(1) THE FAITH OF THE FATHERS

CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICA1

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706-1790)

Many persons in Europe having directly, or by letters, expressed to the writer of this, who is well acquainted with North America, their desire of transporting and establishing themselves in that country; but who appear to him to have formed through ignorance, mistaken ideas and expectations of what is to be obtained there; he thinks it may be useful, and prevent inconvenient, expensive and fruitless removals and voyages of improper persons, if he gives some clearer and truer notions of that part of the world than appear to have hitherto prevailed. . .

The truth is, that though there are in that country few people so miserable as the poor of Europe, there are also very few that in Europe would be called rich; it is rather a general happy mediocrity that prevails. There are few great proprietors of the soil, and few tenants; most people cultivate their own lands, or follow some handicraft or merchandise; very few rich enough to live idly upon their rents or incomes or to pay the high prices given in Europe for paintings, statues, architecture, and the other works of art, that are more curious than

1 Franklin was undoubtedly the fullest colonial expression of the American spirit, and so impressed Europe as well as his fellow countrymen.

From "Information to those who would remove to America," in Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. III. Published by Longman, Hurst, Reese & Orme, London, 1806.

useful. Hence the natural geniuses, that have arisen in America with such talents, have uniformly quitted that country for Europe, where they can be more suitably rewarded. It is true, that letters and mathematical knowledge are in esteem there, but they are at the same time more common than is apprehended; there being already existing nine colleges or universities, viz., four in New England, and one in each of the provinces of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, all furnished with learned professors; besides a number of smaller academies. These educate many of their youth in the languages, and those sciences that qualify men for the professions of divinity, law, or physic. Strangers indeed are by no means excluded from exercising those professions; and the quick increase of inhabitants everywhere gives them a chance of employ, which they have in common with the natives. Of civil offices, or employments, there are few; no superfluous ones, as in Europe; and it is a rule established in some of the states, that no office should be so profitable as to make it desirable.

These ideas prevailing more or less in all the United States, it cannot be worth any man's while, who has a means of living at home, to expatriate himself, in hopes of obtaining a profitable civil office in America; and as to military offices, they are at an end with the war, the armies being disbanded. Much less is it advisable for a person to go thither who has no other quality to recommend him but his birth. In Europe it has indeed its value; but it is a commodity that cannot be carried to a worse market than that of America, where people do not inquire concerning a stranger, What is he, but, What can he do?

PITT'S LAST SPEECH 1

WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM (1708-1778)

I love and honor the English troops. I know their virtues and their valor. I know they can achieve anything except impossibilities; and I know that the conquest of English America is an impossibility. You cannot, I venture to say it, YOU CANNOT conquer America. Your armies [in the] last war effected everything that could be effected; and what was it? It cost your numerous army, under the command of a most able general, now a noble Lord in this House 2, a long and laborious campaign to expel five thousand Frenchmen from French America.3 My Lords, you cannot conquer America. What is your present situation there? We do not know the worst; but we know that in three campaigns we have done nothing and suffered much. . . . As to conquest, therefore, my Lords, I repeat, it is impossible. You may swell every expense and every effort still more extravagantly; pile

1 Unfortunately it is too little recognized by Americans that at the time of the American Revolution there was going on in England as well as in the American colonies a great social movement for political liberalism and freedom. These two, indeed, were but parts of the same great movement. The one in England did not triumph during that period, though it did in the following generation. The English leaders of this movement were friends of America, none more able or respected than Pitt. They as well as the natives of the colonies revealed the dawning political spirit of America. The principles for which these leaders fought on both sides of the Atlantic were during the nineteenth century applied to all English-speaking colonies.

From "Lord Chatham's Speech in the British House of Lords, November 20, 1777. Taken verbatim as his Lordship spoke it.' Printed 1778.

2 Lord Amherst.

A reference to the French and Indian wars which terminated in 1763.

and accumulate every assistance you can buy or borrow; traffic and barter with every little pitiful German prince1 that sells his subjects to the shambles of a foreign prince; your efforts are forever vain and impotent doubly so from this mercenary aid on which you rely; for it irritates, to an incurable resentment, the minds of your enemies, to overrun them with the mercenary sons of rapine and plunder, devoting them and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty! If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms never, never, never!

WHAT IS PATRIOTISM? 2

FISHER AMES (1758-1808)

What is patriotism? Is it a narrow affection for the spot where a man was born? Are the very clods where we tread entitled to this ardent preference because they are greener? No, sir, this is not the character of the virtue, and it soars higher for its object. It is an extended self-love, mingling with all the enjoyments of life, and twisting itself with the minutest filaments of the heart. It is thus we obey the laws of society, because they are the laws of virtue. In their authority we see, not the array of force and terror, but the venerable image of our country's honor. Every good citizen makes that honor his

1 A reference to the Hessian and other mercenary troops hired by King George from the monarchs of petty German states, to help subdue the American colonists.

2 From a speech delivered in the House of Representatives, April 28, 1796. Printed by John Fenno, Philadelphia, 1796, and by Jno. & J. Russell, Boston, 1796.

own, and cherishes it not only as precious, but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense, and is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it. For what rights of a citizen will be deemed inviolable when a state renounces the principles that constitute their security? Or, if his life should not be invaded, what would its enjoyments be in a country odious in the eyes of strangers and dishonored in his own? Could he look with affection and veneration to such a country as his parent? The sense of having one would die within him, he would blush for his patriotism, if he retained any, and justly, for it would be a vice. He would be a banished man in his native land.

I see no exception to the respect that is paid among nations to the law of good faith. If there are cases in this enlightened period when it is violated, there are none when it is decried. It is the philosophy of politics, the religion of governments. It is observed by barbarians — a whiff of tobacco smoke or a string of beads gives not merely binding force, but sanctity, to treaties. Even in Algiers, a truce may be bought for money, but when ratified, even Algiers is too wise, or too just, to disown and annul its obligation. Thus we see neither the ignorance of savages, nor the principles of an association for piracy and rapine, permit a nation to despise its engagements. If, sir, there could be a resurrection from the foot of the gallows, if the victims of justice could live again, collect together and form a society, they would, however loath, soon find themselves obliged to make justice, that justice under which they fell, the fundamental law of their state. They would perceive it was their interest to make others respect, and they would, therefore, soon pay some respect themselves, to the obligations of good faith.