The Lake County star., 1876-07-13

ing invariably the same object, eyinces Q
| design to reduce them under absolute des
potism, 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 col
onies; and such is now the necessity which
constrains them to expunge their former
systems of government. The history of the
present king of Great Britain is history
Of unremitting injuries and usurpations
among which appears no solitary fact Il
| contradict the uniform tenor of the rest, bu
all have in direct object, the establishment
of an absolute tyranny over these states
| To prove this, let facts be- submitted to
| candid world, for. the truth of which W.
pledge faith yet unsullied by falsehood.
He has refused his assent to laws the mos
wholesome and necessary for the public
good.
He has forbidden his governors to pas,
laws OF immediate and pressing importance
unless suspended in their operation till his
suspended, he has utterly neglected to at
tend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the
| accommodation of large districts OF people,
| unless those people would relinquish the
| right of representation in the legislature, q
right inestimable to them, and formidable
| to tyrants emily.
He has called together legislative bodies
| at places unusual, uncomfortable, and dis.
tant from the depository of their public
records, for the sole purpose of fatigaing
them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses
repeatedly and continually, for opposing
with manly frmness his invasions on the
rights of the people.
He has refused for long time after such
dissolutions to cause others to be elected,
whereby the legislative powers, incapable
of annihilation have returned to the people
at large for their exercise, the state remain
ing in the meantime exposed to all the dan.
gers of invasion from without, and convul-
sions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the porula.
tion of these states for that purpose OBJ
structing the laws for the naturalization OF
foreigners, refusing to pass others to encour.
age their migrations hither, and raising the
conditions of new appropriations Of lands.
He has suffered the administration of jus.
tice totally to cease in some of these states,
refusing his assent to laws for establishing
judiciary powers.
He has made our 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
by a self-assumed power, and sent hither
swarms of new officers to harass our people
and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times OF peace,
standing armies and ships of war without
the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the military in
dependent of, and superior to, the civil
power.
He has combined with others to subject
us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitu-
tions 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 with all parts Of
the world.
For imposing taxes on us without our con-
sent.
For depriying us of the benefits of trial
by jury.
tried for pretended ofenses.
For abolishing the free system of English
laws in neighboring province, establish.
ing therein an arbitrary government, and
enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it
at once an example and fit instrument for
introducing the same absolute rule into
these states.
For taking away our charters, abolishing
our most valuable laws, and altering funda-
mentally 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 governments here, with.
drawing his governors, and declaring us out
of his allegiance and protection.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our
coast, burst 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 perfdy unworthy the head Of civil
lied nation.
He has constrained our fellow-citizens
taken captive on the high seas to bear arms
against their country, to become the execu
tioners of their friends and brethren, or to
fall themselves by their hands.
He has endeavored to bring on the in
habitants of our frontiers the merciless In
dian savages, whose known rule OF warfare
is an undistinguished destruction of al
ages, sexes, and conditions of existence.
[Then follow two clauses not adopted by
the Committee, relative to exciting "trea
sonable instructions of our fellow-citiZens,'
and the slave trade The first of these II
| in these words: He has melted treasonabl'
| instructions of our fellow-citizens, with
| the allurements of forfeiture and confisca
| ton of our property.
In every stage of these expressions, w
have petitioned for redress in the most hum
BILE terms; our repeated petitions have beer
answered only by repeated injuries.
A prince whose character is thus marked
by every act which may define q tyrant, Ii
unfit to be the ruler OF a people who NEAR
to be free. [The residue Of this paragraph
was not adopted by the Committed
Nor have we been wanting in attention.
to our British brethren. We have warnet
them from time to time of attempts by thei
legislature to extend jurisdiction over thes
our states. We have reminded them of tn
circumstances of our emigration and settle
ment here; we appealed to their nativ
justice and magnanimity, las well as to] tn
ties of our common kindred, to disavoy
these usurpations which [were likely to1 In
terrupt our connection and correspondence
They too have been deaf to the voice of Jul
tice and consanguinity. We must therefor
acauiesce in the necessity which denounce
our [eternall separation, and hold them 0
we hold the rest OF mankind, enemies !
war, in peace, friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives OF th
United States Of America, IN Generai Col
gress assembled, do in the name, and by II
authority of the good people Of these state
, reject and renounce all allegiance and su
iection to the kings Of Great Britain, and 9
others who may hereafter claim by, throug
or under them; we utterly dissolve all p
, litical connection which may heretofol
have subsisted between us and the peop
q or parliament of Great Britain; and final
we do assert and declare these colonies
/. be free and independent states, they ha'
full power to levy war, conclude peac
e contract alliances, establish commerce, an
4 to do all other acts and things which ind
< pendent states may OF right do.
q And for the support OF this declaration '
e mutually pledge to each other our lives, o.
I fortunes, and our sacred honor.
! DOCUMENTS RESEMBLING THE DECLAR
TIoN OF INDEPENDENCE.
| That all men are by nature equally fr
. and independent, and have certain inhere
rights, namely, the enjoyment Of life al
liberty, and pursuing and obtaining hapl
| ..fnt. Vtvg,oia DeclaFatiOu