The Boston gazette, or, Country journal — Boston [Mass.], 1776-07-22 00:00:00, page 1

WHEN in the Course of human
Events it becomes necessary
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 Sta
tion to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s
God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opini
ons 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 endow
ed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and
the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these
Rights, Governments are instit uted among Men,
deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the
Governed, that whenever any Form of Govern
ment becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the
Right of the People to alter or to abolish it and to
institute new Government, 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 estab
lished should not be changed for light and tran
sient Causes and accordingly all Experience hath
shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer,
while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves
by abolishing the Forms to which they are accus
tomed. 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 al
ter their former Systems 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.
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 sus
pended in their Operation 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 Ac
commodation of large Districts of People unless
those People would relinquish the Right of Repre
sentation 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 repeat
edly, for opposing with manly Firmness his inva
sions on the Rights of the People.
He has refused for a long Time, after such Dis
solutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby
the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation,
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 with
out, and Convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the Population
of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the
Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing
to pass others to encourage their Migrations hi
ther, and raising the Conditions of new Appro
priations of Lands.
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
A DECLARATION,
By the REPRESENTATIVES of the
UNITED STATES of AMERICA,
In GENERAL CONGR ESS Assembled.
W
Printed by BENJAMIN EDES, in WATERTOWN.
MOND AY,
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice,
by refusing his assent to Laws for establishing Ju
diciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will a
lone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the
amount d Payment of their an Salaries.
He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and
sent hither Swarms of officers to harrass our Peo
ple, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in Times of Peace,
Standing Armies, without the consent of our
Legislatures.
He has affe cted to render the Military indepen
dent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a
Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and un
acknowledged by our Laws; giving his asse nt 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 Bene
fits 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 neighbouring Province, establishing therein
an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boun
daries, 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 de
claring themselves invested with Power to legislate
for us in all Cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by decla
ring us out of his Protection and waging War a
gainst 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 compleat the Works of
Death, Destruction and Tyranny, already begun
with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy, scarcely
paralleled in the most barbarous Ages and total
ly 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 insurrections am ongst
us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inha
bitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Sa
vages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an un
disinguished Destruction of all Ages, Sexes and
Conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions we have Pe
titioned 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 Legis
lature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction
over us. We have reminded them of the Circum
stances 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,
July 22, 1776.
and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind,
Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.
WE therefore, the Representatives of the U
NITED STATES OF AMERICA in GENERAL
CONGRESS, Assembled; appealing to the Su
preme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of
our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Autho
rity of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly
Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies
are; and of Right ought to be FREE AND IN
DEPENDENT STATES; that they are absol
ved 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 IN
DEPENDENT STATES, they have full Pow
er to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alli
ances, establish Commerce, and to do all other acts
and things which INDEPENDE NT STATES
may of right do, And for the support of this
Declaration with a firm Reliance on the Protec
tion of divine Providence; we mutually pledge
to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our
sacred Honor.
Signed by Order and in Behalf of the CONGRESS,
JOHN HANCOCK, President.
Attest. CHARLES THOMPSON, Secretary.
Coleny of the Maflichuinis 1 T :ﬁ:uﬁo}y:;‘;-
Bay, Sewthern Dilri&t K- ~fs‘ wmay Ccomcérae |
M TOIICE h::‘_r:i‘.-y,;gi?v;n,'l\‘i)'u:tﬂ Moriing
N Court for the fLu hern dilsict of the colos
vy atorefad, will be held at Plimsurk, an Wed:
nelduy the gth day of Zuguffl 1576 at the houe
of rten ia :the f rencen,to try ks judice ¢f Ihs
capiuie of the thp named the / Reyrelds, bucs
‘then alout 300 tons, (lately cor mané¢d by Ke
lock Refder ) and of hercargy apd appßrtcoances,
agz2inft which a Libel isfled bfore me,\ (the fuid
ship being brought into the fsu hern digni& afore
£id.) in behalf of the own-is, | efficers. aLines,
and mariners of the armed foop, c.,l}e.j;r%‘.: Cop
grefs, (commanded by George IM’Elroy) jand the
ewrers of said ship, or ap ;p;;rfoxzs_c_oltcc,‘sed~
"m=y appear and thew cau‘frv. if aoy chey hawm,
why the fume ship; ber cargs ax?d appurtenasces
sh uld not bs condemsped . b Jiu e
At the c-areatirelaid. will fe tried the juftics
of Gi'b ri Harvifin's claim ro Ciriais good: fagad
on board he schooner Volant, litely condemiged
in the Mariiime Ceurt {or the) futhe:n dilhvia,
of which thignaetice is given re-all perfins -ax.
cerned. N CUSHING. Jedge offuid Cotrs.'
~F¥2EIN up by licob Jones of Se.?bﬁ}ry, ca
: i the 19th afdalt Juse, a young chef, e oeoe
bour’d Hortes about five or fix ssupe oid- WIS a
white itrsak dawn bis foreh-ade with white foot
lack. . Th: owner may have him: rgiin, epqui:
ring at Mr. B:iots tavers in Sudbury, puying
the cßuges, ¢ ~Sudbuky, ju_ly; 15 1976
T STOPR - DESERTERA )
EYERTED trom my cempasy,din Cel.
D Crafi’s barration of celony traiu of actilles
vy. Michael Carrick, 31 yeerswivaue, ab ut g foct
¢ i-ches bigh. with a v “ver husvighe eye brow
well set. blick hiir, and vaek: (ki breechcs Had
on a grey our fide ket and friged waiit coar,
2 gew cottnu fhive, aqd garried uway ‘wits huna
Fresch aufket and b j tet.—A ¢ perfea who
fhafl Rop thz said defortar and thist thall hayve 3
reward of FOUR DOLL #RS evd H chag s
paid by - Al lOSEPN BALOH
T ;O AL iR _M,Ts], vl io L,;CP'\ID,‘IC; Linek,
N there is 1o bz bouad gut! inithe Coudtry,
by ihe Sele@tmen of the - own of Marblehead a
Nuaber of Otphan Childreg, M2l: and Femnaley
fora Term of Yedrs . Wi mloever nuy want b\y
applying to fatd Sele@men, Yoay koow the Cone
driovs aoho will-be alwaysresdy to- waivermehand,
A H g;i;éﬁ{;—aan &JRT;?T;E Labies
&4 nen RAGS, ‘at the Piinting-Office im
Watertuwn, 7 ;