1The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war; not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal discord, fomented from principle, in all parts of the empire.
2It is simple peace, sought in its natural course and in its ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in principles purely pacific.
3In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole.
4This fierce spirit of liberty is stronger in the English colonies probably than in any other people of the earth; and this from a great variety of powerful causes.
5First, the people of the colonies are descendants of Englishmen. England, Sir, is a nation which still, I hope, respects, and formerly adored, her freedom.
6The colonists emigrated from you when this part of your character was most predominant; and they took this bias and direction the moment they parted from your hands.
7They are therefore not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas and on English principles.
8The temper and character which prevail in our colonies are, I am afraid, unalterable by any human art. We cannot, I fear, falsify the pedigree of this fierce people, and persuade them that they are not sprung from a nation in whose veins the blood of freedom circulates.
9The question is, not whether their spirit deserves blame or praise, but — what, in the name of God, shall we do with it?
10An Englishman is the unfittest person on earth to argue another Englishman into slavery.
11The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.
12Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.
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