6407. PARLIAMENT, Purchase of favor.—
Congress are of opinion that the proposition
* * * [of Lord North] is unreasonable
and insidious: unreasonable because, if we declare we accede to it, we declare without
reservation we will purchase the favor of parliament
not knowing at the same time at what
price they will please to estimate their favor.
It is insidious because any individual Colonies,
having bid and bidden again till they find the
avidity of the seller unattainable by all their
powers, are then to return into opposition, divided
from their sister Colonies whom the minister
will have previously detached by a grant
of easier terms, or by an artful procrastination
of a definitive answer.—
Reply to Lord North's Proposition.
Ford ed., i, 478.
(July. 1775)
