A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED.

HEN, 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.

We hold these truths to be self-evident-that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 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 any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundations 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.1

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and press ing importance, unless suspended in their operations till his assent should be obtained, and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.2

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.3

1 The Colonial Assemblies, from time to time, made enactments touching their commercial Operations, the emission of a colonial currency, and concerning representatives in the imperial Parliament, but the assent of the sovereign to these laws was withheld. After the Stamp-Act excitements, Secretary Conway informed the Americans that the tumults should be overlooked, provided the Assemblies would make provision for full compensation for all public property which had been destroyed. In complying with this demand, the Assembly of Massachusetts thought it would be "wholesome and necessary for the public good," to grant free pardon to all who had been engaged in the disturbances, and passed an act accordingly. It would have produced quiet and good feeling; but the royal assent was refused.

2 In 1764, the Assembly of New York took measures to conciliate the SIX NATIONS, and other Indian tribes. The motives of the Assembly were misconstrued, representations having been made to the king that the colonies wished to make allies of the Indians, so as to increase their physical power and proportionate independence of the British crown. The monarch sent instructions to all his governors to desist from such alliances, or to suspend their operations until his assent should be given. He then "utterly neglected to attend to them." The Massachusetts Assembly passed a law in 1770, for taxing officers of the British government in that colony. The governor was ordered to withhold his assent to such tax-bill. This was in violation of the colonial charter, and the people justly complained. The Assembly was prorogued from time to time, and laws of great importance were "utterly neglected."

8 A law was passed by Parliament in the spring of 1774, by which the popular represen tative system in the province of Quebec (Canada) was annulled, and officers appointed by the crown had all power as legislators, except that of levying taxes. The Canadians being Roman Catholics were easily pacified under the new order of things, by having their religious system declared the established religion of the province. But "large districts of people" bordering on Nova Scotta felt this deprivation to be a great grievance. Their humble petitions concerning commercial regulations were unheeded because they remonstrated against the new order of things, and Governor Carleton plainly told them that they must cease their clamor about representatives 1 efore they should have any new commercial laws. A bill for "better regulating the govern.ent in the province of Massachusetts Bay," passed that year, provided for the abridgment of the privileges of popular elections, to take the government out of the hands of the people, nd to vest the nomination of judges, magistrates, and even sheriffs, in the crown. When thus prived of "free representation in the Legislature," and the governor refused to

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

1919

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the repository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.1

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.2

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 invasions from without and convulsions within.3

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners, refusing issue warrants for the election of members of the Assembly, they called a convention of the freemen, and asked for the passage of “laws for the accommodation of large districts of people.” These requests were disregarded, and they were told that no laws should be passed until they should quietly "relinquish the right of representation in the Legislature—a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only."

1 In consequence of the destruction of tea in Boston harbor in 1773, the inhabitants of that town became the special objects of royal displeasure, The Boston Port Bill was passed as a punishment. The custom-house, courts, and other public operations were removed to Salem, while the public records were kept in Boston and so well guarded by two regiments of soldiers, that the patriotic members of the Colonial Assembly could not have referred to them. Although compelled to meet at a place “distant from the repository of the public records," and in a place extremely "uncomfortable," they were not fatigued into compliance, but in spite of the efforts of the governor, they elected delegates to 2 general Congress, and adopted other measures for the public good.

When the British government became informed of Le fact that the Assembly of Massa chusetts in 1768 had issued a circular to other Assemblies, inviting their co-operation in assert ing the principle that Great Britain had no right to tax the colonists without their consent, Lord Hillsborough, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, as directed to order the governor of Massachusetts to require the Assembly of that province to rescind its obnoxious resolutions expressed in the circular. In case of their refusal to do so, the governor was ordered to dissolve them immediately. Other Assemblies were warned not to imitate that of Massachusetts, and when they refused to accede to the wishes of the king, as expressed by the several royal governors, they were repeatedly dissolved. The Assemblies of Virginia and North Carolina were dis. solved for denying the right of the king to tax the colonies, or to remove offenders out of the country for trial. In 1774, when the several Assemblies entertained the proposition to elect delegates to a general Congress, nearly all of them were dissolved.

3 When the Assembly of New York, in 1766, refused to comply with the provisions of the Mutiny Act, its legislative functions were suspended by royal authority, and for several months the State remained "exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsions within." The Assembly of Massachusetts after its dissolution in July, 1768, was not permitted to meet again until the last Wednesday of May, 1769, and then they found the place of meeting surrounded by a military guard, with cannons pointed directly at their place of meeting. They refused to act under such tyrannical restraint and their legislative powers returned to the people"

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to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.1

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.3

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

'Secret agents were sent to America soon after the accession of George the Third to the throne of England, to spy out the condition of the colonists. A large influx of liberty-loving German emigrants was observed, and the king was advised to discourage these immigrations. Obstacles in the way of procuring lands, and otherwise, were put in the way of all emigrants, except from England, and the tendency of French Roman Catholics to settle in Maryland was also discouraged. The British government was jealous of the increasing power of the colonies; and the danger of having that power controlled by democratic ideas, caused the employment of restrictive measures. The easy conditions upon which actual settlers might obtain lands on the Western frontier, after the peace of 1763, were so changed, that toward the dawning of the Revolution, the vast solitudes west of the Alleghanies were seldom penetrated by any but the hunter from the seaboard provinces. When the War for Independence broke out, immigration had almost ceased. The king conjectured wisely, for almost the entire German population in the colonies were on the side of the patriots.

By an act of Parliament in 1774, the judiciary was taken from the people of Massachusetts, The judges were appointed by the king, were dependent on him for their salaries, and were subject to his will. Their salaries were paid from moneys drawn from the people by the commissioners of customs, in the form of duties. The same act deprived them, in most cases, of the benefit of trial by jury, and the “administration of justice" was effectually obstructed. The rights for which Englishmen so manfully contended in 1688 were trampled under foot. Similar grievances concerning the courts of law existed in other colonies; and throughout the AngloAmerican domain there was but a semblance of justice left. The people met in conventions when Assemblies were dissolved, and endeavored to establish "judiciary powers," but in vain; and were finally driven to rebellion.

As we have observed, judges were made independent of the people. Royal governors were placed in the same position. Instead of checking their tendency to petty tyranny, by having them depend upon the Colonial Assemblies for their salaries, these were pa'd out of the national treasury. Independent of the people they had no sympathies with the people, and thus became fit instruments of oppression, and ready at all times to do the bidding of the king and his ministers. The Colonial Assemblies protested against the measure, and out of the excitement which it produced, grew that power of the Revolution, the Committees of Correspodence. When, in 1774, Chief-Justice Oliver, of Massachusetts, declared it to be his intention to 'ceive his salary from the crown, the Assembly proceeded to impeach him, and petitioned the go for his removal. The governor refused compliance, and great irritation ensued.

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4 After the passage of the Stamp-Act, stamp distributers were appointed in every conser able town. In 1766 and 1767, acts for the collection of duties created " swarms of officers,' , 11 of whom received high salaries; and when, in 1768, admiralty and vice-admiralty courts w established on a new basis, an increase in the number of officers was made. The high salar, and extensive perquisites of all of these, were paid with the people's money, and thus " of officers" "eat out their substance."

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DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

1921

He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our Legislatures. 1

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. 2

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation: 3

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;"

1 After the treaty of peace with France, in 1763, Great Britain left quite a large number of troops in America, and required the colonists to contribute to their support. There was no use for this standing army, except to repress the growing spirit of Democracy among the colonists, and to enforce compliance with taxation laws. The presence of troops was always a cause of complaint; and when, finally, the colonists boldly opposed the unjust measures of the British government, armies were sent hither to awe the people into submission. It was one of those "standing armies" kept here "without the consent of the Legislature," against which the patriots at Lexington, and Concord, and Bunker Hill so manfully battled in 1775.

? General Gage, commander-in chief on the British forces in America, was appointed governor of Massachusetts in 1774; and to put the measures of the Boston Port Bill into execution, he encamped several regiments of soldiers upon Boston Common. The military there, and also in New York, was made independent of, and superior to, the civil power, and this, too, in a time of peace, before the Minute-men were organized.

* The establishment of a Board of Trade, to act independent of colonial legislation through its creatures (resident commissioners of customs) in the enforcement of revenue laws, was altogether foreign to the constitution of any of the colonies, and produced great indignation. The establishment of this power, and the remodeling of the admiralty courts so as to exclude trial by jury therein, in most cases rendered the government fully obnoxious to the charge in the text. The people felt their degradation under such petty tyranny, and resolved to spurn it. It was effectually done in Boston, as we have seen, and the government, after all its bluster, was obliged to recede. In 1774, the members of the council of Massachusetts (answering to our Senate), were, by a Parliamentary enactment, chosen by the king, to hold the office during his pleasure. Almost unlimited power was also given to the governor, and the people were indeed subjected to "a jurisdiction foreign to their constitution" by these creatures of royalty.

4 In 1774 seven hundred troops were landed in Boston, under cover of the cannons of British armed ships in the harbor; and early the following year, Parliament voted ten thousand men for the American service, for it saw the wave of rebellion rising high under the gale of indignation which unrighteous acts had spread over the land. The tragedies at Lexington and Concord soon followed, and at Bunker Hill the War for Independence was opened in earnest.

In 1768, two citizens of Annapolis, in Maryland, were murdered by some marines belonging to a British armed ship. The trial was a mockery of justice; and in the face of clear evidence against them, the criminals were acquitted. In the difficulties with the Regulators in North Caro lina, in 1771, some of the soldiers who had shot down citizens when standing up in defence of their rights, were tried for murder and acquitted; while Governor Tryon mercilessly hung six pris Bers, who were certainly entitled to the benefits of the laws of war, if his own soldiers were. • The navigation laws were always oppressive in character; and in 1764, the British naval