Representative British Orations Volume 1 (of 4): With Introductions and Explanatory Notes — John Shaqi
Representative British Orations Volume 1 (of 4): With Introductions and Explanatory Notes
History
Representative British Orations Volume 1 (of 4): With Introductions and Explanatory Notes
Speeches, addresses, etc., English
“And that this House does most humbly advise and supplicate his Majesty
to be pleased to cause the most speedy and effectual measures to be
taken for restoring peace in America; and that no time may be lost in
proposing an immediate opening of a treaty for the final settlement of
the tranquillity of these invaluable provinces, by a removal of the
unhappy causes of this ruinous civil war, and by a just and adequate
security against the return of the like calamities in times to come.
And this House desire to offer the most dutiful assurances to his
Majesty, that they will, in due time, cheerfully co-operate with the
magnanimity and tender goodness of his Majesty for the preservation
of his people, by such explicit and most solemn declarations, and
provisions of fundamental and irrevocable laws, as may be judged
necessary for the ascertaining and fixing forever the respective rights
of Great Britain and her colonies.”
[In the course of this debate, Lord Suffolk, secretary for the northern
department, undertook to defend the employment of the Indians in the
war. His Lordship contended that, besides its _policy_ and _necessity_,
the measure was also allowable on _principle_; for that “it was
perfectly justifiable to use all the means that _God and nature put
into our hands_!”]
I am astonished [exclaimed Lord Chatham, as he rose], shocked! to hear
such principles confessed—to hear them avowed in this House, or in this
country; principles equally unconstitutional, inhuman, and unchristian!
My Lords, I did not intend to have encroached again upon your
attention, but I cannot repress my indignation. I feel myself impelled
by every duty. My Lords, we are called upon as members of this House,
as men, as Christian men, to protest against such notions standing
near the Throne, polluting the ear of Majesty. “That God and nature
put into our hands!” I know not what ideas that Lord may entertain
of God and nature, but I know that such abominable principles are
equally abhorrent to religion and humanity. What! to attribute the
sacred sanction of God and nature to the massacres of the Indian
scalping-knife—to the cannibal savage, torturing, murdering, roasting,
and eating—literally, my Lords, _eating_ the mangled victims of his
barbarous battles! Such horrible notions shock every precept of
religion, divine or natural, and every generous feeling of humanity.
And, my Lords, they shock every sentiment of honor; they shock me as a
lover of honorable war, and a detester of murderous barbarity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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