This is miserable politics indeed!
Because it ought to have been given as a reason for her not engaging
in a war at first. The coast of America commands the West India
trade almost as effectually as the coast of Africa does that of the
Straits; and England can no more carry on the former without the
consent of America, than she can the latter without a Mediterranean
pass.
In whatever light the war with America is considered upon commercial
principles, it is evidently the interest of the people of England
not to support it; and why it has been supported so long, against
the clearest demonstrations of truth and national advantage, is, to
me, and must be to all the reasonable world, a matter of astonishment.
Perhaps it may be said that I live in America, and write this from
interest. To this I reply, that my principle is universal. My
attachment is to all the world, and not to any particular part, and if
what I advance is right, no matter where or who it comes from. We have
given the proclamation of your commissioners a currency in our
newspapers, and I have no doubt you will give this a place in yours.
To oblige and be obliged is fair.
Before I dismiss this part of my address, I shall mention one more
circumstance in which I think the people of England have been
equally mistaken: and then proceed to other matters.
There is such an idea existing in the world, as that of national
honor, and this, falsely understood, is oftentimes the cause of war.
In a Christian and philosophical sense, mankind seem to have stood
still at individual civilization, and to retain as nations all the
original rudeness of nature.
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