The Virginia gazette — Williamsburg [Va.], 1776-07-20 00:00:00, page 2

fiom their situation, to ascertain their number, but we suppose it does
not exceed 140 fail. Monday it came up into Yakes’s Bay, below the
Narvows; Tuesday several {hips came to at the Watering-Place; and by
Thur{day noon the whole fleet was at anchor in a line from Kill Van~
¥ull to Simonfon’s ferry, on the eat fide of Staten IMland. The Asia
trouehe up the rear of the fleet, and in the Narrows was fired at from a
fimall battery on Lonig l{land, which compliment was returned by about
g 0 vwenty four pounders, one of which lodged in the wall of the house
oi Mir. Bernet, but did no hurt to the family; and three shot had near
done much mifchief to the house and family ofyMr. Dennife Dennife, one
of them narrowly miffing the kitchen, wherein was a number of the fa
mily; a second Rruck the barn, and the third destroyed much of the
fence of the garden opposite the front door of the mansion house.
Part of the army is now encamped on Statéen Island, and we have not
the lealt reason to doubt will endeavour to secure the north fide thereof
by entrenchments, whilit the thipping prote@s the otherparts of it.
" As soon as the troops landed, they paraded the north shore, and on
Wednesday morning made their a?eannce near Elizabeth Town Point:
but the conatry being soon alarmed, they retreated, took up the floor of
the draw-bridge in the Salt Meadows, and immediately threw up some
works. Their near approach to Elizabeth Town Point greatly alarmed
the inhabitants of Essex county, and particularly the people ot Elizabeth
Town and Newark, but they are now in a condition to receive them
whenever they may think proper to approach. LI
T'wo younr men from Elizabeth Town crossed the river in a canoe last
Thursday, and fired upon the regulars; but a number of them rushing
sat of the woods, they were cbliged to retreat and cfofs the river again.
‘We hear two men of war now lay near Amboy, in order, itis fup
pefed, to flop all navigation that way. i
The number of Highlanders lately taken prisoners in the different
w2iltls from Scotland amounts to about 750.
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
A DECLARATION by the REPRESENTATIVES of the UNITED
STATES of AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS assembled.
WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for
one people to dissolve the political bands which 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, 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 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. Pru
dence, 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 accus
tomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing inva
riably 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 former systems of government. The
history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated inju
ries 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 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
accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would re
linquish the right of representation in the the legislature, a right inestima
ble to them, and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together le
gislative 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 such dissolu
tions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, in
capable of annihilation, have returned to the peo ple at large for their ex
ercise; the state remaining in the mean time exposed 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 appropriatio ns of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to
laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent
on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and pay
ment 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 sub
stance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standin g armies,
without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the mili
tary independent of, and superior to, the civil power. He has combined
with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and
unacknowledged 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 punishment for any murders
which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states: For cut
ting 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 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 boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit in
strument 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 de
claring 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 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 insurrections amongst us, and has endea
voured 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 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 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 connexions 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 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 connexion 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
to 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 honour.
Signed by order and in behalf of Congress.
JOHN HANCOCK, President.
Attest, CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.