A Response to Cato
Thomas Paine
[An open letter signed by
The Forester, Pennsylvania Journal, 3 April, 1776]
To be nobly wrong is more manly than to be meanly right. Only let
the error be disinterested-let it wear not the mask, but the mark of
principle, and 'tis pardonable. It is on this large and liberal
ground, that we distinguish between men and their tenets, and
generously preserve our friendship for the one, while we combat with
every prejudice of the other. But let not Cato take this compliment
to himself; he stands excluded from the benefit of the distinction;
he deserves it not. And if the sincerity of disdain can add a cubit
to the stature of my sentiments, it shall not be wanting.
It is indifferent to me who the writer of Cato's letters is, and
sufficient for me to know, that they are gorged with absurdity,
confusion, contradiction, and the most notorious and wilful
falsehoods. Let Cato and his faction be against Independence and
welcome; their consequence will not now turn the scale: But let them
have regard to justice, and pay some attention to the plain doctrine
of reason. Where these are wanting, the sacred cause of truth
applauds our anger, and dignifies it with the name of Virtue.
Four letters have already appeared under the specious name of Cato.
What pretensions the writer of them can have to the signature, the
public will best determine; while, on my own part, I prophetically
content myself with contemplating the similarity of their exits. The
first of those letters promised a second, the second a third, the
third a fourth; the fourth hath since made its appearance, and still
the writer keeps wide of the question. Why doth he thus loiter in
the suburbs of the dispute? Why hath he not shewn us what the
numerous blessings of reconciliation [with Great Britain] are, and
proved them practicable? But he cunningly avoids the point. He
cannot but discover the rock he is driving on. The fate of the Roman
Cato is before his eyes: And that the public may be prepared for his
funeral, and for his funeral oration, I will venture to predict the
time and the manner of his exit. The moment he explains his terms of
reconciliation the typographical Cato dies. If they be calculated to
please the [British] Cabinet they will not go down with the
Colonies: and if they be suited to the Colonies they will be
rejected by the Cabinet: The line of no-variation is yet unfound;
and, like the philosopher's stone, doth not exist. "I am bold,"
says Cato, "to declare and yet hope to make it evident to every
honest man, that the true interest of America lies in reconciliation
with Great Britain on constitutional principles."
This is a curious way of lumping the business indeed! And Cato may
as well attempt to catch lions in a mousetrap as to hope to allure
the public with such general and unexplained expressions. It is now
a mere bugbear to talk of reconciliation on constitutional
principles unless the terms of the first be produced and the sense
of the other be defined; and unless he does this he does nothing.
To follow Cato through every absurdity and falsehood in the compass
of a ? letter is impossible neither is it now necessary. Cassandra
(and I thank him) hath saved me much trouble; there is a spirit in
his remarks which honesty only can inspire, and a uniformity in the
conduct of his letters which the want of principle can never arrive
at.1 Mark that, Cato.
One observation which I cannot help making on Cato's letters, is
that they are addressed "To the People of Pennsylvania"
only: In almost any other writer this might have passed unnoticed,
but we know it hath mischief in its meaning. The particular
circumstance of a convention is undoubtedly Provincial, but the
great business of the day is Continental. And he who dares to
endeavour to withdraw this province from the glorious union by which
all are supported, deserves the reprobation of all men. It is the
true interest of the whole to go hand in hand; and dismal in every
instance would be the fate of that Colony which should retreat from
the protection of the rest.
The first of Cato's letters is insipid in its stile, language and
substance; crowded with personal and private innuendues and directly
levelled against "the Majesty of the People of Pennsylvania. "The
Committee could only call, propose, or recommend a Convention;2 but,
like all other public measures, it still rested with the people at
large, whether they would approve it or not; and Cato's reasoning on
the right or wrong of that choice is contemptible; because, if the
body of the people had thought, or should still think that the
Assembly (or any of their Delegates in Congress) by setting under
the embarrassment of oaths, and entangled with government and
Governors, are not so perfectly free as they ought to be, they
undoubtedly had and still have both the right and the power to place
even the whole authority of the Assembly in any body of men they
please; and whoever is hardy enough to say to the contrary is an
enemy to mankind. The constitution of Pennsylvania hath been twice
changed through the cunning of former Proprietors; surely, the
people, whose right, power, and property is greater than that of
any single man, may make such alterations in their mode of
government as the change of times and things require. Cato is
exceedingly fond of impressing us with the importance of our "chartered
constitution. "Alas! We are not now, Sir, to be led away by the
jingle of a phrase. Had we framed our conduct by the contents of the
present charters, we had ere now been in a state of helpless misery.
That very assembly you mention hath broken it, and been obliged to
break it, in almost every instance of their proceedings. Hold it up
to the Public, and it is transparent with holes; pierced with as
many deadly wounds as the body of M'Leod.1 Disturb not its remains,
Cato, nor dishonour it with another funeral oration.
There is nothing in Cato's first letter worthy of notice but the
following insinuating falsehood: "Grievous as the least
restraint of the press must always be to a people entitled to
freedom, it must be the more so, when it is not only unwarranted by
those to whom they have committed the care of their liberties but
cannot be warranted by them, consistent with liberty itself."
The rude and unscholastical confusion of persons in the above
paragraph, though it throws an obscurity on the meaning, still
leaves it discoverable. Who, Sir, hath laid any restraint on the
liberty of the press? I know of no instance in which the press hath
ever been the object of notice in this province, except on account
of the tory letter from Kent county, which was first published last
spring in the Pennsylvania Ledger, and which it was the duty of
every good man to detect because the honesty of the press is as
great an object to society as the freedom of it. If this is the
restraint you complain of, we know your true character at once; and
that it is so, appears evident from the expression which immediately
follows the above quotation: your words are, "Nevertheless, we
readily submitted to it while the least colourable pretence could be
offered for requiring such a submission." Who submitted, Cato?
we Whigs, or we Tories? Until you clear up this, Sir, you must
content yourself with being ranked among the rankest of the writing
Tories; because no other body of men can have any pretence to
complain of want of freedom of the press. It is not your throwing
out, now and then, little popular phrases which can protect you from
suspicion; they are only the gildings under which the poison is
conveyed, and without which you dared not to renew your attempts on
the virtue of the people.
Cato's second letter, or the greatest part thereof, is taken up
with the reverence due from us to the persons and authority of the
Commissioners, whom Cato vainly and ridiculously stiles AMBASSADORS
coming to negociate a peace. How came Cato not to be let a little
better into the secret? The act of parliament which describes the
powers of these men hath been in this city upwards of a month, and
in the hands too of Cato's friends. No, Sir, they are not the
Ambassadors of peace, but the distributors of pardons, mischief, and
insult. Cato discovers a gross ignorance of the British constitution
in supposing that these men can be empowered to act as Ambassadors.
To prevent his future errors I will set him right. The present war
differs from every other, in this instance, viz. that it is not
carried under the prerogative of the crown as other wars have always
been, but under the authority of the whole legislative power
united; and as the barriers which stand in the way of a negociation
are not proclamations but acts of parliament, it evidently follows,
that were even the King of England here in person, he could not
ratify the terms or conditions of a reconciliation; because, in the
single character of King he could not stipulate for the repeal of
any acts of parliament, neither can the Parliament stipulate for
him. There is no body of men more jealous of their privileges than
the Commons: Because they sell them. Mark that, Cato.
I have not the least doubt upon me but that their business
(exclusive of granting us pardons) is downright bribery and
corruption. It is the machine by which they effect all their plans.
We ought to view them as enemies of a most dangerous species, and he
who means not to be corrupted by them will enter his protest in
time. Are they not the very men who are paid for voting in every
measure against us, and ought we not to suspect their designs? Can
we view the barbarians as friends? Would it be prudent to trust the
viper in our very bosoms? Or to suffer them to ramble at large among
us while such doubtful characters as Cato have a being upon the
continent? Yet let their persons be safe from injury and outrage-but
trust them not. Our business with them is short and explicit, viz.:
We are desirous of peace, gentlemen; we are ready to ratify the
terms, and will virtuously fulfil the conditions thereof; but we
should deserve all and every misery which tyranny can inflict, were
we, after suffering such a repetition of savage barbarities, to come
under your government again.
Cato, by way of stealing into credit, says, "that the contest
we are engaged in is founded on the most noble and virtuous
principles which can animate the mind of man. We are contending
(says he) against an arbitrary ministry for the rights of
Englishmen." No, Cato, we are now contending against an
arbitrary King to get clear of his tyranny. While the dispute rested
in words only, it might be called "contending with the
ministry," but since it is broken out into open war, it is high
time to have done with such silly and water-gruel definitions. But
it suits not Cato to speak the truth. It is his interest to dress up
the sceptred savage in the mildest colors. Cato's patent for a large
tract of land is yet unsigned. Alas poor Cato!
Cato proceeds very importantly to tell us, "that the eyes of
all Europe are upon us. "This stale and hackneyed phrase hath
had a regular descent, from many of the King's speeches down to
several of the speeches in Parliament; from thence it took a turn
among the little wits and bucks of St. James's; till after suffering
all the torture of senseless repetition, and being reduced to a
state of vagrancy, it was charitably picked up to embellish the
second letter of Cato. It is truly of the bug-bear kind, contains no
meaning, and the very using it discovers a barrenness of invention.
It signifies nothing to tell us "that the eyes of all Europe
are upon us," unless he had likewise told us what they are
looking at us for: which as he hath not done, I will. They are
looking at us, Cato, in hopes of seeing a final separation between
Britain and the Colonies, that they, the lookers-on, may partake of
a free and uninterrupted trade with the whole Continent of America.
Cato, thou reasonest wrong.
For the present, Sir, farewell. I have seen thy soliloquy and
despise it. Remember thou hast thrown me the glove, Cato, and either
thee or I must tire. I fear not the field of fair debate, but thou
hast stepped aside and made it personal. Thou hast tauntingly called
on me by name; and if I cease to hunt thee from every lane and
lurking hole of mischief, and bring thee not a trembling culprit
before the public bar, then brand me with reproach, by naming me in
the list of your confederates.
|
|
