Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
this I pray with the eyes of sympathy; with a tender sorrow, pity the lot of those
whom you once called your friends; who were once surrounded with plenty, ease,
and perfect security; but who now expect every night to be their last, and who are
as wretched as criminals under an impending sentence of the law.
As a member of a large society which extends to many parts of the world,
my connection with it is too distant to be as strong as that which binds me to
the inferior division in the midst of which I live. I am told that the great nation,
of which we are a part, is just, wise, and free, beyond any other on earth, within
its own insular boundaries; but not always so to its distant conquests: I shall
not repeat all I have heard, because I cannot believe half of it. As a citizen of a
smaller society, I nd that any kind of opposition to its now prevailing sentiments,
immediately begets hatred: how easily do men pass from loving, to hating and
cursing one another! I am a lover of peace, what must I do? I am divided between
the respect I feel for the ancient connection, and the fear of innovations, with the
consequence of which I am not well acquainted; as they are embraced by my own
countrymen. I am conscious that I was happy before this unfortunate Revolution.
I feel that I am no longer so; therefore I regret the change. This is the only mode
of reasoning adapted to persons in my situation. If I attach myself to the Mother
Country, which is 3000 miles from me, I become what is called an enemy to
my own region; if I follow the rest of my countrymen, I become opposed to our
ancient masters: both extremes appear equally dangerous to a person of so little
weight and consequence as I am, whose energy and example are of no avail. As
to the argument on which the dispute is founded, I know little about it. Much has
been said and written on both sides, but who has a judgment capacious and clear
enough to decide? The great moving principles which actuate both parties are
much hid from vulgar eyes, like mine; nothing but the plausible and the probable
are oered to our contemplation.
The innocent class are always the victim of the few; they are in all countries
and at all times the inferior agents, on which the popular phantom is erected; they
clamour, and must toil, and bleed, and are always sure of meeting with oppression
and rebuke. It is for the sake of the great leaders on both sides, that so much
blood must be spilt; that of the people is counted as nothing. Great events are not
achieved for us, though it is by us that they are principally accomplished; by the
arms, the sweat, the lives of the people. Books tell me so much that they inform me
of nothing. Sophistry, the bane of freemen, launches forth in all her deceiving attire!
After all, most men reason from passions; and shall such an ignorant individual as
I am decide, and say this side is right, that side is wrong? Sentiment and feeling are
the only guides I know. Alas, how should I unravel an argument, in which reason
herself hath given way to brutality and bloodshed! What then must I do? I ask the
wisest lawyers, the ablest casuists, the warmest patriots; for I mean honestly. Great
Source of wisdom! inspire me with light sucient to guide my benighted steps out
of this intricate maze! Shall I discard all my ancient principles, shall I renounce that
name, that nation which I held once so respectable? I feel the powerful attraction;
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