in; and though in the agony of their exit, it may be unsafe to live
within the flapping of their tail, yet every hour shortens their date,
and lessens their power of mischief. If any thing happens while this
number is in the press, it will afford me a subject for the last pages
of it. At present I am tired of waiting; and as neither the enemy, nor
the state of politics have yet produced any thing new, I am thereby
left in the field of general matter, undirected by any striking or
particular object. This Crisis, therefore, will be made up rather of
variety than novelty, and consist more of things useful than things
wonderful.

  The success of the cause, the union of the people, and the means
of supporting and securing both, are points which cannot be too much
attended to. He who doubts of the former is a desponding coward, and
he who wilfully disturbs the latter is a traitor. Their characters are
easily fixed, and under these short descriptions I leave them for
the present.

  One of the greatest degrees of sentimental union which America
ever knew, was in denying the right of the British parliament "to bind
the colonies in all cases whatsoever." The Declaration is, in its
form, an almighty one, and is the loftiest stretch of arbitrary
power that ever one set of men or one country claimed over another.
Taxation was nothing more than the putting the declared right into
practice; and this failing, recourse was had to arms, as a means to
establish both the right and the practice, or to answer a worse
purpose, which will be mentioned in the course of this number. And
in order to repay themselves the expense of an army, and to profit
by their own injustice, the colonies were, by another law, declared to
be in a state of actual rebellion, and of consequence all property
therein would fall to the conquerors.

  The colonies, on their part, first, denied the right; secondly, they
suspended the use of taxable articles, and petitioned against the
practice of taxation: and these failing, they, thirdly, defended their
property by force, as soon as it was forcibly invaded, and, in
answer to the declaration of rebellion and non-protection, published
their Declaration of Independence and right of self-protection.

  These, in a few words, are the different stages of the quarrel;
and the parts are so intimately and necessarily connected with each
other as to admit of no separation. A person, to use a trite phrase,
must be a Whig or a Tory in a lump. His feelings, as a man, may be
wounded; his charity, as a Christian, may be moved; but his
political principles must go through all the cases on one side or
the other. He cannot be a Whig in this stage, and a Tory in that. If
he says he is against the united independence of the continent, he
is to all intents and purposes against her in all the rest; because
this last comprehends the whole. And he may just as well say, that
Britain was right in declaring us rebels; right in taxing us; and
right in declaring her "right to bind the colonies in all cases
whatsoever." It signifies nothing what neutral ground, of his own
creating, he may skulk upon for shelter, for the quarrel in no stage
of it hath afforded any such ground; and either we or Britain are
absolutely right or absolutely wrong through the whole.

  Britain, like a gamester nearly ruined, has now put all her losses
into one bet, and is playing a desperate game for the total. If she
wins it, she wins from me my life; she wins the continent as the
forfeited property of rebels; the right of taxing those that are
left as reduced subjects; and the power of binding them slaves: and
the single die which determines this unparalleled event is, whether we
support our independence or she overturn it. This is coming to the
point at once. Here is the touchstone to try men by. He that is not
a supporter of the independent States of America in the same degree
that his religious and political principles would suffer him to
support the government of any other country, of which he called
himself a subject, is, in the American sense of the word, A TORY;
and the instant that he endeavors to bring his toryism into
practice, he becomes A TRAITOR. The first can only be detected by a
general test, and the law hath already provided for the latter.

  It is unnatural and impolitic to admit men who would root up our
independence to have any share in our legislation, either as
electors or representatives; because the support of our independence
rests, in a great measure, on the vigor and purity of our public
bodies. Would Britain, even in time of peace, much less in war, suffer
an election to be carried by men who professed themselves to be not
her subjects, or allow such to sit in Parliament? Certainly not.

  But there are a certain species of Tories with whom conscience or
principle has nothing to do, and who are so from avarice only. Some of
the first fortunes on the continent, on the part of the Whigs, are
staked on the issue of our present measures. And shall disaffection
only be rewarded with security? Can any thing be a greater
inducement to a miserly man, than the hope of making his Mammon
safe? And though the scheme be fraught with every character of
folly, yet, so long as he supposes, that by doing nothing materially
criminal against America on one part, and by expressing his private
disapprobation against independence, as palliative with the enemy,
on the other part, he stands in a safe line between both; while, I
say, this ground be suffered to remain, craft, and the spirit of
avarice, will point it out, and men will not be wanting to fill up
this most contemptible of all characters.

  These men, ashamed to own the sordid cause from whence their
disaffection springs, add thereby meanness to meanness, by endeavoring
to shelter themselves under the mask of hypocrisy; that is, they had
rather be thought to be Tories from some kind of principle, than
Tories by having no principle at all. But till such time as they can