Her guardian did not break forth in a violent burst of rage, or
furnish those manifestations of his ire that he was wont to do on less
important subjects; but he arose, with all his dignity concentred in a
look, and, after making a violent effort to restrain his feelings within
the bounds necessary to preserve the decorum of his exit, he ventured a
reply:
"That the British constitution is glorious, madam, is most true. That
this island is the sole refuge where liberty has been able to find a
home, is also true. The tyranny and oppression of the Congress, which
are grinding down the colonies to the powder of desolation and poverty,
are not worthy the sacred name. Rebellion pollutes all that it touches,
madam. Although it often commences under the sanction of holy liberty,
it ever terminates in despotism. The annals of the world, from the time
of the Greeks and Romans down to the present day, abundantly prove it.
There was that Julius Caesar--he was one of your people's men, and he
ended a tyrant. Oliver Cromwell was another--a rebel, a demagogue, and a
tyrant. The gradations, madam, are as inevitable as from childhood to
youth, and from youth to age. As for the little affair that you have
been pleased to mention, of the--of the--of my private concerns, I can
only say that the affairs of nations are not to be judged of by domestic
incidents, any more than domestic occurrences are to be judged of by
national politics." The colonel, like many a better logician, mistook
his antithesis for argument, and paused a moment to admire his own
eloquence; but the current of his thoughts, which always flowed in
torrents on this subject, swept him along in its course, and he
continued: "Yes, madam, here, and here alone, is true liberty to be
found.
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