Separation between England and America was inevitably going to happen sometime. That time is now. We have enough of an army to fight off the enemy. Yet the different colonies are still dependent enough on each other to form a united front. We have a navy... well, we can build a navy, for we have the materials and know-how in abundance to do so. We'll have to take on debt for the project; all the more reason to win independence, for it is cowardly to burden our children with our debts without such a great result to show for it. [Yikes.]
[Lots more about a navy.]
The continent is now perfectly balanced between space and population to pull this off. We have the energy of youth. And we are just now forming a method of governing ourselves. If we don't commit fully to this, the opportunity will pass and we will fall to some other form of tyranny instead.
[More thoughts on specific form of government-- including a plug for religious liberty.]
Final points: 1) and 2) We can get no aid from friendly nations while under English rule. 3) Without independence, we'll be labelled rebels only. Not a good reputation. 4) A written document of grievances and our remedy sent to foreign powers will establish us as a serious body in the world.
The time is now. Let's roll.
Appendix: Scathing rebuke of "the King's speech", a speech to Parliament in October 1775. Rebuke also to those elements in society cautioning peace and reconciliation. Grow a spine, weenies!
The time is now. In a few decades time, we will have lost the military experience and expertise gained in the French and Indian War. Note also that our independent fate was sealed when mother England fired upon us. From that point, there was no turning back. So onward.
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Sold! Vive la revolution!
Funny line out of context: "Hemp flourishes even to rankness, so that we need not want cordage."
Awesome passage: "Should an independency be brought about by the first of those means [by 'the legal voice of the people in Congress'], we have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest purest constitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the event of a few months." Damn straight.
I'm realizing that I don't have much of a concept of what life in a colonial system is actually like, and how it differs from-- I mean feels different than-- a self-governed system. What is day to day life actually like? How do citizens view their place in the world and the opportunities their lives present them? Stands to reason though-- I hadn't given much thought to what life in our modern political system is actually like until my 20s. Thanks again to the lack of civics classes in school! I gotta read more primary documents.
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