manner of protection, and seduced into new guilt by pardoning them
from their former virtues, must begin to have a very contemptible
opinion both of your power and your policy. Your authority in the
Jerseys is now reduced to the small circle which your army occupies,
and your proclamation is no where else seen unless it be to be laughed
at. The mighty subduers of the continent have retreated into a
nutshell, and the proud forgivers of our sins are fled from those they
came to pardon; and all this at a time when they were despatching
vessel after vessel to England with the great news of every day. In
short, you have managed your Jersey expedition so very dexterously,
that the dead only are conquerors, because none will dispute the
ground with them.

  In all the wars which you have formerly been concerned in you had
only armies to contend with; in this case you have both an army and
a country to combat with. In former wars, the countries followed the
fate of their capitals; Canada fell with Quebec, and Minorca with Port
Mahon or St. Phillips; by subduing those, the conquerors opened a
way into, and became masters of the country: here it is otherwise;
if you get possession of a city here, you are obliged to shut
yourselves up in it, and can make no other use of it, than to spend
your country's money in. This is all the advantage you have drawn from
New York; and you would draw less from Philadelphia, because it
requires more force to keep it, and is much further from the sea. A
pretty figure you and the Tories would cut in this city, with a
river full of ice, and a town full of fire; for the immediate
consequence of your getting here would be, that you would be
cannonaded out again, and the Tories be obliged to make good the
damage; and this sooner or later will be the fate of New York.

  I wish to see the city saved, not so much from military as from
natural motives. 'Tis the hiding place of women and children, and Lord
Howe's proper business is with our armies. When I put all the
circumstances together which ought to be taken, I laugh at your notion
of conquering America. Because you lived in a little country, where an
army might run over the whole in a few days, and where a single
company of soldiers might put a multitude to the rout, you expected to
find it the same here. It is plain that you brought over with you
all the narrow notions you were bred up with, and imagined that a
proclamation in the king's name was to do great things; but Englishmen
always travel for knowledge, and your lordship, I hope, will return,
if you return at all, much wiser than you came.

  We may be surprised by events we did not expect, and in that
interval of recollection you may gain some temporary advantage: such
was the case a few weeks ago, but we soon ripen again into reason,
collect our strength, and while you are preparing for a triumph, we
come upon you with a defeat. Such it has been, and such it would be
were you to try it a hundred times over. Were you to garrison the
places you might march over, in order to secure their subjection, (for
remember you can do it by no other means,) your army would be like a
stream of water running to nothing. By the time you extended from
New York to Virginia, you would be reduced to a string of drops not
capable of hanging together; while we, by retreating from State to
State, like a river turning back upon itself, would acquire strength
in the same proportion as you lost it, and in the end be capable of
overwhelming you. The country, in the meantime, would suffer, but it
is a day of suffering, and we ought to expect it. What we contend
for is worthy the affliction we may go through. If we get but bread to
eat, and any kind of raiment to put on, we ought not only to be
contented, but thankful. More than that we ought not to look for,
and less than that heaven has not yet suffered us to want. He that
would sell his birthright for a little salt, is as worthless as he who
sold it for pottage without salt; and he that would part with it for a
gay coat, or a plain coat, ought for ever to be a slave in buff.
What are salt, sugar and finery, to the inestimable blessings of
"Liberty and Safety!" Or what are the inconveniences of a few months
to the tributary bondage of ages? The meanest peasant in America,
blessed with these sentiments, is a happy man compared with a New York
Tory; he can eat his morsel without repining, and when he has done,
can sweeten it with a repast of wholesome air; he can take his child
by the hand and bless it, without feeling the conscious shame of
neglecting a parent's duty.

  In publishing these remarks I have several objects in view.

  On your part they are to expose the folly of your pretended
authority as a commissioner; the wickedness of your cause in
general; and the impossibility of your conquering us at any rate. On
the part of the public, my intention is, to show them their true and
sold interest; to encourage them to their own good, to remove the
fears and falsities which bad men have spread, and weak men have
encouraged; and to excite in all men a love for union, and a
cheerfulness for duty.

  I shall submit one more case to you respecting your conquest of this
country, and then proceed to new observations.

  Suppose our armies in every part of this continent were
immediately to disperse, every man to his home, or where else he might
be safe, and engage to reassemble again on a certain future day; it is
clear that you would then have no army to contend with, yet you
would be as much at a loss in that case as you are now; you would be
afraid to send your troops in parties over to the continent, either to
disarm or prevent us from assembling, lest they should not return; and
while you kept them together, having no arms of ours to dispute
with, you could not call it a conquest; you might furnish out a
pompous page in the London Gazette or a New York paper, but when we
returned at the appointed time, you would have the same work to do
that you had at first.