Page 411 - American Stories, A History of the United States

John Hancock
Button Gwinnett George Wythe Geo. Ross Saml. Adams
Lyman Hall Richard Henry Lee Caesar Rodney John Adams
Geo. Walton Th. Jefferson Geo. Read Robt. Treat Paine
Wm. Hooper Benj. Harrison Tho. M’kean Elbridge Gerry
Joseph Hewes Thos. Nelson, Jr. Wm. Floyd Step. Hopkins
John Penn Francis Lightfoot Lee Phil. Livingston William Ellery
Edward Rutledge Carter Braxton Frans. Lewis Roger Sherman
Thos. Heyward, Junr. Robt. Morris Lewis Morris Sam’el Huntington
Thomas Lynch, Junr. Benjamin Rush Richd. Stockton Wm. Williams
Arthur Middleton Benja. Franklin Jno. Witherspoon Oliver Wolcott
Samuel Chase John Morton Fras. Hopkinson Matthew Thornton
Wm. Paca Geo. Clymer John Hart
Thos. Stone Jas. Smith Abra. Clark
Charles Carroll of Geo. Taylor Josiah Bartlett
Carrollton James Wilson Wm. Whipple

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign merce- Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
naries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny fortunes, and our sacred honor.
already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely
paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the
head of a civilized nation. The Articles of
He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the
high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the ex- Confederation
ecutioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by
their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has
endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the Between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay,
merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for re- North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia
dress 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 Article 1
the ruler of a free people. The stile of this confederacy shall be “The United States of
Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British America.”
brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts
by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over Article 2
us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigra-
tion and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and
and magnanimity; and we have conjured them, by the ties of our every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this confed-
common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would eration expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress as-
inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, sembled.
too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces Article 3
our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friend-
enemies in war, in peace friends. ship with each other for their common defence, the security of
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of their liberties and their mutual and general welfare; binding
America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Su- themselves to assist each other against all force offered to, or at-
preme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, tacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion,
do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever.
these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPEN-
DENT STATES; that they are absolved from all allegiance to Article 4
the British crown, and that all political connection between The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and in-
them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally tercourse among the people of the different states in this union,
dissolved; and that, as free and independent states, they have the free inhabitants of each of these states, paupers, vagabonds,
full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, es- and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all priv-
tablish commerce, and do all other acts and things which in- ileges and immunities of free citizens in the several states; and
dependent states may of right do. And for the support of this the people of each State shall have free ingress and regress to and
declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of

A-2 Appendix