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16. The Making Over of the Land. -Thus, by a rapid survey, we have seen how the country now possessed by the United States was made ready in the great process of nature for the occupation of the people of the Old World, and their descendants. The change of the face of the country is a part of the historical growth of the nation. By the operation of human activity, changes are slowly taking place. Harbors are dredged; mountains are tunneled and laid open for their treasures; river channels are deepened; great systems of canals connect inland lakes with each other and with the sea; and by the planting, as well as by the destruction of forests, great changes are making in rainfall and climate. Much of this work is done by private enterprise, but a great part also by government. Both state and federal governments have it in their power to do much toward making the land not only habitable but more beautiful; and it is a matter for congratulation that of late years so many public measures have been taken to preserve to the people forever such great parks and playgrounds as Niagara Falls, the Adirondacks, the Yellowstone Park and the Yosemite Valley.

APPENDIX.

A. FOUR HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS.

I.

THE COMPACT OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James; by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King; Defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation; and furtherance of the end aforesaid; and, by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinance, acts, constitutions, offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony; into which, we promise all due submission and obedience.

In witness whereof, we have hereunder, subscribed our names, Cape Cod, 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland 18; and of Scotland 54. Anno Domini 1620.

II.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, JULY 4, 1776.

WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected

them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off 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 good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected 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 meantime, exposed to all the danger of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose, obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in time of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures.

He has 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 Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

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 benefit of trial by jury: For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies:

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