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, uncomforta ble, 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 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 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 offcers, 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 constitutions, 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 : ince, 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 complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and 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 endeavored 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. In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress 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 the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and inagnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world, for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. JOHN HANCOCK, &c. SIGNERS OF THE ABOVE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. Names. Died. age. Josiah Bartlett, N. Hampshire, 1729 47 May 19, 1795 66 William Whipple, N. H. Maine, 1730) 40 Nov. 28, 1785 55 Matthew Thornton, Ireland 1714 62 June 24, 1803 89 John Hancock, Massachusetts, 1737 39 Oct. 8, 1793 56 Samuel Adams, Massachusetts, Sept. 22, 1722 54 Oct. 2, 1803 81 John Adams, Ms. Massachusetts, Oct. 19, 1735 41 July 4, 1826 91 Robert Treat Paine, Massachusetts, 1731 45 May 11, 1814 83 Elbridge Gerry, 32 Massachusetts, July 17, 1744 70 Nov. 22, 1814 78 July 13, 1785 93 Roger Sherman, Massachusetts, April 19, 1721 55 July 23, 1793 July 2, 1732 44 Jan. 5, 1796 Connecticut, 81 Aug. 2, 1811 1726 50 Dec. 1, 1797 71 William Floyd, Long Island, Dec. 17, 1734 42 Aug. 4, 1821 87 Philip Livingston, N. Y. New York, 60 Jan. 15, 1716 62 June 12, 1778 90 1713 63 Dec. 30, 1803 Lewis Morris, New York, 1726 50 Jan. 72 1798 Richard Stockton, New Jersey, 51 1, 1730 46 Feb. 28, 1781 John Witherspoon, 72 Scotland, Feb. 5, 1722 54 Nov. 15, 1794 Francis Hopkinson, N. J. Pennsylvania, 1737 39 54 May 8, 1791 1780 Abraham Clark, New Jersey, 50 1794 68 Robert Morris, England, Jan. 1733 43 May 8, 1806 73 Benjamin Rush, Pennsylvania, 67 Dec. 24, 1745 31 April 19, 1812 Benjamin Franklin, Massachusetts, Jan. 17, 1706 70 84 April 17, 1790 53 1777 George Clymer, Pa. Pennsylvania, 1739 37 74 Jan. 23, 1813 1806 65 James Wilson, Scotland, 1742 34 56 Aug. 28, 1798 49 1779 1730 1783 53 George Read, Del. 64 Maryland, 1734 1798 83 Mar. 19, 1734 42 June 24, 1817 Samuel Chase, Maryland, 70 35 April 17, 1741 June 19, 1811 William Paca, 59 Maryland, 36 Oct. 31, 1740 1799 47 36 Oct. 5, 1787 93 Sept. 8, 1737 39 Now living, 80 June 6, 1806 Virginia, 44 June 19, 1794 Thomas Jefferson, Virginia, 83 April 2, 1743 33 July 4, 1826 April, 1791 Thomas Nelson, Virginia, Dec. 26, 1738 38 Jan. 4, 1789 51 Francis L. Lee, Virginia, 63 Oct. 14, 1734 42 April, 1797 Carter Braxton, Virginia, 61 Sept. 10, 1736 40 Oct. 10, 1797 Oct., 48 1790 1730 46 49 John Pean, Virginia, May 17, 1741 35 Sept., 47 17881 Edward Rutledge, South Carolina, Nov. 1749 27 51 Jan. 23, 1800 63 Thomas Lynch, South Carolina, Aug. 5, 1749 27 About 31 1780 Arthur Middleton, South Carolina, 1743 33 Jan. 1, 1787 44 Button Gwinnett, England, 1732 44 45 May 27, 1777 1731 45 69 George Walton, Virginia, 1740 64 Feb. 2, 1804 II. REVOLUTIONARY REGISTER. FIRST CONTINENTAL ARMY, 1775. State. Date of Commission. GEORGE WASHINGTON, Virginia, June 15, 1775. Major Generals. State. Date of Comm. Major Generals. State. Date of Comm. Artemas Ward, Ms. June 17, 1775. Philip Schuyler, N. Y. June 19, 1775. Charles Lee, Va. do. 17, 1775. Israel Putnam, Con. do. 19, 1775. Adjutant General. State. Date of Commission. Horatio Gates, Virginia. June 17, 1775. Brigadier Generals. State. Date of Comm. Brigadier Generals. State. Date of Comm. Seth Pomeroy, Ms. June 22, 1775. Joseph Spencer, Con. June 22, 1775. Rich. Montgomery, N. Y. do. 22, 1775. John Thomas, Ms. do. 22, 1775. David Wooster, Con. do. 22. 1775. John Sullivan, N. H. do. 22, 1775. William Heath, Ms. do. 22, 1775. Nathaniel Greene, R. I. do. 22, 1775. CONTINENTAL ARMY IN 1783. State. Date of Commission. GEORGE WASHINGTON. Virginia. June 15, 1775. Major Generals. State. Date of Comm. | Major Generals. State. Date of Comm. Israel Putnam, Con. June 19, 1775. Robert Howe, N. C. Oct. 20, 1777. Horatio Gates, Va. May 16, 1776. Alex. McDougall, N. Y. do. 20, 1777. William Heath, Ms. Aug. 9, 1776. Baron Steuben, Pruss. May 5, 1773. Nathaniel Greene, R. I. do. 9, 1776. Wm. Smallwood, Md. Sept.15, 1780. Wm. Lord Stirling, N. J. Feb. 19, 1777. William Moultrie, S. C. Nov. 14, 1780. Arthur St. Clair, Penn. do. 19, 1777. Henry Knox, Ms. do. 15, 1780. Benjamin Lincoln, Ms. do. 19, 1777. Le Chev. du Portail, Fran. do. 16, 1780. M. de Lafayette, Fran. July 31, 1777. Brigadier Generals. State. Date of Comm. Brigadier Generals. State. Date of Comm. June 29, 1781. George Clinton, N. Y. Mar. 25,1777. C. H. Williams, Md. May 9, 1782. Edward Hand, Penn. April 1, 1777. John Greaton, Ms. Jan. 7, 1783. Charles Scott, Va. do. 2, 1777. Rufus Putnam, do. do. 7, 1783. Jed. Huntington, Con. May 12, 1777. Elias Dayton, N. J. do. 7, 1783. John Stark, N. H. Oct. 4, 1777. A TABLE showing the Force that Each of the Thirteen States supplied for the Regular Army from 1775 to 1783, inclusive. [From Niles's Register, July 31, 1330.] Regulars. Regulars. New Hampshire, 12,497. Delaware, 2,396. Massachusetts, 67,907. Maryland, 13,912 Rhode Island, 5,908. | Virginia, 26,678. Connecticut, 31,939. | North Carolina, 7,263. New York, 17,781. South Carolina, 6,417. New Jersey, 10,726. Georgia, 2,679. Pennsylvania, 25,678. Total 231,791. The total number of Continental Troops, according to the statement in the “ Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society,” published in the first volume of this Almanac, was 231,971; Militia, 56,163. Abstract of the Accounts of the respective States, for Expenses incurred during the Revolutionary War, as allowed by the Commissioners who finally settled said Accounts.—[From Pitkin’s History of the U. States.] Sums charged for advances by Expendi- Balances Balances United States, tures ex- found due found due STATES. for Expendi including the cluding all from the to the U. tures. assumption of advances. U.States. States. State debts. 3,782,974 46 1,977,609 46 1,805,366 299,611 Connecticut, 9,285,737 92 3,436,244 92 5,829,493 619,121 New York, 7,179,982 78 1,960,031 78 5,219,951 2,074,846 New Jersey, 5,342,770 52 1,343,321 52 3,999,449 49,030 Pennsylvania, 14,137,076 22 4,690,686 22 9,446,390 76,709 Delaware, 839,319 99 229,898 98 609,421 612,428 Maryland, 7,568,145 38 1,592,631 38 5,975,514 151,640 Virginia, 19,085,981 51 416 51 15,282,865 100,879 North Carolina, 10,427,586 13 3,151,358 13 7,276,228 501,082 South Carolina, 11,523,299 29 5,780,264 29 5,743,035 1,205,978 Georgia, 2,993,800 861 1,415,329 56 1,578,472 19,988 Peyton Randolph, III. PRESIDENTS OF CONGRESS from 1774 to 1788. Elected September 5, 1774. 10, 1775. Massachusetts, May 24, 1775. South Carolina, November 1, 1777. May * Mr. Randolph, five or six days before the adjournment of Congress, was prevented from attending by ill health, and Mr. Middleton was chosen to supply his place. When the next Congress met, May 10th, 1775, Peyton Randolph was again chosen president, but' being, on the 24th of the same month, obliged to return home, John Hancock was chosen to fill the vacancy. |