Passage 2: from Speech to Parliament on Reconciliation with the American Colonies,
March 22, 1775
On March 22, 1775, the day before Patrick Henry made his speech to the Second Virginia Convention, Edmund Burke, an Irish-born British politician, stood up before Parliament in Britain and made a speech on the same topic: the possibility of war with the American colonies. Although the topic was the same, their speeches presented opposing points of view about the need to engage in a war.
3 The proposition1 is peace. Not peace through the medium of war, not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations, not peace to arise out of universal discord.. . . It is simple peace, sought in its natural course and in its ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in principles purely pacific. I propose, by removing the ground of the difference [between Britain and America] and by restoring the former unsuspecting confidence of the colonies in the mother country, to give permanent satisfaction to your people — and (far from a scheme of ruling by discord) to reconcile them to each other in the same act and by the bond of the very same interest which reconciles them to British government.
4 Let me add that I do not choose wholly to break the American spirit, because it is the spirit that has made the country.. . . In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole;
5 If anything were wanting [lacking] to this necessary operation of the form of government, religion would have given it a complete effect. Religion, always a principle of energy, in this new people is no way worn out or impaired; and their mode of professing it is also one main cause of this free spirit.. . .
6 In no country, perhaps, in the world is the law so general a study. The profession itself is numerous and powerful, and in most provinces it takes the lead. The greater number of the deputies sent to the Congress were lawyers. But all who read, and most do read, endeavor to obtain some smattering in that science.. . .
7 The last cause of this disobedient spirit in the colonies is hardly less powerful than the rest, as it is not merely moral, but laid deep in the natural constitution of things. Three thousand miles of ocean lie between you and them.
8 Sir, I shall open the whole plan to you together, with such observations on the motions as may tend to illustrate them, where they may want explanation.
9 The first is a resolution:2 “That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain in North America, consisting of fourteen separate governments, and containing two millions and upwards of free inhabitants, have not had the liberty and privilege of electing and sending any knights and burgesses, or others, to represent them in the high court of Parliament.”
10 This is a plain matter of fact.. . .
11 The second is like unto the first: “That the said colonies and plantations have been made liable to, and bounden by, several subsidies, payments, rates, and taxes, given and granted by Parliament, though the said colonies and plantations have not their knights and burgesses in the said high court of Parliament, of their own election, to represent the condition of their country; by lack whereof they have been oftentimes touched and grieved by subsidies, given, granted, and assented to, in the said court, in a manner prejudicial to the common wealth, quietness, rest, and peace of the subjects inhabiting within the same.”
12 The next proposition is: “That, from the distance of the said colonies, and from other circumstances, no method hath hitherto been devised for procuring a representation in Parliament for the said colonies.. . ,”
13 The fourth resolution is: “That each of the said colonies hath within itself a body, . . . commonly called the General Assembly or General Court, with powers legally to raise, levy, and assess, according to the several usages of such colonies, duties and taxes towards defraying all sorts of public services.”
14 This competence in the colony assemblies is certain. It is proved by the whole tenor of their acts of supply [for taxation] in all the assemblies, in which the constant style of granting is “An aid to his Majesty”; and acts granting to the crown have regularly, for near a century, passed the public offices without dispute.. . .
15 The fifth resolution is also a resolution of fact: “That the said general assemblies, general courts, or other bodies legally qualified as aforesaid, have at sundry [several/various] times freely granted several large subsidies and public aids for his Majesty’s service, according to their abilities, when required.. . .”
16 . . . The people heard, indeed, from the beginning of these disputes [with Britain in 1763], one thing continually dinned in their ears that reason and justice demanded that the Americans, who paid no taxes, should be compelled to contribute. How did that fact, of their paying nothing, stand, when the taxing system began? . . .On this state, those untaxed people were actually subject to the payment of taxes to the amount of six hundred and fifty thousand a year.. . .
17 You have heard me with goodness. May you decide with wisdom! For my part, I feel my mind greatly disburdened by what I have done today. I have been the less fearful of trying your patience because on this subject I mean to spare it altogether in future. I have this comfort, that in every stage of the American affairs I have steadily opposed the measures that have produced the confusion and may bring on the destruction of this Empire.. . .”
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1. proposition: plan of action; a statement that suggests a judgment or opinion
2. resolution: formal statement to do or not to do something that is adopted by a group such as Parliament
“Speech to Parliament on Reconciliation with the American Colonies, March 22, 1775.” In the public domain.
Now answer the questions. Base your answers on the passages “from Speech to the Virginia Convention” and “from Speech to Parliament on Reconciliation with the American Colonies, March 22, 1775.”
