As America is gone, the only act of manhood is to let her go. Your
lordship had no hand in the separation, and you will gain no honor
by temporising politics. Besides, there is something so exceedingly
whimsical, unsteady, and even insincere in the present conduct of
England, that she exhibits herself in the most dishonorable colors.

  On the second of August last, General Carleton and Admiral Digby
wrote to General Washington in these words:

  "The resolution of the House of Commons, of the 27th of February
last, has been placed in Your Excellency's hands, and intimations
given at the same time that further pacific measures were likely to
follow. Since which, until the present time, we have had no direct
communications with England; but a mail is now arrived, which brings
us very important information. We are acquainted, sir, by authority,
that negotiations for a general peace have already commenced at Paris,
and that Mr. Grenville is invested with full powers to treat with
all the parties at war, and is now at Paris in execution of his
commission. And we are further, sir, made acquainted, that His
Majesty, in order to remove any obstacles to this peace which he so
ardently wishes to restore, has commanded his ministers to direct
Mr. Grenville, that the independence of the Thirteen United Provinces,
should be proposed by him in the first instance, instead of making
it a condition of a general treaty."

  Now, taking your present measures into view, and comparing them with
the declaration in this letter, pray what is the word of your king, or
his ministers, or the Parliament, good for? Must we not look upon
you as a confederated body of faithless, treacherous men, whose
assurances are fraud, and their language deceit? What opinion can we
possibly form of you, but that you are a lost, abandoned, profligate
nation, who sport even with your own character, and are to be held
by nothing but the bayonet or the halter?

  To say, after this, that the sun of Great Britain will be set
whenever she acknowledges the independence of America, when the not
doing it is the unqualified lie of government, can be no other than
the language of ridicule, the jargon of inconsistency. There were
thousands in America who predicted the delusion, and looked upon it as
a trick of treachery, to take us from our guard, and draw off our
attention from the only system of finance, by which we can be
called, or deserve to be called, a sovereign, independent people.
The fraud, on your part, might be worth attempting, but the
sacrifice to obtain it is too high.

  There are others who credited the assurance, because they thought it
impossible that men who had their characters to establish, would begin
with a lie. The prosecution of the war by the former ministry was
savage and horrid; since which it has been mean, trickish, and
delusive. The one went greedily into the passion of revenge, the other
into the subtleties of low contrivance; till, between the crimes of
both, there is scarcely left a man in America, be he Whig or Tory, who
does not despise or detest the conduct of Britain.

  The management of Lord Shelburne, whatever may be his views, is a
caution to us, and must be to the world, never to regard British
assurances. A perfidy so notorious cannot be hid. It stands even in
the public papers of New York, with the names of Carleton and Digby
affixed to it. It is a proclamation that the king of England is not to
be believed; that the spirit of lying is the governing principle of
the ministry. It is holding up the character of the House of Commons
to public infamy, and warning all men not to credit them. Such are the
consequences which Lord Shelburne's management has brought upon his
country.

  After the authorized declarations contained in Carleton and
Digby's letter, you ought, from every motive of honor, policy and
prudence, to have fulfilled them, whatever might have been the
event. It was the least atonement that you could possibly make to
America, and the greatest kindness you could do to yourselves; for you
will save millions by a general peace, and you will lose as many by
continuing the war.

                                                   COMMON SENSE.

  PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 29, 1782.

  P. S. The manuscript copy of this letter is sent your lordship, by
the way of our head-quarters, to New York, inclosing a late pamphlet
of mine, addressed to the Abbe Raynal, which will serve to give your
lordship some idea of the principles and sentiments of America.

                                                   C. S.

                                XIII.

               THOUGHTS ON THE PEACE, AND THE PROBABLE

                         ADVANTAGES THEREOF.

  "THE times that tried men's souls,"* are over- and the greatest
and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and
happily accomplished.

  * "These are the times that try men's souls," The Crisis No. I.
published December, 1776.

  But to pass from the extremes of danger to safety- from the tumult
of war to the tranquillity of peace, though sweet in contemplation,
requires a gradual composure of the senses to receive it. Even