The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Eleven Volumes, Volume 06: Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent PersonsJohnson, Samuel
General
The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Eleven Volumes, Volume 06: Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons
Johnson, Samuel
English essays -- 18th century
Humanity is very uniform. The Americans have this resemblance to
Europeans, that they do not always know when they are well. They soon
quit the fortress, that could neither have been ruined by sophistry, nor
battered by declamation. Their next resolution declares, that "Their
ancestors, who first settled the colonies, were, at the time of their
emigration from the mother-country, entitled to all the rights,
liberties, and immunities of free and natural-born subjects within the
realm of England."
This, likewise, is true; but when this is granted, their boast of
original rights is at an end; they are no longer in a state of nature.
These lords of themselves, these kings of ME, these demigods of
independence sink down to colonists, governed by a charter. If their
ancestors were subjects, they acknowledged a sovereign; if they had a
right to English privileges, they were accountable to English laws; and,
what must grieve the lover of liberty to discover, had ceded to the king
and parliament, whether the right or not, at least, the power of
disposing, "without their consent, of their lives, liberties, and
properties." It, therefore, is required of them to prove, that the
parliament ever ceded to them a dispensation from that obedience, which
they owe as natural-born subjects, or any degree of independence or
immunity, not enjoyed by other Englishmen.
They say, that by such emigration, they by no means forfeited,
surrendered, or lost any of those rights; but, that "they were, and
their descendants now are, entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of all
such of them, as their local and other circumstances enable them to
exercise and enjoy."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account