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 hand.

"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst 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 extend 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 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 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 connection 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 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."

CHAPTER II.

STATE GOVERNMENTS DURING THE REVOLUTION.

I. PRIOR to agitations which ended in the Revolution, the colonial governments were organized, and were acting under charters granted by the crown of England. CONNECTICUT received hers in 1662, and continued to act under it to 1818, when her first constitution was adopted.

That issued to RHODE ISLAND (1663) constituted her fundamental law down to 1842, when she formed her present constitution.

SOUTH-CAROLINA adopted her first constitution in 1775, a year before the Declaration of Independence.

NEW-JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA, DELAWARE, MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, AND NORTH-CAROLINA adopted theirs in 1776, in conformity with the recommendation of Congress.

MASSACHUSETTS acted under her charter until she framed her constitution in 1780.

NEW-HAMPSHIRE, declaring herself free from Massachusetts in 1776, established a temporary government, under which she acted until 1784, when she adopted her first constitution.

NEW-YORK declared herself independent of Great

Britain in May, 1776, and adopted a constitution in 1777.

It was under these charters and constitutions that the old thirteen colonies acted until they severally adopted the Articles of Confederation.

2. At the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, each State was supreme within its limits, having no superior to which it was accountable. There was no power which could veto or annul its acts. Each had as ample powers as any European. government where not restrained by its own constitutional provisions.

Each was equally interested in the common safety, to secure which it appointed and sent delegates to a general Congress, which acted upon measures intended to promote the interests and secure the common safety of the whole. But this voluntary Congress could only recommend them, but had no power to compel either the States or people to act. But, under the pressure and influence of a common danger, both exerted themselves for a time with energy and efficiency. Hope and fear performed wonders. But, as the war drew its slow length along, zeal began to flag, and voluntary activity began to falter. The recommendations of Congress thus constituted were ineffectual for the purposes of defense and the expulsion of the enemy. To remedy this apparent and damaging evil, Congress, in the second year of independence, agreed upon articles of confederation and perpetual

union between the thirteen States then represented

in that body.

These articles were agreed to by Congress on the 15th of November, 1777, and submitted to the several States, and they respectively authorized their representatives in Congress to sign them. This was done by eight States on the 9th of July, 1778, and by three others in the same year. Delaware signed

in 1779, and Maryland in 1781.

3. By these articles the States consented to confer upon the confederation certain specified powers deemed essential to the protection of all. They pledged the faith of their constituents to abide by the determinations of the United States, in Congress assembled, on all questions arising under them and within its jurisdiction. The articles of confederation constituted the first local government for all the colonies. It revived hope and inspired confidence at home, and commanded respect abroad, and led to recognition by other countries, and especially by France, which secured final success.

The States retained all power not expressly conferred upon the confederate government by the instrumentality of its creation. They were really sovereign and independent, there being no power above them to direct or control their action or annul what they chose to do. Their claim to own all the land within their limits, not previously granted by authority, treated as competent, was generally exercised, and in which all acquiesced. Their right of