The American gazette, or, the Constitutional journal — Salem, Mass., 1776-07-16 00:00:00, page 1

WHEN in the course of hu
man events, it becomes ne
cessary 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 unalienable
rights, that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
That to secure these rights, govern
ments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed, that when
ever any form of government be
comes destructive of these ends, it is
the right of the people to alter or to
abolish it, and to institute new go
vernment, laying its foundation on
such principles, and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them
shall seem most likely to effect their
safety and happiness. Prudence, in
deed, will dictate that governments
long established should not be chang
ed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath
shewn, that mankind are more dis
posed to suffer, while evils are suf
ferable, 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 suffer
ance of these Colonies; and such is
now the necessity which constrains
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
A DECLARATION by the REPRE
SENTATIVES of the UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA,
in GENERAL CONGRESS as
sembled.
VOL. I.
TUESDAY, July 16 1776.
them to alter their former systems
of government. The history of the
present King of Great-Britain is a
history of repeated injuries and usur
pations, 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.
He has forbidden his Governors
to pass laws of immediate and pres
sing importance, unless suspended in
their operation until his assent
should be obtained; and when so
suspended, he has utterly neglected
to attend them.
He has refused to pass other laws
for the accommodation of large dis
tricts of people, unless those people
would relinquish the right of re
presentation in the legislature, a
right inestimable to them, and for
midable to Tyrants only.
He has called together legisla
tive bodies at places unusual, un
comfortable, 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 such dissolutions, to cause
others to be elected; whereby the
legislative powers, incapable of an
nihilation, have returned to the
people at large for their exercise;
the state remaining in the mean
time exposed to all the dangers of
invasion from without, and con
vulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent
the population of th ese States; for
that purpose obstructing the laws
for naturalization of foreigners;
refusing to pass others to encourage
their migrations hither, and rais
ing the conditions of new appro
priations of lands.
He has obstructed the admini
stration of justice by refusing his
assent to laws for establishing ju
diciary 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 harrass our people, and
eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times
of peace, standing armies, without
the consent of our Legislatures.
He has affected to render the
military independent of and supe
rior to the civil power.
He has combined with others
to subject us to a jurisdiction fo
reign to our constiution and un
acknowledged by our laws; giv
en his assent to their acts of pre
tended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of
armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock
trial, from punishment for any mur
ders 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 with
out 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 neighboring pro
vince, establishing therein an arbi
trary government, and enlarging its
boundaries, so as to render it at once
an example and fit instrument for in
troducing the same absolute rule in
to these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters,
abolishing our most valuable laws,
and altering fundamentally the
forms of our governments:
For suspending our own Legisla
tures, and declaring themselves in
vested with power to legislate for us
in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government
here, by declaring us out of his pro
tection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ra
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