Essay #2 draft (unfinished)

As a citizen of the state of New Jersey, I know where my loyalties lie. I have seen, as my fellow people have, the many injustices and tyrannies committed by the state of Great Britain against us. Once a warm and loving parent, she now strikes at the very core of our values, taking from us what is never meant to be taken. I have seen, in my own backyard, horrible battles and unnecessary bloodshed. Our ancestors fled from Britain to escape persecution; now we are strong enough to fight back for a similar cause. This is our duty, to those who died in their fight for freedom, to those who are fighting now, and to those brave men who will spill blood for the patriot cause.
In enforcing these unjust laws and underhanded taxes, Britain has pushed us too far. Our society is built on the principal of justice; we are receiving neither justice not respect. The king had long abused all of the colonies, treating us like were enemies instead of kin. The monarchy is compromised, instead of the pillar of strength and purity it was; now it’s a greedy corrupt clique taxing the people of these colonies into poverty. They do not have the right to control our people like they are. The purpose of government is to serve the interests of the people, the rights of the monarchy stop at cruelty, and they have far surpassed that line. As a community, as a united whole, the people state of New Jersey must join this desperate fight. We will win. Britain can burn our towns, it may exert more wrongs upon us, but this is a cause that has the most importance. As Tomas Paine stated, “The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth” (Thomas Paine, “Thoughts on the present state of American affairs”). What could be more critical than our independence from this despotic government? If you do not wish to raise a fist against injustice for yourself, consider the future generations. One who inflects cruelties will do it again, even larger in scale. For your children, the cause is of utmost significance. For your husbands and sons facing an imposing army, the cause is of utmost importance.
There is no difference between New Jersyians and menial peons now. We are having our core taken from us, our backbone, inarguable birthrights. Do we wish to bend our backs to the cruelties committed? Will we bend like slaves to the will of a power 3000 miles away? No. We should stand together, united, as a single thinking force. Patrick Henry concurs in his article, Give me Liberty or Give me Death, “I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery”. We are no different than those souls in England. We are the same people, suffering under the same despotism. Why are we impaired by laws, why are our towns filled with soldiers, why are we crippled from full potential? It isn’t equitable. New Jersey is, “The best country I have seen for people of middling fortunes who live by the sweat of their brows”- Jonathan Belcher. (Bill 3-4)
The people of New Jersey are worthy of freedom. We are no longer a small group of people 3000 miles away from home. We are no longer a huddled mass waiting for handouts. We are a state, tied together, bonded through our hardships, our sights singularly focused on the great power looming over us. But now we have the strength to fight.


Bill, Alfred Hoyt. New Jersey and the Revolutionary War. Rutgers University Press, 1992.