"In this I took the ground that, from the beginning, I had thought the only one orthodox or tenable, which was, that the relation between Great Britain and these Colonies, was exactly the same, as that of England and Scotland, after the accession of James and until the union; and the same as her present relations with Hanover, having the same executive chief, but no other necessary political connection; and that our emigration from England to this country, gave her no more rights over us, than the emigrations of the Danes and Saxons gave to the present authorities of the mother country, over England. In this doctrine, however, I had never been able to get any one to agree with me but Mr. Wythe. He concurred in it from the first dawn of the questionWhat was the political relation between us and England? Our other patriots, Randolph, the Lees, Nicholas, Pendleton, stopped at the half-way house of John Dickinson, who admitted that England had a right to regulate our commerce, and to lay duties on it for the purposes of regulation, but not of raising revenue. But for this ground there was no foundation in compact, in any acknowledged principles of colonization, nor in reason-expatriation being a natural right, and acted on as such, by all nations, in all ages.'

Again, in a letter to John Saunderson, in 1820, containing some notices and recollections for the biography of George Wythe, he says:

"On the first dawn of the Revolution, instead of higgling on half-way principles, as others did, who feared to follow their reason, he [Wythe] took his stand on the solid ground, that the only link of political union between us and Great Britain, was the identity of our executive; that that nation, and its Parliament, had no more authority over us, than we had over them; and that we were coordinate nations with Great Britain and Hanover."

This point is further illustrated in the Bill of Attainder, before mentioned as having been commenced in the British Parliament.. After reciting a list of proscriptions, among which were Hancock and the Adamses, as notorious leaders of the opposition in Massachusetts, Patrick Henry, as the same in Virginia,. Peyton Randolph, as President of the General Congress in Philadelphia, the Bill adds, ' and Thomas Jefferson, as author of a proposition to the Convention of Virginia, for an address to the King, in which was maintained, that there was in right, no link of union between England and the Colonies, but that of the same King; and that neither the Parliament, nor any other functionary of that government, had any more right to exercise authority over the Colonies, than over the Electorate of Hanover; yet expressing, in conclusion,,

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visionary pretensions. And it is thought that no circumstance has occurred to distinguish, materially, the British from the Saxon emigration. America was conquered, and her settlements made and firmly established, at the expense of individuals, and not of the British public. Their own blood was spilt in acquiring lands for their settlement, their own fortunes expended in making that settlement effectual. For themselves they fought, for themselves they conquered, and for themselves alone they have right to hold. No shilling was ever issued from the public treasures of His Majesty, or his ancestors, for their assistance, till of very late times, after the Colonies had become established on a firm and permanent footing. That then, indeed, having become valuable to Great Britain for her commercial purposes, his Parliament was pleased to lend them assistance, against an enemy who would fain have drawn to herself the benefits of their commerce, to the great aggrandizement of herself, and danger of Great Britain. Such assistance, and in such circumstances, they had often before given to Portugal and other allied States, with whom they carry on a commercial intercourse. Yet these States never supposed, that by calling in her aid, they thereby submitted themselves to her sovereignty. Had such terms been proposed, they would have rejected them with disdain, and trusted for better to the moderation of their enemies, or to a vigorous exertion of their own force. We do not, however, mean to underrate those aids, which, to us, were doubtless valuable, on whatever principles granted: but we would show that they cannot give a title to that authority which the British Parliament would arrogate over us; and that they may amply be repaid, by our giving to the inhabitants of Great Britain such exclusive privileges in trade as may be advantageous to them, and, at the same time, not too restrictive to ourselves. That settlement having been thus effected in the wilds of America, the emigrants thought proper to adopt that system of laws, under which they had hitherto lived in the mother country, and to continue their union with her, by submitting themselves to the same common sovereign, who was thereby made the central link, connecting the several parts of the empire thus newly multiplied.

"But that not long were they permitted, however far they thought themselves removed from the hand of oppression, to hold undisturbed, the rights thus acquired at the hazard of their lives and loss of their fortunes. A family of Princes was then on the British throne, whose treasonable crimes against their people brought on them, afterwards, the exertion of those sacred and sovereign rights of punishment, reserved in the hands of the people for cases of extreme necessity, and judged by the constitution unsafe to be delegated to any other judicature. While every day brought forth some new and unjustifiable exertion of power over their subjects on that side the water; it was not to be expected that those here, much

less able at that time to oppose the designs of despotism, should be exempted from injury. Accordingly, this country, which had been acquired by the lives, the labors, and fortunes of individual adventurers, was by these Princes, at several times, parted out and distributed among the favorites and followers of their fortunes; and, by an assumed right of the crown alone, were erected into distinct and independent governments; a measure, which, it is believed, His Majesty's prudence and understanding would prevent him from imitating at this day; as no exercise of such power, of dividing and dismembering a country, has ever occurred in his Majesty's realm of England, though now of very ancient standing; nor could it be justified or acquiesced under there, or in any other part of His Majesty's empire.

"That the exercise of a free trade with all parts of the world, possessed by the American colonists, as of natural right, and which no law of their own had taken away or abridged, was next the ob ject of unjust encroachment. Some of the Colonies having thought proper to continue the administration of their government in the name and under the authority of His Majesty, King Charles the First, whom, notwithstanding his late deposition by the Commonwealth of England, they continued in the sovereignty of their State, the Parliament, for the Commonwealth, took the same in high offence and assumed upon themselves the power of prohibiting their trade with all other parts of the world, except, the island of Great Britain. This arbitrary act, however, they soon recalled, and by solemn treaty entered into on the 12th day of March, 1651, between the said Commonwealth by their Commissioners, and the Colony of Virginia by their House of Burgesses, it was expressly stipulated by the eighth article of the said treaty, that they should have free trade as the people of England do enjoy to all places and with all nations, according to the laws of that Commonwealth.' But that, upon the restoration of His Majesty, King Charles the Second, their rights of free commerce fell once more a victim to arbitrary power and by several acts of his reign, as well as of some of his successors, the trade of the Colonies was laid under such restrictions, as show what hopes they might form from the justice of a British Parliament, were its uncontrolled power admitover these States.* History has informed us, that bodies of men, as well as individuals, are susceptible of the spirit of tyranny. A view of these acts of Parliament for regulation, as it has been affectedly called, of the American trade, if all other evidences were removed out of the case, would undeniably, evince the truth of this observation. Besides the duties they impose on our articles of export and import, they prohibit our going to any markets northward

12. C. 2. c. 18. 15. C. 2. c. 11. 25. C. 2. c. 7. 7. 8. W. M. c. 22. 11, W. 34. Anne, 6. C. 2. c. 13.

of Cape Finisterra, in the kingdom of Spain, for the sale of commodities which Great Britain will not take from us, and for the purchase of others, with which she cannot supply us; and that, for no other than the arbitrary purpose of purchasing for themselves, by a sacrifice of our rights and interests, certain privileges in their commerce with an allied State, who, in confidence, that their exclusive trade with America will be continued, while the principles and power of the British Parliament be the same, have indulged themselves in every exorbitance which their avarice could dictate, or our necessities extort; have raised their commodities called for in America, to the double and treble of what they were sold for, before such exclusive privileges were given them, and of what better commodities of the same kind would cost us elsewhere; and, at the same time, give us much less for what we carry thither, than might be had at more convenient ports. That these acts prohibit us from carrying, in quest of other purchasers, the surplus of our tobaccos, remaining after the consumption of Great Britain is supplied so that we must leave them with the British merchant, for whatever he will please to allow us, to be by him reshipped to foreign markets, where he will reap the benefits of making sale of them for full value. That, to heighten still the idea of Parliamentary justice, and to show with what moderation they are like to exercise power, where themselves are to feel no part of its weight, we take leave to mention to His Majesty certain other acts of the British Parliament, by which they would prohibit us from manufacturing, for our own use, the articles we raise on our own lands, with our own labor. By an act passed in the fifth year of the reign of his late Majesty, King George the Second, an American subject is forbidden to make a hat for himself, of the fur which he has taken, perhaps on his own soil; an instance of despotism, to which no parallel can be produced in the most arbitrary ages of British history. By one other act, passed in the twenty-third year of the same reign, the iron which we make, we are forbidden to manufacture; and, heavy as that article is, and necessary in every branch of husbandry, besides commission and insurance, we are to pay freight for it to Great Britain, and freight for it back again, for the purpose of supporting, not men, but machines in the island of Great Britain. In the same spirit of equal and impartial legislation, is to be viewed the act of Parliament, passed in the fifth year of the same reign, by which American lands are made subject to the demands of British creditors, while their own lands were still continued unanswerable for their debts; from which, one of these conclusions must necessarily follow, either that justice is not the same thing in America as in Britain, or else that the British Parliament pay less regard to it here than there. But, that we do not point out to His Majesty the injustice of these acts, with intent to rest on that principle the cause of their nullity; but

to show that experience confirms the propriety of those political principles, which exempt us from the jurisdiction of the British Parliament. The true ground on which we declare these acts void, is, that the British Parliament has no right to exercise authority over us.

"That these exercises of usurped power have not been confined to instances alone, in which themselves were interested: but they have also intermeddled with the regulation of the internal affairs of the Colonies. The act of the 9th of Anne, for establishing a post-office in America, seems to have had little connection with British convenience, except that of accommodating His Majesty's ministers and favorites with the sale of a lucrative and easy office. "That thus we have hastened through the reigns which preceded His Majesty's, during which the violations of our rights were less alarming, because repeated at more distant intervals, than that rapid and bold succession of injuries, which is likely to distinguish the present from all other periods of American story. Scarcely have our minds been able to emerge from the astonishment, into which one stroke of Parliamentary thunder has involved us, before another more heavy and more alarming is fallen on us. Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematical plan of reducing us to slavery.

"That the act passed in the fourth year of His Majesty's reign, entitled an act Act for granting certain duties.]

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"One other act passed in the fifth year of his reign, entitled 'an act [Stamp Act.]

"One other act passed in the sixth year of his reign, entitled 'an act [Act declaring the right of Parliament over the Colonies.] "And one other act passed in the seventh year of his reign, entitled an act [Act for granting duties on paper, tea, &c.]

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"Form that connected chain of parliamentary usurpations, which has already been the subject of frequent applications to His Majesty, and the Houses of the Lords and Commons of Great Britain; and no answers having yet been condescended to any of these, we shall not trouble His Majesty with a repetition of the matters they contained.

"But that one other act passed in the same seventh year of his reign, having been a peculiar attempt, must ever require peculiar mention. It is entitled an act [Act suspending Legislature of New York.]

"One free and independent Legislature hereby takes upon itself to suspend the powers of another, free and independent, as itself. Thus exhibiting a phenomenon unknown in nature, the creator and creature of its own power. Not only the principles of com