George Mason: Letter to the Committee of Merchants in London

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Virginia

Potomack

River June 6th 1766

To the Committee of Merchants in London

GENTLEMEN

There is a Letter of yours dated the 28th of Febry last, lately printed in the public Papers here; which tho’ addressed to a particular Set of men, seems intended for the Colonys in general; and being upon a very interesting Subject, I shall, without further Preface or Apology, exercise the Right of a Freeman, in making such Remarks upon it as I think proper.

The Epithets of Parent & Child have been so long applyed to Great Britain & her Colonys, that Individuals have adopted them, and we rarely see anything, from your Side of the Water, free from the authoritative Style of a Master to a School-Boy.

“We have, with infinite Difficulty & Fatigue got you excused this one Time; pray be a good boy for the future; do what your Papa and Mamma bid you, & hasten to return them your most grateful Acknowledgements for condescending to let you keep what is your own; and then all your Acquaintance will love you, & praise you, & give you pretty things; and if you shou’d, at any Time hereafter, happen to transgress, your Friends will all beg for you, and be Security for your good Behaviour; but if you are a naughty Boy, & turn obstinate, & don’t mind what your Papa & Mamma say to you, but presume to think their Commands (let them be what they will) unjust or unreasonable, or even seem to ascribe their present Indulgence to any other Motive than Excess of Moderation & Tenderness, and pretend to judge for yourselves, when you are not arrived at the Years of Discretion, or capable of distinguishing between Good & Evil; then every-body will hate you, & say you are a graceless & undutiful Child; your Parents & Masters will be obliged to whip you severely, & your Friends will be ashamed to say any thing in your Excuse: nay they will be blamed for your Faults. See your work—See what you have brought the Child to—If he had been well scourged at first for opposing our absolute Will & Pleasure, & daring to think he had any such thing as Property of his own, he wou’d not have had the Impudence to repeat the Crime.”

“My dear Child, we have laid the Alternative fairly before you, you can’t hesitate in the Choice, and we doubt not you will observe such a Conduct as your Friends recommend.”

Is not this a little ridiculous, when applyed to three Millions of as loyal & useful Subjects as any in the British dominions, who have been only contending for their Birth-right, and have now only gained, or rather kept, what cou’d not, with common Justice, or even Policy, be denyed them? But setting aside the Manner, let me seriously consider the Substance & Subject of your Letter.…

We do not deny the supreme Authority of Great Britain over her Colonys.… Wou’d to God that this Distinction between us & your fellow Subjects residing in Great Britain, by depriving us of the ancient Tryal, by a Jury of our Equals, and substituting in its place an arbitrary Civil Law Court—to put it in the Power of every Sycophant & Informer.… Are the Inhabitants of Great Britain absolutely certain that, in the Ministry or Parliament of a future Day, such Incroachments will not be urged as Precedents against themselves?

Is the Indulgence of Great Britain manifested by prohibiting her Colonys from exporting to foreign Countrys such Commoditys as she does not want, & from importing such as she does not produce or manufacture & therefore can not furnish but upon extravagant Terms?…

Let our fellow-Subjects in Great Britain reflect that we are descended from the same Stock with themselves, nurtured in the same Principles of Freedom; which we have both suck’d in with our Mother’s Milk: that in crossing the Atlantic Ocean, we have only changed our Climate, not our Minds, our Natures & Dispositions remain unaltered; that We are still the same People with them, in every Respect; only not yet debauched by Wealth, Luxury, Venality, & Corruption; and then they will be able to judge how the late Regulations have been relished in America.…

If we are ever so unfortunate to be made Slaves; which God avert! what Matter is it to us whether our chains are forged in London, or at Constantinople? Whether the Oppression comes from a British Parliament, or a Turkish Divan?

You tell us that “our Task-Masters will probably be restored.” Do You mean the Stamp-Officers, or the Stamp-Ministry? If the first, the Treatment they have already found here will hardly make them fond of returning—If the latter, we despise them too much to fear them.—They have sufficiently exposed their own Ignorance, Malice, & Impotence.…

Our Land is cheap and fresh, we have more of it than we are able to employ; while we can live in Ease & Plenty upon our Farms, Tillage, & not Arts, will engage our Attention. If by opening the Channels of Trade, you afford Us a ready Market for the Produce of our Lands, and an Opportunity of purchasing cheap the Conveniencys of Life, all our superfluous Gain will sink into Your Pockets, in Return for British Manufactures. If the Trade of this Continent with the French & Spaniards, in their Sugar-Islands, had not been restrained, Great Britain would soon have undersold them, with their own Produce, in every Market of the World. Until you lay Us under a necessity of shifting for ourselves, You need not be afraid of the Manufactures of America.… There is a Passion natural to the Mind of man, especially a free Man, which renders him impatient of Restraint. Do you, does any sensible Man think that three or four Millions of People, not naturally defective in Genius, or in Courage, who have tasted the Sweets of Liberty in a Country that doubles its Inhabitants every twenty Years, in a Country abounding in such Variety of Soil & Climate, capable of producing not only the Necessarys, but the Conveniencys & Delicacys of Life, will long submit to Oppression; if unhappily for yourselves, Oppression shou’d be offered them? Such another Experiment as the Stamp-Act wou’d produce a general Revolt in America.

Do you think that all your rival Powers in Europe wou’d sit still, & see you crush your once flourishing & thriving Colonys, unconcerned Spectators of such a Quarrel? Recollect what happened in the Low-Countrys a Century or two ago. Call to Mind the Cause of the Revolt. Call to Mind too the Part that England herself then acted. The same Causes will generally produce the same Effects; and it requires no great Degree of Penetration to foretell that what has happened, may happen again. God forbid there shou’d be Occasion, and grant that the Union, Liberty, and mutual Happiness of Great Britain, & her Colonys may continue, uninterrupted, to the latest Ages!

America has always acknowledged her Dependence upon Great Britain. It is her Interest, it is her Inclination to depend upon Great Britain. We readily own that these Colonys were first setled, not at the Expence, but under the Protection of the English Government.…

We claim Nothing but the Liberty & Privileges of Englishmen, in the same Degree, as if we had still continued among our Brethren in Great Britain: these Rights have not been forfeited by any Act of ours, we can not be deprived of them without our Consent, but by Violence & Injustice; We have received them from our Ancestors and, with God’s Leave, we will transmit them, unimpaired to our Posterity. Can those, who have hitherto acted as our Friends, endeavour now, insidiously, to draw from Us Concessions destructive to what we hold far dearer than Life!…

Our Laws, our Language, our Principles of Government, our Inter-marriages, & other Connections, our constant Intercourse, and above all our Interest, are so many Bands which hold us to Great Britain, not to be broken, but by Tyranny and Oppression. Strange, that among the late Ministry, there shou’d not be found a Man of common Sense & common Honesty, to improve & strengthen these natural Tyes by a mild & just Government, instead of weakening, & almost dissolving them by Partiality & Injustice!…

These are the Sentiments of a Man, who spends most of his Time in Retirement, and has seldom med[d]led in public Affairs,… who tho’ not born within the Verge of the British Isle, is an Englishman in his Principles; a Zealous Assertor of the Act of Settlement,… unalienably affected to his Majesty’s sacred Person & Government, in the Defence of which he wou’d shed the last Drop of his Blood; who looks upon Jacobiteism as the most absurd Infatuation, the wildest Chimaera that ever entered into the Head of Man; who adores the Wisdom & Happiness of the British Constitution; and if He had his Election now to make, wou’d prefer it to any that does, or ever did exist. I am not singular in this my Political Creed; these are the general Principles of his Majesty’s Subjects in America;…

If any Person shou’d think it worth his while to animadvert upon what I have written, I shall make no Reply. I have neither Abilitys nor Inclination to turn Author. If the Maxims have asserted, & the Reflections I have made, are in themselves just, they will need no Vindication; if they are erronious, I shall esteem it a Favour to have my Errors pointed out; and will, in modest Silence, kiss the Rod that corrects me.

I am, Gentlemen, Your most obdt. Servt.

A Virginia Planter.