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AMERICAN REVOLUTION. .29

state of America, during the war, will probablynevei‘ be excelled in splendid diction, powerful arguments, or persuasive eloquence. The language of the colo- nists, in their petitions to the king, in their appeals to the people of Britain, and in their speeches in Congress and in their separate assemblies, as well as in the pulpit orations of their preachers, was equally remarkable. They certainly did not, for a long time, wish for any thing more than a redress of grievances. The thoughts of independence were foreign to their feelings and their wishesf" “Place us,” said they, .“ in the same situation that we were in at the close of the last war, and our former harmony will be restored.”

On the shutting up of the port of Boston, which they considered as a prelude to the destruction of the commerce of other towns, they state, “ We will endea- vour, therefore, to live without trade, and recur for subsistence to the fertility of our soil, which will afford us all the necessaries and some of the conveni- ences of life.”

One of their delegates to the Continental Congress, in a famous speech, urging the necessity of their taking up arms, which was repeated all over America, and published in Europe, exhibited a strong specimen of the animation and force which governed the resolu- tions of the colonists. “ The great God,” said he, “who is the searcher of all things, will witness for me, that I have spoken from the bottom and purity of my

* Note E.