A Sermon on the Present Situation of American...
“HAVING never sold our birth-right, we considered ourselves entitled to the privileges of our father’s house – “to enjoy peace, liberty and safety”; to be governed, like our brethren, by our own laws, in all matters properly affecting ourselves, and to offer up our own sacrifices at the altar of British empire; contending that a forced devotion is idolatry, and that no power on earth has a right to come in between us and a gracious sovereign, to measure forth our loyalty, or to grant our property, without our consent.
– 23 June 1775