"To consent to a cessation of hostilities both by sea and land;
"To restore free intercourse, to revive mutual affection, and renew the common benefits of naturalization through the several parts of this empire;
"To extend every freedom to trade that our respective interests can require;
"To agree that no military forces shall be kept up in the different States of North America without the consent of the General Congress, or particular Assemblies;
"To concur in measures calculated to discharge the debts of America, and to raise the credit and value of the paper circulation;
"To perpetuate our union by a reciprocal deputation of an agent or agents from the different States, who shall have the privilege of a seat and voice in the Parliament of Great Britain; or if sent from Great Britain, in that case to have a seat or voice in the Assemblies of the different States to which they may be deputed respectively, in order to attend to the several interests of those by whom they are deputed;
"In short, to establish the power of the respective Legislatures in each particular State; to settle its revenue, its civil and military establishment, and to exercise a perfect freedom of legislation and internal government; so that the British States throughout North America, acting with us in peace and war under one common sovereign, may have the irrevocable enjoyment of every privilege that is short of total separation of interests, or consistent with that union of force on which the safety of our common religion and liberty depends."[8]
The three Acts of Parliament and the proposals of the five English Commissioners were far in advance of any wishes which the colonists had expressed before the Declaration of Independence, and placed the colonists on the footing of Englishmen--all that the Earl of Chatham and Mr. Burke had ever advocated--all that the free, loyal, and happy Dominion of Canada enjoys at this day--all and nothing more than was required for the unity of the empire and of the Anglo-Saxon race; but the leaders of Congress had determined upon the dismemberment of the empire--had determined to sever all connection with the elder European branch of the Anglo-Saxon family--had determined, and that without even consulting the constituents whom they professed to represent, to transfer their allegiance from England to France, to bind themselves hand and foot to France--that they would make no peace with England, upon any terms, without the consent of the French Court.