And altho' these duties are in part
repeal'd, there remains enough to answer the purpose of
administration, which was to fix the precedent. We remember the
policy of Mr. Grenville, who would have been content for the
present with a pepper corn establish'd as a revenue in America: If
therefore we are voluntarily silent while the single duty on tea
is continued, or do any act, however innocent, simply considered,
which may be construed by the tools of administration, (some of
whom appear to be fruitful in invention) as an acquiescence in the
measure, we are in extreme hazard; if ever we are so distracted as
to consent to it, we are undone.
Nor can we ever forget the indignity and abuse with which America
in general, and this province and town in particular, have been
treated, by the servants & officers of the crown, for making a
manly resistance to the arbitrary measures of administration, in
the representations that have been made to the men in power at
home, who have always been dispos'd to believe every word as
infallible truth. For opposing a threatned Tyranny, we have been
not only called, but in effect adjudged Rebels & Traitors to the
best of Kings, who has sworn to maintain and defend the Rights and
Liberties of his Subjects - We have been represented as inimical to
our fellow subjects in Britain, because we have boldly asserted those
Rights and Liberties, wherewith they, as Subjects, are made free.
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