This Also Thomas Jefferson, 1775.
We are reduced to the alternative of chusing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force.
— The latter is our choice. —
We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery.
— Honour, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us.
We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.
Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable.
— We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favour towards us, that his Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves.
What else needs to be said?
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