of the petty elector of Hanover, or the ignorant and insignificant
king of Britain.

As the blood of the martyrs has been the seed of the Christian
church, so the political persecutions of England will and have
already enriched America with industry, experience, union, and
importance. Before the present era she was a mere chaos of uncemented
colonies, individually exposed to the ravages of the Indians and the
invasion of any power that Britain should be at war with. She had
nothing that she could call her own. Her felicity depended upon
accident. The convulsions of Europe might have thrown her from one
conqueror to another, till she had been the slave of all, and ruined
by every one; for until she had spirit enough to become her own
master, there was no knowing to which master she should belong. That
period, thank God, is past, and she is no longer the dependent,
disunited colonies of Britain, but the independent and United States
of America, knowing no master but heaven and herself. You, or your
king, may call this "delusion," "rebellion," or what name you please.
To us it is perfectly indifferent. The issue will determine the
character, and time will give it a name as lasting as his own.

You have now, sir, tried the fate of three campaigns, and can fully
declare to England, that nothing is to be got on your part, but blows
and broken bones, and nothing on hers but waste of trade and credit,
and an increase of poverty and taxes. You are now only where you
might have been two years ago, without the loss of a single ship, and
yet not a step more forward towards the conquest of the continent;
because, as I have already hinted, "an army in a city can never be a
conquering army." The full amount of your losses, since the beginning
of the war, exceeds twenty thousand men, besides millions of