The Patriot Page #6

SIMMS:

Colonel Lee, Massachusetts may be at

war, along with New Hampshire and

Rhode Island and Virginia, but South

Carolina is not at war.

LEE:

Massachusetts and New Hampshire are

not as far from South Carolina as

you might think and the war they're

fighting is not for independence of

one or two colonies. It's for the

independence of a nation.

WITHINGTON:

And what nation is that?

Robinson, one of the Patriots, stands up.

ROBINSON:

An American nation. Colonel Lee,

with your permission?

LEE:

Please.

ROBINSON:

Those of us who call ourselves

Patriots are not seeking to give

birth to an American nation, but to

protect one that already exists. It

was born a hundred-and-seventy years

ago at Jamestown, Virginia and has

grown stronger and more mature with

every generation reared and with

every crop sown and harvested. We

are a nation and our rights as

citizens of that nation are

threatened by a tyrant three

thousand miles away.

LEE:

Thank you. Were I an orator, those

are the exact words I would have

spoken.

Laughter. Marion rises.

MARION:

Mister Robinson, tell me, why should

I trade one tyrant, three thousand

miles away, for three thousand

tyrants, one mile away?

Laughter from the Loyalists. Surprise from Lee and the

Patriots. In the gallery, Gabriel winces.

ROBINSON:

Sir?

MARION:

An elected legislature can trample a

man's rights just as easily as a

King can.

LEE:

Captain Marion, I understood you to

be a Patriot.

MARION:

It's Mister Marion.

LEE:

I understood him to be a Patriot as

well.

More laughter.

MARION:

If you mean by a Patriot, am I angry

at the Townsend Acts and the Stamp

Act? Then I'm a Patriot. And what

of the Navigation Act? Should I be

permitted to sell my tobacco to the

French traders on Martinique? Yes,

and it's an intrusion into my

affairs that I can't... legally.

Laughter.

MARION:

And what of the greedy, self-serving

bastards who sit as Magistrates on

the Admiralty Court and have fined

nearly every man in this room.

Should they be boxed about the ears

and thrown onto the first ship back

to England? I'll do it myself.

(beat)

And do I believe that the American

colonies should stand as a separate,

independent nation, free from the

reins of King and Parliament? I do,

and if that makes a Patriot, then

I'm a Patriot.

Marion grows more serious.

MARION:

But if you're asking whether I'm

willing to go to war with England,

the answer is, no. I've been to war

and I have no desire to do so again.

The room is quiet, the Assemblymen having been thrown off-

balance. Gabriel is stunned and disappointed by his

father's speech.

ROBINSON:

This from the same Captain Francis

Marion whose anger was so famous

during the Wilderness Campaign.

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