Wesley Corpus

But the Cor sicans were not colonies from Genoa: Therefore, there is nothing similar in the case. Neither in that you next quote, the case of Holland. You say, Yes: “The United Provinces of Holland were once subject to the Spaniards; but, being provoked by the violation of their charters, they were driven to that resistance which we and all the world have ever since admired.” (Page 90.) Provoked by the violation of their charters / yea, by the total subversion both of their religious and civil liberties; the taking away their goods, imprisoning their persons, and shedding their blood like water, without the least colour of right, yea, without the very form of law; inso much that the Spanish Governor, the Duke of Alva, made his open boast, that “in five years he had caused upwards of eighteen thousand persons to fall by the hands of the common hangman.” I pray, what has this to do with America? Add to this that the Hollanders were not colonies from Spain, but an independent people, who had the same right to govern Spain, as the Spaniards to govern Holland. 47. As another parallel case, you bring the war of the Romans with the allied states of Italy. But neither is this case parallel at all; for those states were not colonies of Rome, (although some colonies were scattered up and down among them,) but original, independent states, before Rome itself had a being. Were it then true that “every Briton must approve the conduct of those allies,” (page 91,) it would not follow, that they must approve the conduct of the Americans; or that “we ought to declare our applause, and say, We admire your spirit; it is the spirit that has more than once saved us.” We cannot applaud the spirit of those who usurp an illegal authority over their countrymen; who rob them of their substance, who outrage their persons, who leave them neither civil nor religious liberty; and who, to crown all, take up arms against their King and mother-country, and prohibit all intercourse with them. 48.