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THE

CRISIS

NUMBER XIV	To be continued Weekly.
SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1775	[Price Two-pence Half-penny.

The present Necessary DEFENSIVE War on the Part of America, justified by the Laws of God, Nature, Reason, State, and Nations; and therefore no TREASON or REBELLION.

IT must be apparent to every Englishman, not blinded by Malice or Ignorance, that the Americans by raising Forces, and taking up ARMS, have no Intention to offer Violence to his Majesty’s PERSON, CROWN or DIGNITY, nor to draw any ENGLISH BLOOD; but only to defend themselves, their Rights and Liberties, against encroaching Violence and LAWLESS POWER, to rescue his Majesty out of the Hands of his present evil, malignant Advisers; to bring him back to a just Sense of his DUTY; and those Delinquents to condign Punishment; who are now engaged in a desperate Conspiracy against the natural Rights of Mankind. The Americans have endeavoured by every possible Means, to accommodate the present unhappy Dispute with the King and his INFERNAL MINIONS, upon just, reasonable, and honourable Terms; but hitherto in vain. His Majesty having contrary to his OATH, his DUTY, and the fundamental Laws of God and the Realm, sent an Army of mercinary Soldiers to America, against his Subjects, for the avowed and open

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Purpose of robbing them of their PEACE, their RIGHTS, their LIBERTIES, their PROPERTIES, or their LIVES, and to impose UNLAWFUL TAXES by force of Arms; the Americans may Lawfully and Justly, by the great Principles of the Constitution, without any Treason or Rebellion, take up Arms in Defence of their Privileges, Laws, Lives, Liberties, and Properties; even if the King were present to assist and encourage his Soldiers, in this unnatural, bloody, and destructive CIVIL WAR.

When a King throws off all restraint of Law, and is bound by no Principles of Justice or Humanity, when he Invades with open Force, the Liberties and Persons of his Subjects in a hostile Manner, only to answer the most diabolical, arbitrary, and infamous Purposes, the People of England, and every Part of the British Empire, will be justified in taking up Arms, and resisting such Invasions and Violence; otherwise they must fall a Prey to his insatiable Rapine, and become the absolute Slaves of Arbitrary Power, by way of Conquest.

We have several Instances in the History of this Country, and in many Ages, of the People of England resisting by force of Arms, the Oppressions, Rapines, unjust Violence, and Armies of their Princes raised against them; and they have even encountered their KINGS in open Battle, and taken them Prisoners; sometimes expelled, and at other Times deposed them from their Royal Authority, when they became Incorrigible, open and professed Enemies to the Kingdom, and sought the Ruin and Desolation of their subjects when by Office, Duty, Oath and common Justice, they were Bound inviolably to protect them in Liberty and Peace. Among many other Examples of such Proceedings, and the Bravery and Virtue of our Ancestors, are the following; viz. the Case of King John, Henry the Third, Edward the First, Richard the Third, and Henry the Sixth; nor are these Examples singular, all Kingdoms, and in all Ages, have done the same, when their King (like the present Sovereign on the Throne of England) degenerated into Tyrants, of which there are infinite Precedents in History: and such Actions in every Age and Nation have always been deemed Lawful and Just; as warranted by the Laws of God, Nature, Reason, State, and Nations; all which Instruct, not only particular Persons, but whole Cities and Kingdoms, for their own necessary

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Defence and Preservation, the Support of human Society, and Liberty, to protect themselves against all unlawful Violence and Tyranny, even in the Person of their Kings, their Ministers, or Minions, to whom the Laws of God, Nature, Man, nor any civil Nation, ever yet gave the least Authority to murder, spoil, oppress, or enslave their Subjects, or deprive them of their Liberties or Estates: Resistance were it Unlawful or Unjust, (as the Pimps and Parisites of a Court would insinuate) a few ambitious, bloody minded, tyrannizing Kings, might, without Molestation, in a short space of Time, RUIN, MURDER, or ENSLAVE, the whole Race of Men; overturn the settled Forms of Civil Government, extirpate the Christian Religion, and destroy human Society at their Pleasure: this, and Worse, if possible, had been effected; nay, every State and Kingdom, had been totally subverted long ago, by the worst of Monsters, Lawless Princes; had not this just, natural, hereditary Power of resisting and opposing their illegal Violence, (inherent in the People) restrained and prevented, such bloody and destructive Designs, from being carried into Execution.

This necessary and defensive Opposition, and resistance against regal Violence, which has ever been held Lawful, and often practised in almost every Kingdom, will justify the Americans, in taking up Arms, and resisting the present Arbitrary, Cruel, and Bloody Measures, now carrying on against them, by an infatuated, obstinate, perverse King, his infernal Ministers, and their Agents, whose only Object in View, is the entire RUIN of this once GREAT, HAPPY, POWERFUL, and FLOURISHING KINGDOM, and the DESTRUCTION of PUBLIC LIBERTRY.

It is expressly declared by Aristotle, Xenophon, King Edward the Confessor, in his established Laws, the Council of Paris in 829, by Bracton, Fortescue, and even King James himself, that a King governing in a settled Kingdom, CEASES TO BE A KING, and degenerates into a TYRANT, so soon as he leaves to rule by LAW, much more, when he begins to INVADE his SUBJECTS, PERSONS, RIGHTS, LIBERTIES, to set up an ARBITRARY POWER, impose UNLAWFUL TAXES, RAISE FORCES, and make WAR upon his Subjects, whom he should PROTECT, and

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Rule in PEACE;¹ to PILLAGE, PLUNDER, WASTE, and SPOIL his Kingdoms; IMPRISON, MURDER, and DESTROY his People in an HOSTILE Manner; this they severally declare to be the highest degree of Tyranny, condemned and detested by God, and all good Men. The whole State and Kingdom therefore, in such Cases as these, for their own necessary Preservation, may Lawfully, with FORCE of ARMS, when no other Means can secure them, not only Passively, but actively resist their Prince, in such his Violent and Tyrannical Proceedings; without resisting any Kingly lawful Authority, for that is vested in the Kings Person, for the PRESERVATION, not the DESTRUCTION of the Kingdom; because these illegal Oppressions and Tyrannical Actions, are not warranted, but prohibited by the Laws of God, and the Realm, (to whom he is Accountable, and by whom he is justly Censurable) he is no lawful King, nor Magistrate, but an unjust oppressive Tyrant, a mere Private Man, who by such Proceedings, hath denuded himself of his Just regal Authority: so that all those Laws made for the Defence of the Kings Person, and Sovereign Power, the Suppression of INSURRECTIONS, TREASONS, and CONSPIRACIES against him, while he Governs his People according to Law, as by OATH and DUTY he is Bound will yield no Countenance, Encouragement, or Protection to him; in such Tyrannical and cruel Oppressions, but more especially when he turns a public Enemy to his People, and proclaims OPEN WAR against them; invades their Laws, Liberties,

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and Persons, and exercises all Manner of Hostilities against them, the same as the most Barbarous and Foreign Enemy would do: It being contrary to common Sense and Reason, to suppose that our Laws, which strictly Inhibit and Punish the very smallest Violations of the Public Pease, in all other Persons, should COUNTENANCE, JUSTIFY, and PATRONIZE them in the King, the FIRST MINISTER, and supreme Fountain of Justice; and not permit the People under pain of Rebellion and Treason, so much as to defend their Lives, Liberties, Estates, and Religion, from the open Violence of the King himself, or his malignant plundering Ministers and Favourites. When as Fortescue and Bracton prove, Kings of all others, both by OATH and DUTY, ought to be more observant, and obedient to the Laws of God and the Land, than the very Meanest of their Subjects.

That Precept of St. Paul, Romans 13, 1–2–3. Let every Soul be Subject to the Higher Powers. &c.² Means no more than this, that as long as Kings legally and justly execute the Trust committed to their Charge, and conferred on them by God and the People, they must, and ought to be OBEYED and submitted to, without the least Resistance, Private or Public; but if they degenerate into Tyrants, and turn professed Enemies to their People, by Murdering, Imprisoning, or destroying them by open Violence; or endeavouring by FORCE of ARMS, to subvert their Laws, Liberties, or Religion, and expose them as a Prey to their merciless blood thirsty Soldiers; I dare confidently to affirm, it was never the Intention of St. Paul, much less of our Laws, to inhibit Subjects, under Pain of Damnation, High in conscience Treason, or Rebellion, by defensive Arms, to resist KINGS THEMSELVES, or any of their Mercinary Adherents.

It was certainly never the Intention of the Apostle, to establish in the World, any errisistable Lawless Tyranny, or spoil of Kingdoms, and Butchery of

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Subjects, execrable to God and Man, in all Ages, and in all Persons who have resisted them, even unto Blood: he meant rather totally to suppress them. There being scarce any more pregnant Text, against the Tyranny, the boundless Prerogative, the illegal proceedings of Kings, and the higher Powers in all the Scripture, than that of Romans 13, 1st to 7th Verse, if properly understood, and rightly Interperted, as Pareus³ and others prove: therefore the Resistance of the Americans, against our Present seduced, malignant, Popish King, is no Violation of any Law of God or the Land, but a just and necessary War, which they have by every Means, to the utmost of their Power, endeavoured to prevent, and therefore no Treason or Rebellion within the meaning of any Law, or Statute; they are only arming themselves, for their own necessary Preservation, and to prevent their inevitable RUIN, they mean not OPENLY to assault the royal Army of Butchers; and I believe, there is no Divine among the whole Bench of Popish Bishops, no Casuist among the whole Tribe of venal Lawyers, except a few prostituted Court Slaves, VILLAINOUS enough to affirm, that it is Damnation in Conscience, or Treason and Rebellion in point of LAW, for our injured and suffering Fellow Subjects in America, to take up Arms for the Preservation of their Lives, their Liberties, and their Property; but would rather deem it Just and Honourable, nay, a Duty for every Englishman to venture his Life, and his Fortune in their Defence; in Defence of the dear bought Rights of his Country, and rather than Live a Slave, to die Gloriously in the Cause of PUBLIC LIBERTY.

N. B. Two Letters from CASCA are received, they came too late for this Weeks Number, but shall be made the Subject of our next. The Authors of the CRISIS beg CASCA will accept their most grateful Acknowledgements for this Favour.

Printed and published for the Authors, by T. W. SHAW, in Fleet-Streer, opposite Anderton’s Coffee House, where Letters to the Publisher will be thankfully received.