The True Life Stories of the Declaration of Independence Signers. Charles Augustus Goodrich
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petitions to the throne. We have applied to your justice for relief. We have retrenched our luxury, and withheld our trade.
"The advantages of our commerce were designed as a compensation for your protection: when you ceased to protect, for what were we to compensate?
"What has been the success of our endeavours? The clemency of our sovereign is unhappily diverted; our petitions are treated with indignity; our prayers answered by insults. Our application to you remains unnoticed, and leaves us the melancholy apprehension of your wanting either the will, or the power, to assist us."
After reminding them, that the loss of liberty in America would only be a prelude to its loss in Great Britain, they conclude: "A cloud hangs over your head and ours; ere this reaches you, it may probably burst upon us; let us then, (before the remembrance of former kindness is obliterated,) once more repeat these appellations, which are ever grateful to our ears; let us entreat heaven to avert our ruin, and the destruction that threatens our friends, brethren, and countrymen, on the other side of the Atlantic."
Having thus done all which the most scrupulous conscience could demand, congress proceeded to adopt measures to place the country in a proper attitude of defence, by organizing an army, and appointing the necessary military officers. On the 15th of June, George Washington, by the united voice of congress, was appointed commander-in-chief of the army then raised, or to be raised, for the defence of American liberty.
Washington was, at that time, a member of congress, and in a measure prepared to decide on the important question of acceptance. On the day following, he appeared in the house, and, standing in his place, said, that he thanked congress for the honour they had conferred upon him; but that he felt great distress, from a consciousness that his abilities and military experience were not equal to the extensive and important trust; "however, as the congress desire it, I will enter upon the momentous duty, and exert every power I possess in their service, and for the support of the glorious cause. I beg they will accept my most cordial thanks for this distinguished testimony of their approbation.
"But lest some unlucky event should happen, unfavourable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room, that I this day declare, with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honoured with.
"As to pay, sir, I beg leave to assure the congress, that as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept this arduous employment, at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it; I will keep an exact account of my expenses. These, I doubt not, they will discharge, and that is all I desire."
During the winter of 1776, the subject of a Declaration Of Independence, occupied the attention of many men in all parts of the country. The ablest pens also were employed on this momentous subject. The propriety and necessity of the measure was enforced in the numerous gazettes, and in pamphlets. Among the latter, Common Sense, from the popular pen of Thomas Paine, produced a wonderful effect in the different colonies in favour of independence. Influential individuals urged it as a step absolutely necessary to preserve the rights and liberties of America, and effectually secure her happiness and prosperity.
In the ensuing spring, several of the colonies, by means of their assemblies, expressed their sentiments in favour of independence, and instructed their delegates in the general congress to propose to that respectable body, to declare the united colonies free and independent states. On the seventh of June, Richard Henry Lee, one of the delegates from Virginia, brought the great question of independence before the house, by submitting the following resolution: "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."
This resolution was postponed until the next day, when it was debated in committee of the whole. On the 10th, it was adopted by a bare majority of the colonies. To give time for greater unanimity, the resolution was postponed in the house, until the first of July. In the mean time, a committee, consisting of Mr. Jefferson, John Adams, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Sherman, and R. R. Livingston, was appointed to prepare a declaration of independence. The committee thus appointed, selected Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, as a sub-committee. The draft made by Mr. Jefferson, was the one reported to congress. It was discussed on the second, and third, and fourth days of the month, in committee of the whole ; and on the last of those days, being reported from that committee, it received the final approbation and sanction of congress. It was ordered at the same time, that copies be sent to the several states, and that it be proclaimed at the head of the army. The declaration thus published, did not bear the names of the members, for as yet it had not been signed by them. It was authenticated, like other papers of the congress, by the signatures of the president and secretary. On the 19th of July, as appears by the secret journal, congress "Resolved, That the declaration, passed on the fourth, be fairly engrossed on parchment, with the title and style of 'The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of congress." And on the second day of August following, the declaration being engrossed and compared at the table, was signed by the members.
The declaration thus adopted, and which gave birth to a new empire, was as follows:
"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 a 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 along 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 oi 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 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,