impossible. You may swell every expense and every effort still more extravagantly; pile and accumulate every assistance you can buy or borrow; traffic and barter with every German prince that sells and sends his subjects to the shambles of a foreign prince; your efforts are forever vain and impotent doubly so from this mercenary aid on which you rely; for it irritates, to an incurable resentment, the minds of your enemies. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I would never lay down my arms never

never

never.

My Lords, no man wishes for the due dependence of America on this country more than I do. To preserve it, and not confirm that state of independence into which your measures hitherto have driven them, is the object which we ought to unite in attaining. The Americans, contending for their rights against arbitrary exactions, I love and admire. It is the struggle of free and virtuous patriots. But, contending for independency and total disconnection from England, as an Englishman, I cannot wish them success. America derived assistance and protection from us; and we reaped from her the most important advantages. She was, indeed, the fountain of our wealth, the nerve of our strength, the nursery and basis of our naval power. It is our duty, therefore, my Lords, if we wish to save our country, most seriously to endeavor the recovery of these most beneficial subjects; and in this perilous crisis, perhaps the present moment may be the only one in which we can hope for success. Let us wisely take advantage of every possible moment of reconciliation.

Besides, the natural disposition of America herself still leans toward England; to the old habits of connection and mutual interest that united both countries. This was the established sentiment of all the Continent; and still, my Lords, in the great and principal part, the sound part of America, this wise and affectionate disposition prevails.

America is not in that state of desperate and contemptible rebellion which this country has been deluded to believe. It is not a wild and lawless banditti, who, having nothing to lose, might hope to snatch something from public convulsions. Many of their leaders and great men have a great stake in this great contest. The gentleman who conducts their armies, I am told, has an estate of four or five thousand pounds a year; and when I consider these things, I cannot but lament the inconsiderate violence of our penal acts, our declaration of treason and rebellion, with all the fatal effects of attainder and confiscation.

You cannot conciliate America by your present measures. You cannot subdue her by your present or by any measures. What, then, can you do? You cannot conquer; you cannot gain. My Lords, the time demands the language of truth. In a just and necessary war, to maintain the rights or honor of my country, I would strip the shirt from my back to support it. But in such a war as this, unjust in its principle, impracticable in its means, and ruinous in its consequences, I would not contribute a single effort nor a single shilling. I do not call for vengeance on the heads of those who have been

guilty; I only recommend to them to make their retreat. Let them walk off; and let them make haste, or they may be assured that speedy punishment will overtake them.

My Lords, I have submitted to you, with the freedom and truth which I think my duty, my sentiments on your present awful situation. I have laid before you the ruin of your power, the complication of calamities, that overwhelm your sinking country. Your dearest interests, your own liberties, the Constitution itself, totters to the foundation. All this disgraceful danger, this multitude of misery, is the monstrous offspring of this unnatural war. We have been deceived and deluded too long. Let us now stop short. This is the crisis the only crisis of time and situation, to give us a possibility of escape from the fatal effects of our delusions.

Is it possible, can it be believed, that ministers are yet blind to this impending destruction? I did hope, that instead of this false and empty vanity, this overweening pride, ministers would have humbled themselves in their errors, would have confessed and retracted them, and by an active, though a late, repentance, have endeavored to redeem them. But, my Lords, since they had neither sagacity to foresee, nor justice nor humanity to shun these oppressive calamities - since not even severe experience can make them feel, nor the imminent ruin of their country awaken them from their stupefaction, the guardian care of Parliament must interpose. I shall therefore, my Lords, propose to you an amendment to recommend an immediate cessation of hostilities, and the commencement of a treaty to restore peace and liberty

to America, strength and happiness to England, security and permanent prosperity to both countries.

Abridged.

THE ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES OF OUR

GOVERNMENT

FROM THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 1801

BY THOMAS JEFFERSON

ABOUT to enter, fellow citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper that you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our government, and consequently those which ought to shape its administration. I will compress them in the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principles, but not all their limitations:

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political.

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.

The support of the state governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies.

The preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home, and safety abroad.

A jealous care of right of election by the people, a

mild and safe corrective of abuses, which are loosed by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided.

Absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which there is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.

A well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them the supremacy of the civil over the military authority.

Economy in public expense, that labor may be lightly burdened.

The honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith.

Encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its

handmaid.

The diffusion of information and the arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason.

Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected.

These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith the text of civil instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or alarm, let us