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8. The Liberty Tree (1775?)

By THOMAS PAINE

(See note above, p. 337.)

In a chariot of light, from the regions of day, THE GODDESS OF LIBERTY CAME,

Ten thousand celestials directed her way,

And hither conducted the dame.

A fair budding branch from the gardens above, Where millions with millions agree,

She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love,

And the plant she named LIBERTY TREE.

The celestial exotic struck deep in the ground, Like a native it flourish'd and bore:

The fame of its fruit drew the nations around, To seek out this peaceable shore.

Unmindful of names or distinctions they came, For freemen like brothers agree;

With one spirit endued, they one friendship pursued,

And their temple was LIBERTY TREE.

Beneath this fair tree, like the patriarchs of old,
Their bread in contentment they ate,

Unvexed with the troubles of silver or gold,
The cares of the grand and the great.

With timber and tar they Old England supplied,
And supported her power on the sea;
Her battles they fought, without getting a groat,
For the honour of LIBERTY TREE.

But hear, O ye swains ('tis a tale most profane),
How all the tyrannical powers,

King, commons, and lords, are uniting amain,
To cut down this guardian of ours.

From the east to the west blow the trumpet to

arms,

Thro the land let the sound of it flee:

Let the far and the near all unite with a cheer,
In defence of our LIBERTY TREE.

W. T. Sherwin, Memoirs of the Life of Thomas
Paine (London, 1819), 260-261.

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9. Spirit of the Revolution Out of
Doors (1775)

By SAMUEL CURWEN

A loyalist refugee from Salem who continued to love his country in exile.

Philadelphia, May 4, 1775. SINCE the late unhappy affairs at Concord and Lexington, finding the spirit of the people to rise on every fresh alarm, (which has been almost hourly,) and their tempers to get more and more

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soured and malevolent against all moderate men, whom they see fit to reproach as enemies of their country by the name of Tories, among whom I am unhappily (although unjustly) ranked, and unable longer to bear their undeserved reproaches and menaces hourly denounced against myself and others, I think it a duty I owe myself to withdraw for awhile from the storm which, to my foreboding mind, is approaching. Having in vain endeavored to persuade my wife to accompany me, her apprehensions of danger from an incensed soldiery, a people licentious and enthusiastically mad broken loose from all the restraints of law or religion being less terrible to her than a short passage on the ocean,—and being moreover encouraged by her, I left my late peaceful home (in my sixtieth year) in search of personal security and those rights which, by the laws of God, I ought to have enjoyed undisturbed there, and embarked at Beverly on board the schooner Lively, Captain Johnson, bound hither, on Sunday, the 23d ultimo, and I have just arrived, hoping to find an asylum amongst Quakers and Dutchmen, who, I presume, from former experience, have too great a regard for ease and property to sacrifice either, at this time of doubtful disputation, on the altar of an unknown goddess, or rather doubtful divinity. . .

MAY 5, 1775. I find the drums beating, colors flying, and detachments of newly raised militia

parading the streets;-the whole country appears determined to assume a military character, and this city, throwing off her pacific aspect, is forming military companies, a plan being laid for thirty-three. Composed of all ranks and nations, uniting shoulder to shoulder, they form so many patriotic bands to oppose, like the invincible Macedonian phalanx, the progress and increase of Parliamentary authority. The Quakers, not to be behind in manifesting their aversion, have obtained permission of the city committee to make up two companies of Friends, exclusively, and they are to be commanded by Samuel Marshall and Thomas Mifflin, both of that persuasion.

So powerful is the love of liberty, and so great the dread of Ministerial designs, that the strongest prejudices and habits have given way and are controlled by the former.

MAY 10, 1775. Early in the morning a great number of persons rode out several miles, hearing that the Eastern delegates were approaching, when, about II o'clock, the cavalcade appeared (I being near the upper end of Fore-street); first two or three hundred gentlemen on horseback, preceded, however, by the newly-chosen city military officers, two and two, with drawn swords, followed by John Hancock and Samuel Adams, in a phaeton and pair, the former looking as if his journey and high living, or solicitude to sup port the dignity of the first man in Massachusetts,

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had impaired his health. Next came John Adams. and Thomas Cushing in a single horse chaise; behind followed Robert Treat Paine, and after him the New York delegation, and some from the Province of Connecticut, etc., etc. The rear was brought up by a hundred carriages, the streets crowded with people of all ages, sexes, and

ranks.

Samuel Curwen, Journal & Letters (Boston, 1864), 25-29 passim.

10. "Our Cause Is Just, Our Union Is Perfect" (1775)

By THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS

(Written by John Dickinson)

One of the most stirring of the addresses sent out by Congress. (See note above, p. 291.)

OUR forefathers, inhabitants of the island of Great-Britain, left their native land, to seek on these shores a residence for civil and religious freedom. At the expence of their blood, at the hazard of their fortunes, without the least charge to the country from which they removed, by unceasing labour and an unconquerable spirit, they effected settlements in the distant and inhospitable wilds of America, then filled with numerous and warlike nations of barbarians.-Societies or

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