3844. IMMIGRATION, Revolution and.—
My means of being useful to you[in
founding a colony of English farmers] are
small,[but] they shall be freely exercised for
your advantage, and that, not on the selfish
principle of increasing our own population at
the expense of other nations, * * * but to
consecrate a sanctuary for those whom the
misrule of Europe may compel to seek happiness
in other climes. This refuge once
known will produce reaction on the happiness
even of those who remain there, by warning
their task-masters that when the evils of
Egyptian opposition become heavier than
those of the abandonment of country, another
Canaan is open where their subjects will be
received as brothers, and secured against like
oppressions by a participation in the right of
self-government. If additional motives could
be wanting with us to the maintenance of
this right, they would be found in the animating
consideration that a single good government
becomes thus a blessing to the whole
earth, its welcome to the oppressed restraining
within certain limits the measure of
their oppressions. But should even this be
counteracted by violence on the right of expatriation,
the other branch of our example
then presents itself for imitation, to rise on
their rulers and do as we have done. You
have set to your own country a good example,
by showing them a peaceable mode
of reducing their rulers to the necessity of becoming
more wise, more moderate, and more
honest, and I sincerely pray that the example
may work for the benefit of those who cannot
follow it, as it will for your own.—
To George Flower. Washington ed. vii, 84.
(P.F.,,
18171817)gt;
