For imposing taxes on us without our consent;' For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury;" For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring 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 ;* For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments;" For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever." He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us.' refractory colonists of New England, by crippling their commerce [page 231] with Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies. Fishing on the banks of Newfoundland was also prohibited, and thus, as far as parliamentary enactments could accomplish it, their "trade with all parts of the world" was cut off. 1 In addition to the revenue taxes imposed from time to time, and attempted to be collected by means of writs of assistance [page 212], the Stamp Act [page 213] was passed, and duties upon paper, painters' colors, glass, tea, etc., were levied. This was the great bone of contention between the colonists and the imperial government. It was contention, on the one hand, for the great political truth, that taxation and representation are inseparable, and a lust for power, and the means for replenishing an exhausted treasury, on the other. The climax of the contention was the Revolution. This was especially the case, when commissioners of customs were concerned in the suit. After these functionaries were driven from Boston in 1768 [page 220], an act was passed which placed violations of the revenue laws under the jurisdiction of the admiralty courts, where the of fenders were tried by a creature of the crown, and were deprived "of the benefits of trial by jury." A law of 1774 provided that any person in the province of Massachusetts, who should bo accused of riot, resistance of magistrates or the officers of customs, murder, "or any other capital offense," might, at the option of the governor, be taken for trial to another colony, or transported to Great Britain, for the purpose. The minister pretended that impartial justice could not be administered in Massachusetts, but the facts of Captain Preston's case [page 222] refuted his arguments, in that direction. The bill was violently opposed in Parliament, yet it became law. It was decreed that Americans might be "transported beyond the seas, to be tried for pretended offenses,” or real crimes. 4 This charge is embodied in an earlier one [page 596], considered in note 2, page 596. The British ministry thought it prudent to take early steps to secure a footing in America, so near the scene of inevitable rebellion, as to allow them to breast, successfully, the gathering storm. Tho investing of a legislative council in Canada, with all powers except levying of taxes, was a great stride toward that absolute military rule which bore sway there within eighteen months afterward. Giving up their political rights for doubtful religious privileges, made them willing slaves, and Canada remained a part of the British empire, when its sister colonies rejoiced in freedom. 5 This is a reiteration of the charge considered in note 2, page 596, and refers to the alteration of the Massachusetts charter, so as to make judges and other officers independent of the people, and subservient to the crown. The governor was empowered to remove and appoint all inferior judges, the attorney-general, provosts, marshals, and justices of the peace, and to appoint sheriff's independent of the council. As the sheriffs chose jurors, trial by jury might easily be made a mere mockery. The people had hitherto been allowed, by their charter, to select jurors; now the whole matter was placed in the hands of creatures of government. This, too, is another phase of the charge just considered. We have noticed the suppression of the Legislature of New York [page 218], and, in several cases, the governors, after dissolving colonial Assemblies, assumed the right to make proclamations stand in the place of statute law. Lord Dunmore assumed this right in 1775, and so did Sir James Wright, of Georgia, and Lord William Campbell, of South Carolina. They were driven from the country, in consequence. In his message to Parliament early in 1775, the king declared the colonists to be in a state of open rebellion, and by sending armies hither to make war upon them, he really "abdicated government," by thus declaring them "out of his protection." He sanctioned the acts of governors in employing the Indians against his subjects [note 4, page 237], and himself bargained for the em He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned 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 insurrection 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 our 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 ployment of German hirelings. And when, yielding to the pressure of popular will, his representatives (the royal governors) fled before the indignant people, he certainly "abdicated government." 66 1 When naval commanders were clothed with the powers of custom-house officers and excisemen, they seized many American vessels; and after the affair at Lexington and Bunker Hill, British ships of war "plundered our seas" whenever an American vessel could be found. They also ravaged our coasts and burnt our towns." Charlestown [page 236], Falmouth (now Portland, in Maine), and Norfolk were burnt; and Dunmore and others [page 241] "ravaged our coasts" and "destroyed the lives of our people." And at the very time when this Declaration was being read to the assembled Congress [page 252], the shattered fleet of Sir Peter Parker was sailing northward [page 249], after an attack upon Charleston, South Carolina. 2 This charge refers to the infamous employment of German troops, known here as Hessians. See page 246. An act of Parliament, passed toward the close of December, 1775, authorized the capture of all American vessels, and also directed the treatment of the crews of armed vessels to be as slaves, and not as prisoners of war. They were to be enrolled for the "service of his majesty," and were thus compelled to fight for the crown, even against their own friends and countrymen. This act was loudly condemned on the floor of Parliament, as unworthy of a Christian people, and “a refinement of cruelty unknown among savage nations." This was done in several instances. Dunmore was charged [note 4, page 237] with a design to employ the Indians against the Virginians, as early as 1774; and while ravaging the Virginia coast, in 1775 and 1776, he endeavored to excite the slaves against their masters. He was also concerned with Governor Gage and others, under instructions from the British ministry, in exciting the Shawnees, and other savages of the Ohio country, against the white people. Emissaries were also sent among the Cherokees and Creeks, for the same purpose, and all of the tribes of the Six Nations, except the Oneidas, were found in arms with the British when war began. Thus excited, dreadful massacres occurred on the borders of the several colonies. 5 For ten long years the colonies petitioned for redress of grievances, "in the most humble terms," and loyal manner. It was done by the Colonial Congress of 1765 [page 215], and also by the Continental Congresses of 1774 [page 228] and 1775 [page 238]. But their petitions were almost always "answered only by repeated injuries." "From the beginning, the colonists appealed, in the most affectionate terms, to "their British brethren." The first address put forth by the Congress of 1774 [note 6, page 228] was "To the People of Great Britain; and the Congress of 1775 sent an affectionate appeal to the people of Ireland. 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. HOUSE OXFORD LIBRARY 602 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. The following is a list of the members of the Continental Congress, who signed the Declaration of Independence, with the places and dates of their birth, and the time of their respective deaths: 64 Braintree, Mass., 19th Oct., 1785 Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Marblehead, Mass., 17th July, 1744 England, Connecticut, in 1731 Georgia, Massachusetts, Berkely, Virginia, Virginia, Hopewell, N. J., New Jersey, St. Luke's, S. C., St. George's, S. C., 3d July, 1782 13th April, 1743 14th Oct., 1784 20th Jan., 1782 in March, 1713 15th Jan., 1716 5th Aug., 1749 South Carolina, Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence, were men eng ged in almost every vocation. There were twenty-four lawyers; fourteen farmers, or men devoted chiefly to agriculture; nine merchants; four physicians; one gospel minister, and three who were educated for that profession, but chose other avocations; and one manufacturer. A large portion of them lived to the age of three score and ten years. Three of them were over 90 years of age when they died; ten over 80; eleven over 70; fourteen over 60; eleven over 50; and six over 44. Mr. Lynch (lost at sea) was only 30. The aggregate years of life of the fifty-six patriots, were 3,687 years. The last survivor of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, who died on the 14th of November, 1832, when in the ninety-sixth year of his age.' In allusion to the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and their compeers, the Abbè Raynal wrote, in 1781, in his essay on The Revolution in America: "With what grandeur, with what enthusiasm, should I not speak of those generous men who erected this grand edifice by their patience, their wisdom, and their courage! Hancock, Franklin, the two Adamses, were the greatest actors in this affecting scene; but they were not the only ones. Posterity shall know them all. Their honored names shall be transmitted to it by a happier pen than mine. Brass and marble shall show them to remotest ages. In beholding them, shall the friend of freedom feel his heart palpitate with joy -feel his eyes float in delicious tears. Under the bust of one of them has been written, HE WRESTED THUNDER FROM HEAVEN AND THE SCEPTER FROM TYRANTS. Of the last words of this eulogy shall the whole of them partake." "I ask," exclaimed Mirabeau, on the tribune of the National Assembly of France, while descanting upon our Declaration-"I ask if the powers who have formed alliances with the States have dared to read that manifesto, or to interrogate their consciences after the perusal? I ask whether there be at this day one government in Europe-the Helvetic and Batavian confederations and the British isles excepted-which, judged after the principles of the Declaration of Congress, on the 4th of July, 1776, is not divested of its rights." And Napoleon afterward, alluding to the same scene, said, "The finger of God was there!" 2 1 Charles Carroll was born at Annapolis, in Maryland, on the 20th of September, 1737. He was educated in France, and after an absence of twenty-two years, he returned, and found his countrymen in a state of high excitement on account of the Stamp Act. He espoused the cause of the people, and all through the ensuing struggles and the long war, he was a faithful and unwavering patriot. He held a fluent pen, and was powerful in speech. In his native State, and in the national council, he was always a leading advocate of popular rights. He was elected to the Continental Congress, too late to vote for independence, but in time to affix his signature to the Declaration. It has become a record of history, that Mr. Carroll, after signing his name, was told that the British Government would not be able to identify him as the arch-traitor, because there were other Charles Carrolls in Maryland, and that he affixed "of Carrollton" to his name, with the remark, "Now, they can't make a mistake." This is not true, for it was his common way of signing his name. In a letter before the writer, sent to General Schuyler from Canada, by a committee of which Mr. Carroll was one, and which was written some time before the resolution concerning independence was introduced into Congress, his name has the suffix "of Carrollton." He retired from public life at the age of sixty-four years; and when, in 1826, Adams and Jefferson died, he alone, of all the signers, remained upon the earth. For portrait see page 2 This was written in Latin, as follows, by the celebrated Thurgot, Controller-General of the Finances of France: "Eripuit cœlo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis." It was the exergue of a medal, struck in Paris, in honor of Dr. Franklin. |