1358. COLONIES (The American), Reconciliation of.—[further continued]
If * * * Great Britain, disjoined from her Colonies, be a match for
the most potent nations of Europe, with the
Colonies thrown into their scale, they may go
on securely. But if they are not assured of
this, it would be certainly unwise, by trying
the event of another campaign, to risk our
accepting a foreign aid, which, perhaps, May
not be obtainable, but on condition of everlasting
avulsion from Great Britain. This
would be thought a hard condition to those
who still wish for reunion with their parent
country. I am sincerely one of those, and
would rather be in dependence on Great
Britain, properly limited, than on any nation
on earth, or than on no nation. But I am one
of those, too, who, rather than submit to the
rights of legislating for us, assumed by the
British Parliament, and which late experience
has shown they will so cruelly exercise,
would lend my hand to sink the whole Island
in the ocean.—
To John Randolph. Washington ed. i, 201.
Ford ed., i, 484.
(M.
Aug. 1775)
