William Pitt (1759–1806)
(1781)
Born in 1759, died in 1806; elected to Parliament in 1780; Chancellor of
the Exchequer in 1782; Prime Minister in 1783–1801; secured the union of Ireland
with Great Britain in 1800; Prime Minister again in 1804; formed the coalition
with Russia and Austria against Napoleon, which was wrecked in 1815 at
Austerlitz; Pitt’s health being completely ruined, his death followed soon
afterward.
GENTLEMEN have
passed the highest eulogiums on the American war. Its justice has been defended
in the most fervent manner. A noble lord, in the heat of his zeal, has called
it a holy war. For my part, although the honorable gentleman who made this
motion, and some other gentlemen, have been, more than once, in the course of
the debate, severely reprehended for calling it a wicked and accursed war, I am
persuaded, and would affirm, that it was a most accursed, wicked, barbarous,
cruel, unnatural, unjust and diabolical war!
It was conceived in injustice; it was
nurtured and brought forth in folly; its footsteps were marked with blood,
slaughter, persecution and devastation—in truth, everything which went to
constitute moral depravity and human turpitude was to be found in it. It was
pregnant with misery of every kind.
The mischief, however,
recoiled on the unhappy people of this country, who were made the instruments
by which the wicked purposes of the authors of the war were affected. The
nation was drained of its best blood, and of its vital resources of men and
money. The expense of the war was enormous—much beyond any former experience.
And yet, what has the British nation
received in return? Nothing but a series of ineffective victories, or severe
defeats—victories celebrated only by a temporary triumph over our brethren,
whom we would trample down and destroy; victories, which filled the land with
mourning for the loss of dear and valued relatives, slain in the impious cause
of enforcing unconditional submission, or with narratives of the glorious
exertions of men struggling in the holy cause of liberty, tho struggling in the
absence of all the facilities and advantages which are in general deemed the
necessary concomitants of victory and success.
Where was the Englishman, who on reading
the narratives of those bloody and well-fought contests, could refrain from
lamenting the loss of so much British blood spilt in such a cause, or from
weeping, on whatever side victory might be declared?
Note 1. Spoken in the
House of Commons in June, 1781, when he was twenty-two years old and had been
only a few months in his seat. Abridged. The subject was Fox’s motion for peace
with the American Colonies. Pitt’s maiden speech on February 26 of this year
had evoked from Burke the remark, “He is not merely a chip of the old block,
but the old block itself.”
Note 2. Four months
after the date of this speech Cornwallis surrendered at
from "The World's Great Orations"