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AMERICAN POLITICS.

BOOK IV.

PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE.

AMERICAN POLITICS.

BOOK IV.

PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE.

Declaration of Independence. A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of

America in Congress assembled. July 4, 1776.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; That whenever Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the

necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

Laws of immediate and pressing importHe has forbidden his Governors to pass till his Assent should be obtained; and ance, unless suspended in their operation when so suspended, he has utterly neglected

to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies. at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the Population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and rais

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ing the conditions of new Appropriations | taken Captive on the high Seas to bear of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections He has made Judges dependent on his amongst us, and has endeavored to bring Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the and the amount and payment of their sal- merciless Indian Savages, whose known aries. rule of warfare is an undistinguished deHe has erected a multitude of New Offi-struction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. ces, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their sub

stance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our Legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Čivil Power.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms; our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have re

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pre-minded them of the circumstances of our tended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of

these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For Imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

WE, therefore, the REPRESENTATIVES of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN GENERAL CONGRESS assembled, appealing For abolishing the free System of Eng- to the Supreme Judge of the World for lish Laws in a neighboring Province, es- the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the tablishing therein an Arbitrary govern- Name, and by Authority of the good Peoment, and enlarging its Boundaries so as ple of these Colonies, solemnly PUBLISH to render it at once an example and fit in- and DECLARE, That these United Colostrument for introducing the same abso-nies are, and of Right ought to be, Free lute rule into these Colonies: AND INDEPENDENT States; that they are For taking away our Charters, abolish- Absolved from all Allegiance to the Briting our most valuable Laws, and altering ish Crown, and that all political connection fundamentally the Forms of our Govern-between them and the State of Great Brit

ments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases what

soever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow-citizens

ain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

The foregoing declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed, and signed by the following members:

JOHN HANCOCK.
Josiah Bartlett,
New Hampshire William Whipple.
Matthew Thornton.

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Connecticut.

New York.

New Jersey.

Pennsylvania.

Delaware.

Maryland.

Virginia.

Roger Sherman,
Samuel Huntington,
William Williams,
Oliver Wolcott.

William Floyd,
Philip Livingston,
Francis Lewis,
Lewis Morris.

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark. Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross.

Cesar Rodney,
George Read,
Thomes McKean.

Samuel Chase,

William Paca,

Thomas Stone,
Charles Carroll, of
Carrollton.

George Wythe,
Richard Henry Lee,
Thomas Jefferson,
Benjamin Harrison,
Thomas Nelson, jr.,
Francis Lightfoot Lee,
Carter Braxton.

William Hooper,
North Carolina. Joseph Hewes,

South Carolina.

Georgia.

John Penn.

Edward Rutledge,
Thomas Heyward, jr.,
Thomas Lynch, jr.,
Arthur Middleton.

Button Gwinnett,
Lyman Hall,
George Walton.

Resolved, That copies of the Declaration be sent to the several assemblies, conventions, and committees or councils of safety, and to the several commanding officers of the Continental Troops: That it be PROCLAIMED in each of the UNITED STATES, and at the HEAD of the ARMY.-[Jour. Cong., vol. 1, p. 396.]

Articles of Confederation.

Done at Philadelphia on the 9th day of July, 1778. [While the Declaration of Independence was under consideration in the Continental Congress, and before it was finally agreed upon, measures were taken for the establishment of a constitutional form of government; and on the 11th of June, 1776, it was "Resolved, That a committee be appointed to prepare and digest the form of a confederation to be entered into between these Colonies;" which committee was appointed the next day, June 12, and consisted of a member from each Colony, namely: Mr. Bartlett. Mr. S. Adams, Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Sherman, Mr. R. R. Livingston, Mr. Dickinson, Mr. McKean, Mr. Stone, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Hewes, Mr. E. Rutledge, and Mr. Gwinnett. On the 12th of July, 1776, the committee reported a draught of the Articles of Confederation, which was printed for the use of the members under the strictest injunctions of

secrecy.

This report underwent a thorough discussion in Congress, from time to time, until the 15th of November, 1777; on which day, “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union" were finally agreed to in form, and they were directed to be proposed to the Legislatures of all the United States, and if approved by them, they were advised to authorize their delegates to ratify the same in the Congress of the United States; and in that event they were to become conclusive. On the 17th of November, 1777, the Congress agreed upon the form of a circular letter to accompany the Articles of Confederation, which concluded with a recommendation to each of the several Legislatures "to invest its delegates with competent powers, ultimately, and in the name and behalf of the State, to subscribe articles of confederation and perpetual union of the United States, and to attend Congress for that purpose on or before the 10th day of March next." This letter was signed by the President of Congress and sent, with a copy of the articles, to each State Legislature.

On the 26th of June, 1778, Congress agreed upon the form of a ratification of the Articles of Confederation, and directed a copy of the articles and the ratifi cation to be engrossed on parchment; which, on the 9th of July, 1778, having been examined and the blanks filled, was signed by the delegates of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina. Congress then directed that a circular letter be addressed to the States whose delegates were not present, or being present, conceived they were not

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