If it were possible for men who exercise their reason to believe that
the Divine Author of our existence intended a part of the human race to
hold an absolute property in and an unbounded power over others, marked
out by his infinite goodness and wisdom as the objects of a legal
domination never rightfully resistible, however severe and oppressive,
the inhabitants of these colonies might at least require from the
Parliament of Great Britain some evidence that this dreadful authority
has been granted to that body. But a reverence for our great Creator,
principles of humanity, and the dictates of common sense must convince
all those who reflect upon the subject, that government was instituted
to promote the welfare of mankind, and ought to be administered for the
attainment of that end. The legislature of Great Britain, however,
stimulated by an inordinate passion for a power, not only unjustifiable,
but which they know to be peculiarly reprobated by the very constitution
of that kingdom, and desperate of success in any mode of contest where
regard should be had to truth, law, or right, have at length, deserting
those, attempted to effect their cruel and impolitic purpose of
enslaving these colonies by violence, and have thereby rendered it
necessary for us to close with their last appeal from reason to arms.
Yet, however blinded that assembly may be, by their intemperate rage for
unlimited domination, so to slight justice and the opinion of mankind,
we esteem ourselves bound by obligations of respect to the rest of the
world, to make known the justice of our cause.
Our forefathers, inhabitants of the island of Great Britain, left
their native land to seek on these shores a residence for civil and
religious freedom. At the expense of their blood; at the hazard of their
fortunes; without the least charge to the country from which they
removed; by unceasing labor and an unconquerable spirit, they effected
settlements in the distant and inhospitable wilds of America, then
filled with numerous and warlike nations of barbarians. Societies or
governments, vested with perfect legislatures, were formed under
charters from the Crown, and a harmonious intercourse was established
between the colonies and the kingdom from which they derived their
origin. The mutual benefits of this union became in a short time so
extraordinary as to excite astonishment. It is universally confessed
that the amazing increase of the wealth, strength, and navigation of the
realm arose from this source; and the minister who so wisely and
successfully directed the measures of Great Britain in the late war,
publicly declared that these colonies enabled her to triumph over her
enemies. Towards the conclusion of that war, it pleased our sovereign to
make a change in his counsels. From that fatal moment, the affairs of
the British Empire began to fall into confusion, and gradually sliding
from the summit of glorious prosperity, to which they had been advanced
by the virtues and abilities of one man, are at length distracted by the
convulsions that now shake its deepest foundations. The new ministry
finding the brave foes of Britain, though frequently defeated, yet still
contending, took up the unfortunate idea of granting them a hasty peace
and of then subduing her faithful friends.
These devoted colonies were judged to be in such a state as to
present victories without bloodshed, and all the easy emoluments of
statutable plunder. The uninterrupted tenor of their peaceable and
respectful behavior from the beginning of colonization; their dutiful,
zealous, and useful services during the war, though so recently and
amply acknowledged in the most honorable manner by his Majesty, by the
late King and by Parliament, could not save them from the meditated
innovations. Parliament was influenced to adopt the pernicious project,
and, assuming a new power over them, has, in the course of eleven years,
given such decisive specimens of the spirit and consequences attending
this power, as to leave no doubt concerning the effects of acquiescence
under it. They have undertaken to give and grant our money without our
consent, though we have ever exercised an exclusive right to dispose of
our own property; statutes have been passed for extending the
jurisdiction of courts of admiralty and vice-admiralty beyond their
ancient limits; for depriving us of the accustomed and inestimable
privilege of trial by jury in cases affecting both life and property;
for suspending the legislature of one of the colonies; for interdicting
all commerce to the capital of another, and for altering fundamentally
the form of government established by charter and secured by acts of its
own legislature, solemnly confirmed by the Crown; for exempting the
"murderers" of colonists from legal trial, and, in effect, from
punishment; for erecting in a neighboring province, acquired by the
joint arms of Great Britain and America, a despotism dangerous to our
very existence, and for quartering soldiers upon the colonists in time
of profound peace. It has also been resolved in Parliament that
colonists charged with committing certain offenses shall be transported
to England to be tried.
But why should we enumerate our injuries in detail? By one statute
it is declared that Parliament can, "of right, make laws to bind us in
all cases whatsoever." What is to defend us against so enormous, so
unlimited a power? Not a single man of those who assume it is chosen by
us, or is subject to our control or influence; but, on the contrary,
they are all of them exempt from the operation of such laws, and an
American revenue, if not diverted from the ostensible purposes for which
it is raised, would actually lighten their own burdens, in proportion as
they increase ours. We saw the misery to which such despotism would
reduce us. We, for ten years, incessantly and ineffectually besieged the
throne as supplicants; we reasoned, we remonstrated with Parliament in
the most mild and decent language.
The Administration, sensible that we should regard these
oppressive measures as freemen ought to do, sent over fleets and armies
to enforce them. The indignation of the Americans was roused, it is
true, but it was the indignation of a virtuous, loyal, and affectionate
people. A congress of delegates from the united colonies was assembled
at Philadelphia, on the fifth day of last September. We resolved again
to offer an humble and dutiful petition to the King, and also addressed
our fellow-subjects of Great Britain. We have pursued every temperate,
every respectful measure; we have even proceeded to break off our
commercial intercourse with our fellow-subjects, as the last peaceable
admonition that our attachment to no nation upon earth should supplant
our attachment to liberty. This, we flattered ourselves, was the
ultimate step of the controversy, but subsequent events have shown how
vain was this hope of finding moderation in our enemies.
Several threatening expressions against the colonies were inserted
in his Majesty's speech; our petition, though we were told it was a
decent one, and that his Majesty had been pleased to receive it
graciously, and to promise laying it before his Parliament, was huddled
into both houses, among a bundle of American papers, and there
neglected. The Lords and Commons in their address, in the month of
February, said that "a rebellion at that time actually existed within
the province of Massachusetts Bay, and that those concerned in it had
been countenanced and encouraged by unlawful combinations and
engagements, entered into by his Majesty's subjects in several of the
other colonies; and, therefore, they besought his Majesty that he would
take the most effectual measures to enforce due obedience to the laws
and authority of the supreme legislature." Soon after, the commercial
intercourse of whole colonies with foreign countries and with each other
was cut off by an act of Parliament; by another, several of them were
entirely prohibited from the fisheries in the seas near their coasts, on
which they always depended for their subsistence, and large
re-enforcements of ships and troops were immediately sent over to
General Gage.
Fruitless were all the entreaties, arguments, and eloquence of an
illustrious band of the most distinguished peers and commoners, who
nobly and strenuously asserted the justice of our cause, to stay, or
even to mitigate the heedless fury with which these accumulated and
unexampled outrages were hurried on. Equally fruitless was the
interference of the city of London, of Bristol, and many other
respectable towns, in our favor. Parliament adopted an insidious
manoeuvre, calculated to divide us, to establish a perpetual auction of
taxations, where colony should bid against colony, all of them
uninformed what ransom would redeem their lives, and thus to extort from
us, at the point of the bayonet, the unknown sums that should be
sufficient to gratify, if possible to gratify, ministerial rapacity,
with the miserable indulgence left to us of raising, in our own mode,
the prescribed tribute. What terms more rigid and humiliating could have
been dictated by remorseless victors to conquered enemies? In our
circumstances, to accept them would be to deserve them.
Soon after the intelligence of these proceedings arrived on this
continent, General Gage, who, in the course of the last year, had taken
possession of the town of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts Bay,
and still occupied it as a garrison, on the nineteenth day of April sent
out from that place a large detachment of his army, who made an
unprovoked assault on the inhabitants of the said province at the town
of Lexington, and as appears by the affidavits of a great number of
persons, some of whom were officers and soldiers of that detachment,
murdered eight of the inhabitants, and wounded many others. From thence
the troops proceeded, in warlike array, to the town of Concord, where
they set upon another party of the inhabitants of the same province,
killing several and wounding more, until, compelled to retreat by the
country people, suddenly assembled to repel this cruel aggression.
Hostilities, thus commenced by the British troops, have been since
prosecuted by them, without regard to faith or reputation. The
inhabitants of Boston being confined within that town by the general,
their governor, and having, in order to procure their dismission,
entered into a treaty with him, it was stipulated that the said
inhabitants having deposited their arms with their own magistrates,
should have liberty to depart, taking with them their other effects.
They accordingly delivered up their arms, but in open violation of
honor, in defiance of the obligation of treaties, which even savage
nations esteem sacred, the governor ordered the arms deposited as
aforesaid, that they might be preserved for their owners, to be seized
by a body of soldiers, detained the greatest part of the inhabitants in
the town, and compelled the few who were permitted to retire, to leave
their most valuable effects behind.
By this perfidy, wives are separated from their husbands, children
from their parents, the aged and the sick from their relations and
friends, who wish to attend and comfort them, and those who have been
used to live in plenty, and even elegance, are reduced to deplorable
distress.
The general, further emulating his ministerial masters, by a
proclamation bearing date on the twelfth day of June, after venting the
grossest falsehoods and calumnies against the good people of these
colonies, proceeds to a "declare them all, either by name or
description, to be rebels and traitors, to supersede the course of
common law, and instead thereof to publish and order the use and
exercise of the law martial." His troops have butchered our countrymen;
have wantonly burnt Charlestown, besides a considerable number of houses
in other places; our ships and vessels are seized; the necessary
supplies of provisions are intercepted; and he is exerting his utmost
power to spread destruction and devastation around him.
We have received certain intelligence that General Carleton, the
Governor of Canada, is instigating the people of that province, and the
Indians, to fall upon us; and we have but too much reason to apprehend
that schemes have been formed to excite domestic enemies against us. In
brief, a part of these colonies now feel, and all of them are sure of
feeling, as far as the vengeance of administration can inflict them, the
complicated calamities of fire, sword, and famine. We are reduced to the
alternative of choosing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of
irritated ministers, or resistance by force. The latter is our choice.
We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful
as voluntary slavery! Honor, justice, and humanity forbid us tamely to
surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and
which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot
endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that
wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail
hereditary bondage upon them.
Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources
are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly
attainable. We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of Divine
favor towards us, that his providence would not permit us to be called
into this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our present
strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operations, and
possessed the means of defending ourselves. With hearts fortified by
these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world,
declare that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers which our
beneficent Creator has graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have
been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every
hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the
preservation of our liberties, - being with one mind resolved to if die
freemen rather than to live slaves.
Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our friends and
fellow-subjects in any part of the empire, we assure them that we mean
not to dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted
between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored. Necessity has
not yet driven us into that desperate measure, or induced us to excite
any other nation to war against them. We have not raised armies with
ambitious designs of separating from Great Britain and establishing
independent States. We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit
to mankind the remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked
enemies, without any imputation or even suspicion of offense. They boast
of their privileges and civilization, and yet proffer no milder
conditions than servitude or death.
In our own native land, in defense of the freedom that is our
birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it -
for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest
industry of our forefathers and ourselves, against violence actually
offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities
shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being
renewed shall be removed, and not before.
With an humble confidence in the mercies of the Supreme and
impartial Judge and Ruler of the universe, we most devoutly implore his
divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict, to
dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and
thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war.
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