"O America! O America!" A Sermon, Oration on the RIGHTS of Americans and the Resistance to TYRANTS that it Implies.

The same year that this tree began to grow an oration was given on the essential rights of Americans at the second Baptist Church in Boston. The occasion was the burning of a tax collecting prison ship by either American or Indians..( still not 100% sure who did it (wink Wink)

The entire work can be read and pondered HERE>>>https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N10250.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext

here is a very insightful excerpt.. Remember this is BEFORE the Declaration of Independence and Obviously given in a NON 501-c-3 Compliant church....:-)
1772
Isaac Skillman
AN ORATION, Upon the BEAUTIES of LIBERTY, Or the Essential RIGHTS of the AMERICANS. DELIVERED At the Second Baptist-Church in BOSTON. Upon the last Annual THANKSGIVING. Humbly dedicated to the Right-Honourable the Earl of DARTMOUTH. PUBLISHED by the Request of many.

...America, my Lord, in the native rights of the Americans, it is the blood bought treasure of their forefathers; and they have the same essential right to their native laws, as they have to the air they breath in, or to the light of the morning, when the sun rises; and therefore they who oppress the Americans must be as great enemies to the rights of the laws of nature, as they who would (if it were in their power) vail the light of the sun from the universe. Remember my Lord, the Americans have a privilege to boast of above all the world. They never were in bondage to any man, and therefore it is more for them to give up their RIGHTS, than it is for all Europe to give up their RIGHTS into the hands of the TURKS; consider what English tyranny their forefathers fled from, what seas of distress they met with? what savages they fought with? what blood-bought treasures, as the dear inheritance of their lives, they have left to their children. Without any aid from the King of England;and yet after this, these free-born people must be counted REBELS, if they will not loose every right of Liberty, which their forefathers bought with their blood, and submit again to english ministerial tyranny—O America! O America!

MY Lord, I hope I need not remind your Lordship of the en|quiry that the divine Messiah made to PETER, when they required a tax, or tribute, from him. Of whom, says CHRSIT, to PETER, do they gather tax, or tribute, of the children, or of strangers? And PETER said, of strangers: Then, says CHRIST, the chil|dren are FREE. Now, the Gaspee Schooner, my Lord, was a stranger; and they should, if it was in their commission, have gathered tax from strangers: But instead of which, they would gather it from the children. They forgot that the children were free: Therefore, my Lord, it must certainly be, that the Gaspee Schooner has committed the transgression, and broke the Laws, of the freedom of this country. No doubt, my Lord, but they have a right to tax the strangers, that come to dwell in their country; but to tax the children, which are free in their own native country, this will not do! Nature forbids it; the law of GOD condemns it. And no law, but that of tyranny, can desire it.

And therefore it was, my Lord, that the children, (who are by the law of GOD, and the law of nature FREE) looked upon the Gaspee Schooner as a stranger, as such they treated her; but when the stranger attempted to gather tax of the children who are free, then they looked upon her, as a Pirate, who took away their property without their consent, by violence, by arms, by guns, by oaths and damnations: This they thought looked so like Piracy, that the children did not like it; and they thought their behavior as strangers was very unpolite, that they could not so much as pass by these strangers, but the children must bow to them, and come to them; this the children, being free, did not like, and they thought it was best for the children, and the strangers, all to be free: And therefore, one night, my Lord, they went and set the strangers, (who, by the way, where all prisoners) free—free upon the face of the whole earth; and then to preserve them free, they burnt their prison. Now, my Lord, would it not be hard to hang these poor men for it? However,

If there is any law broke, it is this, that the Gaspee Schooner, by the power of the English ministry and admiralty have broke the laws, and taken away the rights of the Americans. And yet the Americans must be punish'd for it, contrary to their own laws. O! Amazing! I would be glad to know my Lord, what right the King of England has to America, it cannot be an hereditary right that lies in Hanover, it cannot be a parliamentary right that lies in Britain, not a victorious right, for the King of Eng|land never conquered America. Then he can have no more right to America, than what the people have, by compact, invested him with, which is only a power to protect them, and defend their rights civil and religious; and to sign, seal, and confirm as their steward such laws as the people of America shall consent to. If this be the case, my Lord, then judge whether the King of England and the ministry are not the transgressors in this affair, in sending armed Schooners to America, to steal by power and sword the people's property. And if any are to be try'd for law-break+ers, it surely ought, in justice, to be them. But the people of AMERICA act my Lord very honest in the affair, they are wil|ling to GIVE and TAKE, to give the English offenders the liberty to be try'd by their own laws, and to take the same liberty wherein they have offended to be tried by their own laws, they surely have as much right to the privileges of their own laws, as the King of England has to his Crown, or that the natives of Britain has to the rights of an Englishman.—Consider then, my Lord, how ••ul, how UNJUST, how unanswerable before God and Man it must be, by any violence and power to destroy the rights of the Americans.