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 sub

stance.

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 benefits 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 neighboring 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 the 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 unwarratable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these unsurpations, 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 necesity which denounces our separation, and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends.

We, therefore, the represenatives of the United States of America, in general congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world, for the recitude 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 disolved; and that as free and independent States they have full power to levy war, con

clude 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.

The foregoing declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed, and signed by the following members:

Ordered, That Mr. Bassett wait on the House of Assembly with the letter from the President of Congress and the attested copy of the Act of Independence, together with the foregoing resolution for their approbation and concurrence.

Mr. Bassett, being returned, reported that he had waited on the House of Assembly according to the order aforesaid.

A member from the House of Assembly, attending at the door, was admitted and returned to the Chair the bill entitled "An act for the more speedily completing the quota of troops, &c.," with the amendments proposed by this House to the said bill, to all of which the House of Assembly agreed except the 1st, 2d, 3d and 4th, and request that a committee of Council may be appointed to confer with a committee of the House of Assembly upon the said amendments not acceded to.

And the said proposal for a committee of conference being taken into consideration, Mr. Bassett, Mr. Cantwell, and Mr. Collins are appointed on the part of this House for that purpose.

Mr. Collins, a member of this House, and one of the commissioners appointed by the President and Council of this State to meet commissioners appointed by the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, at York town, in Pennsylvania, in pursuance of a resolve of Congress, for the purpose of considering and forming a system adapted to the said States for regulating the price of labour, of manufactures, and of internal produce within those States, and of goods imported from foreign parts, except military stores, laid a copy of the proceedings of the said commissioners before the Council.

On motion and order the same was read.

Ordered, That the same be sent to the House of Assembly for their perusal, and that Mr. Collins deliver the same.

Mr. Collins, being returned, reported that he had waited on the House of Assembly according to order.

On motion, by special order,

The resolutions of the House of Assembly were read the second time and concurred in.

Ordered, That Mr. Bassett wait on the House of Assembly with the said resolutions and concurrence of Council thereto.

Who, being returned, reported that he had waited on the House of Assembly according to the order aforesaid.

Ordered, That the following verbal message be transcribed, signed by the Speaker, and sent to the House of Assembly, to wit:

VERBAL MESSAGE TO THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY FROM THE COUNCIL.

Gentlemen:

The Council have acceded to your proposal for a conference, by committees to be appointed by both Houses, on the subject matter of the four first amendments proposed by the Council to