Junius Unmasked: Or, Thomas Paine the author of the Letters of Junius and the Declaration of IndependenceMoody, Joel
History
Junius Unmasked: Or, Thomas Paine the author of the Letters of Junius and the Declaration of Independence
Moody, Joel
Francis, Philip, 1740-1818; Junius, active 18th century; Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809; United States. Declaration of Independence
spirit of the Americans may be an useful example to us. Our dogs
and horses are only English upon English ground; but patriotism,
it seems, may be improved by transplanting. I will not reject a
bill which tends to confine parliamentary privilege within
reasonable bounds, though it should be stolen from the house of
Cavendish, and introduced by Mr. Onslow. The features of the
infant are a proof of the descent, and vindicate the noble birth
from the baseness of the adoption.[B] I will willingly accept a
sarcasm from Colonel Barre,[C] or a simile from Mr. Burke.[D] Even
the silent vote of Mr. Calcraft is worth reckoning in a division.
What though he riots in the plunder of the army, and has only
determined to be a patriot when he could not be a peer? Let us
profit by the assistance of such men while they are with us, and
place them, if it be possible, in the post of danger to prevent
desertion. The wary Wedderburne, the pompous Suffolk, never threw
away the scabbard, nor ever went upon a forlorn hope. They always
treated the king's servants as men with whom, some time or other,
they might probably be in friendship. When a man who stands forth
for the public, has gone that length from which there is no
practicable retreat, when he has given that kind of personal
offense, which a pious monarch never pardons, I then begin to
think him in earnest, and that he will never have occasion to
solicit the forgiveness of his country. But instances of a
determination so entire and unreserved are rarely to be met with.
Let us take mankind as they are; let us distribute the virtues and
abilities of individuals, according to the offices they affect;
and when they quit the service, let us endeavor to supply their
places with better men than we have lost. In this country there
are always candidates enough for popular favor. The temple of fame
is the shortest passage to riches and preferment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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