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, taken captive on the high seas, to bear 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 among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

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 ⚫xtend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our 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 connexions and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and 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 to the Supreme Judge of the world, for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority, of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion between them and the state of Great Britain 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 do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of the 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.

JOHN HANCOCK,

President of Congress, and
Delegate from Massachusetts.

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

Massachusetts Bay. Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.

Rhode Island, &c. Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery.

Connecticut. Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Wil liams, Oliver Wolcott.

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

New Jersey. Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis HopkinJohn Hart, Abraham Clark.

Pennsylvania. Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross.

Delaware. Cæsar Rodney, George Read, Thomas M'Kean.

Maryland. Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.

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

North Carolina. William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.

South Carolina. Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr. Arthu Middleton.

Georgia. Button Gwinett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Attest, CHARLES THOMPSON, Secretary.

CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

WE, the people of the state of New York, acknowledging with grati tude the grace and beneficence of God, in permitting us to make choice of our form of government, do establish this constitution.

ARTICLE I.

SECTION 1. The legislative power of this state shall be vested in a senate and assembly.

SEC. 2. The senate shall consist of thirty-two members. The sena tors shall be chosen for four years, and shall be freeholders. The assembly shall consist of one hundred and twenty eight members, who shall be annually elected.

SEC. 3. A majority of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business. Each house shall determine the rules of its own proceedings, and be the judge of the qualifications of its own members. Each house shall choose its own officers; and the senate shall choose a temporary president, when the lieutenant governor shall not attend as president, or shall act as governor.

SEC. 4. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and publish the same, except such parts as may require secrecy. The doors of each house shall be kept open, except when the public welfare shall require secrecy. Neither house shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than two days.

SEC. 5. The state shall be divided into eight districts, each of which shall choose four senators.

The first district shall consist of the counties of Suffolk, Queens, Kings, Richmond and New York.

The second district shall consist of the counties of Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland, Orange, Ulster and Sullivan.

The third district shall consist of the counties of Greene, Columbia, Albany, Rensselaer, Schoharie and Schenectady.

The fourth district shall consist of the counties of Saratoga, Montgomery, Hamilton, Washington, Warren, Clinton, Essex, Franklin and St. Lawrence.

The fifth district shall consist of the counties of Herkimer, Oneida, Madison, Oswego, Lewis and Jefferson.

The sixth district shall consist of the counties of Delaware, Otsego, Chenango, Broome, Cortland, Tompkins and Tioga.

The seventh district shall consist of the counties of Onondaga, Caynga, Seneca and Ontario.

The eighth district shall consist of the counties of Steuben, Livingston, Monroe, Genesee, Niagara, Erie, Allegany, Cattaraugus and Chautauque.

And as soon as the senate shall meet, after the first election to be held in pursuance of this constitution, they shall cause the senators to be divided by lot, into four classes, of eight in each, so that every district shail have one senator of each class: the classes to be numbered, one, two, three and four. And the seats of the first class shall be vacated at the end of the first year; of the second class at the end of the second year; of the third class at the end of the third year; of the fourth class at the end of the fourth year; in order that one senator be annually elected in "each senate district.

SEC. 6. An enumeration of the inhabitants of the state shall be taken, under the direction of the legislature, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, and at the end of every ten years thereafter; and the said districts shall be so altered by the legislature, at the first session after the return of every enumeration, that each senate district shall contain, as nearly as may be, an equal number of inhabitants, excluding aliens, paupers, and persons of color not taxed, and shall remain unaltered until the return of another enumeration, and shall at all times consist of contiguous territory; and no county shall be divided in the formation of a senate district.

SEC. 7. The members of the assembly shall be chosen by counties, and shall be apportioned among the several counties of the state, as nearly as may be, according to the numbers of their respective inhabitants, excluding aliens, paupers, and persons of color not taxed. An apportionment of members of assembly shall be made by the legislature, at its first session after the return of every enumeration; and, when made, shall remain unaltered until another enumeration shall have been taken. But an apportionment of members of the assembly shall be made by the present legislature according to the last enumeration, taken under authority of the United States, as nearly as may be. Every county heretofore established, and separately organized, shall always be entitled to one member of assemby, and no new county shall hereafter be erected unless its population shall entitle it to a member.

SEC. 8. Any bill may originate in either house of the legislature; and all bills passed by one house may be amended by the other.

SEC. 9. The members of the legislature shall receive for their services, a compensation to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the public treasury; but no increase of the compensation shall take effect during the year in which it shall have been made. And no law shall be passed, increasing the compensation of the members of the legislature beyond the sum of three dollars a day.

SEC. 10. No member of the legislature shall receive any civil appoint. ment from the governor and senate, or from the legislature, during the term for which he shall have been elected.

SEC. 11. No person being a member of congress, or holding any ju

dicial or military office under the United States, shall hold a seat in the legislature. And if any person shall, while a member of the legislature, be elected to congress, or appointed to any office, civil or military, under the government of the United States, his acceptance thereof shall vacate his seat.

SEC. 12. Every bill which shall have passed the senate and assembly, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the governor. If he approve, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall have originated; who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration, two thirds of the members present shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of the members present, it shall become a law. But in all such cases, the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays; and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill, shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the governor within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the legislature shall, by their adjournment, prevent its return; in which case it shall not be a law.

SEC. 13. All officers holding their offices during good behavior, may be removed by joint resolution of the houses of the legislature, if two thirds of all the members elected to the assembly, and a majority of all the members elected to the senate, concur therein.

SEC. 14. The political year shall begin on the first day of January, and the legislature shall every year assemble on the first Tuesday of January, unless a different day shall be appointed by law.

SEC. 15. The next election for governor, lieutenant governor, senators and members of assembly, shall commence on the first Monday of November, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-two; and all subsequent elections shall be held at such time, in the month of October or November, as the legislature shall by law provide.

SEC. 16. The governor, lieutenant governor, senators, and members of assembly, first elected under this constitution, shall enter on the duties of their respective offices, on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three; and the governor, lieutenant governor, senators and members of assembly, now in office, shall continue to hold the same until the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, and no longer.

ARTICLE II.

SEC. 1. Every male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been an inhabitant of this state one year preceeding any election, and for the last six months a resident of the town or county where he may offer his vote; and shall have, within the year next preceding the election, paid a tax to the state or county, assessed upon his real or personal property; or shall by law be exempted from taxation; or being armed and equipped according to law, shall have performed, within that