Year: 1873

their homes for trial, at distant points, othe
citizens for the same offense of refusing t.
pay more than legal fare, putting them t
sible, and still further eviucing their de
termination to make it too terrible for tn
people to dare engage in any legal confic
with them.


They have combined together to destro,
competition and to practice an unjust dis
elimination, contrary to the expressed pro
visions of our constitution and the spirit o
our laws.


They have virtually cut off our trade
with distant parts of the world by their un
just determinations and by their exorbltan
rates of freights, forcing upon us the alter
native of accumulating upon our hands a
worthless surplus, or of giving tEree-tourtls
of the price our customers pay for our produc
for transportation.


Under the false and specious pretense Of
developing the country, they have obtained
enormous grants of public lands from Con
gress, and now reta.d rather than develop
lis settlement, by the high prices charged
for such land.


They have converted the bonds fraudu-
lently obtained from the government into a
great corruption fund, with which they are
enabled to brbe and control legislators and
subvert every branch of government to their
own base and sordid purpose.


They have increased the already intolera-
bic burden Of taxation, which the people
have to endure compared with which the
tea and stamp tax which precipitated the
war of the revolution seems utterly insig-
nifcant, by the appropriation of money
from the public treasury, while they have
escaped taxation themselves by cvading and
violating the expressed provisions of their
charters.


In every stage of these expressions we
have petiioned our Legislatures for redress
in the most humble terms. Our repeated
petitions have been answered only by silence,
or by attempts to frame laws that shall
seem to meet our wants, but that are, IN
fact, only legal snare for courts to disagree
upon and for corporations to disooey.
Nor have we been wanting i'll attempts to
obtain redress through Congress. We
have warned them from time to time of
these various and repeated encroachments
upon our rights; we have reminded them OF
the circumstances of our emigration and
settlement here; we have appealed to them
as the administrators Of free and impartial
government, TO project us from the encroach-
ments, which, if continued, wov id inevitably
| end in the utter destruction of those liberties
for which our fathers gave their lives, and
the reinstatement of privileged classes and
an aristocracy of wealth worse than that
from which the war of the revolution freed
us. They, too, have been deaf to the voice
of justice and duty. We must, therefore,
acquiesc in the necessity which compels us
to deLounce their criminal Indifference to our
wrongs, and hold them as we hold our
Legislature-enemies to the producer-to
the monopolists, friends.


We, therefore, the producers of this
State in our several counties assembled, on
this the anniversary of that day that gave
birth to a nation of lreemen and to a gov
ernment of which despite the corruption OF
its officers, we are still so Justly proud, ap-
pealing to the Supreme Judge Of the world
for the rectitude of our intentions, do
soennly declare that we will use all lawful
and peacable means to free ourselves from
the tyranny of the monopoly, and that We
will never cease our efforts for reform until
every department of our government gives
token that the reign of licentious exirava-
gance is over, and something Of the purity,
honesty and trugaly with which our
fathers naugurated it, has taken its
| place.


That to this end we hereby declare our
selves absolutely free and independent Of all
past political connections; that we will give
our suffrage only to such men for office,
from the lowest officer in the State to the
President of the United States, as we have
good reason TO believe will use their best
endeavors to the promotion of these ends;
and for the support of this declaration, with
a firm reliance on Divine Providence, we
mutually pledge to each other our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor


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