" This is the sentiment of that patriotic
member, and it is obvious to the comnmon sense of every man. -If the
parliament have a right to take as much of our money as they please,
they may take all. And what liberty can that man have, the produce
of whose daily labour another has the right to take from him if he
pleases, and which is similar to our case, takes a part of it to
convince him that he has the power as well as the pretence of right?
- That sage of the law Lord Camden declar'd, in his speech upon the
declaratory bill, that "his searches had more and more convinced him
that the British parliament have no right to tax the Americans. Nor,
said he, "is the doctrine new: It is as old as the constitution:
Indeed, it is its support." The taking away this right must then be
in the opinion of that great lawyer, the removal of the very support
of the constitution, upon which all our civil liberties depend. He
speaks in still stronger terms-" Taxation and representation are
inseparably united: This position is founded on the laws of nature:
It is more: It is itself an eternal law of nature - Whatever is a
man's own is absolutely his own; and no man has a right to take it
from him without his consent, either express'd by himself or his
representative - Whoever attempts to do it, attempts an injury:
Whoever does it, commits a ROBBERY: He throws down the distinction
between liberty and slavery" - Can Chronus say, that the Americans
ever consented either by themselves or their representatives, that
the British parliament should tax them? That they have taxed us we
all know: We all feel it: I wish we felt it more sensibly: They have
therefore, according to the sentiments of the last mention'd
Nobleman, which are built on nature and common reason, thrown down
the very distinction between liberty and slavery in America - And
yet this writer.
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