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A Memorial Addressed to the Sovereigns of America
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Historical SummaryFor Pownall, see No. 26 above. Here he strikes the key-note of American policy. — Bibliography: Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, VII, 524; John Adams. Works, X passim. — For other discussions of the American policy, see Nos. 106, 147, 148 below.
"Memorial to the Sovereigns of America" (1783)
BY THOMAS POWNALL
THIS Memorial hath stated and explained the operation of the internal self-working Principle, as the first cause of union in Community, which by one common energy of universal attraction creates (as in nature by natural principles) one common center, to which the several energies of each and all tend and conspire. If human nature, and a community of Human beings, could be found perfect as to reason, truth, and wisdom; not to be perverted by passions; not to be seduced and corrupted by vicious affections; this attractive principle would alone be efficient to the End of union in Government. This is not the case; God hath therefore been pleased to superadd another cause, arising from the very defects and depravations of man, which operates from without. This compresses men against their repulsive fears and jealousies of each other, against the repellant temper which frauds, dissentions, violence, and attempts at domination, raise amongst them, by a still stronger compulsive power into closer contact, and mutual alliance for common defence. It is happy for a State, especially for a newly-established State, when this external cause continues to act; and acts to one and the same end in aid of the internal principle.
It is, on the other hand, an unfortunate and dangerous crisis to young and rising States, if the external compressive cause, which hath been found useful to a State, by rendering internal peace and union necessary, and hath been in that line of efficiency applied as part of the political System, ceases to act. . . . now that the Impcrium of Great Britain resides no longer within the Empire of the United States; now that the British Nation is removed from within the Dominion of those States; now that the States dwell almost alone on their great Continent, and are absolutely the Ascendent Power there; if the true spirit of liberty . . . and the genuine spirit of Government, does not act by the internal attractive principle of Union strongly and permanently in proportion as the external compressing cause of confederation is removed, the Americans will experience the same Fate and Fortune, and be driven, by the same miseries, to the same ruinous distress which the States of Greece and the city of Rome had wretched experience of.
It is, however, peculiarly happy for the American States, whatever be the force and temper of this internal principle with them; that an external compressive cause is not wholly taken off. When they consider the difficulties which they will have to render the line of Frontiers between their Empire and the British Provinces in America a line of Peace; when they experience in fact and practice the difficulties of preserving it as such; when they speculate upon the almost numberless, and, at present, nameless, sources of dispute and contention, which may break out between them and Spain; when, in the cool hours of unimpassioned reflection, they begin to be apprized of the danger of their very Alliances; they will see that this compressive cause does not cease to act. . . . If they improve the feelings which the States will from time to time experience of danger to the interest of the General Imperium from external force, so as to work the impression, which fears of that external power creates, to a permanent habit of union and confederation, as a principle of their Empire, never to be remitted, diminished, or departed from for a moment, these States will derive internal Union and Stability to their Government from those very dangers, or the fears of those dangers, which threaten it. If, on the other hand, it should unfortunately become the system of their Polities, that, divided into parties, each ascendant party of the time should, by reference to, and the interposition of, those external powers, aim to strengthen their own interest, the state may retain its sovereign Station; but their own Rulers will scarcely be the Sovereigns: the Reason of State will be no longer its own reason; and its Liberty will, even while it seems to act in all its forms, be bound down by the predestination of External Powers. The several States, or several Parties in the States, instead of coalescing by one uniform general attraction to the common center, will become like the blood of life in a fever, clotted into partial diseased coagulations of faction, having the most violent repulsion amongst each other. . . .
. . . This Memorial . . . will only repeat what the Memorial addressed to the Sovereigns of Europe stated as a maxim (rather a fundamental Principle) of American Politics: "That as Nature hath separated her from Europe, and hath established her alone (as a Sovereign) on a great Continent, far removed from the Old world and all its embroiled interests, that it is contrary to the nature of her existence, and consequently to her interest, that she should have any connexions of Politics with Europe other than merely commercial; that she should be a FREE PORT to all Europe at large, and in reciprocity claim a FREE MARKET in Europe; and that she should have no commercial treaties with any European Power partial to such power and exclusive to others; but that she should give and enjoy a free Navigation and an open trade with all."
Fundamental Principles similar to these, although they may not have been able to prevent her from forming some connexions, some alliances, may yet, if a system of Politics is founded on them as decided maxims of State, and invariably and uniformly pursued, preserve her from the entanglements in which she might be otherwise involved, and guard her against the dangers which the consequences of those connexions may lead to. Although a bold and daring, or a lucky stroke, may succeed for the hour or the season, or in the transient small affairs of Individuals; yet nothing but System, as it arises from the nature of the State, will be efficient to any permanent purpose . . . The conclusion upon the whole is, that, if the New Sovereign Republic of America hath the right conscious sense of natural liberty and political Freedom; if it is animated with, and actuated by, the genuine Spirit of efficient Sovereignty; if it hath had the wisdom to harmonize itself within according to this Spirit, and to form a grounded and permanent System towards All without; secured against itself, armed against the Strokes of fortune, and guarded against the malignity of Man; it is established as Nature herself, and will Command: one may not only wish, but as of Nature herself one may pronounce ESTO PERPETUA.
T[homas] Pownall, (London, 1783), 37–52 passim.
Chicago: Thomas Pownall, A Memorial Addressed to the Sovereigns of America in American History Told by Contemporaries, ed. Albert Bushnell Hart (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902), 284–285. Original Sources, accessed April 11, 2025, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=14VC3UVW9U2YWK6.
MLA: Pownall, Thomas. A Memorial Addressed to the Sovereigns of America, in American History Told by Contemporaries, edited by Albert Bushnell Hart, Vol. 3, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1902, pp. 284–285. Original Sources. 11 Apr. 2025. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=14VC3UVW9U2YWK6.
Harvard: Pownall, T, A Memorial Addressed to the Sovereigns of America. cited in 1902, American History Told by Contemporaries, ed. , The Macmillan Company, New York, pp.284–285. Original Sources, retrieved 11 April 2025, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=14VC3UVW9U2YWK6.
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