Home / Bolton, Robert Jr. A History of the County of Westchester, from its First Settlement to the Present Time, Vol. II. New York: Alexander S. Gould, 1848. / Passage

A History of the County of Westchester, Vol. II

Bolton, Robert Jr. A History of the County of Westchester, from its First Settlement to the Present Time, Vol. II. New York: Alexander S. Gould, 1848. 314 words

We may have it in our power, as I know we shall have it in our will, to stretch out a helping hand to raise them from the pit into which they are falling. And I will venture to assert with boldness and confidence, that if this Loyal Province will do her duty, and act with wisdom and moderation in the critical juncture, she may yet save America.

" Great Britain is not the only quarter from whence danger is to be apprehended. Iler resentment, no doubt, is to be dreaded, and it behoves us, if possi-

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ble, to avert it ; she may destroy our cities; she may ruin our commerce ; she may reduce us to so deplorable a condition that we shall be willing to accept of peace and reconciliation upon any terms which she shall think proper to impose. This is what she may do, and what most probably she will do, unless we alter the mode of our conduct towards her. But if she should think proper to decline the contest ; if in her wrath she should give us up to our own direction, and leave us to cut and shuffle for ourselves, and to settle our boundaries, and to appoint our forms of government, deeper and more terrible scenes of distress will present themselves to our view. Fain would I draw a veil over this melancholy prospect, and hide it from the eye of humanity ; but my duty to my family -- to my constituents -- to my country, forbids me to be silent. Factions and animosities will lay waste o\ir country. Provinces will rise against Provinces, and no umpire to determine the contest but the sword. This once flourishing and happy land will smile no more ; it will become a field of blood, and a scene of terror and desolation.