penfate for the calamities through which they must be gained.

We therefore moft earnestly befeech your majefty, that your royal authority and interpofition may be ufed for our relief, and that a gracious answer may be given to this petition.

That your majefty may enjoy every felicity through a long and glorious reign over loyal and happy fubjects, and that your defcendants may inherit your profperity and dominions till time thall be no more, is, and always will be our fincere and fervent prayer. Philadelphia, Nov. 1774. (Signed) H. Middleton, J. Sullivan,

W. Floyd, H. Wifner, S. Boerum, W. Livingston, J. D. Hart, S. Craine,

R. Smith,

8. Hopkins,

S. Ward,

G. Reid,

M. Tilghman,
T. Johnson, jur:
W. Pacha,
S. Chare,

R. H. Lee,
P. Henry,
G. Washington,
F. Pendleton,
R. Bland,

B. Harrijon,
W. Hooper,
J. Hars,
R. Cafwell,
T. Lynch,

C. Gadsden,

J. Low,

J. Rutledge,

J. Duane, J. Jay,

E. Rutledge.

To the People of Great-Britain, from the Delegates appointed by the fe

veral English Colonies of News Hampshire, Maffachufett's Bay, Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Lower Counties on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, to confider of their Grievances in General Congrefs, at Philadelphia, September 5th, 1774.

Friends and Fellow Subjects,

HEN a nation, led to great

W nefs by the hand of Liberty,

and poffeffed of all the glory that heroism, munificence, and humanity can bestow, descends to the ungrateful talk of forging chains for her Friends and Children, and, inftead of giving fupport to Freedom, turns advocate for Slavery and Oppreffion, there is reafon to fufpect the has either ceased to be virtuous, or been extremely negligent in the appointment of her Rulers.

In almost every age, in repeated conflicts, in long and bloody wars, as well civil as foreign, againft many and powerful nations, against the open affaults of enemies and the more dangerous treachery of friends, have the inhabitants of your ifland, your great and glorious ancestors, maintained their independence and tranfmitted the rights of men and the bleflings of liberty to you their pofterity.

Be not surprised therefore, that we, who are defcended from the fame common ancestors; that we, whofe forefathers participated in all the rights, the liberties, and the conftitution, you so justly boast, and who have carefully conveyed the fame fair inheritance to us, guarantied by the plighted faith of go

vernment,

vernment, and the moft folemn compacts with British fovereigns, fhould refuse to furrender them to men, who found their claims on no principles of reason, and who profecute them with a design, that, by having our lives and property in their power, they may with the greater facility enflave you.

The caufe of America is now the object of universal attention: it has at length become very ferious. This unhappy country has not only been oppreffed, but abufed and mifreprefented; and the duty we owe to ourselves and pofterity, to your intereft, and the general welfare of the British empire, leads us to addrefs you on this very important fubject.

Know then, That we confider ourselves, and do infist, that we are, and ought to be, as free as our fellow-fubjects in Britain, and that no power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our confent.

That we claim all the benefits fecured to the subject by the English conftitution, and particularly that inestimable one of trial by jury.

That we hold it effential to Englith liberty, that no man be condemned unheard, or punished for fuppofed offences, without having an opportunity of making his defence.

That we think the legiflature of Great-Britain is not authorised by the constitution to establish a religion fraught with fanguinary and impious tenets, or to erect an arbitrary form of government in any quarter of the globe. Thefe rights, we, as well as you, deem facred. And yet, facred as they are, they have, with many others, been repeatedly and flagrantly violated.

Are not the proprietors of the foil of Great Britain lords of their own property? Can it be taken from them without their confent? Will they yield it to the arbitrary dif pofal of any man, or number of men whatever?-You know they will not.

Why then are the proprietors of the foil of America lefs lords of their property than you are of yours, or why fhould they submit it to the difpofal of your parliament, or any other parliament, or council in the world, not of their election? Can the intervention of the fea that divides us cause disparity in rights, or can any reafon be given, why English fubjects, who live three thoufand miles from the royal palace, thould enjoy less li◄ berty than those who are three hundred miles diftant from it?

Reafon looks with indignation on fuch diftinctions, and freemen can never perceive their propriety. And yet, however chimerical and unjuft such discriminations are, the parliament affert, that they have a right to bind us in all cafes without exception, whether we confent or not; that they may take and ufe our property when and in what manner they please; that we are penfioners on their bounty for all that we poffefs, and can hold it no longer than they vouchsafe to permit. Such declarations we confider as herefies in English politics, and which can no more operate to deprive us of our property, than the interdicts of the Pope can divest kings of fceptres which the laws of the land and the voice of the peo ple have placed in their hands.

At the conclufion of the late war a war rendered glorious by the abilities and integrity of a minifter,

to

to whofe efforts the British empire owes its fafety and its fame at the conclufion of this war, which was fucceeded by an inglorious peace, formed under the aufpices of a minifter of principles and of a family unfriendly to the proteftant caufe, and inimical to liberty :we fay at this period, and under the influence of that man, a plan for enflaving your fellow-fubjects in America was concerted, and has ever fince been pertinaciously carrying into execution.

Prior to this æra you were content with drawing from us the wealth produced by our commerce. You restrained our trade in every way that could conduce to your emolument. You exercised unbounded fovereignty over the fea. You named the ports and nations to which alone our merchandize should be carried, and with whom alone we should trade; and, though fome of thefe reftrictions were grievous, we nevertheless did not complain; we looked up to you as to our parent ftate, to which we were bound by the strongest ties: and were happy in being inftrumental to your profperity and your grandeur.

We call upon you yourselves to witness our loyalty and attachment to the common intereft of the whole empire: did we not, in the last war, add all the strength of this vaft continent to the force which repelled our common enemy? Did we not leave cur native fhores, and meet difeafe and death, to promote the fuccefs of British arms in foreign climates? Did you not thank us for our zeal, and even reimburse us large fums of money, which, you confeffed, we had advanced beyond our proportion, and far beyond our abilities? You did.

VOL. XVII.

To what caufes, then, are we to attribute the fudden change of treatment, and that fyftem of flavery which was prepared for us at the restoration of peace?

Before we had recovered from the diftreffes which ever attend war, an attempt was made to drain this country of all its money, by the oppreffive ftamp-act. Paint, glafs, and other commodities, which you would not permit us to purchase of other nations, were taxed; nay, although no wine is made in any country fubject to the British ftate, you prohibited our procuring it of foreigners, without paying a tax, impofed by your parliament, on all we imported. These and many other impofitions were laid upon us moft unjustly and unconftitutionally, for the exprefs purpose of . raifing a revenue.-In order to filence complaint, it was, indeed, provided, that this revenue fhould be expended in America for its protection and defence.-Thefe exactions however can receive no juf tification from a pretended neceffity of protecting and defending us. They are lavishly fquandered on court favourites and minifterial dependants, generally avowed enemies to America, and employing themfelves, by partial reprefentations, to traduce and embroil the colonies. For the neceffary support of government here, we ever were and ever fhall be ready to provide. And, whenever the exigencies of the ftate may require it, we fhall, as we have heretofore done, chearfully contribute our full proportion of men and money. To enforce this unconstitutional and unjust scheme of taxation, every fence, that the wisdom of our British anceftors had carefully erected against arbitrary power, has been violently [0] thrown

thrown down in America, and the inestimable right of trial by jury taken away in cafes that touch both life and property. It was ordained, that, whenever offences fhould be committed in the colonies againft particular acts impofing various duties and restrictions upon trade, the profecutor might bring his action for the penalties in the courts of admiralty; by which means the fubject loft the advantage of being tried by an honeft uninfinenced jury of the vicinage, and was fubjected to the fad neceffity of being judged by a fingle man, a creature of the crown, and according to the course of a law which exempts the profecutor from the trouble of proving his accufation, and obliges the defendant either to evince his innocence or to fuffer. To give this new judicatory the greater importance, and as if with a defign to protect falfe accufers, it is further provided, that the judge's certificate, of there having been probable caufes of feizure and profecution, fhall protect the profecutor from actions at common law for recovery of damages."

By the course of our law, offences committed in fuch of the British dominions in which courts are established, and justice duly and regularly administered, are to be there tried by a jury of the vicinage. There the offenders and the witneffes are known, and the degree of credibility to be given to their teftimony can be ascertained,

In all these colonies juftice is regularly and impartially adminiftered; and yet, by the construction of fome, and the direction of other acts of parliament, offenders are "to be taken by force, together with all fuch perfons as may be

pointed out as witneffes, and carried to England, there to be tried in a distant land, by a jury of strangers," and fubject to all the difadvantages that refult from want of friends, want of witneffes, and want of money!

When the defign of raising a revenue from the duties impofed on the importation of tea into America had in a great measure been rendered abortive, by our ceafing to import that commodity, a fcheme was concerted by the miniftry with the Eaft, India company, and an act paffed enabling and encourag ing them to transport and vend it in the colonies. Aware of the danger of giving fuccefs to this infidious manoeuvre, and of permitting a precedent of taxation thus to be established among us, various methods were adopted to elude the ftroke. The people of Boston, then ruled by a governor, whom as well as his predeceffor, Sir Francis Bernard, all America confiders as her enemy, were exceedingly embarraffed. The ships which had arrived with the tea were by his management prevented from returning. The duties would have been paid: the cargoes landed and expofed to fale; a governor's influence would have procured and protected many purchasers. While the town was fufpended by deliberations on this important fubject, the tea was deftroyed. Even fuppofing a trefpafs had been committed, and the proprietors of the tea entitled to damages-the courts of law were open, and judges appointed by the crown prefided in them.-The Eaft India company however did not think proper to commence any fuits, nor did they even demand fatisfaction either

from

from individuals or from the community in general. The miniftry it feems, officioufly made the cafe their own, and the great council of the nation defcended to intermeddle with a difpute about private property.-Divers papers, letters, and other unauthenticated ex parte evi. dence were laid before them; neither the perfons who deftroyed the tea, nor the people of Boston, were called on to answer the complaint. The miniftry, incenfed by being disappointed in a favorite fcheme, were determined to recur from the little arts of finefle, to open force and unmanly violence. The port of Bofton was blocked up by a fleet, and an army placed in the town. Their trade was to be fufpended, and thoufands reduced to the neceffity of gaining fubfiftence from charity, till they fhould fubmit to pass under the yoke, and confent to become flaves, by confeffing the omnipotence of parliament, and acquiefcing in whatever difpofition they might think proper to make of their lives and property.

Let juftice and humanity ceafe to be the boat of your nation! Confult your hiftory, examine your records of former tranfactions, nay turn to the annals of the many arbitrary ftates and kingdoms that furround you, and fhew us a fingle inftance of men being condemned to fuffer for imputed crimes unheard, unqueftioned, and without even the fpecious formality of a trial; and that too by laws made exprefly for the purpofe, and which had no exiftence at the time of the fact being committed. If it be difficult to reconcile thefe proceedings to the genious and temper of your laws and conftitution, the task will become

more arduous when we call upon our minifterial enemies to justify, not only condemning men untried and by hearfay, but involving the innocent in one common punishment with the guilty, and for the act of thirty or forty, to bring poverty, diftrefs and calamity on thirty thousand fouls, and these not your enemies, but your friends, brethren, and fellow-fubjects.

It would be fome confolation to us, if the catalogue of American oppreffions ended here. It gives us pain to be reduced to the neceffity of reminding you, that under the confidence repofed in the faith of government, pledged in a royal charter from a British fovereign, the fore-fathers of the prefent inhabitants of the Maffachufett's Bay left their former habitations, and established that great, flourishing, and loyal colony. Without incurring or being charged with a forfeiture of their rights, without being heard, without being tried, without law, and without juftice, by an act of parliament their charter is deftroyed, their liberties viclated, their conftitution and form of government changed."And all this upon no better pretence, than because in one of their towns a trefpafs was committed on some merchandize, faid to belong to one of the companies, and because the miniftry were of opinion that such high political regulations were neceffary to compel due fubordination and obedience to their mandates.

66

Nor are these the only capital grievances under which we labour. We might tell of diffolute, weak, and wicked governors having been fet over us: us of legiflators being fufpended for afferting the rights of British fubjects, or needy and [0] 2

ignorant