Newbern weekly progress., 1862-04-26

and the amount and payment OF their
salaries.
| lie has erected multitude of new Off
ccs, aud sent hithcr swarns of officers, to
harass our people, and eat out their sub
stancc.
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.
lie has combined with others to subject
US to Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitu-
ton, and unacknowledgcd by our laws {;
giving his assent to their acts of pretended
legislation: -.
For quartcring 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
For cutting off our trade with all1 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 Il neighbouring province, establish
ing therein an arbitrary government, and
enlarging its boundaries, so AS to render it
at once an cxs1gfsss aasissrst for
introducing the same absolute rule into
these colonies.
For taking away our charters, abolish
ing our most valuable laws, and altering,
fundamentally, the forms of our govern
ments:
For suspending our own legislatures,
and declaring themselves invested with
power to legislate for US in all cases what
soevcr.
He has abdicatcd government here, by
declaring us out of his protection, and
waging war against us.
He has plun,lered our seas, ravaged our
coas's, burnt our towns, and destroyed the
lives of our people.
lie is at this time transporting large
armies of foreign mercenaries to complete
the works of death, desolation, and tyran-
ny, already began with circumstances of
cruelty and perfdy, scarcely paralleled in
the most barbarous ages, and totally un-
worthy 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 fall themselves by their hands.
lie has excited domestic instructions
amongst us, and has cndeavoured to bring
on the inhabitants of our frontiers the
merciless Indian savages, whose known rule
of warfare is an undstinsuished 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 unwarranta-
bic jurisdiction over us. We have reminded
them of the circumstances 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 inter-
rupt our-connexions and correspondence.
They too have been deaf to the voice of
Justice and consanguinity. We must,
therefore acquiesce in the necessity which
denounces our separation, and hold them,
as we hold the rest of mankind-enemiesI
in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the
United 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
authority of the good people of these colo
MES, 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
dissolscd; and that, as free and indepen-
dent States, they have iull power TO levy
war;. conclude peace, contract alliances,
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