The Pennsylvania ledger, or, The Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, & New-Jersey weekly advertiser — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-07-13 00:00:00, page 2

of partial taxation over the Province of Pennsylva
nia, was at the time granted as a favour to Mr.
Penn, who then had a strong personal interelt with
the Sovereign; Penn was a sensible penetrating man
He knew the;power to tax exilted in the Sovereign ;
e therefore-got the right transferred to the Pailia
ment, Jeit he or some of his fucceflors, thould fuffer
‘under a tax laid on at the will and diferetion of the
‘Sovercign for the time being. ~Thisright was firlt
‘wefled in Parliament, at the Revolution. It was
not to be fuie a full Parliament, but a Convention,
which4aid a foandation for the privileges the nation
now.cpjeys. From theaime, the rightdas conti
_mued clearly in Parliament, in the three branches
o 1 the chiﬂurivc conjungtively; so that taking the
richt of taxing, as derived from the Sovereign
through Parliament, in the manner here described,
or considering it as inlicrently existing in the whole
Legislature, as part of its very eflence, the effeét
“would be the fime; ‘but il it -comes to this, that
the supreme power retains the Sovcreigmy over its
‘feveral subordinate members, and of course among
the other various powers which it pofleiles, is con
flizucionally entitled to exercise the right of taxati
on, whencver the common interest-or exigences of
he Trace, make ieneceflary ot
(Seethedaft Page.’)
A DECLARATION by the REPRESENTATIVES
of the United States of America, in Ge
neral Congress assembled.
WHE N, 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 Station to which the
Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them,
a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind re
quires 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
whenever any Form of Government becomes de
structive 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 Princi
ples, 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
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 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 pro
vide 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 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 forbid his Governors to pass Laws of im
mediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended
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 Pla
ces unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the de
pository of their public Records, for the sole Pur
pose 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 Dis
solutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby
the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation,
have returned to the People at large for their Ex
ercise; the State remaining in the mean time expo
sed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, 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 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 Judi
ciary Powers.
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
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 Peo
ple, and eat out their Substance.
He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Stand
ing armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.
He has affected 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 Assent to
their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops
among us:
For protecting them by a mock Trial, from Pu
nishment for any Murders which they should com
mit 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
ot 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 Bounda
ries, 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 Government:
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
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 compleat the Works of
Death, Desolation and Tyranny, already begun
with Circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarce
ly paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and to
tally umworthy 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 themielves by
their Hands.
He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst
us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabi
tants of our Frontiers the merciless Indian Savages,
whose known Rule of Warfare is an undistinguish
ed 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
Britith 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 ap
pealed 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, 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 Au
thority of the good People of these Colonies, so
lemnly 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, con
clude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Com
mmerce, 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 Reli
ance on the Protection of divine Providence, we
mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our For
tunes, and our sacred Honor.
Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress,
JOHN HANCOCK. President.
Attest. CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.
NEW-YORK, July 8.
The fleet from Halifax we informed our readers
in our lalt, was arrived at Sandy Hook, to the a
mount of 113 fail; tis “difficult, from their situati-
di‘ﬁ??t‘b?afqertgiq their number, but we fuppof ;,
does not exceed 1 30,%’1: Monday it came up-into
Yakes’s bay below. the Narrows-}'Tuefday fevera]
thips came tod at the Watering place; Wedne(d,.,
more followed; and by Thur{day noon the wholé
fleet was at anchor if a line from Kill Van Ky to
Simonfon’s ferry on the east fide of Staten Iflang
TheAfia brought up the rear of the fleet, and in 1,
i Narrows, was fired at from a small b:ittery on Lone
Island, which complement was returned by abou
forty 24 pounders, one of which lodged in the wall |
of the house of Mr. Bennet, but did no hurt to the |
family; and three shot had near done much mis- |
chief to the house and family of Mr. Dennis Dey.
nife, one of them narrowly miffing the kitche, |
wherein ‘was a' number of the family; a’ second“
struck the barn, and the third destroyed ‘much of
the fence of the ‘garden opposite the front door of
the mansion house. * (el fie ] :
Part of the army is encamped on Staten Island
and we have not the least reason to doubt, will en:
deavour to secure the north fide thereof by intrench.
ments, whillt the {hipping proteds the other parts.
~ As foan' as the troops landed they paraded the
north shore, and on Wednesday morning made
their appearance fiear Elizabeth-town Point; byt
the country ‘being soon alarmed, they retreated,
took up the floor of the drawbridge in the faltmea.
dows, and immediately threw up some works.
A sloop of 12 fix pounders, belonging to the
fleet from Halifax, laying in the Kills, near Mr.
Degcker’s ferry, was almost torn to pieces last Wed
ne{day morning, by z party under the command of
General Herd, from the opposite shore, with two
18. pounders.: The crew soon ahandoned the {loop
and we suppose the is rendered unfit for any fur.
ther service.: Ao 5 i
~We hear two men' of war are laying near Amboy
in order ’tis supposed to fop all navigation thatway:
One of our cryizers; lately took on'the south
fide of Long-Island, a large Bermudian built sloop,
laden with intrenching tools, &c. from Halifax,
bound to this place: There were on board a num.
ber of Boston refugees, among whom was Robert
Auchmuty, Efg; late Judge of the Admiralty ar
Boiton, and brother to the' Rev’d Dr. Atuchmuty
of this city. ; : ;
The number of Highlanders lately taken prison
ers in the different veflels from Scotland, amounts
to about7so. -
Since our lafl arrived the firft division of Connec
ticut forces, commanded by the Hon. Brigadier
Generals Waterbury and Wad{worth. :
Yelterday 7 seamen belonging to the Killingf
worth traniport, of 700 tons, were brought to
town from Long-Iland, having deserted the ship
the night-before: they fay, the number of soldiers
with the fleet is about 8500, who are all encamped;
and that many of the seamen intended to desert the
flicet when an opportunity presented. -
Last Wednesday night the Capt. of a transport,
apﬁom‘ of his men, were taken at the Narrows
and'brought to town: they were looking for a boat
that had gone adrift, and going too near the shore
were taken by the Riflemen. pit,
Pl LT R D B BAT AL
Monday last being the day appointed for holding
an Election for the choice of Members to fitin
CONVENTION: The following Gentlemen
were chosen:
For the City of Philadelphia.—Benjamin Franklin,
Timothy Matlack, Owen Biddle, George Clymer,
David Rittenhoufe, Frederick Khull, James Can
non, George Schloffer. k
For the County of Philadelphia.— John Bull, Tho
mas Potts, Edward Bartholomew, Henry Hill
Frederick Antis, Robert Loller, William, Coates
Joseph Blewer. R, |
For Bucks County.—Joseph Hart, John Wilkin
son, Samuel. Smith, John Keller. William Van
Horn, John Grier, Abraham Middlefwarts, Joleph
_Kirkbride. : 3 2 i
Extralt of a letter from St. Euflatia, dated Funery
“ In a Bristol ‘paper ot May 4th, it is taid the
foreign troops were ordered to fail with the fleet
court on the second of May, to take the commdnj
and that Lord Howe took leave of, and set out tro
It is still uncertain about the Commissioners, buto
the 13th of April it was said commiflions were ma
king out to appoint five. Lord and Gen. Howy
and Mr Corawallis, were three of them, the othe
two uncertain; but some said they were to be Go
vernor Pownall and one Mr. Mills; they are to re
ceive your fubmiflions, and grant pardons bu
not till you have laid down your arms, Above sis
hundred veflels are to carry the sword and ol
branch, with a great number of flat-bottomed boats
nine thoutand waggons, ;%wenty-feven hurdred hor
fes, and from thirty to fitty thousand men; th
number appears [til} uncertain, but no doubt thf’l
numbers are great, by all which it is to be fuppole
great ceremony is to be used on this molt folem
occasion. Burgoyne is to ‘command at Quebet
Howe at York, and Clinton to the southward
Lord Howe to command the whole. ~The Que
has brough\t another Princess to the nation. 1P
Dutchefs of Kinglton has had her trial and waj
found guilty, but plead the benefit of clergy aQJ
got off; the is since flown over to France, to avo"
a writ of ne exeat regne” S f