It is low, cruel, indolent and profligate; and had the people of
America no other cause for separation than what the army has
occasioned, that alone is cause sufficient.
The field of politics in England is far more extensive than that
of news. Men have a right to reason for themselves, and though they
cannot contradict the intelligence in the London Gazette, they may
frame upon it what sentiments they please. But the misfortune is, that
a general ignorance has prevailed over the whole nation respecting
America. The ministry and the minority have both been wrong. The
former was always so, the latter only lately so. Politics, to be
executively right, must have a unity of means and time, and a defect
in either overthrows the whole. The ministry rejected the plans of the
minority while they were practicable, and joined in them when they
became impracticable. From wrong measures they got into wrong time,
and have now completed the circle of absurdity by closing it upon
themselves.
I happened to come to America a few months before the breaking out
of hostilities. I found the disposition of the people such, that
they might have been led by a thread and governed by a reed. Their
suspicion was quick and penetrating, but their attachment to Britain
was obstinate, and it was at that time a kind of treason to speak
against it. They disliked the ministry, but they esteemed the
nation. Their idea of grievance operated without resentment, and their
single object was reconciliation.
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