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THE PUBLIC

STATUTE LAW S

OF THE

STATE OF CONNECTICUT,

COMPILED IN OBEDIENCE TO A RESOLVE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, PASSED

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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1838, in the Clerk's Office of the District of Connecticut, by ROYAL R. HINMAN,

in behalf of said State.

222712

076

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE,

In Congress, July 4th, 1776.

THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED

STATES OF AMERICA.

tion.

WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes Propriety of necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands the declara. which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station, to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires, that they should declare the causes, which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident-That all men Unalienable are created equal; that they are endowed by their Cre- rights of the people, &c. ator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves, by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to 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 future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain, Absolute tyis a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all ranny the ob

of Great Brit

ject of the king having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

ain.

Recitation of injuries and usurpations on the part of the British crown.

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 legislaturea right estimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant fom the repository 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 endeavored 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.

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:

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