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 migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

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.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, 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 legislature.

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

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 pretended 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 offences;

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neignboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies;

24

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDANCE.

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the powers of our govern 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, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executions of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

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.

ren.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethWe have warned them, from time to time, of attempts made 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 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 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:

[The original document containing the autographs of these venerated patriots, is carefully preserved in a glass case in the rooms of the National Institute at Washington. Charles Carroll, the last survivor of this noble band, departed this life in 1832 at the age of ninety years.]

COLONIAL GOVERNMENT

UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.

In July 1775, previous to the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Franklin submitted to the consideration of Congress, a draft of confederation between the Colonies, but no action thereon seems to have been taken.

On the 11th day of June 1776, it was resolved by Congress, that a committee should be appointed, to prepare the form of a confederation to be entered into between the Colonies, and the next day a committee was appointed, which consisted of one member from each Colony. A report was thereafter made, and the subject from time to time debated, until the 15th of November 1777 when it was finally agreed to.

These Articles however, were to be submitted to the legislatures of the States, and would not become conclusive until ratified by all the States through their delegates in Congress. Maryland for a long time positively refused the ratification, but finally was induced to do so, and her delegates signed the articles on the 1st of March 1781, more than four years after Congress had submitted the same to the States. On the 2d of March Congress assembled under its new powers.

[On the 9th of July, 1778, the Articles were signed by the delegates of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina. The ratification of New York was conditional that all the other States should ratify.

The delegates from North Carolina signed the Articles on the 21st of July, 1778; those of Georgia on the 24th of same month; those of New Jersey, Novembər 26th., 1778; those of Delaware, on the 22d. of February and 5th. of May, 1779; and those of Maryland, March 1st., 1781 ]