Weekly Trinity Journal

"Hyperion."—During the Revolutionary war
Josiah Quincy, adopting the signature of "Hyperion,"
printed a series of revolutionary articles
in the Boston Gazette. When we read the following
extract we will understand what invigorated
the arms of the colonists. How it made those
brave old hearts burn with patriotic resolve:

"Who has the front to ask, wherefore do you
complain? Who dares assert, that everything
worth living for is not lost, when a nation is enslaved?
Are not pensioners, stipendiaries, and
salary-men, unknown before, hourly multiplying
upon us, to riot in the spoils of miserable America?
Does not every eastern gale waft us some
new insect, even of that devouring kind which
eat up every green thing? Is not the bread taken
out of the children's mouth and given to the
dogs? Are not our estates given to corrupt sycophants,
without a design, or even a pretence of
soliciting our assent; and our lives put in the
hands of those whose tender mercies are cruelties?
Has not an authority in a distant land, in the
most public manner, proclaimed a right of disposing
of the all of Americans? In short, what
have we to lose? What have we to fear? Are
not our distresses more than we can bear? And,
to finish all, are not our cities, in a time of profound
peace, filled with standing armies, to preclude
from us that last solace of the wretched—
to open their mouths in complaint, and send forth
their cries in bitterness of heart?

But is there no ray of hope? Is not Great
Britain inhabited by the children of those renowned
barons who waded through seas of
crimson gore to establish their liberty? and will
they not allow us, their fellow men, to enjoy that
freedom which we claim from nature, which is
confirmed by our constitution, and which they
pretend so highly to value? Were a tyrant to
conquer us, the chains of slavery, when opposition
should become useless, might be supportable;
but to be shackled by Englishmen—by our equals
—is not to be borne. By the sweat of our brow
we earn the little we possess; from nature we derive
the common rights of man; and by charter
we claim the liberties of Britons. Shall we, dare
we pusillanimously surrender our birthright? Is
the obligation to our fathers discharged? Is the
debt we owe posterity paid? Answer me, thou
coward, who hidest thyself in the hour of trial!
If there is no reward in this life, no prize of glory
in the next, capable of animating thy dastard
soul, think and tremble, thou miscreant! at the
whips and stripes thy master shall lash thee with
on earth, and the flames and scorpions thy second
master shall torment thee with while thou
cowardly ray, when they read the history of these
times, should they find that we tamely gave away,
without one noble struggle, the most invaluable of
earthly blessings! As they drag the galling chain,
will they not execrate us? If we have any respect
for things sacred, any regard to the dearest treasure
on earth; if we have one tender sentiment
for posterity; if we would not be despised by the
whole world;—let us, in the most open, solemn
manner, and with determined fortitude, swear—
we will die, if we cannot live, freemen!'