made a naval officer of the colony, and was authorized to appoint subordinate officers in each of the following ports, viz: New London, New Haven, Middletown, and Norwalk. A maritime jurisdiction was also given to the County Courts. By another Act, all the troops of horse in the colony were formed into five regiments of light-horse. Large detachments of militia were

any person, as such land and the buildings and improvements thereon, shall "be estimated according to such mode as the United States, in Congress assem. "bled, shall from time to time direct and appoint. And if by the application "of the two criterions there appears a difference in the relative wealth and ability of the States, a medium shall be struck by the United States in Congress assembled-and the proportion of money to be paid by each State, shall "be settled by that medium. The taxes, &c. &c."

66

And upon either of the aforesaid amendments being agreed on, the delegates of this Stato are hereby authorized and directed, fully and amply to confirm and ratify said confederation, together with any such alterations or amendments in any other article or articles as shall be finally agreed on by a majority of the States, in Congress assembled, which they shall think just and rea sonable.

In the Lower House.

On report of the committee of conference, the further consideration of this Bill is referred to the next session of this Assembly.

Test,

In the Lower House.

BENJAMIN PAYNE, Clerk.

The foregoing Bill being read and discussed is ordered to be recommitted to the same committee that brought it in.

William Pitkin and Samuel Huntington, Esq'rs., are appointed to confer with such gentlemen as the Lower House shall appoint, on the differing votes of the Houses on this Bill.

Test,

In the Lower House.

GEORGE WYLLYS, Secretary.

Capt. Halsey, Col. Porter, and Mr. Mumford, are appointed a committee of conference on the differing votes of the Houses, on this Bill, &c.

Test,

BENJAMIN PAYNE, Clerk.

ordered to hold themselves in constant readiness to march at the shortest notice, for the defence of any portion of Connecticut, or the adjoining colonies.

One regiment was ordered to be raised for the continental service, and another to be stationed about New London. Sixty thousand pounds, in bills of credit, equal to lawful money, were

Concurred in the Lower House.

Attest,

BENJAMIN HUNTINGTON, Clerk.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.

THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands 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 are created equal, that they are endowed, by their CREATOR, 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 shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abol. ishing 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 is a history of repeated inju ries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

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

issued, bearing interest, and payable at or before the first day of January, 1781; and a tax of eight pence on the pound was laid on all polls and rateable estate in the colony.

At a special session, held in June, 1776, an act was passed to raise by enlistment, two regiments to reinforce the continental army in the northern department. David Waterbury, Jr., 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 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 officers to harrass 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 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:

Stamford, was appointed Brigadier General, and Samuel Mott, of Preston, and Heman Swift, of Cornwall, were appointed Colonels of this detachment. At the same special session, seven regiments, including the one raised in May, were ordered to march immediately and join the continental army in New York, (to be holden in service until the 25th of December, 1776.)

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 circunstances 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 magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connexions 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 or 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 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 connexion between them and the State of Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDE

James Wadsworth, Jr. was appointed Brigadier General. The Colonels were Gold S. Silliman, of Fairfield, Charles Webb, of Stamford, Philip B. Bradley, of Ridgefield, Jedediah Huntington, of Norwich, Fisher Gay, of Farmington, Comfort Sage, of Middletown, and John Douglass, of Plainfield. Some of these did not accept of the appointment, and others were appointed in their places.

PENDENT STATES, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and 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. MASSACHUSETTS BAY--Sam'l. Adams, John Adams, Rob't. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.

RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE, &c.-Step. Hopkins, William Ellery. CONNECTICUT Roger Sherman, Sam'l. Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott.

DELAWARE-Cæsar Rodney, Geo. Read.

NEW YORK-Wm. Floyd, Phil, Livingston, Fran's. Lewis, Lewis Morris. NEW JERSEY Rich'd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fra's. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark.

NEW HAMPSHIRE-Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton. VIRGINIA-George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Th's. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Tho's. Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.

PENNSYLVANIA-Rob't. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Ja's. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross. GEORGIA-Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.

NORTH CAROLINA-Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.

SOUTH CAROLINA-Edward Rutledge, Tho's. Heyward, Jun'r., Thomas Lynch, Jun'r, Arthur Middleton.

MARYLAND-Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Tho's. Stone, Charles Carroll, of

Carrollton.

ORDERED,

IN CONGRESS, January 18, 1777.

That an authentic Copy of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCY, with the names of the MEMBERS of CONGRESS, subscribing the same, be sent to each of the UNITED STATES, and that they be desired to have the same put on RECORD.

By order of CONGRESS,

JOHN HANCOCK, President.

Attest,

A true copy,

CHA'S. THOMSON, Secretary. JOHN HANCOCK, President.