to
Napoleon--our fathers combated to the death against the subjugation of
all Europe to a single system or a single master, and heaped up a debt
which has since burdened the producing classes of the Empire with an
enormous load of taxation, which, perhaps, none other except the hardy
and ever-growing industry of those little islands could have borne up
under. The idea of a universal democracy in America is no more welcome
to the minds of thoughtful men among us than was that of a universal
monarchy to the minds of the thoughtful men who followed the standard
of the third William, or who afterwards, under the great Marlborough,
opposed the armies of the particular dynasty that sought to place
Europe under a single dominion.
"But if we are to have a universal democracy on this continent, the
Lower Provinces--the smaller fragments--will be 'gobbled up' first, and
we will come in afterwards by way of dessert. The proposed
Confederation will enable us to bear up shoulder to shoulder; to resist
the spread of this universal democracy doctrine; it will make it more
desirable to maintain on both sides the connection that binds us to the
parent State; it will raise us from the position of mere dependent
colonies to a new and more important position; it will give us a new
lease of existence under other and more favourable conditions; and
resistance to this project, which is pregnant with so many advantages
to us and to our children, means simply this, ultimate union with the
United States.
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