you thought America too was taking a nap, and therefore chose, like
Satan to Eve, to whisper the delusion softly, lest you should awaken
her. This continent, sir, is too extensive to sleep all at once, and
too watchful, even in its slumbers, not to startle at the unhallowed
foot of an invader. You may issue your proclamations, and welcome,
for we have learned to "reverence ourselves," and scorn the insulting
ruffian that employs you. America, for your deceased brother's sake,
would gladly have shown you respect and it is a new aggravation to
her feelings, that Howe should be forgetful, and raise his sword
against those, who at their own charge raised a monument to his
brother. But your master has commanded, and you have not enough of
nature left to refuse. Surely there must be something strangely
degenerating in the love of monarchy, that can so completely wear a
man down to an ingrate, and make him proud to lick the dust that
kings have trod upon. A few more years, should you survive them, will
bestow on you the title of "an old man": and in some hour of future
reflection you may probably find the fitness of Wolsey's despairing
penitence- "had I served my God as faithful as I have served my king,
he would not thus have forsaken me in my old age."

The character you appear to us in, is truly ridiculous. Your friends,
the Tories, announced your coming, with high descriptions of your
unlimited powers; but your proclamation has given them the lie, by
showing you to be a commissioner without authority. Had your powers
been ever so great they were nothing to us, further than we pleased;
because we had the same right which other nations had, to do what we
thought was best. "The UNITED STATES of AMERICA," will sound as
pompously in the world or in history, as "the kingdom of Great
Britain"; the character of General Washington will fill a page with
as much lustre as that of Lord Howe: and the Congress have as much