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try, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestick insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is, undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress, in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts, by their Legislature, to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us ; we have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here; we have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity; and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connexion and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent

States; and that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown; and that all political connexion between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.

CHAPTER XIII.

Effect of the Declaration-Vigorous preparations of the British Ministry-Letters of Washington-Resolutions of CongressMiscellaneous Summary-Inquiry into the capture of the Cedars Commencement of the system of retaliation-Reflections on its policy-Letters-Orders-Miscellaneous ReflectionsAdmiral aad General Howe arrive as Commissioners-Etiquette observed in their intercourse with Washington-Crown Point abandoned-State of preparations-British vessels pass up the North River-Remarks.

THE Declaration of Independence once published to the world with such solemnity, gave a new character to the contest, not only in the Colonies, but in Europe. Before this decisive step, the American people were regarded by many able and good men, as well as sound politicians, on both sides of the Atlantick, rather as children struggling for doubtful privileges with a parent, than as men contending with men for their natural and indisputable rights. But this deliberate appeal to the nations of the earth, to posterity, and to the God of battles, gave a new political character, an immediate dignity and manhood, to their cause. It was no longer the unholy struggle of subjects against their monarch; of children against their parent; of rash and turbulent men who never measure nor weigh the consequence of their deeds: it was no longer a contest for mere matters of opinion, but for a national existence, for life or death. It became, under the awful sanction of that assembly, the temperate and determined stand of men who have entrenched themselves within the certain and thoroughly-understood limits of their

rights; of men who had counted the cost dispassionately, and measured the event without shrinking; of men who felt, deliberated and acted, as the representatives of a whole people, conscious of their infirmities and their responsibility; knowing the might of their adversaries, and the weakness of their friends, but determined to do their duty to their children, and leave them their inheritance undisturbed and unimpaired. Or if that might not be, and the liberties of Englishmen were no longer the protection of their wives, or the birth-right of their children, to leave them as widows and orphans to the charity of Heaven.

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The Declaration of Independence was, of itself, a victory,―a victory over the passions, prejudices and fears of a multitude. It drew the line forever, between the friends and the foes of America. It left no neutrals. He, who was not for independence, unconditional independance, was an enemy. The effect producupon the publick mind by the boldness and unanimity manifested on this occasion, by the delegates of the several Colonies, operated on the general confidence of the people as much as a similar declaration would have done, had it been adopted and signed by the whole population of the states. In the publick exultation at the time, the murmurs of disapprobation were unheard ; and the opposition to be expected from the discontented and factious, who were always a formidable minority, and in the very bosom of the country, was entirely overlooked.

The manifesto appeared as unanimous; it was hailed as a prognostick; and when the measure was consummated there were few to distrust such predictions as the wisest had uttered, when only contemplating the possibility of such a coalition. They forgot that

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there was no common head to give stability and uniformity to the measures of the confederacy; the testimony of all antiquity was disregarded; not only the people, but politicians, not otherwise deficient in sagacity, persisted in believing that such an union might be permanent with no other tie than that of opinion.

Whatever may now be thought of the vast political foresight of those who first planned this confederacy, it is certain that, at the time, it was regarded as a temporary association. To understand the principles of attraction and adhesion which first brought together and then united such discordant materials, it will be necessary to forget what happened after their union, and go back to its first cause. Much has been attributed to the lofty patriotism of the times, which may, with more justice, be attributed to necesity, or to some other cause. Still more has been said of the generous disinterestedness, the unshaken firmness, the incorruptible integrity of the several parties; but the plain truth seems to be this. The Colonies adopted certain precipitate measures, the consequences of which were not foreseen at the time, by which they were so eutangled, that they could not be separated. Their disposition to retract frequently succeeded the strongest instances of opposition, but always so far in the rear as to be ineffectual. While they threw the gauntlet with one hand, they extended the other for reconciliation. And when that reconciliation was about to take place, some other precipitate indication of hostility was given, which prevented it.

The only bond of union at first, was opinion-liable at every moment to change. A sense of common danger was the tendency to union; and a desire of self preservation the only law of cohesion. And both of

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