Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/346

 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 unanimously,—1st, That they are entitled to life, liberty and property ; and they have never ceded to any sovereign whatsoever, a right to dispose of either without their consent.

"Resolved,—2d, 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,—3d, 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 enabled them to exercise and enjoy.

"Resolved,—4th, That the foundation of English liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative councils; and as the English colonists are not represented, and from their local and other circumstances, cannot 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 been heretofore used and accustomed; but from the necessity of the case, and a regard to the mutual interests 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, external or internal, for raising a revenue on the subjects of America, without their consent.

"Resolved,—5th, 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,—6th, That they are entitled to the benefit of such of the 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,—7th, That these, his majesty's colonies are likewise entitled to all the privileges and immunities granted and confirmed to them by royal charters, or secured by their several codes of provincial laws.

"Resolved,—8th, That they have a right peaceably to assemble, consider of their grievances, and petition the king; and that all prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments, for the same, are illegal.

"Resolved,—9th, That the keeping a standing army in these colonies in