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A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
Journals of the Continental Congress --THURSDAY, JULY 4, 1776
Resolved, That an application be made to the committee of safety of Pensylvania for a supply of flints for the troops at New York: and that the colony of Maryland and Delaware be requested to embody their militia for the flying camp, with all expedition, and to march them, without delay, to the city of Philadelphia.
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Agreeable to the order of the day, the Congress resolved itself into a committee of the whole, to take into their farther consideration, the declaration; ¶and, after some time,∥ the president resumed the chair. Mr. [Benjamin] Harrison reported, that the committee of the whole Congress have agreed to a Declaration, which he delivered in.
The Declaration being again read, was agreed to as follows:
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
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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 is a history of repeated injuries 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 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.
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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 endeavoured 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:
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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 neighbouring 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 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 compleat 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 endeavoured 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
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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 Brittish 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 theunited States of America, inGeneral 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 beFree 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, asFree andIndependent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things whichIndependent 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
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to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honour.
∥The foregoing declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed, and signed by the following members:∥1
[Note 1: 1 The text used is that of the engrossed original in the Department of State.]
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Ordered, That the declaration be authenticated and printed.
That the committee appointed to prepare the declaration, superintend and correct the press.
That copies of the declaration be sent to the several assemblies, conventions and committees, or councils of safety, and to the several commanding officers of the continental troops; that it be proclaimed in each of the United States, and at the head of the army.1
[Note 1: 1 "A determined resolution of the Delegates from some of the Colonies to push the question of Independency has had a most happy effect, and after a day's debate, all the Colonies, except New York, whose Delegates are not empowered to give either an affirmative or negative voice, united in a declaration long sought for, solicited, and necessary--the Declaration of Independency."Elbridge Gerry to General Warren, 5 July, 1776.
The Declaration was printed in thePennsylvania Evening Post, 6 July, 1776, and in thePennsylvania Gazette, 10 July, 1776. See theBibliographical Notes at the end of this year.]
Ordered, That Mr. [Robert] Morris and Mr. [Joseph] Hewes determine the hire of Mr. Walker's vessel, which was employed by Commodore Hopkins in the service of the continent.
A Letter from General Washington, dated New York, July 3d, was laid before Congress, and read:2
[Note 2: 2 This letter is in thePapers of the Continental Congress, No. 152, II, folio 149. It is printed inWritings of Washington (Ford), IV, 200.]
Resolved, That the delegates of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, be a committee to confer with the committee of safety of Pennsylvania, and committee of inspection of [and observation for] the city and liberties of Philadelphia, and the field officers of the batallions of the said city and liberties, on the best means of defending the colonies of New Jersey and Pennsylvania; and that they be empowered to send expresses where necessary:
That the Secret Committee be instructed to order the flints belonging to the continent, and now at Rhode Island, to be sent to the general at New York.
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Resolved, That Mr. [Henry] Wisner be empowered to send a man, at the public expence, to Orange county, for a sample of flint stone.
The Congress proceeded to the appointment of two commissioners for Indian affairs in the middle department; and, the ballots being taken,
Jasper Yeates and John Montgomery, Esqrs. were elected.
That Dr. [Benjamin] Franklin and Mr. [James] Wilson are desired to inform the above gentlemen of their appointment, and desire them to attend the treaty with the Indians at Pittsburg, on the day appointed; They are farther desired to appoint some persons to procure goods necessary for the Indians.
Resolved, That to morrow be assigned for filling up the vacancies in the committee for Indian affairs.
That the president be empowered to employ another ∥private∥ secretary.
Resolved, That the Board of War be empowered to employ such a number of persons, as they shall find necessary, to manufacture flints for the continent; and, for this purpose, to apply to the respective assemblies, conventions and councils, or committees of safety of the United American States, or committees of Inspection of the counties and towns thereunto belonging, for the names and places of abode of persons skilled in the manufactory aforesaid, and of the places, in their respective states, where the best flint stones are to be obtained, with samples of the same.1
[Note 1: 1 Printed in thePennsylvania Gazette, 10 July, 1776.]
Resolved, That an order for 27/=54/90ths dollars, be drawn on the treasurers, in favour of the express, who brought despatches from Trenton.
Resolved, That Dr. [Benjamin] Franklin, Mr. J[ohn] Adams and Mr. [Thomas] Jefferson, be a committee, to
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bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America.
Resolved, That the Secret Committee be instructed to sell 25 lb. of powder to John Garrison, of North Carolina.
Adjourned to 9 o'Clock to Morrow.
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