The Virginia Gazette

The SPEECH of PETER LYMTS.

Mr. SPEAKER,

I AGREE with Mr. Telltruthia in his Reasoning on the Negroes, and Sectaries. They are each of them, separately, Disease enough in any Government; but together, would invigorate, and complete the Malignity of each other. Slaves are very capable, in Case of War with a foreign Enemy, of being excited to revolt against their Masters; of which Instances both ancient, and modern, if necessary, might be produced: They occasion Habits of Pride, and Cruelty in their Owners; so that we seem to want nothing, but religious Differences, and the mad Freaks of Enthusiasm, to divide us, to sharpen our Spirits, to throw us into Confusion, to make us fall on, and tear one another to Pieces with a most savage Fury; and finally to render us an easy Prey to any rival Power, who shall either think us a Prize, or a fit Object to exercise their Resentment.

I know nothing to be objected against what has been said of the Sectaries, so plausible, as the Toleration, and flourishing State of the Dutch. But I am afraid this Toleration is often, in common Discourse and Writings, exaggerated and represented much greater than it really is; besides, we are unacquainted with their Policy: They may have Ways of qualifying, what is in itself a Distemper in Government, unknown to the English, or unpractised by them, just as they have been able to make some Places fertile, and profitable, which the English relinquished for their Barrenness, and Insignificancy. There may be some Things in their Humours, Circumstances, and even Situation, to check, and keep down a Disorder in their Government, which, enflamed by every one of these Particulars in ours, would arise to the utmost Pitch of Irregularity. I therefore make no Difficulty to assert, that in taking a View of the probable Consequences of admitting and encouraging Sectaries among us, we follow the best and safest Method, when we argue, as Mr. Telltruthia has done, from what they have effected, and the Fruit they have produced under our own Government, and among our own People in our Mother Country.

But, notwithstanding how well Mr. Telltruthia has treated this Subject, it is left for me, I think, to go to the Root, and Bottom, of the Evil proposed to be introduced and cultivated; which I shall effectually do, if I can take away the grand Necessity pretended for bringing in universal Toleration, by shewing, that the widening our Settlements to the Westward is, itself, no better than a wide Mistake.

Could we extend our Colony to the South-Sea, as one would imagine some People expect us to do, by their Discourse, what would be the Consequence? Would not the continual Draughts of white Inhabitants carried over the Mountains leave the most ancient, and best Parts of the Colony to be inhabited, in Time, almost entirely by Negroes? Are not the lower Parts of the Country already threatened with this worse than Depopulation, by the daily Removal of those who possess little Parcels of Land, by the Addition of their small Estates to the neighbouring large ones, and the Importation of Negroes to take their Places? Shall not our Country at this Rate be for ever in a great Measure composed of long Tracts of uncultivated Lands? Shall we ever be any Thing else, but a weak, disunited, roving People, the mere Skeleton of a Government, without either Nerves or Sinews?

But suppose our Design is only to settle the Branches of Mississippi, to keep off, or curb, the French: Let us examine, whether even this be so desirable as at first View it may appear. What Strength have we to send, or how shall we convey it to support such Settlements against the French, who have the Advantage of coming both up and down the River, and are not obliged to travel Side-ways upon it, many Leagues by Land, as we must do; and whom it will much import to have all the Lands upon Mississippi River, or it's Branches in their own Possession? Will not such Settlements, as we can possibly make at such a Distance, and under such Circumstances, at the very first Approach of an Enemy retire, and contract like the Leaves of the sensitive Plant? But if we could support these Settlements, how shall we keep their own Interests from making them revolt to the French? Will not the Value of their new Estates depend upon Commerce with the French? Upon the Use of a River in the Hands of the French? Let them consist of what Europeans you please, will not their Situation and Prosperity make them the natural Subjects of France? And how shall they then be retained in the Obedience of the English? And if this be the Case shall we not by such Settlements act for France, and hasten the Evil that we dread? Instead of retarding the Progress of the French, shall we not quicken their March, and bring them upon our Backs; which they could not easily reach, if we did not both stretch out our Shoulders to meet their Stripes, and lengthen the Whip in their Hands? In short, I look upon all Settlements on Lands not within the Reach of our own Rivers, that fall on the East Side of our Mountains to be Excrescences, or Exuberances, which we ought to lop off, as we do the superfluous Limbs of a Tree too much shot out, in Order to make it bear good Fruit.

If we could keep some Lands on Mississippi, or any intermediate Lands between the Bounds I have mentioned and the French, in the Hands of the Indian Nations, and these Indian Nations in our Friendship, they would be our best and most secure Barrier. But if these Places must be seated by English Subjects, it would be for our Advantage to have them erected into a new Colony.

To correct the Evil of Slaves, to prevent the Mischief of Sectaries, to encourage Trade, Agriculture, and thick Settlements in narrow Bounds, rather than unnavigable Rivers, useless Tracts, nominal Estates, and diffused Habitations in unbounded Countries, merit all our Attention: In these Points consist on the one Side the Safety, and the very Being, and on the other, the Riches, Strength, and Glory of the Colony. If then we have been piddling about Tobacco hitherto, let us do more than piddle for the future.

I have herein followed a new Road, and ventured to oppose a received Opinion, on which Occasions I am apt to doubt myself: I shall therefore take it as a Favour from any one to set me right, on a Subject that deserves to be thoroughly sifted: I speak not this out of a vain Confidence in what I have said, but out of a pure Regard to Truth. I desire not to impose any false Reasoning upon Mankind, because it is mine; but covet my own Improvement, and the public Benefit. If therefore it can be shewn, that I am wrong in my Notions I desire it may. I shall be glad to be convinced, and rather be proud, than ashamed of my Error; as thinking no Victory in the World so truly great and glorious as the Conquest of one's Self, and one's own Prejudices; notwithstanding the Disrepute and Contempt in which such Conquest seems to be held, by the Generality of Mankind.