I really flattered myself that the events which have proved
beyond dispute the prudence of such a maxim would have obtained pardon
for me, if not approbation. But if I have not been so fortunate, I do
most sincerely regret my great loss,--this comfort, however, that, if I
have disobliged my constituents, it was not in pursuit of any sinister
interest or any party passion of my own, but in endeavoring to save them
from disgrace, along with the whole community to which they and I
belong. I shall be concerned for this, and very much so; but I should be
more concerned, if, in gratifying a present humor of theirs, I had
rendered myself unworthy of their former or their future choice. I
confess that I could not bear to face my constituents at the next
general election, if I had been a rival to Lord North in the glory of
having refused some small, insignificant concessions, in favor of
Ireland, to the arguments and supplications of English members of
Parliament,--and in the very next session, on the demand of forty
thousand Irish bayonets, of having made a speech of two hours long to
prove that my former conduct was founded upon no one right principle,
either of policy, justice, or commerce.
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