If they are authorized to make laws, to establish penalties, and to regulate the concerns of this Colony, why are we called together 1 what is lelt for us to do ] Nothing sir, but to do our duty ; to undo, if possible, all that they have done ; to strip them of their borrowed plumes, and to resume that authority, which has been delegated to us forthe most important purposes ; for the preservation of liberty,

24S HISTORY OF THE

order and good government. We are the representatives of the inhabitants of this Colony ; they have entrusted us with the guardianship of their rights and hberties, and they look up to us for the preservation of them. Let us, therefore, act as becomes us, with firmness and resolution. The eyes of all honest and good men are upon us : their hopes, their expectations of -peace and safety, under Heaven, are centred here. Let us not disappoint their hopes, but let us lay aside every prejudice ; let us suppress every passion and sentiment that can interfere with our country's welfare, and let us unite with one voice and one mouth, to save her from destruction.

" We have this day before us, the choice either of peace or war ; of happiness or misery, of freedom or slavery ; and surely we cannot hesitate a moment which to choose. By proceeding in a firm, but in a peaceable, loyal and constitutional manner, in the settlement of this unhappy difl^erence with our mother country, we cannot fail, I am convinced, of meeting with all desirable success. We shall by these means, undoubtedly, secure to ourselves a free constitution ; we shall have a line of government stretched out and ascertained, and we shall be restored to the favor and protection of the parent state, which, next to the favor of Heaven, will be our best and strongest safeguard and security.