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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 mean
time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without,
and convulsions within.
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
migrations 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 times 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 neighbouring
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
For
taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws
and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For
suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He
has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his
Protection and waging War against us.
He
has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns,
and destroyed the lives of our people.
He
is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries
to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny,
already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy
scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally
unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He
has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the
high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become
the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall
themselves by their Hands.
He
has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured
to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless
Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished
destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. |
