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Speaker : Our
first order of business...
Simms : And our last if we vote a levy...
Speaker : Order! Order! Mr. Simms, you do not
have the floor.
Our first order of business will be an address by
Colonel Harry Burwell of the Continental Army. Colonel
Harry Burwell.
Burwell : You all know why I am here. I am not an
orator and I will not try to convince you of the
worthiness of our cause. I am a soldier and we are at
war. From Philadelphia we expect the declaration of
independence. Eight of the thirteen colonies have levied
money in support of a Continental Army. I ask South
Carolina to be the ninth.
Simms : Massachusetts and Virginia may be at war, but
South Carolina is not.
Crowd : Here!
Burwell : It is not a war for the independence of one
or two colonies but for the independence of one nation.
Withington : And now yes, what nation is that?
Howard : An American nation.
Withington : There is no such a nation, and if you
speak of one, that is treason.
Howard : We are citizens of the American nation and
our rights are being threatened by a tyrant three
thousand miles away.
Martin : Would you tell me, please, Mr. Howard, why
should I trade one tyrant three thousand miles away for
three thousand tyrants one mile away? An elected
legislature can trample a man's rights as easily as a
King can.
Burwell : Captain Martin, I understood you to be a
Patriot.
Martin : If you mean by Patriot, am I angry about the
taxation without representation? Yes I'm. Should the
American colonies govern themselves independently? I
believe they can and they should. But if you're asking
me am I willing to go to war with England, then the
answer is most definitely no.
Middleton : This from the same Captain Benjamin Martin
whose fury was so famous during the Wilderness Campaign?
Martin : I was intemperate in my youth.
Middleton : Temperance can be a convenient disguise
for fear.
Burwell : Mr. Middleton, I fought with Captain Martin
under Washington in the French and Indian War. There's
not a man in this room, or anywhere, for that matter, to
whom I would more willingly trust my life.
Crowd : Here!
Martin : There are alternatives to war. We take a case
before the king. We plea with him.
Burwell : Yes we tried that.
Martin : Oh then we try again and then again if
necessary to avoid a war.
Burwell : Benjamin, I was at Bunker Hill. The British
advanced three times and we killed over seven hundred of
them at point blank range and still they took the
ground. That is the measure of their resolve. If your
principles dictate independence, then war is the only
way. It has come to that.
Crowd : Here!
Martin : I have seven children. My wife is dead. And
who's to care for them if I go to war?
Burwell : Wars are not fought only by childless men.
Martin : Granted. But
mark my words: this war will be fought
not on the frontier or on some distant battlefield. But
amongst us, among our homes. Our children will learn it
with their own eyes. And the innocent will die with the
rest of us. I will not fight. Because I will not fight,
I will not cast a vote
that will send others to fight
in my stead.
Burwell : And your principles?
Martin : I'm a parent. I don't have the luxury of
principles.
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