Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1856-07-04

For taking away our charters, abolishing
our most valuable laws, and altering funda-
mentally the forms of our government:
For suspcnding our own legislatures, and
declaring themselves invested with power to
legslate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here by
declaring us out of his protection, and wag-
ing 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
armies of foreign mercenaries, to complete
the works Of death, desolation and tyranny,
already begun, with circumstances of cruel
! ty and peridy scarcely paralleled in the
most barharous 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 execu-
TONERS of their friends and brethren, or to
fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic instructions
amongst Us, and has endeavored to 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 pctitioncd for redress in the most hum
ble terms; our petitions have been answer
ed only by repeated injury A prince whose
character is thus marked by every act which
may define tyrant is unfit to be the ruler
ola free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention
to our British brethren. We have warned
them, from time to time, of attempts made
! by their Legislature to extend an unwarrant-
able jurisdiction over us. We have remind
ed them of the circumstances of our emigra-
ton and settlement here. We have appeal
ed TO their native justice and magnanimity,
and we have coniuyed them, by the ties OF
our common kindred, to disavow these
usuIpations, which would inevitably inter
ruPt our connections and correspondence
They, too, have been deaf to the voice of
justice and consanguinity. We must there
fore acquiesce in the necessity which de-
inounce5 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 Con-
grass 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 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 Brit
ish crown, and that all political connection
( between them and the state of Great Brit
ain 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 do all other acts and things which in
/ dependent states may of right do. And for
the support of this declaration, with a firm
reliance on the protection of Divine Provi-
denco, 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.
! Attcsted, CHARLES THOMPSON, Secretary.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. George Taylor,
Josiah Bartlett, James Wilson,
William Whipple, George Ross.
Matthew Thornton. DELAWARE.
MASSACHUSETTS BAY. Cesar Rodney,
Samuel Adams, George Read,
John Adams, Thomas MKean.
Robert Treat Paine, MARYLAND.
EIbridge Gerry. Samuel Chase,
RHODE ISLAND, &c. William Paca,
Stephen Hopkins, Thomas Stone,
William Ellary. Charles Carroll, of
CONNECTICUT. Carolton
Roger Sherman, VIRGINIA.
/ Samuel Huntington, George Wythe,
William Williams, Richard Henry Lee,
Oliver Wolcott. Thomas Jefferson,
NEW YORK. Benjamin Harrison,
William Floyd, Thomas Nelson, Jr,
Phillip Livingston, Francis Lightfoot Lee,
Francis Lewis, Carter Braxton.
Lewis Morris. NORTH CAROLINA.
NEW JERSEY. William Hooper,
Richard Stockton, Joseph Hewes,
John Witherspoon, John Penn.
Francis Hopkinson, SOUTH CAROLINA.
John Hart, Edward Rutledge,
Abraham Clark. Thomas Hayward, Jr,
PENNSYLVANIA. Thomas Linch, Jr,
Robert Morris, Arthur Middleton.
Benjamin Rush, GEORGIA.
Benjamin Franklin, Button Gwinnett,
John Morton, Lyman Hall,
George Clymer, George Walton.
James Smith,
From the Sandusky Register.
LYRIC FOR THE TIMES.
VeRgeaaee is mine, i5iH repay, saith the Lord"
Heard We that fearful wall, my brothers?-
Heard We those freemen Shrek?
List to the hurrying gale, mothersl
For ii sweeps from the p1lli1 check
And the hlOOd-staned vOstments Of brother and sonl
And lit bears on its pinious the sound Of the gun
By Freedoms asslssinsi-and low on the plain
BY the minion Of fnOUGLAs-base Stare Of a slaUe!
Who, seated in power, digs Lbcrtys gravel
"Blush We in shame, my brothersi
Deep crimson be your cheeksi
Wear We he darkpnpd rnOthprSr'