In "Taxation No Tyranny" Dr. Johnson attempted to reduce the claims of the American colonies to absurdity by the following comparison:
"As political diseases are naturally contagious, let it be supposed, for a
moment, that Cornwall, seized with the Philadelphian phrensy, may resolve
to separate itself from the general system of the English constitution, and
judge of its own rights in its own parliament. A congress might then meet
at Truro, and address the other counties in a style not unlike the language
of the American patriots:
"FRIENDS AND FELLOW-SUBJECTS, we, the delegates of the several towns and
parishes of Cornwall, assembled to deliberate upon our own state, and that
of our constituents, having, after serious debate and calm consideration,
settled the scheme of our future conduct, hold it necessary to declare the
resolutions which we think ourselves entitled to form, by the unalienable
rights of reasonable beings, and into which we have been compelled by
grievances and oppressions, long endured by us in patient silence, not
because we did not feel, or could not remove them, but because we were
unwilling to give disturbance to a settled government, and hoped that
others would, in time, find, like ourselves, their true interest and their
original powers, and all cooperate to universal happiness.
"But since, having long indulged the pleasing expectation, we find general
discontent not likely to increase, or not likely to end in general
defection, we resolve to erect alone the standard of liberty.
"Know then, that you are no longer to consider Cornwall as an English
county, visited by English judges, receiving law from an English
parliament, or included in any general taxation of the kingdom; but as a
state, distinct and independent, governed by its own institutions,
administered by its own magistrates, and exempt from any tax or tribute,
but such as we shall impose upon ourselves.
"We are the acknowledged descendants of the earliest inhabitants of
Britain, of men, who, before the time of history, took possession of the
island desolate and waste, and, therefore, open to the first occupants. Of
this descent, our language is a sufficient proof, which, not quite a
century ago, was different from yours.
"Such are the Cornishmen; but who are you? who, but the unauthorised and
lawless children of intruders, invaders, and oppressors? who, but the
transmitters of wrong, the inheritors of robbery? In claiming independence,
we claim but little. We might require you to depart from a land which you
possess by usurpation, and to restore all that you have taken from us.
"Independence is the gift of nature. No man is born the master of another.
Every Cornishman is a freeman; for we have never resigned the rights of
humanity; and he only can be thought free, who is not governed but by his
own consent."
Et cetera, et cetera. Johnson triumphantly concludes: "Of this memorial what could be said, but that it was written in jest, or written by a madman? Yet I know not whether the warmest admirers of Pennsylvania eloquence, can find any argument in the addresses of the congress, that is not, with greater strength, urged by the Cornishman."
http://www.samueljohnson.com/tnt.html
