Avalon Project - Journals of the Continental Congress - Declaration on Taking Arms; July 6, 1775

Avalon Project - Journals of the Continental Congress - Declaration on Taking Arms; July 6, 1775
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Journals of the Continental Congress - Declaration on Taking Arms; July 6, 1775
THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1775
The Congress met according to adjournment, and resumed the consideration of the address to the Inhabitants of G-B, which after some debate, was re-committed.
The committee, to whom the declaration was re-committed, brot in the same, which being read, was taken into consideration, and being debated by paragraphs, was approved and is as follows:
here insert the declaration
The Declaration on Taking Arms
(1)
Jefferson's Drafts
(2)
FIRST DRAFT.
The large
advances
strides of late taken by the legislature of Great Britain towards establishing in over these colonies their absolute rule, and the hardiness of their present attempt to effect by force of arms what by law or right they could never effect, render it necessary for us also
to shift
change the ground of opposition and to close with their last appeal from reason to arms. And as it behaves those who are called to this great decision to be assured that their cause is approved before supreme reason, so is it of great avail that it's justice be made known to the world whose
prayers cannot be wanting intercessions
affections will ever
be favorable to a people
take part with those encountring oppression. Our forefathers, inhabitants of the island of Gr. Britn
harassed
having
there vainly
long endeavored to bear up against the evils of misrule, left their native land to seek on these shores a residence for civil and religious freedom. At the expense of their blood,
with
to the
less
ruin of their fortunes, with the relinquishment of everything a quiet and comfortable in life, they effected settlements in the inhospitable wilds of America; they there established civil societies
under
with various forms of constitution, but possessing all, what is inherent in all, the full and perfect powers of legislation. To continue their connection with the friends whom they had left
and but loved
they arranged themselves by
charters
of compact under
the same
one common king
who became the thro' whom union was ensured to the multiplied
who thus became the
controul
link
uniting
of union between the several parts of the empire. Some occasional assumptions of power by the part. of Gr. Brit. however
foreign and unknown
to unacknowledged by the constitution
we had formed
of our governments were finally acquiesced in [ ] thro' the warmth of affection. Proceeding thus in the fullness of mutual harmony and confidence both parts of the empire encreased in population and in wealth with a rapidity unknown in the history of man. The
various soils
political institutions of America, it's various
climes
soils and climates opening
sure
certain resource to the unfortunate and to the enterprising of
all
every country
where
and ensured to them the acquisition and
free
possession of property. Great Britain too acquired a lustre and a weight
in the political system
among the powers of the
world
earth which
it is thought
her internal resources could never have given her. To
the
a communication of the wealth and the power of
the several parts of th whole
every part of the empire we may
surely ascribe
in some measure surely ascribe the illustrious character she sustained thro' her last European war and its successful event. At the close of that war however
Gr. Britian
having subdued all her foes she took up the unfortunate idea of subduing her friends also. Her parliament then for the first time asserted a right of unbounded legislation
for
over the colonies of America:
by an several acts passed in the years of the 5th 6th and the 7th and the 8th years of the resign of his present majesty several duties were imposed for the purpose of raising a revenue on the American colonists, the power of the courts of Admiralty were extended beyond their ancient limits and the inestimable right
[of being tried in all cases civil]
trial by twelve peers of our vicinage was taken away in cases affecting both life and property. By part an act passed in the 12th year of the present reign an American colonist chat, the offences charged in that act may be transported beyond sea for trial
[of such offense]
by the very persons, against whose pretended sovereignty
[the supposed offense]
is supposed to be committed
and pursuing with eagerness the newly assumed thought
have
in the space of 10 years during, which they have exercise yt right have
made
given such
decisive severe
specimens of the spirit in which this new legislation
Would be exercised conducted
[illegible word]
towards the establishment of absolute government over us
as leaves no room to doubt the consequence of
our further
acquiescence under it
by two three two other acts passed in the 14th year of his present majesty they have assumed a right of altering the form of our governments altogether, and of thereby talking away every security for the possession of life or of property
By several acts of parliament passed
in the reign of his present majesty
within
scope
that
period
space of time they have
imposed upon us duties for the purpose of raising a revenue
attempted to take from us our money without our consent, they have
taken away the
interdicted all commerce
first
of one of our principal
trading
towns thereby annihilating it's property, in the hands of the holders,
and more lately
they have cut off
our
the commercial intercourse
with all of several of these
of whole colonies with
all
foreign countries
whatsoever
; they have extended the jurisdiction of
the
courts of admiralty beyond their antient limits thereby depriving us of the inestimable right of trial by jury in cases affecting both life and property
and subjecting both to the decision arbitrary decision of a single and dependent judge
; they have declared that American subjects
committing
charged with certain pretended offences shall be transported beyond sea
for trial
to be tried before the very persons against whose pretended sovereignty offense is supposed to be committed; they have attempted fundamentally to alter the form of government in one of these colonies, a form established by acts of it's own legislature, and further secured
to them
by
charters
of compact with and grants from
on the part of the crown; they have erected
a tyranny
in a neighbouring province, acquired by the joint arms of Great Britain and America, a tyranny dangerous to the very existence of all these colonies. But why should we enumerate their injuries in the detail ? By one act they have suspended the powers of one American legislature and by another they have declared they may legislate for us themselves in all cases whatsoever. These two acts alone form a basis broad enough whereon to erect a despotism of unlimited extent,
when it is considered that the persons by whom these acts are passed are not with us subject to their agents
and what is to
prevent
secure us against
the demolition of our present and establishment of new and despotic forms of government
? this dreaded evil ? The persons
who
assuming these powers
of doing this
are not chosen by
ourselves
us, are not subject to
us
a our controul
from us
are
themselves freed
exempted by their situation from the operation of these laws
they thus pass
, and
remove from themselves as much burthen as they impose on us
. lighten their own burthens in proportion as they encrease ours. These
are
temptations might put to trial the severest characters of antient virtue: with what new armour then shall a British parliament then encounter the rude assault ? To ward these deadly injuries from the tender plant of liberty which we have brought over and with so much affection
we have planted and
have fostered on these our own shores we have pursued every lawful and every respectful measure. We have supplicated our king at various times in terms almost disgraceful to freedom; we have reasoned, we have remonstrated with parliament in the most mild and decent language; we have even proceeded to
break off our commercial intercourse with them altogether as to the last peaecable admonition of our determination to be free by breaking of altogether our commercial intercourse with them
break off our commercial intercourse with
them
our fellow subjects as the last peaceable admonition that our attachment to no nation on earth should supplant our attachment to liberty: and here we had well hoped was the ultimate step of the controversy. But subsequent events have shewn how vain was even this last remain of confidence in the moderation of the British ministry. During the course of the last year
they
their troops in a hostile manner invested the town of Boston in the province of Massachusetts bay, and from that time have held the same beleaguered by sea and land. On the 19th day of April
last
in the present year they made an unprovoked attack assault on the inhabitants of the sd province at the town of Lexington,
killed
, murdered eight of them on the spot and wounded many others. From thence they proceeded in the
same warlike manner
all the array of war to the town of Concord where they
attacked
set upon another party of the inhabitants of the
sd
same province killing many of them also burning
their
houses and laying waste their property
and continuing these depredations
repressed by the arms of the people assembled to oppose this
hostile unprovoked
cruel
invasion
aggression on ther lives and properties. Hostilities being thus commenced on the part of the
British
Ministerial
troops
they army have been since
without respite
by them pursued
the same by them
without regard to faith or to fame. The inhabitants of the
said
town of Boston having entered into treaty with a certain Thomas Gage
said to be commander in chief of those adverse troops and who has been a principal actor in the siege of the town of Boston, proffered to the inhabitants of the sd town a liberty to depart from the same on
principal and instigator of these
enormities violences
enormities, it was stipulated that the sd inhabitants having first deposited their
arms and mili
their own magistrates their arms and military stores should have free liberty to depart
out of the same from
out of the sd town taking with them their other goods and
other
effects. Their arms and military stores
were
they accordingly delivered in
to their magistrates
, and claimed the stipulated license of departing with their effects. But in open violation of plighted faith and honour, in defiance of
these that
the sacred
laws of nations
obligations of treaty which even the savage nations observe, their arms and warlike stores deposited with their own magistrates to be
kept
preserved as their property were immediately seised by a body of armed men under orders from the sd Thomas Gage, the greater part of the inhabitants were detained in the town and the few permitted to depart were compelled to leave their most valuable
goods
effects behind. We leave
to
the world
their
to it's own reflections on this atrocious perfidy.
The same Thos Gage on the 18th day of June
That we might no longer
be in
doubt the ultimate
purpose object
aim of these Ministerial maneuvres, the same Thos Gage by proclamn bearing date the 12th day of June by after reciting the
most abandon
grossest falsehoods and calumnies against the good people of
America
these colonies proceeds to declare them all, either by name or description, to be rebels and traitors, to supersede by his own authority the exercise of the common law
of the land
of the sd province and to proclaim and order instead thereof the use and exercise of the law martial
throughout the sd province
. This bloody edict issued, he has proceeded to commit further ravages and murders in the same province burning the town of Charlestown,
and
attacking and killing great numbers of the people residing or assembled therein; and is now going on in an avowed course of murder and devastation, taking every occasion to destroy
ing
the lives and properties of the inhabitants of the said province
whenever he [ ] find occasion to get them within his power
To oppose
their
his arms we also have taken
up
arms. We should be wanting to ourselves, we should be
wanting
perfidious to
our
posterity, we should be unworthy that free ancestry from
which both they and we are derived our one common birth
, whom we derive our
birth
descent,
were we to suffer ourselves to be butchered and our properties to be laid waste
should we submit with folded arms to military butchery and depredation to gratify the lordly ambition
of any nation on earth and
or sate avarice of a British ministry. We do then most solemnly
before in the presence of
before God and the world declare, that, regardless of every consequence at the risk of every distress,
that
the arms we have been compelled to assume we will wage with
bitter
perseverance, exerting to their utmost energies all those powers
with
which our creator hath
invested
given us to
guard
preserve that
sacred
Liberty which He committed to us in sacred deposit, and to protect from every hostile hand our lives and our properties. But that this our declaration
and our determined resolution
may
give
give
disquietude
to not disquiet the minds of our good fellow subjects in any part of the empire, we do further
declare add
assure them that we mean not in any wise to affect that union with them in which we have so long and so happily lived and which we wish so much to see again restored: that necessity must be hard indeed which
could
may force upon us this desperate measure, or induce us to avail ourselves of any aid
which
their enemies
of Great Britain
might proffer. We took
up
arms
to defend
in defense of our persons and properties under actual violation: when that violence shall be removed, when hostilities
shall cease on the ministerial the ministerial party therefore
shall cease
be suspended hostilities
on the part
ministerial
of the aggressors, hostilities
they
shall
be suspended
cease on our part also;
when
the moment they withdraw their armies we will disband ours.
next to a vigourous exertion of our own internal force, we throw ourselves for towards
we did not embody
men
a soldiery to commit aggression on them; we did not raise armies for
march to or to glory
glory or for conquest; we did not invade their island, proffering carrying death or slavery to it's inhabitants Towards the atchievement of this happy event we call for and confide on in the good offices of our fellow subjects beyond the Atlantic. Of their friendly dispositions we
confide we hope with justice reason
can not yet cease to hope and
assure them they are
aware as they must be that they have nothing more to expect from the same common enemy than the humble favour of being last devoured.
Second Draft.
A Declaration by
We
the representatives of the United colonies of America now sitting in General Congress,
to all nations send greeting of
setting forth the causes and necessity of their taking up arms:
The large strides of late taken by the
legislature of Great Britain
towards establishing over these colonies their absolute rule, and the hardiness of the present attempt to effect by force of arms what by law or right they could never effect,
render
it necessary for us also to change the ground of opposition, and to close with their last appeal from reason to arms. And as it behoves those, who
are called to this great decision
, to be assured that their cause is approved before supreme reason; so is it of great avail that it's justice be made known to the world, whose affections will ever take part with those encountering oppression. Our forefathers, inhabitants of the island of Great Britain,
having long endeavored to bear up against the evils of misrule
, left their native land to seek on these shores a residence for civil and religious freedom. At the expence of their blood,
with
to the ruin of their fortunes, with the relinquishment of everything quiet and comfortable in life, they effected settlements in the inhospitable wilds of America;
they
and there established civil societies with various forms of constitution.
But possessing all, what in inherent in all, the full and perfect powers of legislation
To continue their connection with the friends whom they had left, they arranged themselves by
charters
of compact under one the same common king, who thus completed their powers of full and perfect legislation and became the link of union between the several parts of the empire.
Some occasional assumptions of power by the parliament of Great Britain, however unacknowledged by the constitution of our governments, were finally acquiesced in thro' warmth of affection. Proceeding thus in the fullness of mutual harmony and confidence, both parts of the empire increased in population and in wealth with a rapidity unknown in the history of man. The political institutions of America, it's various soils and climates opened a certain resource to the unfortunate and to the enterprising of every country, and ensured to them the acquisition and free possession of property.
Great Britain too acquired a lustre and a weight among the powers of the earth which her internal resources could never have given her. To a communication of the wealth and the power of
the whole
every part of the empire we may surely ascribe in some measure the illustrious character she sustained through her last European war, and its successful event. At the close of that war
however having subdued all her foes
(3)
it pleased our sovereign to make a change in his counsels. The new ministry finding all the foes of Britain subdued she took up the unfortunate idea of subduing her friends also.
(4)
her parliament then for the first time
asserted a right
(5)
assumed a power of unbounded legislation over the colonies of America; and in the
space
course of ten years
during which they have proceeded to exercise this right
, have given such decisive specimen of the spirit of this new legislation, as leaves no room to doubt the consequence of acquiescence under it.
By several acts of parliament passed within that
space of
time they have
attempted to take from us
undertaken to give and grant our money without our consent: a right of which we have ever had the exclusive exercise; they have interdicted all commerce to one of our principal towns, thereby annihilating it's property in the hands of the holders; they have cut off the commercial intercourse of whole colonies with foreign countries; they have extended the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty beyond their antient limits;
thereby
they have deprived us of the inestimable
right
privilege of trial by a jury of the vicinage in cases affecting both life and property; they have declared that American Subjects charged with certain offenses shall be transported beyond sea to be tried before the very persons against whose pretended sovereignty the offense is supposed to be committed; they have attempted fundamentally to alter the form of government in one of these colonies, a form
established
secured by
charters
on the part of the crown and confirmed by acts of it's own legislature;
and further secured by
charters
on the part of the crown
; they have erected in a neighboring province, acquired by the joint arms of Great Britain and America, a tyranny dangerous to the very existence of all these colonies. But why should we enumerate their injuries in the detail? By one act they have suspended the powers of one American legislature, and by another have declared they may legislate for us themselves in all cases whatsoever. These two acts alone form a basis broad enough whereon to erect a despotism of unlimited extent. And what is to secure us against this dreaded evil ? The persons assuming these powers are not chosen by us, are not subject to our controu1 or influence, are exempted by their situation from the operation of these laws, and lighten their own burthens in proportion as they increase ours.
These temptations might put to trial the severest characters of antient virtue: with what new armour then shall a British parliament encounter the rude assault? to ward these deadly injuries from the tender plant of liberty which we have brought over, and with so much affection fostered on these our own shores, we have pursued every temperate, every respectful measure. We have supplicated our king at various times, in terms almost disgraceful to freedom; we have reasoned, we have remonstrated with parliament in the most mild and decent language; 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 on earth should supplant our attachment to liberty. And here we had well hoped was the ultimate step of the controversy. But subsequent events have shrewn how vain was even this last remain of confidence in the moderation of the British ministry.
(6)
During the course of the last year their troops in a hostile manner invested the town of Boston in the province of Massachusetts bay, and from that time have held the same beleaguered by sea and land. On the 19th day of April in the present year they made an unprovoked attack assault on the inhabitants of the said province at the town of Lexington, murdered eight of them on the spot and wounded many others. From thence they proceeded in Me all the array of war to the town of Concord, where they set upon another party of the inhabitants of the same province, killing many of them also, burning houses, and laying waste property, until repressed by
the arms of a
(7)
the people
(8)
suddenly assembled to oppose this cruel aggression. Hostilities thus commenced on the part of the ministerial army have been since by them pursued without regard to faith or to fame. The inhabitants of the town of Boston in order to procure their enlargement having entered into treaty with
a certain Thomas Gage
General Gage their Governor
principal insigator of these enormities
(9)
it was stipulated that the said inhabitants,
(10)
having first deposited their arms with their own magistrates
their arms and military stores
should have free liberty to depart from out of the said town taking with them their other
good and
effects.
Their arms
and military stores
they accordingly delivered in, and claimed the stipulated license of departing with their effects. But in open violation of plighted faith and honour, in defiance of the sacred obligations of treaty which even savage nations observe, their arms
and warlike stores
, deposited with their own magistrates to be preserved as their property, were immediately seized by a body of armed men under orders from the said
Thomas Gage
General, the greater part of the inhabitants were detained in the town, and the few permitted to depart were compelled to leave their most valuable effects behind. We leave the world to
their
it's own reflections on this atrocious perfidy. That we might no longer doubt the ultimate aim of these ministerial maneuvres
the same Thomas
General Gage, by proclamation bearing date the 12th day of June, after reciting the grossest falsehoods and calumnies against the good people of these colonies, proceeds to declare them all, either by name or description, to be rebels and traitors, to supersede
by his own authority
the exercise of the common law of the said province, and to proclaim and order instead thereof the use and exercise of the law martial. This bloody edict issued, he has proceeded to commit further ravages and murders in the same province, burning the town of Charlestown, attacking and killing great numbers of the people residing or assembled therein; and is now going on in an avowed course of murder and devastation, taking every occasion to destroy the lives and properties of the inhabitants
of the said province
To oppose his arms, we also have taken arms. We should be wanting to ourselves, we should be perfidious to posterity, we should be unworthy that free ancestry from
whom
which we derive our descent, should we submit with folded arms to military butchery and depredation to gratify the lordly ambition, or sate the avarice of a British ministry. We do then most solemnly, before god and the world declare that, regardless of every consequence, at the risk of every distress, the arms we have been compelled to assume we will
wage
use with perseverance, exerting to their utmost energies all those powers which our creator hath given us, to
guard
preserve that liberty which he committed to us in sacred deposit and to protect from every hostile hand our lives and our properties. But that this our declaration may not disquiet the minds of our
good
fellow subjects
(11)
in any
parts of the empire,
(12)
we do further assure them that we mean not in any wise to affect that union with them in which we have so long and so happily lived, and which we wish so much to see again restored That necessity must be hard indeed which may force upon us this desperate measure, or induce us to avail ourselves of any aid
which
their enemies might proffer. We did not embody a soldiery to commit aggression on them; we did not raise armies for glory or for conquest; we did not invade their island carrying death or slavery to it's inhabitants.
We took arms
in defence of our persons and properties under actual violation,
we have taken up arms
we took up arms; when that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also.
The moment they withdraw their arms we will disband ours
. For the atchievment of this happy event, we call for and confide in the good offices of our fellow subjects beyond the Atlantic. Of their friendly dispositions we do not yet cease to hope; aware, as they must be, that they have nothing more to expect from the same common enemy, than the humble favour of being last devoured. And we devoutly implore the assistance of Almighty god to conduct us happily thro' this great conflict, to dispose the minds of his majesty, his ministers, and parliament to
reasonable terms
reconciliation with us on reasonable terms, and to deliver us from the evils of a civil war.
Q. If it might not be proper to take notice of Ld. Chatham's Plan and its being rejected, mentioning his great abilities.
(13)
Q. If it might not be proper to take notice how many great Men in Parlt. and how many considerable Cities and Towns in England have acknowledg'd the Justice of our Cause.
(13)
Q. Ld. North's Proposal.
(13)
JOHN DICKINSON'S DRAFT.
A Declaration by the Representatives of the United Colonies of North America now sitting met in General Congress at Philadelphia, setting forth the Causes and Necessity of their taking up Arms.
If it was possible for
Beings who entert feel a proper Reverence for endued with Reason to believe that the Divine Author of their Existence
Men, who exercise their Reason in contemplating the works of Creation, 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, mark'd out by his infinite
Mercy
Goodness and Wisdom, as the legal Objects of a Domination never rightfully
to be
resistable, however severe and oppressive, the Inhabitants of these Colonies
would
might
with at least with propriety
at least require from the Parliament of Great Britain some Evidence, that this dreadful
Authority was vested in that Body
Authority over them has been granted to that Body. But since
Reflecti Considerations drawn a due Reverence
a Reverence for our great Creator,
Sentiments
Principles of Humanity
and the Dictates of Reason have convinced the wise and good
and the Dictates of Common Sense,
have
must convince all those who will 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,
since these generous and noble Principles have on no Part of the Earth been so well asserted vindicated and enforced as in Great Britain, the Legislature of that Kingdom hurried on by an inordinate passion for Power, of Ambition for a Power
(14)
which their own most admired Writers and their very Constitution, demonstrate to be unjust; and which they know to be inconsistent
(15)
with their own political Constitution
the Legislature of Great Britain stimulated by an inordinate Passion for a Power not only
generally pronounc'd held to be
unjust, but unjustifiable, but which they know to be peculiarly reprobated by the very Constitution of that Kingdom, and desperate of Success
in a Mode of Contest
in any Mode of Contest, where any a Regard should be had to Truth,
or Justice, or Reason, have at last appeal'd length
Law or Right, have at length attempted to effect their cruel and impolitic Purpose by Violence, and have thereby rendered it necessary for us to
change
close with their last Appeal from Reason to Arms. Yet however blinded
they
that Assembly may be by their intemperate Rage,
yet
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 G. B. left their native Land, to seek
in the distant and inhospitable Wilds of America
on these Shores, a Residence for civil and religious
Liberty
Freedom. To describe the Dangers' Difficulties and Distresses,
the Expence of Blood and Fortune, Treasure
they were obliged to encounter in executing their generous Resolutions, would require Volumes. It may suffice to observe, that, at the Expence of their Blood, to the Ruin of their Fortunes,
and every Prospect of Advantage in their native Country
without the least Charge to the Country from which they removed,
with
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
within them
, were formed under
Charters
from the Crown, and
such
an harmonious Intercourse
and Union
was established between the Colonies and the Kingdom from which they derived their Origin.
The mutual benefits of this Union that some occasional Assumptions of
The mutual Benefits of this Union became in a short Time so extraordinary as to excite the Astonishment of other Nations. Every British Writer of Eminence, who has treated of the Subject Politics for near a Century past, has uniformly asserted that the amazing Increase of the Wealth, Strength and Navigation of
that Kingdom
the Realm, arose from this Source; and the Minister who so
gloriously presided ably
wisely and successfully directed the Councils, Affairs, Measures of Great Britain during in the last War, publickly declared, that these Colonies
had enabled
enabled her to triumph over her Enemies.
At
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
slide
fall into Confusion,
that since has been continually encreasing and now has produced the most alarming Effects
and gradually declining sliding from that splendid Summit of glorious Prosperity to which they had been
carried
advanced by the Virtues and Abilities of one Man, are at Length distracted by the
present most most alarming
Convulsions, that now shake it to its
lowest
deepest Foundations. The new Ministry finding the
brave
brave Foes of Britain
subdued, took up the unfortunate Idea of defeated bravely
(16)
tho frequently defeated, yet
bravely
still contending, took up the unfortunate Ideas of granting
them
a hasty Peace
and these
to them, and then of subduing her faithful Friends.
They judged those devoted Colonies were judged to present to then
A paragraph of some nine lines incomplete and not legible is omitted. The sense and a good part of the very words seem, to have beer used in the next paragraph.
These devoted Colonies were judged to be in such a State as to present
a Prospect
Victories without Bloodshed, and all the easy Emoluments of statutable Plunder. The uninterrupted Tenor of their peaceable and respectful Behaviour from the Beginning of Colonization, their dutiful, zealous and useful services during the War, that has been mentioned, tho so recently and amply acknowledged in the most honorable Manner by his Majesty, by the late King, and by Parliament. could not
avail to
save them from the meditated Innovations. Parliament influenced to adopt the pernicious Project, and
to facilitate its execution by
assuming a new Power over them, have 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. Statutes have been passed for taking our Money from us without our
own
Consent, tho
every Colony on this Continent has from its Beginning always
we have ever exercised an exclusive Right to dispose of our own Property; for extending the Jurisdiction of Courts of Admiralty and Vice admiralty beyond their antient Limits; for depriving us of the accustomed and inestimable Privilege of Trial by Jury in Cases affecting both Life and Property;
for interdicting all Commerce to one
(17)
of our principle Towns; for exempting the Murderers of Colonists from legal Punishment
for suspending the Powers of Legislature of one of the Colonies; for interdicting all Commerce
(18)
of another; and for altering fundamentally the Form of Government
in one of the Colonies, a Form secured
established by Charter and
confirmed
secured by Acts of its own Legislature solemnly
and assented to
confirmed by the Crown; her erecting in neighbouring for exempting the "Murderers" of colonists from legal Punishment; for erecting in a neighbouring Province,
conquered
acquired by the joint Arms of Great Britain and America, a
Tyranny
Despotism dangerous to the our very existence
of the Colonies
and for quartering Officers and Soldiers upon the Colonists in time of profound Peace. It has also been declared resolved in Parliament that Colonists charged with committing certain Offenses, shall
by Virtue of a Statute made before any of
be transported to England to be tried.
But why should we enumerate our Injuries in Detail? By one
Act of Parl
Statute it is declared, that Parliament can "of right make Laws to bind us IN ALL CASES WHATSOEVER." What is to defend us against
such so enormous a Power
so enormous, so unlimited a Power?
The persons assuming them
Not
one of
a single Man of those who assume it, is chosen by us; or is subject to our Controul or Influence; but on the contrary is they are all of them exempt from the Operations of such Laws, and actually lighten their own Burdens, in exact proportion to
those
the Burdens they impose on us.
These Temptations might put scarce are too great to be offered To Characters of the severest
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
colonies was rous'd by their Virtue
Americans was rous'd, it is true: but it was the Indignation of a virtuous,
peaceable
, loyal,
subjects
and affectionate People. A Congress of Delegates from the United Colonies was assembled at Philadelphia on the fifth Day of last September. We
felt
saw the Weapons levell'd at our
Brea
Bosoms, but we perceiv'd them at the same Time
held in
grasp'd by a Parent's Hands. We cast ourselves upon our Knees prostrate at the Foot of
the Throne
our Sovereign. Tho for ten years we had
fatigued the besieged the Throne Ears of Authority with Petitions, Supplications
(19)
, yet the ineffectually besieged the Throne as Supplicants, yet we resolved again to over an humble and dutiful Petition to the King, and
agreed
also to send an Address to our Fellow Subjects in Great Britain, informing them of our agreement at
certain Days to break off all our Commercial Intercourse with
our Fellow Subjects in Great Britain as the last peaceable
them as a peaceable Admonition, that our Attachment to no Nation upon
the
Earth shoud supplant our Attachment to Liberty. This, we flattered ourselves, was the ultimate Step of the Controversy: But subsequent Events have shewn, how vain was this
last
Hope of Moderation in
the Ministry
our Enemies.
Our Petition was treated with Contempt. Without the least Mention of its our Application several threatening Expressions against the Colonies were inserted in his Majesty's Speech to
both
the two Houses of Parliament; and afterwards the Petition was huddled into the House of Commons the last amongst a neglected Bundle of American Papers. The Lords and Commons in their Address
to his Majesty
, 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 countenanc'd 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 was cutt oh by an Act of Parliament; and by another, several of them were entirely prohibited from the Fisheries in the
neighbouring
Seas near their coasts, on which they always depended for their Sustenance; and large Reinforcements of Ships and Troops were immediately sent over to General Gage.
With such a headlong heedless Rage fury were these outrageous Proceedings huried on
(20)
that all the Prayers
Fruitless were all the Entreaties, Arguments and Eloquence of
the a very considerable
an illustrious Band of the most distinguished Peers and Commoners, who nobly confess and strenuously asserted the Justice of our Cause, to stay or even to mitigate the heedless Fury
of
with which these accumulated and unexampled Outrages were
rapidly
hurried on. Equally fruitless was the interference of that the august City of London,
supplicating
of Bristol, and many other respectable Towns in our Favor. A Plan of Reconciliation digested by the patriotic Cares of that great and good man beforementioned, and which might easily have been improved to produce every Effect his generous Heart desired, was contemptuously rejected, to give way to an insidious
Ministerial
Maneuvre, calculated to divide us, to establish a perpetual Auction of Taxation, where Colony should bid against Colony, all of them uninform'd what Ransom would redeem their Lives, and thus to extort from us at the Point of the Bayonet
Sums
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 Modes the prescribed Tribute.
When the Intelligence of these Procecdings arrived on this Continent, we perceived it appeared evident, that our Destruction was determined upon, and that we had no Alternative or choice to make but of. Our choice must be either an "unconditional Submission," as one of the Ministry express'd himself, or of Resistance.
Soon after the Intelligence of these Proceedings arrived on this Continent,
where
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,
Plans
, on the 19th Day of
last
April
last
, sent out
of
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, 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
others
more, until compell'd to retreat by the People suddenly assembled to repell this cruel Aggression. Hostilities thus commenc'd 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
between the
that the said Inhabitants having deposited their arms with their own Magistrates, should have free Liberty to depart,
out of the said Town
, taking with them their other Effects. They accordingly delivered up their Arms, but in open violation of Honor, in Defiance of the Obligations of
Treaties, which even savage Nations esteem sacred,
General Gage
the Governor ordered the Arms deposited as aforesaid that they might be preserved for their Owners, to be seized by a Body of
armed men
, soldiers, detained the greater 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 sick from their Relatives and Friends who wish to attend and
relieve
take care of them; and those who have been used to live
with Elegance
in Plenty and even Elegance, are reduced to deplorable Distress.
The General further emulating
the
his ministerial Masters, by a Proclamation bearing Date on the 12th Day of June, after venting the grossest Falsehoods and Calumnies against the good People of these Colonies, proceeds to "declare them all either by Name or Description to be Rebels and Traitors, to supersede the Course of the Common Law, and instead thereof to publish and order the Use and Exercise of the Law Martial." His Troops have butchered our Countrymen; have burnt Charlestown, besides a considerable Number of Houses in other Places; our Ships and Vessels are seized; and the necessary supplies of Provisions are
stopp'd
intercepted;
and he is now Destruction and Devastation around him as far as he can, all the complicated Cal
and he is exerting the utmost Power to spread Destruction and Devastation around him. We have received certain Intelligence that
Governor
General Carleton, the Governor of Canada, by Orders from the Ministry is instigating the People of that Province and the Indians to fall upon us; and that Schemes have been form'd to excite domestic Enemies against us. In brief, a Part of the Colonies now feels, and all of them are sure of feeling, as far as the Vengeance of Administration can inflict them,
all
the complicated Calamities of Fire, Sword and Famine.
By our The Suggestions of Duty and affection can no longer lull us into a lethargic Notion, too lately relinquished, that Armies and fleets are only designed to intimidate us
. We are reduced to the Alternative of abusing an unconditional Submission to the
Tyrannic Vengeance of irritated who know we despise them and that they deserve to be thus despised are therefore implacable
Tyranny of irritated ministers, or Resistance by Force. The latter is our Choice.
We know, that by an infamous Surrender of the Freedom and Happinness of ourseves and our Posterity, we might obtain that wretched Honor, Justly Humanity forbid us basely to surrender that Freedom Liberty and Happiness which we received from our gallant Ancestors, and which it is our duty to transmit undiminished to our Posterity. Called upon by the law of self-preservation implanted in our nature by our allwise Creator, with prepared Hands
We have counted the Cost of this Contest, and
being perfectly convinced, it is infinitely
find nothing so dreadful
and resolved Hearts we will
in our Computation, as
Infamy and
voluntary Slavery
united
, Honor, Justice and Humanity forbid us tamely to surrender that Freedom which we receiv'd 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 hearts are resolved. Our Hands are prepared
. Our preparations are nearly completed. Our internal Resources
within our own Country
are
many
great; and our Assurance of foreign Assistance is certain. We gratefully acknowledge as a singular instance of the Divine
Goodness
Favor and
consider it as a singular mark of his Favor
towards us,
in not permitting us to be
that his Providence would not permit us to be called into the severe Controversy, untill
our
we were grown up to our present Strength,
was
had been previously exercised in warlike Operations,
to which some Years ago we were almost entire Strangers
, and
that we
were possest of the Means for defending ourselves,
of which till lately we were in Want
. With Hearts fortified by these animating Reflections, We do most solemnly before God and the World declare, that, exerting the utmost Energies of those Powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been thus compell'd by our Enemies to assume
for our just Defence
, we will in Defiance of every Hazard with unabating Firmness and perseverance,
in Defiance of every Hazard, now we will
employ for the preservation of our Liberties,
deeming it infinitely preferable
being with one Mind resolved to dye free men rather than to live Slaves.
Least this Declaration should disquiet the Minds of our Friends and fellow subjects in any part of the
World
Empire, we assure them, that we mean not
in any Manner
to dissolve that Union with them in which
we have
has so long and so happily
lived
subsisted between us, and which we
so ardently much
sincerely wish to see restored.
The
Necessity
must be hard indeed
has not yet driven us into that desperate Measure, or to excite
their
other Nations to war against them. We have not rais'd armies
from
with ambitious Designs of separating from Great Britain and establishing independent States. We
have
fight not
invaded that Island proffering to its Inhabitants Death or Slavery
for Glory or for Conquest. We exhibit to Mankind the remarkable Spectacle of a People
charged till
attack'd without any Imputation or even Suspicion of Offence by unprovoked Enemies, who
proffer to them the not milder Forms Conditions than Death or Slavery
boast of their
Freedom
Priviledges and Civilization, and yet proffer no milder Conditions than
Death or Slav
Servitude or Death.
In our Native Land, in Defence of
Liberties
the
Liberty
Freedom that is our Birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late Violations of it,-for the Protection of our Property acquired, solely by the honest Industry of our Forefathers and ourselves, against
we have taken up arms, solely to oppose and repell the violence actually offered to us
Violence actually offered, we have taken up Arms.
We shall
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
divine
Mercies of the supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe, we most devoutly implore
Almighty God
his divine Goodness to conduct us happily thro' this great Conflict, to dispose our Adversaries to Reconciliation on Reasonable Terns, and thereby to relieve the Empire from the
Evils
Calamities of Civil War.
FINAL FORM.
A declaration by the Representatives of the United Colonies of North America, now met in General Congress at Philadelphia, setting forth the causes and necessity of their taking up arms.
If it was 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 over them, 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 expence 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 an 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 it to 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 statuteable plunder.-The uninterrupted tenor of their peaceable and respectful behaviour 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, have, 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 offences, 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 controul 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. But 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; hut 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 strewn, 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 amongst 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 sustenance; and large re-inforcements 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 favour. 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 19th 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, 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 ejects. They accordingly delivered up their arms, but in open violation of honor, in defiance of the obligation of treaties, which even savage nations esteemed 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 12th day of June, after venting the grossest falsehoods and calumnies against the good people of these colonies, proceeds to "declare them all, either by name or description, to be rebels and traitors, to supersede the course of the 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 burns Charles-town, 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 feels, and all of them are sure of feeling, as far as the vengance of administration can inflict them, the complicated calamities of fire, sword, and famine.- We are reduced to the alternative of chusing 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 the Divine favour 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 operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves.- With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath 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 presevation of our liberties; being with our [one] mind resolved to dye Free-men rather than 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 offence. They boast of their privileges and civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death.
In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birth-right, 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 fore-fathers 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.
By order of Congress,
JOHN HANCOCK,
President.
Attested,
CHARLES THOMSON,
Secretary. I
Philadelphia, July 6th, 1775.
On motion, Resolved, That a letter be prepared to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Livery of the city of London, expressing the thanks of this Congress, for their virtuous and spirited opposition to the oppressive and ruinous system of colony administration adopted by the British ministry.
The committee appointed to drat a Letter to the people of G-B, to prepare this.
The order of the day was postponed, and the Congress adjourned till to Morrow at 9 o'clock.
Notes:
(1)
The Committee appointed to draw up a Declaration to be published by General Washington, upon his arrival at the Camp before Boston, reported a draft on June 24th, which occasioned long and warm debate, and wee finally re-committed. No copy of this first draft said, by Jefferson, to have been drawn by John Rutledge, is known to exist. Dickinson had taken a distinguished part in this debate, and with Jefferson was added to the Committee. Jefferson was desired to prepare a draft, but the result was not satisfactory either to Dickinson or to William Livingston. The former criticized it for its harshness, and the latter for its "much fault-finding and declamation, with little sense or dignity. They seem to think a reiteration of tyranny, despotism, bloody, &c. all that is needed to unite us at home and convince the bribed voters of North of the justice of our cause." (Letter to Lord Stirling, July 4, 1775. ) Jefferson's own account was: " It was too strong for Mr. Dickinson. He still retained the hope of reconciliation with the mother country, and was unwilling it should be lessened by offensive statements. He was so honest a man, and so able a one, that he was greatly indulged even by those who could not feel his scruples. We therefore requested him to take the paper, and put it into a form he could approve. He did so, preparing an entire new statement, and preserving of the former only the last four paragraphs and the half of the preceding one. We approved and reported it to Congress." Autobiography, in Writings (Ford) I, 16.
Back
(2)
These two papers are found in the Jefferson Manuscripts in the Library of Congress. The second, or later, draft contains some suggested changes in the writing of John Dickinson, and bears on the last page the following memorandum by Jefferson:
"1775. June 23. Congress appointed a commee to prepare a Declaration to be published by Genl Washington on his arrival at the camp before Boston, to wit, J. Rutledge, W. Livingston, Dr. Franklin, Mr Jay, and Mr Johnson.
" June 24, a draught was reported.
"June 26. being disliked, it was recommitted and Mr Dickinson and T. Jefferson added to the committee. the latter being desired by the commee to draw up a new one, he prepared this paper. on a meeting of the commee J. Dickinson objected that it was too harsh, wanted softening, &e., whereupon the commee desired him to retouch it, which he did in the form which they reported July 6, which was adopted by Congress."
Although the Jefferson drafts were never actually laid before Congress they are essential to a proper understanding of the Declaration as finally accepted.
Back
(3)
John Dickinson has here interlined "her successful and glorious minister was."
Back
(4)
Dickinson has inserted " by their influence."
Back
(5)
Dickinson changes it to read " were persuaded to assume and assert."
Back
(6)
Dickinson wrote on margin: " Here insert substance of the Address declaring a Rebellion to exist in Massachusetts Bay."
Back
(7)
Dickinson wrote in the word " country."
Back
(8)
"Only" inserted by Dickinson.
Back
(9)
Dickinson interlined "to procure their enlargement."
Back
(10)
Dickinson inserted "after."
Back
(11)
"Friends and " was suggested by Dickinson.
Back
(12)
"In Britain or other," inserted by Dickinson.
Back
(13)
This paragraph is in the writing of Dickinson.
Back
(14)
An alternative phrase, also rejected, was here interlined: "Passion for a Power manifestly unjust and which"
Back
(15)
"be reprobated by the very," was here inserted, but struck out.
Back
(16)
Another line, illegible, is here inserted but was stricken out. The words "struggle," "contending" and "defeated" may be deciphered.
Back
(17)
Some words that are illegible were interlined at this point.
Back
(18)
Although the manuscript shows no omission here, the words "to the capital" were printed.
Back
(19)
The words "ineffectual and despis'd" are here interlined.
Back
(20)
Some illegible words here interlined.
Back
Source:
Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1779
Edited from the original records in the Library of Congress
by Worthington Chauncey Ford; Chief, Division of Manuscripts.
Washington, DC : Government Printing Office, 1905.
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