The colonies, so united, would have been sufficiently strong to have
defended themselves; there would then have been no need of troops
from England; of course, the subsequent pretence for taxing America,
and the bloody contest it occasioned, would have been avoided.
But such mistakes are not new; history is full of the errors of states
and princes.
Look round the habitable world, how few
Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue!
Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not
generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into
execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore
seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forc'd by the occasion.
The Governor of Pennsylvania, in sending it down to the Assembly,
express'd his approbation of the plan, "as appearing to him
to be drawn up with great clearness and strength of judgment,
and therefore recommended it as well worthy of their closest and
most serious attention." The House, however, by the management
of a certain member, took it up when I happen'd to be absent,
which I thought not very fair, and reprobated it without paying
any attention to it at all, to my no small mortification.
In my journey to Boston this year, I met at New York with our
new governor, Mr. Morris, just arriv'd there from England, with whom
I had been before intimately acquainted. He brought a commission
to supersede Mr. Hamilton, who, tir'd with the disputes his proprietary
instructions subjected him to, had resign'd.
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