"...with our weapons of defence girt about us..."

...Thus encountering all the troubles and dangers which waylaid us on every side, we sustained innumerable disasters from the then numerous and blood thirsty savages, having our nearest friends torn from our bosoms and murdered before our eyes; children taken from their mothers breasts, and dashed to pieces, and we who escaped the sword of those devourers, like unto the children of Israel at the rebuilding the temple, sweat and toiled with our weapons of defence girt about us; labouring to raise supplies necessary for the support of life: But gracious Heaven benignly smil'd and the Almighty had compassion, and far exceeding the widow's barrel of meal, which, according to the prophecy of Elijah, wasted not, though in constant use; we were mangled, torn and wasted by our enemies, and not only sustained our numbers, but increased and became numerous: thus with views of making you our offspring happy people, we surmounted all difficulties, and endured all hardships with pleasure, hoping to have left you always in possession of those sacred rights which nature has given to all men, without the abridgment of any earthly prince or state; By this time our mother country feeing the flourishing state to which America would likely advance, and conscious of the advantages which might accrue to them from such a settlement, in addition to those rights derived to us from nature; entered into the most sacred engagements to give, secure, and preserve to us inviolably, all the rights and immunities of the inhabitants of Britain, agreeable to Magna Charta, with certain other privileges granted by particular charters, from time to time, made and recognized by the King and people of Britain, the confideration for which have been always paid and made good according to compact and agreement, by us and our successors, down to your day; in which time many innovations have been made on the liberties of our beloved offspring; and now at last the great legislature of the nation have been so far misled, as to strike at once at all those rights which are so justly deemed sacred; reducing you our offspring, and the generations which will follow you, to the most abject slavery, involving our numerous progeny, for whose sakes we so incessantly toyled in inevitable ruin. Shocking thought! amazing stupidity! ...

- A Manifesto and Address from HEAVEN, By the Guardian Angel of AMERICA [1766]