to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even
mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the
cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and
we ought to guard equally against both. Howe's first object is,
partly by threats and partly by promises, to terrify or seduce the
people to deliver up their arms and receive mercy. The ministry
recommended the same plan to Gage, and this is what the tories call
making their peace, "a peace which passeth all understanding" indeed!
A peace which would be the immediate forerunner of a worse ruin than
any we have yet thought of. Ye men of Pennsylvania, do reason upon
these things! Were the back counties to give up their arms, they
would fall an easy prey to the Indians, who are all armed: this
perhaps is what some Tories would not be sorry for. Were the home
counties to deliver up their arms, they would be exposed to the
resentment of the back counties who would then have it in their power
to chastise their defection at pleasure. And were any one state to
give up its arms, that state must be garrisoned by all Howe's army of
Britons and Hessians to preserve it from the anger of the rest.
Mutual fear is the principal link in the chain of mutual love, and
woe be to that state that breaks the compact. Howe is mercifully
inviting you to barbarous destruction, and men must be either rogues
or fools that will not see it. I dwell not upon the vapors of
imagination; I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain
as A, B, C, hold up truth to your eyes.

I thank God, that I fear not. I see no real cause for fear. I know
our situation well, and can see the way out of it. While our army was
collected, Howe dared not risk a battle; and it is no credit to him
that he decamped from the White Plains, and waited a mean opportunity
to ravage the defenceless Jerseys; but it is great credit to us,