"13thly. Because they do not consider the support of their independence as difficult. The country is very defensible and fertile; the people are all soldiers, who with reason consider their liberty and lives as the most valuable of the possessions left them, and which they are determined shall neither be wrested or purchased from them but with blood.
"14thly. Because for the support of their independence, they have expressly, by a most solemn act, pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor; so that their bond of union, for this very purpose, thus formed of all the ties of common interest, common safety, mutual affection, general resentments, and the great obligations of virtue, honor, patriotism, and religion, may with reason be deemed equal to the importance of that great object.
Whether there is any powerful Party in Favor of England, and what Consequences are to be apprehended from it? Whether the Heads of this Party suffer themselves to be seduced by the Promises of the British Government?
"What has been already said, on the subject of the union of the people in North America, will I imagine in a great measure answer these questions.
"If by a party in favor of England is meant a party for relinquishing the independence of the United States, and returning to the dominion of Britain, on any terms whatever, I answer there is no such party in North America; all the open adherents of the Crown of Great Britain having either voluntarily quitted or been expelled from the country.
"That Britain has emissaries and masked adherents in America, industrious in their little spheres to perplex the public measures, and disturb the public tranquillity, is a fact of which I have not the most distant doubt, and it is equally true, that some of these wicked men are by a few weak ones thought to be patriots, but they cannot with any propriety be called a party, or even a faction. The chief mischief they do, is collecting and transmitting intelligence, raising false reports, and spreading calumnies of public men and measures; such characters will be found in every country so circumstanced, and America has not been negligent in providing laws for their punishment.
"The obvious policy of the Court of London has induced them to boast perpetually of their party in America; but where it is? of whom composed? what it has done, or is doing? are questions to which they constantly give evasive answers. Much also have they said of the numbers that have joined their arms in America. The truth is, that at Boston, Rhode Island, New York, and Philadelphia, they gleaned some of that refuse of mankind, to be found and purchased by any body in all commercial cities. It is also true, that some men of weight and influence in the country, who joined the enemy on their first successes, did draw away with them several of their immediate dependents, whom they persuaded or otherwise influenced to enlist in their service. To these may also be added the prisoners, who at different times they forced into their service by famine, and other severities too numerous as well as barbarous to be here particularized. But I have no reason to believe, that all these aids put together ever exceeded three thousand men. This business, however, (except with respect to prisoners,) has long been over, and before I left America many of those deluded people had returned and implored the pardon of their country.
"In America, as in all other popular governments, your Excellency knows there must and ever will be parties for and against particular measures and particular men. The enemy, adverting to this circumstance, have had address enough to ascribe differences and temporary heats arising from this source, in which they were not interested, to causes much higher, and more flattering to their importance; and this they have done with so much art, as to have imposed in some instances on the credulity of men high in reputation for sagacity and discernment.
"If your Excellency will be pleased to peruse a pamphlet marked No. 6, which you will find enclosed with the other papers I herewith transmit, and entitled 'Observations on the American Revolution,' you will perceive that nothing is to be apprehended from this supposed party in North America.
A Statement of the Revenues of the States, and of their Ability to contribute to the General Expense; whether they will be able long to support this Burthen, and increase it if necessary?