He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers, to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states: For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world: For imposing taxes on us without our consent: For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury: For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbouring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies: For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments: For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transport ing large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connexions and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion between them and the state of Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour. John Hancock, President, from Massachusetts. NEW HAMPSHIRE. Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton. MASSACHUSETTS. Robert Treat Paine, RHODE ISLAND. DELAWARE. PENNSYLVANIA. James Wilson, George Ross. MARYLAND. Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton. George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, NEW YORK. William Floyd, NEW JERSEY. Richard Stockton, Abraham Clark. NORTH CAROLINA. George Taylor, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn. GEORGIA. Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton. SOUTH CAROLINA. Edward Rutledge, Thomas Lynch, Jr., The joy of the people on receiving this declaration exceeded all bounds. In Philadelphia, the artillery was fired, bonfires were kindled, and all kinds of public rejoicings took place. In New York, the statue of George III. was taken down, and after dragging it through the streets, the sons of liberty decided that the lead of which it was composed should be converted into musket-balls. In Boston, the garrison was drawn up in order of battle in King street, (which from that time took the name of State street,) and thirteen salutes were fired by thirteen detachments, into which the troops were divided; the bells were rung; the ensigns of royalty-lions, sceptres, and crowns— were torn to pieces and committed to the flames. In Virginia, it was decreed by the convention that the king's name should be suppressed in all the public prayers; and it was ordained that the seal of the commonwealth of Virginia should represent Virtue as the tutelary genius of the province, robed in the drapery of an Amazon; resting one hand upon her lance, and holding with the other a sword; trampling upon tyranny, under the figure of a prostrate man; having near him a crown fallen from his head, and bearing in one hand a broken chain, and in the other a scourge. At foot was charactered the word Virginia; and round the effigy of Virtue was inscribed, Sic semper tyrannis. The reverse represented a group of figures; in the middle stood Liberty with her wand and cap; on one side was Ceres, with the horn of plenty in the right hand, and a sheaf of wheat in the left; upon the other appeared Eternity, with the globe and the phoenix. At foot were found these words-Deus nobis hæc otia fecit. There was now no longer any difference of opinion as to the character of the opposition to the British government. The people could now meet on one common ground. The spirit of freedom had at first flowed gently as rivulets; but, gradually gaining strength from various sources, they swelled into impetuous rivers, which now overwhelmed every thing that the British could employ to arrest them. CHAPTER VIII. Howe returns to New York-Lands on Staten Island-Preparations of Washington-Howe's Proclamations-Congress publishes Howe's Commission-Howe writes to Washington-His spirited Reply-Howe's Letter to Dr. FranklinBritish land on Long Island-Battle of Long Island-Retreat to New YorkWashington proposes the formation of a regular Army-Howe again attempts to treat with the Republicans-Americans abandon New York-Enemy land on New York Island-Great Fire at New York-Washington retreats to HarlemKing's Bridge-White Plains-North Castle-Reduction of Fort WashingtonRetreat from Fort Lee-Washington retreats through New Jersey-Crosses the Delaware-Cruel Treatment of American Prisoners. "Now, from the grey mist of the ocean, the white sailed ships of the enemy appear. High is the grove of their masts, as they nod, by turns, on the rolling wave." "Eternal spirit of the chainless mind! Brightest in dungeons, Liberty, thou art, To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom, BEFORE We proceed, it may be proper to remind the reader that the unsuccessful attempt of the enemy to take Charleston was a part of that grand and favourite campaign of the British ministers to crush the colonists at one fell swoop, of which we spoke in a cursory manner in the last chapter. We shall now attempt to describe another part of the same plan. The army of General Howe, having now sufficiently recovered from "the stings and arrows of outrageous fortune," which they had suffered at Boston, departed from Halifax on the 11th of June, and proceeded to Sandy Hook, to await |