The Washington times., 1934-05-10

to Jurisdiction foreign to our constitution,
and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his
assent to their acts Of pretended legislation.
For quarterng 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;
Forimposing taxes on uswithout our consent;
For deprving US, in many cases, of the bene-
fits Of trial by jury;
For transporting US beyond seas to be tried
for pretended oAenses;
For abolishing the free system Of English
laws in neighbourlng province, establishing
therein an arbitrary government, and enlarg-
ing its boundaries so as to render 1t 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, fundamen-
tally, the forms Of our governments;
For suspending our own legislatures, and de-
claring themselves invested with power to
legislate for US in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here by de-
cIaring 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 compleat the works
of death, desolaton, and tyranny already be-
M; ~ rs or,,alt,, md nor6GIy
scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages,
and totally unworthy the head of civilized
nation.
He has constrained our feow-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.
Hehas excited domestic inSurrectionsa amongst
us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabi-
tants of our frontiers the merciless Indian saw
ages, whose known rule Of warfare is an undis-
tngushed 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 an
swered only by repeated injury. A prince whose
character is thus marked by every act which
may define 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 legis-
lature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction
over u.s. We have reminded them Of the crcum-
stances Of our emigration and settlement here.
We have appealed to their native justice and
magnanimlty, and we have conjured them by
the ties Of our common kindred to diSavow
these usurpations, which would inevitably in
terrupt our connections and correspondence
They, too, have been deaf to the voice Of JUS
tce 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 Con-
gress assembled, appealing to the Supreme
Judge of the world for the rectitude of our in
tentons, 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 inde-
pendent 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 indie
pendent 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 declaration,
with firm reliance on the protection Of Divine
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other
our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.