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“ Those very men who wish to entail slavery on our country, are caressed and harbored among us. Posterity will not believe it ; if they do, they will curse the memory of their forefathers for their shameful lenity. Can we ever expect any grateful return for our humanity, if it deserves that name? Believe not a spark of that or any other virtue is to be found in the Tory's breast ; for what principle can that wretch have who would sell his soul to subject his country to the will of the greatest tyrant the world at present produces? ”

“ Instantly banish every Tory from among you. Let America be sacred alone to freemen.
Drive far from you every baneful wretch who wishes to see you fettered with the chains of tyranny. Send them where they may enjoy their beloved slavery to perfection — send them to the island of Britain ; there let them drink the cup of slavery and eat the bread of bitterness all the days of their existence — there let them drag out a painful life, despised and accursed by those very men whose cause they have had the wickedness to espouse. ”

“ The present state of America is truly alarming to every man who is capable of reflection. Without law, without government, without any other mode of power than what is founded on, and granted by courtesy. Held together by an unexampled concurrence of sentiment, which, is nevertheless subject to change, and which, every secret enemy is endeavouring to dissolve. Our present condition, is, Legislation without law ; wisdom without a plan ; a constitution without a name ; and, what is strangely astonishing, perfect Independance, contending for dependance. ”

“ The Tories! Who harbor those who do desert? The Tories! In short, who wish to see us conquered, to see us slaves, to see us hewers of wood and drawers of water? The Tories!
And is it possible that we should suffer men, who have been guilty of all these and a thousand other calamities which this country has experienced, to live among us! To live among us, did I say? Nay, do they not move in our Assemblies? Do they not insult us with their impudence? Do they not hold traitorous assemblies of their own? Do they not walk the streets at noon day, and taste the air of liberty? ”

“ Is it possible that those states who are ambitiously grasping at territories, to which in our judgment they have not the least shadow of exclusive right, will use with greater moderation the increase of wealth and power derived from those territories, when acquired, than what they have displayed in their endeavours to acquire them? We think not. We are convinced the same spirit which hath prompted them to insist on a claim so extravagant, so repugnant to every principle of justice, so incompatible with the general welfare of all the states, will urge them on to add oppression to injustice. ”

“ Chiefs who scorn you while making use of you, will oppose in vain their harangues to the irresistible eloquence of liberty, of need, of necessity. In short, and to say all in one word, the cause of the Americans is just: heaven and earth condemn the one which you do not blush to uphold. —
O Germans, who can have infused in you this thirst of combat, this barbarous frenzy, this odious devotion to tyranny? ”

“ DEPEND upon it, my Friend, a people like the English, arrived to the highest pitch of glory and power, the envy and admiration of surrounding slaves, who hold the balance of Europe in their hands, and rival in arts and arms every period of ancient or modern story ; a nation who, for the defence and safety of America only, staked their all in the late war ; this people, I say, justly conscious of their dignity, will not patiently be dictated to by those whom they have ever considered as dependant upon them. ”

“ How can the common force be exerted, if the power of collecting it be put in weak, foolish, and unsteady hands? How can we hope for success in our European negotiations, if the nations of Europe have no confidence in the wisdom and vigor of the great Continental government? This is the object on which their eyes are fixed; hence it is, America will derive its importance or insignificance in their estimation. ”

“ Can we hear this, and still harbor a Tory among us? For my own part, whenever I meet one in the street, or at the coffee house, my blood boils within me. Their guilt is equalled only by their impudence. They strut, and seem to bid defiance to every one. In every place, and in every company, they spread their damnable doctrines, and then laugh at the pusillanimity of those who let them go unpunished. I flatter myself, however, with the hopes of soon seeing a period to their reign, and a total end to their existence in America. ”

“ How came Maryland by its land, but by its charter? By its charter, Virginia owns to the South Sea. Gentlemen shall not pare away the Colony of Virginia. Rhode Island has more generosity than to wish the Massachusetts pared away. Delaware does not wish to pare away Pennsylvania. Huntington. Admit there is danger from Virginia, does it follow that Congress has a right to limit her bounds? The consequence is, not to enter into confederation. But as to the question of right, we all unite against mutilating charters. I can't agree to the principle. We are a spectacle to all Europe. ”

“ May the Almighty Ruler of the Universe, who has raised you to Independence, and given you a place among the nations of the earth, make the American Revolution an Era in the history of the world, remarkable for the progressive increase of human happiness! ”

“ There is not a company of foot that has served in America, out of which you may not pick a man of sufficient knowledge and experience to make a governor of a colony there. But on this ground, on the Stamp Act, when so many here will think it a crying injustice, I am one who will lift up my hands against it.
In such a cause, your success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would fall like the strong man. She would embrace the pillars of the state, and pull down the constitution along with her. ”

“ The gentleman tells us, America is obstinate ; America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty, as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest. I come not here armed at all points, with law cases and acts of Parliament, with the statute-book doubled down in dog's-ears, to defend the cause of liberty : if I had, I myself would have cited the two cases of Chester and Durham. ”

“ We are all crying out against the depreciation of our money, and entering into measures to restore it to its value ; while the Tories, who are one principal cause of the depreciation, are taken no notice of, but suffered to live quietly among us. We can no longer be silent on this subject, and see the independence of the country, after standing every shock from without, endangered by internal enemies. Rouse, America ! your danger is great — great from a quarter where you least expect it. The Tories, the Tories will yet be the ruin of you ! ”

“ Such have been some of the beneficial effects, which have resulted from that expansion of the human mind, which has been produced by the revolution, but these have not been without alloy.
To overset an established government unhinges many of those principles, which bind individuals to each other. A long time, and much prudence, will be necessary to reproduce a spirit of union and that reverence for government, without which society is a rope of sand. The right of the people to resist their rulers, when invading their liberties, forms the corner stone of the American republics. ”

“ I HOPE, my dear countrymen, that you will in every colony be upon your guard against those who may at any time endeavour to stir you up, under pretences of patriotism, to any measures disrespectful to our sovereign and our mother country. Hot, rash, disorderly proceedings, injure the reputation of a people as to wisdom, valour and virtue, without procuring them the least benefit. ”

“ You owe this to America. This is the price America pays for her protection. And shall a miserable financier come with a boast, that he can bring a pepper-corn into the Exchequer, to the loss of millions to the nation ! I dare not say, how much higher these profits may be augmented. Omitting the immense increase of people by natural population, in the northern colonies, and the emigration from every part of Europe, I am convinced the commercial system of America may be altered to advantage. ”

“ England, drained of men and money, is purchasing at great expense money and men ; your princes seize eagerly this temporary and ruinous resource ; they levy soldiers, they sell them, they deliver them : that is the employment of your arms ; that is for what you are destined. Your blood will be the price of corruption and the plaything of ambition. This money which has just been acquired by trafficking in your lives, will pay shameful debts or help to contract new ones. ”

“ JANUARY 1, 1776 — Grant us help in this day of trouble; a very remarkable year past ; the most that I ever saw — unnatural war, great sickness, and remarkable drought. 100 years ago we were in a struggle with the Indians, who rose up in rebellion and designed the ruin of the country, but God preserved us. In the year past the leaders of our nation have sent troops to subdue and bring us under in this country, to submit to their arbitrary and tyrannical measures. Much blood has been shed — towns destroyed. ”

“ I felt for you, on seeing the order in which the balloting placed the delegates in Congress. It is an effect of that rancorous malice, that has so long followed you, through that arduous path of duty which you have invariably travelled, since America resolved to resist her oppressors. Is it any pleasure to you, to remark, that at the same era in which these men figure against you, public spirit seems to have taken its flight from Virginia? It is too much the case; for the quota of our troops is not half made up, and no chance seems to remain for completing it. ”

“ I am no courtier of America — I stand up for this kingdom. I maintain, that the Parliament has a right to bind, to restrain America. Our legislative power over the colonies is sovereign and supreme. When it ceases to be sovereign and supreme, I would advise every gentleman to sell his lands, if he can, and embark for that country. When two countries are connected together, like England and her colonies, without being incorporated, the one must necessarily govern; the greater must rule the less ”

“ The property of no man is secure in the present unbraced system of things. The mind of the multitude is left at random, and seeing no fixed object before them, they pursue such as fancy or opinion starts. Nothing is criminal ; there is no such thing as treason ; wherefore, every one thinks himself at liberty to act as he pleases. The Tories would not have dared to assemble offensively, had they known that their lives, by that act, were forfeited to the laws of the state. A line of distinction should be drawn, between English soldiers taken in battle, and inhabitants of America taken in arms. ”

“ Ah ! why do you not imitate that brave people, instead of striving to destroy them ! They are breaking their fetters ; they are fighting to maintain their natural rights and to guarantee their liberty ; they are stretching out their arms to you ; they are your brothers ; they are doubly so : nature made them such, and social ties have strengthened these sacred claims ; more than half of this people is composed of your fellow-countrymen, of your friends, of your relatives. They have fled from tyranny to the uttermost parts of the world, and tyranny has pur sued them even there ”

“ And it has been thought by a very great practitioner, that if the laws of trade were regulated on a practicable application of them to the state of the colony trade, that every breach of them should be prosecuted in the same way. That there should be an advocate appointed to each court from Great Britain, who, having a proper salary independent of the people, should be directed and empowered to prosecute in that court, not only every one who was an offender, but also every officer of the customs, who through neglect, collusion, oppression, or any other breach of his trust became such. ”

“ We have an excellent prince, in whose good dispositions towards us we may confide. We have a generous, sensible, and humane nation, to whom we may apply. They may be deceived : they may, by artful men, be provoked to anger against us ; but I cannot yet believe they will be cruel or unjust ; or that their anger will be implacable. Let us behave like dutiful children, who have received unmerited blows from a beloved parent. Let us complain to our parents; but let our complaints speak at the same time, the language of affliction and veneration. ”

“ It is my opinion there is no one thing upon the Continent that wants regulating so much, as the right which the States exercise of keeping what militia on foot they please at the Continental expense. I am persuaded North Carolina has militia enough to swallow up all the revenues of America, especially under their imperfect arrangements, where every man draws and wastes as much as he pleases. The country is so extensive and the powers of Government so weak, that everybody does as he pleases. ”

“ The next day the commanding officers here will show me the city and its environs, and then I shall set out for the army.
Considering the pleasant life I lead in this country, my sympathy with the people, which makes me feel as much at ease in their society as if I had known them for twenty years, the similarity between their mode of thinking and my own, and my love of liberty and of glory, one might suppose that I am very happy. ”

“ The city of Charleston is one of the handsomest and best built, and its inhabitants among the most agreeable, that I have ever seen. The American women are very pretty, simple in their manners, and exhibit a neatness, which is every where cultivated even more studiously than in England. What most charms me is, that all the citizens are brethren. In America, there are no poor, nor even what we call peasantry. Each individual has his own honest property, and the same rights as the most wealthy landed proprietor. ”