--A step further will reduce us to
absolute subjection. If administration is resolved to continue such
measure of severity, the colonies will in time consider the
mother-state as utterly regardless of their welfare: Repeated acts of
unkindness on one side, may by degrees abate the warmth of affection
on the other, and a total alienation may succeed to that happy union,
harmony and confidence, which has subsisted, and we sincerely wish may
always subsist: If Great Britain, instead of treating us as their
fellow-subjects, shall aim at making us their vassals and slaves, the
consequence will be, that although our merchants have receded from
their non-importation agreement, yet the body of the people will
vigorously endeavor to become independent of the mother-country for
supplies, and sooner than she may be aware of it, will manufacture for
themselves. The colonists, like healthy young sons, have been
chearfully building up the parent state, and how far Great Britain
will be affected, if they should be rendered even barely useless to
her, is an object which we conceive is at this very juncture worth the
attention of a British Parliament.
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