foreign master, to reproach you with having so easily parted
with the richest inheritance of this earth--a participation in
the name, character, and freedom of Britons!
The same spirit of justice, which will make every reasonable
allowance for the unsuccessful efforts of zeal and loyalty, will
not fail to punish the defalcation of principle. Every Canadian
freeholder is, by deliberate choice, bound by the most solemn
oaths to defend the monarchy, as well as his own property; to
shrink from that engagement is a treason not to be forgiven. Let
no man suppose that if, in this unexpected struggle, his
majesty's arms should be compelled to yield to an overwhelming
force, the province will be eventually abandoned; the endeared
relations of its first settlers, the intrinsic value of its
commerce, and the pretensions of its powerful rival to possess
the Canadas, are pledges that no peace will be established
between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland, of
which the restoration of these provinces does not make the most
prominent condition.
Be not dismayed at the unjustifiable threat of the commander of
the enemy's forces to refuse quarter, should an Indian appear in
the ranks. The brave bands of aborigines which inhabit this
colony were, like his Majesty's other subjects, punished for
their zeal and fidelity, by the loss of their possessions in the
late colonies, and requited by his Majesty with lands of
superior value in this province. The faith of the British
government has never yet been violated--the Indians feel that
the soil they inherit is to them and their posterity protected
from the base arts so frequently devised to over-reach their
simplicity. By what new principle are they to be prohibited from
defending their property? If their warfare, from being different
to that of the white people, be more terrific to the enemy, let
him retrace his steps--they seek him not--and cannot expect to
find women and children in an invading army. But they are men,
and have equal rights with all other men to defend themselves
and their property when invaded, more especially when they find
in the enemy's camp a ferocious and mortal foe; using the same
warfare which the American commander affects to reprobate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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