Down to the moment of separation the Congress fully acknowledged the competency of the King, Lords and Commons to make laws, of any kind but one, for Massachusetts and Virginia.

The only power which such men as Washington and Franklin denied to the Imperial legislature was the power of taxing.

Within living memory, Acts which have made great political and social revolutions in our Colonies have been passed in this country; nor has the validity of those Acts ever been questioned; and conspicuous among them were the law of 1807 which abolished the slave trade, and the law of 1833 which abolished slavery.
The doctrine that the parent state has supreme power over the colonies is not only borne out by authority and by precedent, but will appear, when examined, to be in entire accordance with justice and with policy.
During the feeble infancy of colonies independence would be pernicious, or rather fatal, to them.

Undoubtedly, as they grow stronger and stronger, it will be wise in the home government to be more and more indulgent.

No sensible parent deals with a son of twenty in the same way as with a son of ten.