" In continuation, Chatham proceeded to
discuss the whole question: a question which, he said, demanded instant
attention, as an hour lost might produce years of calamity. He remarked:
"I will not desert for a single moment the conduct of this weighty
business; unless nailed to my bed by extremity of sickness, I will give
it my unremitted attention. I will knock at the door of this sleeping
and confounded ministry, and will rouse them to a sense of their
impending danger. When I state the importance of the colonies, and the
magnitude of the danger hanging over this country from the present
plan of mis-administration practised against them, I desire not to be
understood to argue for a reciprocity of indulgence between England
and America. I contend not for indulgence but justice to America; and I
shall ever contend, that the Americans justly owe obedience to us in
a limited degree; they owe obedience to our ordinances of trade and
navigation. But let the line be skilfully drawn between the objects of
those ordinances and their private internal property; let the sacredness
of their property remain inviolate; let it be taxed only by their own
consent, given in their provincial assemblies, else it will cease to be
property. As to the metaphysical refinements, attempting to show that
the Americans are equally free from obedience and commercial restraints
as from taxation of revenue, being unrepresented here, I pronounce them
futile, frivolous, and groundless.
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