I do not propose this as a regular digested plan, neither will the
limits of this paper admit of any further remarks upon it. I believe
it to be a hint capable of much improvement, and as such submit it
to the public.
COMMON SENSE.
LANCASTER, March 21, 1778.
VI.
TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE, GENERAL CLINTON, AND
WILLIAM EDEN, ESQ., BRITISH COMMISSIONERS
AT NEW YORK.
THERE is a dignity in the warm passions of a Whig, which is never to
be found in the cold malice of a Tory. In the one nature is only
heated- in the other she is poisoned. The instant the former has it in
his power to punish, he feels a disposition to forgive; but the canine
venom of the latter knows no relief but revenge. This general
distinction will, I believe, apply in all cases, and suits as well the
meridian of England as America.
As I presume your last proclamation will undergo the strictures of
other pens, I shall confine my remarks to only a few parts thereof.
All that you have said might have been comprised in half the
compass. It is tedious and unmeaning, and only a repetition of your
former follies, with here and there an offensive aggravation. Your
cargo of pardons will have no market. It is unfashionable to look at
them- even speculation is at an end. They have become a perfect
drug, and no way calculated for the climate.
In the course of your proclamation you say, "The policy as well as
the benevolence of Great Britain have thus far checked the extremes of
war, when they tended to distress a people still considered as their
fellow subjects, and to desolate a country shortly to become again a
source of mutual advantage.
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