American Political Writing During the Founding Era: 1760–1805: Two Volume Paperback Set

11. [Silas Downer] A Son of Liberty, A Discourse at the Dedication of the Tree of Liberty

PolWritV1_051-100.indd 97 2/21/12 9:03 AM [ 11} A SoN oF LIBERTY [SILAS DOWNER 1729-1785] A Discourse at the Dedication of the Tree of Liberty PROVIDENCE, 1768 After graduating from Harvard, Downer settled in Providence, .fl. Rhode Island, where he united minor political appointments with small business ventures to launch a career that eventually won him considerable repute as a lawyer. Politics seems to have been too attractive, however, to permit any great success in accumulating wealth. He was a rebel in the cause of resistance that steadily developed into a demand for independence, involving himself from their first appearance in the activities of the Providence Committee of Correspondence and several other local organizations devoted to information and arousal of the Rhode Island citizenry. The passionate plea for liberty printed here was delivered to a Providence audience eight years before the fateful Declaration of Independence. The tradition of dedicating a tree of liberty probably goes back to the ancient practice of Saxon clans' assembling to hold their tungemoot (town meeting) under some large tree. Under Norman rule since the eleventh century, the Saxons would dedicate a tree of liberty to symbolize their former liberty. In any case, the practice was common in the American colonies well before the struggle for independence. Silas Downer here uses the occasion to rehearse the American position developed during the recently concluded Stamp Act crisis. He clearly states the basic formula that the American people are equal tO the British people in the mother country. This formula, implicit in one or two of the earlier pieces reproduced here, would be reiterated hundreds of times in colonial and, later, revolutionary newspaper articles and pamphlets. In this context, the words by Jefferson that "all men are created equal, " despite any individualistic meaning he may have had, were certainly PolWritV1_051-100.indd 98 2/21/12 9:03 AM [ 98} PROVIDENCE, q68 read by the average reader as meaning just what Downer says here: the American people are equal to the people in England, and not in any sense subordinate. Dearly beloved Countrymen, We His Majesty's subjects, who live remote from the throne, and are inhabitants of a new world, are here met together to dedicate the Tree of Liberty. On this occasion we chearfully recognize our allegiance to our sovereign Lord, George the third, King of Great-Britain, and supreme Lord of these dominions, but utterly deny any other dependence on the inhabitants of that island, than what is mutual and reciprocal between all mankind.-It is good for us to be here, to confirm one another in the principles of liberty, and to renew our obligations to contend earnestly therefor. Our forefathers, with the permission of their sovereign, emigrated from England, to avoid the unnatural oppressions which then took place in that country. They endured all sorts of miseries and hardships, before they could establish any tolerable footing in the new world. It was then hoped and expected that the blessing of freedom would be the inheriranee of their posterity, which they preferred to every other temporal consideration. With the extremest toil, difficulty, and danger, our great and noble ancestors founded in America a number of colonies [4] under the allegiance of the crown of England. They forfeited not the privileges ofEnglishmen by removing themselves hither, but brought with them every right, which they could or ought to have enjoyed had they abided in England.-They had fierce and dreadful wars with savages, who often poured their whole force on the infant plantations, but under every difficulty and discouragement, by the good providence of God they multiplied exceedingly and flourished, without receiving any protection or assistance from England. They were free from impositions. Their kings were well disposed to them, and their fellow subjects in Great Britain had not then gaped after Naboth's vineyard. Never were people so happy as our forefathers, after they had brought the land to a state of inhabitancy, and procured peace with the natives. They sat every man under his own vine, and under his own fig tree. They had but few wants; and luxury, extravagance, and debauchery, PolWritV1_051-100.indd 99 2/21/12 9:04 AM [ 99} A SON OF LIBERTY were known only by the names, as the things signified thereby, had not then arrived from the old world. The public worship of God, and the education of children and...