of grievances, and for this purpose only, was open resistance undertaken by the colonies. In the minds of the more thoughtful men, however, the battle of Lexington rendered. reconciliation and harmony impossible. This opinion was gradually accepted by the colonists, and when the time for separation came, their minds were prepared for the change. The wisdom of Congress was manifested by the manner in which it presented to the world the reasons of the colonies. for separating from Great Britain, the representatives proceeding in the hope that their action would meet with the approbation of future generations. To secure this object, they proceeded with prudence and careful deliberation. On the 7th of June, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, moved in Congress the declaration in these words: "Resolved, 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 connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." This resolution at first did not meet with general favor in Congress. Many, hoping for reconciliation, thought it premature, and some timid ones were trembling while standing near the verge of high treason. After a discussion of three days, further consideration of the subject was postponed till the first of July. On the 11th of June, however, Congress appointed a committee to draw up a declaration in accordance with the resolution. Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, was chosen chairman of the committee, and to him was assigned the task of preparing the declaration. The other members of the committee were, John Adams, of Massachusetts; Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsylvania; Roger Sherman, of Connecticut; and Robert R. Livingston, of New York. The declaration was submitted to Congress, debated two days, and adopted on the 4th of July, 1776. The adoption of this document formally separated the colonies from Great Britain. The instrument was signed by forty-eight true-hearted patriots, and was read to the army, at public meetings, in all legislative halls of the country; and met with the warmest approval throughout the land. The Declaration gives at length the causes of separation, and sets forth the principles upon which the American Republic was founded. REVOLUTIONARY PARTIES. The terms "whig" and "tory" were the names of the two great political parties in England at the time when difficulties between the colonies and the crown began to assume a serious nature. The whigs opposed royalty, while the tories supported it. About the year 1772, the name "whig" was applied to those who supported the cause of the colonists, and "tory" to those who advocated the position taken by England. The former was a continuation of the popular rights party; the latter of the court party. (Plate VI.) For the first fifteen months of hostilities, the line of difference between the parties was drawn by the terms on which the connection of the colonies with England should continue. The whigs wished to remain colonists on condition that their rights would be guaranteed to them; the tories were willing to thus remain without such guarantee. REFERENCES. Rise of the Republic of the United States....... .Frothingham. Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, Vol. I., II... Wells. History of the United States, Vol. I., II., III............................. Hildreth. History of New England.................. .Palfrey. Popular History of the United States, Vol. II., III .. Bryant. History of the English Colonies in America. History of the United States, Vol. I........ Civil Government .................... Civil Government..... Other Colonial Histories Lodge. ....Schouler. Martin. Alden. DECLARATION AND RESOLVES OF THE CONTINENTAL CON GRESS, OCTOBER 14, 1774. WHEREAS, Since the close of the last war, the British Parliament, claiming a power of right to bind the people of America, by statutes in all cases whatsoever, hath, in some acts, expressly imposed taxes on them, and in others, under various pretenses, but in fact for the purpose of raising revenue, hath imposed rates and duties payable in these colonies; established a board of commissioners with unconstitutional powers; and extended the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty not only for collecting said duties, but for the trial of causes merely arising within the body of a country; AND WHEREAS, In consequence of other statutes, judges, who only before held estates at will in their offices, have been made dependent upon the crown alone for their salaries, and standing armies kept in times of peace; AND WHEREAS, It has been lately resolved in Parliament, that by force of a statute made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Henry the Eighth, colonists may be transported to England, and tried there upon acensations for treasons committed in the colonies, and by a late statute such trials have been directed in cases therein mentioned; AND WHEREAS, In the last session of Parliament three statutes were made-one entitled, An act to discontinue, in such manner and for such time as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, loading or shipping of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the town and within the harbor of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America; and another entitled, An act for the better regulating the government of the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England; and another entitled, An act for the impartial administration of justice in the cases of persons questioned for any act done by them in the execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England; and another statute was then made for making more effectual provisions for the government of the province of Quebec, etc. All which statutes are impolitic, unjust, and cruel, as well as unconstitutional and most dangerous, and destructive of American rights. AND WHEREAS, Assemblies have been frequently dissolved, contrary to the rights of the people, when they attempted to deliberate on grievances; and their dutiful, humble, loyal, and reasonable petition, to the crown for redress, have been repeatedly treated by contempt by his majesty's ministers of state; The good people of the several colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Castle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, justly alarmed at these arbitrary proceedings of Parliament and administration, have severally elected, constituted, and appointed deputies to meet and sit in General Congress, in the city of Philadelphia, in order to obtain such establishment as that their religion, laws, and liberties may not be subverted. Whereupon the deputies so appointed, being now assembled, in a full and free representation of these colonies, taking into their most serious consideration the best means of attaining the ends aforesaid, do, in the first place as Englishmen, their ancestors, in like cases have usually done, for effecting and vindicating their rights and liberties, Declare: That the inhabitants of the English colonies in North America, by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English constitution, and the several charters or compacts, have the following rights: Resolved, 1. That they are entitled to life, liberty, and property, and they have never ceded to any sovereign power whatever a right to dispose of either without their consent. Resolved, 2. That our ancestors who first settled these colonies were, at the time of their emigration from the mother country, entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural-born subjects, within the realm of England. Resolved, 3. That by such emigration they by no means forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of those rights, but that they were, and their descendants now are, entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of all such of them as their local and other circumstances enable them to exercise and enjoy. Resolved, 4. That the foundation of English liberty, and of all free gov ernment, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council; and as the English colonies are not represented, and from their local and other circumstances, can not properly be represented, in the British Parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, where their right of representation can alone be preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their sovereign, in such manner as has heretofore been used and accustomed. But, from the necessity of the case, and a regard to the mutual interest of both countries, we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of the British Parliament as are bona fide restrained to the regulation of our external commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial advantages of the whole empire to the mother country, and the commercial benefits of its respective members; excluding every idea of taxation, internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in America without their consent. Resolved, 5. That the respective colonies are entitled to the common law of England, and more especially to the great and inestimable privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage according to the course of that law. Resolved, 6. That they are entitled to the benefit of such English statutes as existed at the time of their colonization, and which they have, by experience, respectively found to be applicable to their several local and other circumstances. Resolved, 7. That these, his majesty's colonies, are likewise entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted and confirmed to them by royal charters, or secured by their several codes of provincial laws. Resolved, 8. That they have a right peaceably to assemble, consider their grievances, and petition the king; and that all prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for the same, are illegal. Resolved, 9. That the keeping a standing army in the colonies, in times of peace, without the consent of the legislature of that colony in which the army is kept, is against law. Resolved, 10. It is indispensably necessary to good government, and rendered essential by the English constitution, that the constituent branches of the legislature be independent of each other; that, therefore, the exercise of legislative power in several colonies, by a council appointed during the pleasure of the crown, is unconstitutional, dangerous, and destructive to the freedom of American legislation. All, and each of which, the aforesaid deputies, in behalf of themselves and their constituents, do claim, demand, and insist on, as their indubitable rights and liberties, which can not be legally taken from them, altered or abridged by any power whatever, without their own consent, by their representatives in their several provincial legislatures. In the course of our inquiry, we find many infringements and violations of the foregoing rights, which, from an ardent desire that harmony and mutual intercourse of affection and interest may be restored, we pass over for the present, and proceed to state such acts and measures as have been adopted since the last war, which demonstrate a system formed to enslave America. Resolved, That the following acts of Parliament are infringements and violations of the rights of the colonists, and that the repeal of them is essentially necessary in order to restore harmony between Great Britain and the American colonies, namely: The several acts of 4 Geo. III., ch. 15 and ch. 34; 5 Geo. III., ch. 25; 6 Geo. III., ch. 52; 7 Geo. III., ch. 41 and ch. 46; 8 Geo. III., ch. 22, which impose duties for the purpose of raising a revenue in America, extend the power of the admiralty courts beyond their ancient limits, de |