“How this Declaration may strike others, I know not. To me, I own, it appears that it cannot fail — to use the words of a great Orator — “of doing us Knight’s service.” The mouth of faction, we may reasonably presume, will be closed; the eyes of those who saw not, or would not see, that the Americans were long since aspiring at independence, will be opened; the nation will unite as one man, and teach this rebellious people, that it is one thing for them to say, the connection, which bound them to us, is dissolved, another to dissolve it; that to accomplish their independence is not quite so easy as to declare it: that there is no peace with them, but the peace of the King: no war with them, but that war, which offended justice wages against criminals. — We too, I hope, shall acquiesce in the necessity of submitting to whatever burdens, of making whatever efforts may be necessary, to bring this ungrateful and rebellious people back to that allegiance they have long had it in contemplation to renounce, and have now at last so daringly renounced.”

• Jeremy Bentham responds to the Declaration of Independence. O utilitarian, where is thy vaunting now? I shall remove the wax head from thy stuffed body and hold it for ransom — oh wait, someone already did that.