like a narrow system of religion, is calculated only to sour the
temper, and be at variance with mankind.

All we want to know in America is simply this, who is for
independence, and who is not? Those who are for it, will support it,
and the remainder will undoubtedly see the reasonableness of paying
the charges; while those who oppose or seek to betray it, must expect
the more rigid fate of the jail and the gibbet. There is a bastard
kind of generosity, which being extended to all men, is as fatal to
society, on one hand, as the want of true generosity is on the other.
A lax manner of administering justice, falsely termed moderation, has
a tendency both to dispirit public virtue, and promote the growth of
public evils. Had the late committee of safety taken cognizance of
the last Testimony of the Quakers and proceeded against such
delinquents as were concerned therein, they had, probably, prevented
the treasonable plans which have been concerted since. When one
villain is suffered to escape, it encourages another to proceed,
either from a hope of escaping likewise, or an apprehension that we
dare not punish. It has been a matter of general surprise, that no
notice was taken of the incendiary publication of the Quakers, of the
20th of November last; a publication evidently intended to promote
sedition and treason, and encourage the enemy, who were then within a
day's march of this city, to proceed on and possess it. I here
present the reader with a memorial which was laid before the board of
safety a few days after the Testimony appeared. Not a member of that
board, that I conversed with, but expressed the highest detestation
of the perverted principles and conduct of the Quaker junto, and a
wish that the board would take the matter up; notwithstanding which,
it was suffered to pass away unnoticed, to the encouragement of new
acts of treason, the general danger of the cause, and the disgrace of