Page:A Declaration of the People's Natural Right to a Share in the Legislature (1775) (IA declarationofpeo00shar).djvu/89

 both respectively, should unhappily draw down God's vengeance upon us! and perhaps our mutual punishment is at this time impending in the present differences and ignorance of the English Constitution): But how will the trunk or stock of the British Vine appear, if we should entirely separate or lop off the branches ? — The American Branches are already detached, indeed, (in point of distance,) and widely separated from the Trunk, by a vast Ocean; but the imperial Crown of Great-Britain is, nevertheless, a sufficient band of union or connexion between them, it being the legal ensign of authority for the maintenance and execution of the same just laws, the influence of which may, by a due constitutional exertion of the regal Power, be circulated, like wholesome sap, from the root to the most distant branches.