Britain are unfavorable to our produce, whereby our commercial enterprise is crippled and paralyzed. ”

“ The wicked designs of British authorities have severed all ties of sympathy for an unfeeling mother country. A separation has commenced between parties, which will never be cemented, but which will go on increasing, until one of those sudden, those unforeseen events, that attend the march of time, affords us a fit opportunity for assuming our rank among the Independent Sovereignties of America. ”

“ No remedies have been extended, and at last, when the tyranny of those intrusted with power in the Province has increased insufferably from continued impunity, advantage is taken by an ungenerous European State, of a time of general peace, to coerce us into a connivance or approval of our own debasement, by a threat to seize upon our public Revenues with a hand of force, in defiance of natural right, and of every principle of law, policy or justice. ”

“ When urgent circumstances in the affairs of a country make it necessary for men to form themselves into Parties, or Associations, a proper respect for the opinion of society, demands from them an explicit Declaration of the causes which have induced them to combine, and of the principles which they intend to advance, by the power of their organization. ”

“ All governments being instituted for the benefit of a whole people, & not for the honor or profit of any individual, all pretensions of Divine or absolute authority to rule, claimed by, or for, any man or set of men, are blasphemous and absurd, alike monstrous when inculcated, and degrading when admitted. ”

“ It has preserved all that was bad in our ancient institutions, or unfitted to the present state of society, thwarted the free operation of all that was good, and trammelled by restraints every measure of reform or amelioration. ”

“ Laws, affecting the tenure of lands, inapplicable to the condition of the country, and injurious in their operation, have been forced upon us by a foreign Parliament, which in order to favor private and sinister interests, has usurped a power of internal legislation that appertains alone to the Legislature of this Province. ”

“ With such an invigorating prospect spreading before us, it becomes our imperative duty, laying aside the gay frivolities of youth, to betake ourselves to the serious consideration of our country's politics, her wants and her resources ”

“ WHEREFORE, we the Officers and Managing Committee of the Association of the "SONS OF LIBERTY" in Montreal, in our own names, and on behalf of those whom we represent, pledge ourselves to our abused country, and to each other, that we will devote all our energies, and be prepared to act as circumstances demand, in order to procure for this Province a reformed system of government, based upon the Elective principle; a responsible Executive ”