What harm, if Ministers agree
To rebel-independancy,
Or British Senators consent
To what we never can prevent?
We never can prevent it now?
But could we not? inquire of H[owe],
Who had the Yankies at his mercy
So oft, and drove them arsey-versy,
Yet still permitted to take breath,
And snatch’d them from the jaws of death:
Subdue them finally he coud not,
And reason good—because he woud not
Who only fought for double pay,
A trust accepting—to betray.
Or let his warlike Brother own
What with his Fleet he might have done,
Block’d all their harbours up, and seiz’d,
Or burnt their ships, whene’er he pleas’d,
Their raggamuffin host compel’d,
Their Chief without a stroke to yield,
Reduc’d to desperate condition,
And starv’d into intire submission.
Ask Will, why he refus’d to join
And save the resolute Burgoigne,
Marching (his rival to betray)
Three thousand miles another way?
Right glad and happy then was he
To mock at his calamity;
And then with treacherous design
To spare his friends at Brandywine.
Or let Monsieur sincerely say
Coud we have kept America,
And forc’d the rebels to submit—
“No: for ye ne’er intended it:
“Your generals ne’er in earnest fought,
“Or a decisive victory sought;
“To trust their friends with arms afraid,
“Lest Loyalists themselves shoud aid,
“And crush their foes, and mar the plots
“Of spurious, English Patriots.[”]
Our Patriots here, a restless Party,
For their Allies abroad so hearty
Might safely promise and foretell
America invincible,
While all in the conspiracy
Determin’d—It shall never be
That Britain shoud obtain her ends
And triumph or’e Rebellion’s friends.
Oft when the Cause appear’d as lost
And ready to give up the ghost,
By some political manouvre
They help’d their Partners to recover,
The last, expiring spark of war
Reviv’d, and snatch’d them from despair:
Till headlong and precipitate
C[ornwalli]s rush’d upon his fate:
Yielding at once without a stroke,
And passing, tame, beneath the yoke,
He beg’d the haughty Foe to spare
His sutlers, and his tools of war,
But left the Loyalists to feel
The mercy of those Fiends from hell.
Woud faction’s sons neglect th’ occasion
Of subjecting both King and nation?
Furious they rise with one consent,
And seize the helm of government
They vote, of sovereign power possest,
The ruinous war at once supprest,
And all who dare their plans oppose
Declare their King’s and Country’s foes:
Loyalists must the strife give o’re,
The soldiers must contend no more,
But from America withdraw,
And Congress give to Britain law,
And traitors force us all t’ agree
To Rebel-Independancy.