On your part they are to expose the folly of your pretended authority
as a commissioner; the wickedness of your cause in general; and the
impossibility of your conquering us at any rate. On the part of the
public, my intention is, to show them their true and sold interest;
to encourage them to their own good, to remove the fears and
falsities which bad men have spread, and weak men have encouraged;
and to excite in all men a love for union, and a cheerfulness for
duty.

I shall submit one more case to you respecting your conquest of this
country, and then proceed to new observations.

Suppose our armies in every part of this continent were immediately
to disperse, every man to his home, or where else he might be safe,
and engage to reassemble again on a certain future day; it is clear
that you would then have no army to contend with, yet you would be as
much at a loss in that case as you are now; you would be afraid to
send your troops in parties over to the continent, either to disarm
or prevent us from assembling, lest they should not return; and while
you kept them together, having no arms of ours to dispute with, you
could not call it a conquest; you might furnish out a pompous page in
the London Gazette or a New York paper, but when we returned at the
appointed time, you would have the same work to do that you had at
first.

It has been the folly of Britain to suppose herself more powerful
than she really is, and by that means has arrogated to herself a rank
in the world she is not entitled to: for more than this century past
she has not been able to carry on a war without foreign assistance.