ternal commerce, but denied its right to tax them in any way, without their consent, for raising an internal or external revenue.) 5. That they were entitled to the common law of England, and more especially the great privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage according to the course of law; 6. That they were entitled to the benefit of English statutes at the time of the emigration of their ancestors; 7. That they were en titled to all the immunities and privileges conferred upon them by royal charters or secured to them by provincial laws; 8. That they had a right peaceably to as semble, state their grievances, and petition the King without interference of ministers; 9. That the keeping of a standing army in any colony, without the consent of the legislature, was unlawful; 10. That the exercise of legislative power in several colonies by a council appointed during pleasure by the crown was unconstitutional, dangerous, and destructive to the freedom of American legislation. The report of the committee designated the various acts of Parliament which were infringements and violations of the rights of the colonists, and declared that the repeal of them was essentially necessary in order to restore harmony between Great Britain and the American colonies. The acts enumerated were eleven in number -namely, Sugar act, stamp act, two quartering acts, tea act, act suspending the New York legislature, two acts for the trial in Great Britain of offences committed in America, Boston Port bill, the act for regulating [subverting] the government of Massachusetts, and the Quebec act. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE Declaration of Independence. It was ish armament, under the brothers Howe, very important to have Lee's resolution at Sandy Hook. Immediate and united for independence, offered June 7, 1776, prefaced by a preamble that should clearly declare the causes which impelled the representatives of the people to adopt it. To avoid loss of time, a committee was appointed (June 11) to prepare such declaration. The committee was composed of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benja action was essential. McKean, one of the two representatives of Delaware present, burning with a desire to have the vote of his colony recorded in the affirmative, sent an express after the third delegate, Cæsar Rodney. He was 80 miles from Philadelphia. Ten minutes after receiving McKean's message Rodney was in the sad min Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Rob- dle, and, riding all night, he reached the ert R. Livingston. Mr. Lee having been called home before the appointment of the committee, Mr. Jefferson was put in his place. He was requested by the committee, after discussing the topics, to make a draft of a declaration of independence. It was discussed in committee, amended very slightly, and finally reported. Debates upon it were long and animated. There was some opposition to voting for independence at all, and it was considerably amended. It was evident from the beginning that a majority of the colonies would vote for independence (the vote in Congress vas by colonies), but it was important that the vote should be unanimous. floor of Congress (July 4) just in time to secure the vote of Delaware in favor of independence. All three of the delegates from Delaware voted for the declaration. The vote of Pennsylvania was also secured, a majority of its seven delegates being in favor of the measure; and on the 4th of July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the unanimous vote of the thirteen colonies. On Thursday, July 4, 1776, agreeable to the order of the day, Congress resolved itself into a committee of the whole to consider the declaration, President John Hancock in the chair. The secretary, Benjamin Harrison, reported that the committee had agreed upon a declaration, which was read and adopted as follows: The declaration was warmly debated on the day (July 2) when the resolution was passed, and also on the 3d. Meanwhile When, in the course of human events, news came of the arrival of a large Brit- it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to as sume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the 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 formal system 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. HOUSE IN WHICH JEFFERSON WROTE THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. secure 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 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 to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation 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 on He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operations till his assent should be obtained; and, 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 |