"From the Cornish congress at Truro."
Of this memorial, what could be said, but that it was written in jest,
or written by a madman? Yet I know not whether the warmest admirers of
Pennsylvanian eloquence, can find any argument in the addresses of the
congress, that is not, with greater strength, urged by the Cornishman.
The argument of the irregular troops of controversy, stripped of its
colours, and turned out naked to the view, is no more than this. Liberty
is the birthright of man, and where obedience is compelled, there is no
liberty. The answer is equally simple. Government is necessary to man,
and where obedience is not compelled, there is no government.
If the subject refuses to obey, it is the duty of authority to use
compulsion. Society cannot subsist but by the power, first of making
laws, and then of enforcing them.
To one of the threats hissed out by the congress, I have put nothing
similar into the Cornish proclamation; because it is too wild for folly,
and too foolish for madness. If we do not withhold our king and his
parliament from taxing them, they will cross the Atlantick, and enslave
us.
How they will come, they have not told us; perhaps they will take wing,
and light upon our coasts.
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