3443. GEORGE III., Early reign of.—
The following is an epitome of the first sixteen years of his reign: The Colonies were taxed
internally and externally; their essential interests
sacrificed to individuals in Great Britain;
their legislatures suspended; charters annulled;
trials by jury taken away; their persons subjected
to transportation across the Atlantic,
and to trial before foreign judicatories; their
supplications for redress thought beneath answer;
themselves published as cowards in the
councils of their mother country and courts of
Europe; armed troops sent among them to enforce
submission to these violences; and actual
hostilities commenced against them. No alternative
was presented but resistance, or unconditional
submission. Between these could
be no hesitation. They closed in the appeal to
arms. They declared themselves independent
States. They confederated together into one
great republic; thus securing to every State the
benefit of an union of their whole force.—
Notes on Virginia. Washington ed. viii, 358.
Ford ed., iii, 221.
(1782)
