That this privilege of giving or of withholding our monies is
an important barrier against the undue exertion of prerogative, which
if left altogether without controul may be exercised to our great
oppression; and all history shews how efficacious is its intercession
for redress of grievances and re-establishment of rights, and how
improvident it would be to part with so powerful a mediator.
We are of opinion that the proposition contained in this
resolution is unreasonable and insidious: unreasonable, because, if
we declare we accede to it, we declare without reservation, we will
purchase the favour of Parliament, not knowing at the same time at
what price they will please to estimate their favor: It is insidious,
because, individual colonies, having bid and bidden again, till they
find the avidity of the seller too great for all their powers to
satisfy; are then to return into opposition, divided from their
sister colonies whom the minister will have previously detached by a
grant of easier terms, or by an artful procrastination of a
definitive answer.
That the suspension of the exercise of their pretended power of
taxation being expressly made commensurate with the continuance of
our gifts, these must be perpetual to make that so.
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