4. From the glare and brilliancy of his public life, lead to his retirement-show whither this venerable patriot, v tarily retiring from the ardent gaze and plaudits of an adm world-having applied his best years to the service of his c try, he devoted the residue of his days to his friends, to his far and to his God. In his character let them see the rare com tion of the noblest, the most elevated attributes of the and the magistrate, with the industry, the economy, the act regularity, and all the social virtues of the obedient useful citizen:- To close the impressive lesson, point t to the glorious consummation of his character, in his pious signation, and his death.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

The Unanimous Declaration of the Congress of the Thi
United States of America, passed July 4, 1776.*

1. When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary fo people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separat equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they s declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

2. We hold these truths to be self-evident: -that all men are crequal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalie rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happ That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men riving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that w ever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a ne vernment, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizin * "Philadelphia, July 5,

DEAR SIR,

"Yesterday the greatest question was decided which was ever debated in An and greater, perhaps, never was or will be decided among men. A resolution was without one dissenting Colony, that these United States are, and of right ought to b and independent states."

"The day is passed. The 4th of July, 1776, will be a memorable epocha in the of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations great anniversary festival; it ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, Jemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. It ought to be solemnized with pomp, games, sports, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other this time forward forever! You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure, that it will cost to maintain this d tion, and support and defend these States; yet, through all the gloom, I can see a light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all the means; and the terity will triumph, although you and I may rue, which I hope we shall not.

established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and a cordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishin the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuse and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design t 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 futur security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; an such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former sys tems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct ob ject, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

To

3. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

4. 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.

5. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the repository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

6. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.

7. 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.

8. He has endeavoured 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.

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

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

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

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

13. He has affected to render the military independent of, and superiour to, the civil power.

14. 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:

15. For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

18. For imposing taxes on us without our consent: 19. For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury: 20. For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended of

aces:

21. For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbouring ovince, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging it undaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for in oducing the same absolute rule into these colonies:

22. For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, d altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments:

23. For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves insted with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

24. He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his proction, and waging war against us.

25. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, d destroyed the lives of our people.

26. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries, complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun Eth circumstances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most rbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 27. He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high as, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of eir friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

28. He has excited domestio insurrections amongst us, and has endeaured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian vages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of | ages, sexes, and conditions.

29. In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered ly by repeated injury.

30. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may fine a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

31. Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. e have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have pealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured em, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, ich would inevitably interrupt our connexions and correspondence. ney too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We ust, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separaon, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind-enemies in war, in ace, 'friends.

32. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the orld, for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the auority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, at these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and indepenint states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British

that all political comper:

which independent states may of right do. And for the support of thi 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.

New-Hampshire.

Josiah Bartlett,

William Whipple,

Matthew Thornton.

JOHN HANCOCK, President.

New-Jersey.

Richard Stockton,
John Witherspoon,
Francis Hopkinson,

John Hart,

Massachusetts Bay. Abraham Clark.

Thomas Stone,

C. Carroll, of Carrollton

Virginia.

George Wythe,
Richard Henry Lee,
Thomas Jefferson,
Benjamin Harrison,
Thomas Nelson, jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee,
Carter Braxton.

North-Carolina.
William Hooper,
Joseph Hewes,
John Penn.

South-Carolina.

Edward Rutledge,
Thomas Heywa Heyward, jr.
Thomas Lynch, jr.
Arthur Middleton.

Georgia.
Burton Gwinnett.
Lyman Hall,
George Walton

ARTICLES OF CONFEDER

CONFEDERATION.

Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, passed in Congress, July 8, 1778, between the states of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, NewJersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, and Georgia.

ARTICLE 1.

1. The style of this confederacy shall be, "THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA."

ARTICLE 2.

1. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.

their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each er against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of n, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence

atever.

ARTICLE 4.

- The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and interse among the people of the different states in this union, the free initants of each of these states, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from ice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free zens in the several states; and the people of each state shall have free ess and regress to and from any other state, and shall enjoy therein all privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, imposi s, and restrictions, as the inhabitants thereof respectively; provided such restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of perty imported into any state, to any other state of which the owner inhabitant; provided also, that no imposition, duties, or restriction, I be laid by any state on the property of the United States, or either

nem.

- If any person guilty of, or charged with treason, felony, or other a misdemeanor in any state, shall flee from justice, and be found in any ne United States, he shall, upon the demand of the governor or execupower of the state from which he fled, be delivered up and removed The state having jurisdiction of his offence.

- Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these states to the reHs, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every er state.

ARTICLE 5.

- For the more convenient management of the general interests of the ted States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as Legislature of each state shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first nday in November in every year, with a power reserved to each state ecal its delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and to 1 others in their stead, for the remainder of the year.

. No state shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor more n seven members; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate more than three years, in any term of six years; nor shall any person, ng a delegate, be capable of holding any office under the United States, which he, or any other, for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, or lument, of any kind.

-. Each state shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting of the tes, and while they act as members of the committee of the states. . In determining questions in the United States, in Congress assembled, h state shall have one vote.

. Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached questioned in any court or place out of Congress; and the members of ngress shall be protected in their persons from arrests and imprisonats during the time of their going to and from, and attendance on Con es, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace.