Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 18 Part 1.djvu/19

 4 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and o nizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and¤Ha pmess. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not he changed for light and transient causes; and accordmgly all ex rience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferabi; than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usur tions, Bigrsuing invariably the same _Obgect evinces a design to reduce them under agsolute spotism, it is their right, it IB their dut, tothrow od such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.- Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws. the most wholesome and necessary for the public He has forbidden his Governors to Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their olperation tillhi:sAssent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neg ected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusin to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Xppropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing J udicia Powers. He has made J uldiges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and pa ment of their salaries. He has erected, a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our lelature. Hg-lshas affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutic]:;, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their acts of pretended Legis tion: 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 b Jury: For transportin us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended, olfences: For abolishing die free System of English Laws in a ne' hbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlargin its Blgundaries so as to render it eat pnce an example and lit instrument for introducing Phe same absolute rule into these ‘o onies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Government: Fer suspending our own Legislature, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate or us in all cases whatsoever.