extended the jurisdiction of Courts of Admiralty, not only for collecting the said duties, but for the trial of causes merely arising within the body of a county.

And whereas, in consequence of other statutes judges, who before held only estates at will in their offices, have been made dependant on the Crown alone for their salaries, and standing armies kept in times of peace. And whereas it has lately been resolved in Parliament, that by force of a statute, made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry VIII. colonists may be transported to England and tried there upon accusations for treasons, and misprisons and concealments of 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 therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or shipping of goods, wares, and merchandize at the town, and within the harbour of Boston, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America,” 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 provision for the government of the Province of Quebec," &c. 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 petitions to the Crown for redress have been repeatedly treated with 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, NEWCASTLE, KENT AND SUSSEX ON DELAWARE, MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA and SOUTH CAROLINA, justly alarmed at the 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 have in like cases usually done, for asserting 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 NEMINE CONTRADICENTE. I. That they are entitled to life, liberty, and property, and have never ceded to any sovereign power whatever, a right to dispose of either without their consent.

II. That our ancestors 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.

III. That, by such emigration, they neither forfeited, surrendered, nor lost, any of those rights.

IV. That the foundation of English liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their Legislative Council; 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 legislation can only 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 purposes 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.

V. 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.

VI. 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.

VII. 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.

VIII. 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.

IX. That the keeping a standing army in these colonies, in time of peace, without the consent of the Legislature of that colony in which such army is kept, is against law.

X. 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 cannot be legally taken from them, altered or abridged by any power whatever, without their own consent by their representatives in their several Provincial Legislatures,

RESOLVED N. C., 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, viz:-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 46-8 Geo. III. Ch. 22, which impose duties for the purpose of raising a revenue in America, extend the powers of the Admiralty Courts beyond their ancient limits, deprive the American subject of Trial by Jury, authorise the Judge's certificate to indemnify the prosecutor from damages that he might otherwise be liable to, requiring oppressive security from a claimant of ships and goods seized, before he shall be allowed to defend his property, and are subversive of American rights. Also, 12 Geo. III. Ch. 24, entitled "An Act for the better securing his Majesty's Dockyards, Magazines, Ships, Ammunition and Stores," which declares a new offence in America, and deprives the American subjects of a constitutional trial by jury of the vicinage, by authorising the trial of any person charged with the committing any offence described in the said Act, out of the realm, to be indicted and tried for the same in any shire or county within the realm. Also, the three Acts passed in the last session of Parliament, by stopping the port and blocking up the harbour of Boston, for altering the charter and government of Massachusetts Bay; and that which is entitled "An Act for the better Administration of Justice, &c." Also, the Act passed in the same session for establishing the Roman Catholic religion in the Province of Quebec, abolishing the equitable system of English laws, and erecting a tyranny there to the great danger, from the total dissimularity of religion, law, and government, of the neighboring British colonies, by the assistance of whose blood and treasure the said country was conquered from France. Also, the Act passed in the same session for the better providing suitable quarters for officers and soldiers in his Majesty's service in North America.

To these grievous Acts and measures, Americans cannot submit; but in hopes their fellow subjects in Great Britain will, on a revision of them, restore us to that state, in which both countries found happiness and prosperity, we have for the present only resolved to pursue the following peaceable measures-1. To enter into a non-importation, non-consumption, and nonexportation agreement or association-2. To prepare an address to the People of Great Britain, and a memorial to the inhabitants of British America-and

3. To prepare a loyal address to His Majesty agreeable to resolutions already entered into.

THE ASSOCIATION.

We His Majesty's most loyal subjects, the DeleGATES of the several COLONIES OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, MASSHUSETTS BAY, RHODE ISLAND, CONNECTICUT, NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA, the three lower counties of NEWCASTLE, KENT, AND SUSSEX, ON DELAWARE, MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA AND SOUTH CAROLINA, deputed to represent them in a CONTINENTAL CONGRESS held in the city of Philadelphia, on the fifth day of September, 1774. Avowing our allegiance to His Majesty, our affection and regard for our fellow subjects in Great Britain and elsewhere, affected with the deepest anxiety, and most alarming apprehensions at those grievances and distresses with which His Majesty's American subjects are oppressed, and having taken under our most serious deliberation, the state of the whole continent; find, that the present unhappy situation of our affairs is occasioned by a ruinous system of Colony administration adopted by the British Ministry about the year 1763, evidently calculated for enslaving these Colonies, and with them the British empire. In prosecution of which system various Acts of Parliament have been passed for raising a revenue in America, for depriving the American subjects, in many instances of the constitutional trial by jury, exposing their lives to danger, by directing a new and illegal trial beyond the seas, for crimes alledged to have been committed in America. And in prosecution of the same system, several late cruel and oppressive Acts have been passed respecting the town of Boston and the Massachusetts Bay, and also an Act for