Address
to the
Assembly of Jamaica -
July 25, 1775
The Address to the Assembly of Jamaica was passed
by the Second Continental Congress on July 25, 1775. It was authored by
William
Hooper, a delegate from North Carolina who later signed the
Declaration of Independence. The address relates America's grievances
towards Great Britain and seeks to explain to Jamaica why the
American's had cut off all trade with island.
The First Continental Congress had passed a
resolution banning all trade with any British colonies or ships, in an
effort to get Britain to back down from its tyrannical ways. Jamaica
and other British Caribbean colonies were distressed because the
American colonies were one of their primary markets. Jamaica's sugar
plantations supplied the thirteen colonies with sugar. In this address,
the Congress advises Jamaica to plant wheat, instead, for its own
consumption. Congress also acknowledges the Jamaicans' effort to
intercede on their behalf with Great Britain and appeals to the
Jamaicans' own sense of freedom and liberty in an effort to get them to
understand the Americans' position.
Address to
the Assembly of Jamaica
MR. SPEAKER AND GENTLEMEN OF THE ASSEMBLY OF
JAMAICA,
We would think ourselves deficient in our duty, if
we suffered this
Congress to pass over, without expressing our esteem for the assembly
of Jamaica.
Whoever attends to the conduct of those who have
been entrusted with
the administration of the British affairs, during these last twelve
years, will discover in it, a deliberate plan to destroy, in every part
of the empire, the free constitution, for which Britain has been so
long and so justly famed. With a dexterity, artful and wicked, they
have varied the modes of attack, according to the different characters
and circumstances of those whom they meant to reduce. In the East
Indies, where the effeminacy of the inhabitants promised an easy
conquest, they thought it unnecessary to veil their tyrannic principles
under the thinnest disguise. Without deigning even to pretend a
justification of their conduct, they sacrificed the lives of millions
to the gratification of their insatiable avarice and lust of power. In
Britain, where the maxims of freedom were still known, but where luxury
and dissipation had diminished the wonted reverence for them, the
attack has been carried on in a more secret and indirect manner:
Corruption has been employed to undermine them. The Americans are not
enervated by effeminacy, like the inhabitants of India; nor debauched
by luxury, like those of Great Britain: It was, therefore, judged
improper to assail them by bribery, or by undisguised force. Plausible
systems were formed; specious presences were made: All the arts of
sophistry were tried to shew that the British ministry had by law a
right to enslave us. The first and best maxims of the constitution,
venerable to Britons and to Americans, were perverted and profaned. The
power of parliament, derived from the people, to bind the people, was
extended over those from whom it was never derived. It is asserted that
a standing army may be constitutionally kept among us, without our
consent. Those principles, dishonorable to those who adopted them, and
destructive to those to whom they were applied, were nevertheless
carried into execution by the foes of liberty and of mankind. Acts of
parliament, ruinous to America, and unserviceable to Britain, were made
to bind us; armies, maintained by the parliament, were sent over to
secure their operation. The power, however, and the cunning of our
adversaries, were alike unsuccessful. We refused to their parliaments
an obedience, which our judgments disapproved of: We refused to their
armies a submission, which spirits unaccustomed to slavery, could not
brook.
But while we spurned a disgraceful subjection, we
were far from
running into rash or seditious measures of opposition. Filled with
sentiments of loyalty to our sovereign, and of affection and respect
for our fellow subjects in Britain, we petitioned, we supplicated, we
expostulated: Our prayers were rejected; our remonstrances
were
disregarded; our grievances were accumulated. All this did not
provoke
us to violence.
An appeal to the justice and humanity of those who
had injured us,
and who were bound to redress our injuries, was ineffectual: we next
resolved to make an appeal to their interests, though by doing so, we
knew we must sacrifice our own, and (which gave us equal uneasiness)
that of our friends, who had never offended us, and who were connected
with us by a sympathy of feelings, under oppressions similar to our
own. We resolved to give up our commerce that we might preserve our
liberty. We flattered ourselves, that when, by withdrawing our
commercial intercourse with Britain, which we had an undoubted right
either to withdraw or continue, her trade should be diminished, her
revenues impaired, and her manufactures unemployed, our ministerial
foes would be induced by interest, or compelled by necessity, to depart
from the plan of tyranny which they had so long pursued, and to
substitute in its place, a system more compatible with the freedom of
America, and justice of Britain. That this scheme of non-importation
and non-exportation might be productive of the desired effects, we were
obliged to include the islands in it. From this necessity, and from
this necessity alone, has our conduct towards them proceeded. By
converting your sugar plantations into fields of grain, you can supply
yourselves with the necessaries of life: While the present unhappy
struggle shall continue, we cannot do more.
But why should we make any apology to the
patriotic assembly of
Jamaica, who knows so well the value of liberty; who are so sensible of
the extreme danger to which ours is exposed; and who foresee how
certainly the destruction of ours must be followed by the destruction
of their own?
We receive uncommon pleasure from observing the
principles of our
righteous opposition distinguished by your approbation: We feel the
warmest gratitude for your pathetic mediation in our behalf with the
crown.
It was indeed unavailing -but are you to blame? Mournful
experience
tells us that petitions are often rejected, while the sentiments and
conduct of the petitioners entitle what they offer to a happier fate.
That our petitions have been treated with disdain,
is now become the
smallest part of our complaint: Ministerial insolence is lost in
ministerial barbarity. It has, by an exertion peculiarly ingenious,
procured those very measures, which it laid us under the hard necessity
of pursuing, to be stigmatized in parliament as rebellious: It has
employed additional fleets and armies for the infamous purpose of
compelling us to abandon them: It has plunged us in all the horrors and
calamities of civil war: It has caused the treasure and blood of
Britons (formerly shed and expended for far other ends) to be spilt and
wasted in the execrable design of spreading slavery over British
America: It will not, however, accomplish its aim: In the worst of
contingencies, a choice will still be left, which it never can prevent
us from making.
The peculiar situation of your island forbids your
assistance. But
we have your good wishes. From the good wishes of the friends of
liberty and mankind, we shall always derive consolation.
