such engines, and upon such principles of unnatural destruction! -a government that, upon the 21st day of December last, made a law, ex post facto, to justify what had been done, not only without law, but in its nature unjust!-a law to make prize of all vessels trading in, to, or from the united colonies-a law to make slaves of the crews of such vessels, and to compel them to bear arms against their conscience, their fathers, their bleeding country! The world, so old as it is, heretofore had never heard of so atrocious a procedure: it has no parallel in the registers of tyranny.

For this only end the house of Brunswick was called to rule over us. Oh! agonizing reflection! that house ruled us with swords, fire, and bayonets! The British government operated only to our destruction. Nature cried aloud, self-preservation is the great law-we have but obeyed.

You have now a form of government in every respect preferable to the mode under the British authority: and this will most clearly appear by contrasting the two forms of government.

Under the British authority governors were sent over to us who were utterly unacquainted with our local interests, the genius of the people, and our laws; generally, they were but too much disposed to obey the mandates of an arbitrary ministry; and, if the governor behaved ill, we could not by any peaceable means procure redress. But, under our present happy constitution, our executive magistrate arises according to the spirit and letter of holy writ-"their governors shall proceed from the midst of them." Thus the people have an opportunity of choosing a man intimately acquainted with their true interests, their genius, and their laws; a man perfectly disposed to defend them against arbitrary ministers, and to promote the happiness of that people from among whom he was elevated, and by whom, without the least difficulty, he may be removed and blended in the common mass.

Again, under the British authority it was in effect declared, that we had no property; nay, that we could not possess any; and that we had not any of the rights of humanity. For men who knew us not, men who gained in proportion as we lost, arrogated to themselves a right to BIND US IN ALL CASES WHATSOEVER! But our constitution is calculated to FREE us from foreign bondage; to secure to us our property; to maintain to us the rights of humanity; and to defend us and our posterity against British authority aiming to reduce us to the most abject slavery!

Again, the British authority declared that we should not erect slitting mills; and to this unjust law we implicitly and respectfully submitted, so long as, with safety to our lives, we could yield obedience to such authority; but a resolution of congress now grants a premium to encourage the construction of such mills. The British authority discouraged our attempting to manufacture for our own consumption; but the new constitution, by authorizing the disbursement of large sums of money by way of loan or premium, encourages the making of iron, bar-steel, nail-rods, gun-locks, gun-barrels, sulphur, niter, gunpowder, lead, woolens, cottons, linens, paper, and salt.

Upon the whole, it has been the policy of the British authority to oblige us to supply our wants at their market, which is the dearest in the known world, and to cramp and confine our trade so as to be subservient to their commerce, our real interest being ever out of the question. On the other hand, the new constitution is wisely adapted to enable us to trade with foreign nations, and thereby to supply our wants at the cheapest markets in the universe; to extend our trade infinitely beyond what it has ever been known; to encourage manufactures among us; and it is peculiarly formed to promote the happiness of the people, from among whom, by virtue and merit, THE POOREST MAN may arrive at THE HIGHEST DIGNITY. Oh, Carolinians! happy would you be under this new constitution, if you knew your happy state.

Possessed of a constitution of government founded upon so generous, equal, and natural a principle-a government expressly calculated to make the people rich, powerful, virtuous and happy, who can wish to change it, to return under a royal government, the vital principles of which are the reverse in every particular! It was my duty to lay this happy constitution before you in its genuine light: it is your duty to understand, to instruct others, and to defend it.

I might here with propriety quit this truly important subject, but my anxiety for the public weal compels me yet to detain your attention, while I make an observation or two upon one particular part of the constitution.

When all the various attempts to enslave America by fraud, under guise of law; by military threats; by famine, massacre, breach of public faith, and open war are considered on the one hand, and, on the other, the constitution, expressing that some mode of government should be established "until an accommodation of the unhappy differences between Great Britain and America can be obtained; an event which, though traduced and

treated as rebels, we still ardently desire," I say, when these two points are contrasted, can we avoid revering the magnanimity of that great council of the state, who, after such injuries, could entertain such a principle! But the virtuous are ever generous. We do not wish revenge: we earnestly wish an accommodation of our unhappy disputes with Great Britain; for we prefer peace to war. Nay, there may be even such an accommodation as, excluding every idea of revenue by taxation or duty, or of legislation by act of Parliaments, may vest the king of Great Britain with such a limited dominion over us as may tend, bona fide, to promote our true commercial interests, and to secure our freedom and safety-the only just ends of any dominion. But, while I declare thus much on the one side, on the other it is my duty also to declare that, in my opinion, our true commercial interests cannot be provided for but by such a material alteration of the British acts of navigation as, according to the resolve of the honorable the Continental Congress, will "secure the commercial advantages of the whole empire to the mother country, and the commercial benefits of its respective members." And that our liberties and safety cannot be depended upon, if the king of Great Britain should be allowed to hold our forts and cannon, or to have authority over a single regiment in America, or a single ship of war in our ports. For, if he holds our forts, he may turn them against us, as he did Boston against her proprietors; if he acquires our cannon he will effectually disarm the colony; if he has a command of troops among us, even if we raise and pay them, shackles are fixed upon us-witness Ireland and her national army. The most express act of Parliament cannot give us security, for acts of Parliament are as easily repealed as made. Royal proclamations are not to be depended upon, witness the disappointments of the inhabitants of Quebec and St. Augustine. Even a change of ministry will not avail us, because, notwithstanding the rapid succession of ministers for which the British court has been famous during the present reign, yet the same ruinous policy ever continued to prevail against America. In short, I think it my duty to declare, in the awful seat of justice and before Almighty God, that, in my opinion, the Americans can have no safety but by the Divine favor, their own virtue, and their being so prudent as NOT TO LEAVE IT IN THE POWER OF THE BRITISHI RULERS TO INJURE THEM. Indeed, the ruinous and deadly injuries received on our side, and the jealousies entertained, and which, in the nature of things, must daily increase against us, on the other, demonstrate to a mind in the least given to reflection upon the rise and fall of empires, that true recon

cilement never can exist between Great Britain and America, the latter being in subjection to the former. The Almighty created America to be independent of Britain. Let us beware of the impiety of being backward to act as instruments in the almighty hand, now extended to accomplish His purpose, and by the completion of which alone America, in the nature of human affairs, can be secure against the craft and insidious designs of HER ENEMIES, WHO THINK HER PROSPERITY AND POWER ALREADY BY FAR TOO GREAT. In a word, our piety and political safety are so blended that, to refuse our labors in this Divine work, is to refuse to be a great, a free, a pious, and a happy people!

And now, having left the important alternative, political happiness or wretchedness, under God, in a great degree in your own hands, I pray the Supreme Arbiter of the affairs of men so to direct your judgment, as that you may act agreeable to what seems to be His will revealed in His miraculous works in behalf of America, bleeding at the altar of liberty!

COLONIAL DECLARATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE

When the prohibitory act of Parliament reached America, Congress, viewing it as a declaration of war, directed that reprisals be made, both by public and private armed vessels against the ships and goods of the inhabitants of Great Britain found on the high seas, and that American ports be opened to all the world except the dominions of Great Britain. On May 10 Congress recommended to the assemblies, and where no sufficient government had been established to the conventions of the colonies, "to adopt such government as should, in the opinion of the representatives of the people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents in particular and America in general."

This was a preliminary step to a general declaration of independence.

Some of the colonial assemblies had already expressed their opinions on this question; the convention of North Carolina having empowered their delegates in Congress "to concur with those in the other colonies in declaring independency." This was the first direct public act of any colonial assembly or convention in