Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1850-07-06

anu tHe amount ana payment OF their sala-
! ries.
He has erected a multitude of new Off
ces, and sent hither swarms of officers, to
harrasS our people, and eat out their sub
stance.
lie 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 superior to the civil
| power.
He has combined with others to subject
us to jurisdiction foreign to our Consttu-
ton, 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 mock trial,
from punishment for any murders which
they should commit on the inhabitants of
these States:
For cutting off our trade from 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 the seas, to
be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free system of Eng
lish laws in neighboring province, es-
tablishing therein an arbitrary government,
and enlarging its boundaries, so as to rem
der 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 fun
damentally the forms of our governments !:
For Suspending our own Legislatures,
and declaring themselves invested with
power to legiAate for US in all cases what
soever.
He has abdicated government here, by
declaring lis out of his protection, and wa
ging war against us.
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 ar
mics Of foreign mercenaries, to complete
the work of death, desoation, and tyranny,
already begun, with circumstances of cru
! city and perfidy, scarcely paralleed in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy
the head of 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 fail themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections
among us, and has endeavored 10 bring on
the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merci-
less Indian savages, whose known rule OF
warfare is an undistinguiShed destruction of
all ages, sexes, and conditions.
In every stage of these expressions, 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 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 ju-
| risdiction over US. We have reminded
them OF the circumstances of our emigra-
/ ton and settlement here. We have ap-
pealed TO their native Justice and magnan-
unity, and we have coniured them by the
I ties of our common kindred, to disavow
these usupations, which would inevitably
! interrupt our connections and correspond
ence. They, too, have been deaf to the
voice of Justice and consanguinity. We
must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity
which pronounces our separation, and hold
them as we hold the rest of mankind-ene-
mics in .war-in peace, friends.
We, therefore, the representatives OF the
/ United States of America, in general con-
gress assembled, appealing TO the Supreme
Judge OF the world, for the rectitude of our
intentions, do, in the name and by the au-
{ thorIty of the good people Of these colo
nies, 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, estab-
lish commerce, and TO do all other acts and
things which independent States may OF
right do. And for the support of this de-
claration, with firm reliance on the pro-
lection of Divine Providence, we mutually
pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes,
and our sacred honor.
JOHN HANCOCK,
President.