more valuable than anything it could have bestowed; that demands as a
reward for a defence of our property, a surrender of those inestimable
privileges, to the arbitrary will of vindictive tyrants, which alone
give value to that very property.

Courage, then, my countrymen! our contest is not only whether we
ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an
asylum on earth, for civil and religious liberty? Dismissing, therefore,
the justice of our cause as incontestable, the only question is, What is
best for us to pursue in our present circumstances?

The doctrine of dependence on Great Britain is, I believe, generally
exploded; but as I would attend to the honest weakness of the simplest
of men, you will pardon me if I offer a few words on that subject.

We are now on this continent, to the astonishment of the world, three
millions of souls united in one common cause. We have large armies, well
disciplined and appointed, with commanders inferior to none in military
skill, and superior in activity and zeal. We are furnished with arsenals
and stores beyond our most sanguine expectations, and foreign nations
are waiting to crown our success by their alliances. There are instances
of, I would say, an almost astonishing Providence in our favor; our
success has staggered our enemies, and almost given faith to infidels;
so that we may truly say it is not our own arm which has saved us.

The hand of Heaven appears to have led us on to be, perhaps, humble
instruments and means in the great Providential dispensation which is
completing. We have fled from the political Sodom; let us not look back,
lest we perish and become a monument of infamy and derision to the
world! For can we ever expect more unanimity and a better preparation