Letter From a Merchant in London to His Nephew...

“Under all these Pressures and Calamities, your deluded Countrymen will certainly open their Eyes at last. For Disappointments and Distresses will effectuate that Cure, which Reason and Argument, Lenity and Moderation could not perform. In short, having been severely scourged and disciplined by their own Rod, they will curse their ambitious Leaders, and detest those Mock-patriots, who involved them in so many Miseries. And having been surfeited with the bitter Fruits of American Republicism, they will heartily wish, and petition to be again united to the Mother Country. Then they will experience the Difference between a rational Plan of Constitutional Dependence, and the wild, romantic, and destructive Schemes of popular Independence.

And you, my Boy, after you have played the Hero, and spoke all your fine Speeches; -- after you have been a Gustavus Vasa, and every other brave Deliverer of his Country; -- after you have formed a thousand Utopian Schemes, and been a thousand times disappointed; -- perhaps even you may awake out of your present political Trance, and become a reasonable Man at last. And assure yourself, that whenever you can be cured of your present Delirium, and shall betray no Symptoms of a Relapse, you will be received with Affection by your old Uncle…”

Read Letter From a Merchant in London to His Nephew in the Rare Books Collection in the Digital Library.

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