From John Dickinson Letters, published in 1767-1768. His writings both reflect sentiments of our times and demonstrate the adage, the more things change the more they stay the same. See if you agree with me and John Dickinson. From them (men who are decoys of the British) we shall learn, how pleasant and profitable a thing it is, to be for our submissive behavior[,] well spoken of at St. James or St. Stephens; at Guildhall, or the Royal Exchange. Specious (plausible but wrong) fallacies will be drest (dressed) up with all the arts of delusion, to persuade one colony to distinguish herself from another, by unbecoming condescensions, which will serve the ambitious purposes of great men at home, and therefore will be thought by them (the decoys) to entitle their assistants in obtaining them (ambitions) to considerable rewards. Our fears will be excited. Our hopes will be awakened. It will be insinuated to us, with a plausible affection of wisdom and concern, how prudent it is to please the powerful-- how dangerous to provoke them-- and then comes in the perpetual incatation that freezes up every generous purpose of the soul in cold, inactive expectation--that if there is any request to be made, compliance will obtain a favorable attention.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 13:22:28 +0000
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