The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 03
History
The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 03
United States -- Foreign relations -- 1775-1783; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Sources
5. Respecting prospect of greater _future ability_, Britain has none
such. Her islands are circumscribed by the ocean, and excepting a few
parks or forests, she has no new land to cultivate, and cannot
therefore extend her improvements. Her numbers, too, instead of
increasing from increased subsistence, are continually diminishing
from growing luxury, and the increasing difficulties of maintaining
families, which of course discourage early marriages. Thus she will
have fewer people to assist in paying her debts, and that diminishing
number will be poorer. America, on the contrary, has, besides her
lands already cultivated, a vast territory yet to be cultivated;
which, being cultivated, continually increases in value with the
increase of people; and the people, who double themselves by a
_natural propagation_ every twentyfive years, will double yet faster
by the accession of _strangers_, as long as lands are to be had for
new families; so that every twenty years there will be a double number
of inhabitants obliged to discharge the public debts; and those
inhabitants being more opulent may pay their shares with greater ease.
6. Respecting _prudence_ in general affairs, and the advantages to be
expected from the loan desired; the Americans are cultivators of land;
those engaged in fishery and commerce are few, compared with the
others. They have ever conducted their several governments with
wisdom, avoiding wars and vain expensive projects, delighting only in
their peaceable occupations, which must, considering the extent of
their uncultivated territory, find them employment still for ages.
Whereas England, ever unquiet, ambitious, avaricious, imprudent, and
quarrelsome, is half of the time engaged in war, always at an expense
infinitely greater than the advantages to be obtained by it, if
successful. Thus they made war against Spain in 1739, for a claim of
about £95,000, (scarce a groat for each individual of the nation) and
spent forty millions sterling in the war, and the lives of fifty
thousand men; and finally made peace without obtaining satisfaction
for the sum claimed. Indeed, there is scarce a nation in Europe,
against which she has not made war on some frivolous pretext or
other, and thereby imprudently accumulated a debt, that has brought
her on the verge of bankruptcy. But the most indiscreet of all her
wars is the present against America, with whom she might for ages have
preserved her profitable connexion only by a just and equitable
conduct. She is now acting like a mad shop keeper, who, by beating
those that pass his doors, attempts to make them come in and be his
customers. America cannot submit to such treatment, without being
first ruined, and, being ruined, her custom will be worth nothing.
England, to effect this, is increasing her debt, and irretrievably
ruining herself. America, on the other hand, aims only to establish
her liberty, and that freedom of commerce which will be advantageous
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