Declaration of
the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms
July 6, 1775
A declaration
by the representatives of the united colonies of
North America,
now met in Congress at Philadelphia,
setting forth
the causes and necessity of their taking up arms.
If it was possible
for men, who exercise their reason to believe,
that the divine
Author of our existence intended a part
of the human
race to hold an absolute property in, and an unbounded power
over others,
marked out by his infinite goodness
and wisdom, as
the objects of a legal domination never rightfully
resistible, however
severe and oppressive, the inhabitants of
these colonies
might at least require from the parliament of Great-Britain
some evidence,
that this dreadful authority over them,
has been granted
to that body. But a reverance for our Creator, principles
of humanity,
and the dictates of common sense,
must convince
all those who reflect upon the subject, that government was
instituted to
promote the welfare of mankind, and
ought to be administered
for the attainment of that end. The legislature of
Great-Britain,
however, stimulated by an inordinate
passion for a
power not only unjustifiable, but which they know to be
peculiarly reprobated
by the very constitution of that
kingdom, and
desparate of success in any mode of contest, where regard
should be had
to truth, law, or right, have at length,
deserting those,
attempted to effect their cruel and impolitic purpose of
enslaving these
colonies by violence, and have thereby
rendered it necessary
for us to close with their last appeal from reason to
arms. Yet, however
blinded that assembly may be,
by their intemperate
rage for unlimited domination, so to sight justice and
the opinion of
mankind, we esteem ourselves bound
by obligations
of respect to the rest of the world, to make known the
justice of our
cause. Our forefathers, inhabitants of the
island of Great-Britain,
left their native land, to seek on these shores a
residence for
civil and religious freedom. At the
expense of their
blood, at the hazard of their fortunes, without the least
charge to the
country from which they removed, by
unceasing labour,
and an unconquerable spirit, they effected settlements in
the distant and
unhospitable wilds of America, then
filled with numerous
and warlike barbarians. -- Societies or governments,
vested with perfect
legislatures, were formed under
charters from
the crown, and an harmonious intercourse was established
between the colonies
and the kingdom from which
they derived
their origin. The mutual benefits of this union became in a
short time so
extraordinary, as to excite astonishment. It
is universally
confessed, that the amazing increase of the wealth, strength,
and navigation
of the realm, arose from this source;
and the minister,
who so wisely and successfully directed the measures of
Great-Britain
in the late war, publicly declared, that
these colonies
enabled her to triumph over her enemies. --Towards the
conclusion of
that war, it pleased our sovereign to
make a change
in his counsels. -- From that fatal movement, the affairs of
the British empire
began to fall into confusion, and
gradually sliding
from the summit of glorious prosperity, to which they had
been advanced
by the virtues and abilities of one
man, are at length
distracted by the convulsions, that now shake it to its
deepest foundations.
-- The new ministry finding the
brave foes of
Britain, though frequently defeated, yet still contending,
took up the unfortunate
idea of granting them a hasty
peace, and then
subduing her faithful friends.
These colonies
were judged to be in such a state, as to present
victories without
bloodshed, and all the easy
emoluments of
statuteable plunder. -- The uninterrupted tenor of their
peaceable and
respectful behaviour from the beginning
of colonization,
their dutiful, zealous, and useful services during the war,
though so recently
and amply acknowledged in the
most honourable
manner by his majesty, by the late king, and by parliament,
could not save
them from the meditated
innovations.
-- Parliament was influenced to adopt the pernicious project,
and assuming
a new power over them, have in the
course of eleven
years, given such decisive specimens of the spirit and
consequences
attending this power, as to leave no
doubt concerning
the effects of acquiescence under it. They have undertaken
to give and grant
our money without our
consent, though
we have ever exercised an exclusive right to dispose of our
own property;
statutes have been passed for
extending the
jurisdiction of courts of admiralty and vice-admiralty beyond
their ancient
limits; for depriving us of the
accustomed and
inestimable privilege of trial by jury, in cases affecting
both life and
property; for suspending the legislature of
one of the colonies;
for interdicting all commerce to the capital of
another; and
for altering fundamentally the form of
government established
by charter, and secured by acts of its own
legislature solemnly
confirmed by the crown; for exempting
the "murderers"
of colonists from legal trial, and in effect, from
punishment; for
erecting in a neighbouring province, acquired
by the joint
arms of Great-Britain and America, a despotism dangerous to our
very existence;
and for quartering soldiers upon
the colonists
in time of profound peace. It has also been resolved in
parliament, that
colonists charged with committing certain
offences, shall
be transported to England to be tried. But why should we
enumerate our
injuries in detail? By one statute it is
declared, that
parliament can "of right make laws to bind us in all cases
whatsoever."
What is to defend us against so
enormous, so
unlimited a power? Not a single man of those who assume it, is
chosen by us;
or is subject to our control or
influence; but,
on the contrary, they are all of them exempt from the
operation of
such laws, and an American revenue, if not
diverted from
the ostensible purposes for which it is raised, would actually
lighten their
own burdens in proportion, as they
increase ours.
We saw the misery to which such despotism would reduce us. We
for ten years
incessantly and ineffectually
besieged the
throne as supplicants; we reasoned, we remonstrated with
parliament, in
the most mild and decent language.
Administration
sensible that we should regard these oppressive
measures as freemen
ought to do, sent over fleets and
armies to enforce
them. The indignation of the Americans was roused, it is
true; but it
was the indignation of a virtuous, loyal,
and affectionate
people. A Congress of delegates from the United Colonies
was assembled
at Philadelphia, on the fifth day of
last September.
We resolved again to offer an humble and dutiful petition to
the King, and
also addressed our fellow-subjects
of Great-Britain.
We have pursued every temperate, every respectful measure;
we have even
proceeded to break off our
commercial intercourse
with our fellow-subjects, as the last peaceable
admonition, that
our attachment to no nation upon earth
should supplant
our attachment to liberty. -- This, we flattered ourselves,
was the ultimate
step of the controversy: but
subsequent events
have shewn, how vain was this hope of finding moderation
in our enemies.
Several threatening
expressions against the colonies were inserted
in his majesty's
speech; our petition, tho' we were
told it was a
decent one, and that his majesty had been pleased to receive
it graciously,
and to promise laying it before his
parliament, was
huddled into both houses among a bundle of American papers,
and there neglected.
The lords and commons
in their address,
in the month of February, said, that "a rebellion at that
time actually
existed within the province of
Massachusetts-
Bay; and that those concerned with it, had been countenanced
and encouraged
by unlawful combinations and
engagements,
entered into by his majesty's subjects in several of the other
colonies; and
therefore they besought his majesty,
that he would
take the most effectual measures to inforce due obediance to
the laws and
authority of the supreme legislature."
-- Soon after,
the commercial intercourse of whole colonies, with foreign
countries, and
with each other, was cut off by an act
of parliament;
by another several of them were intirely prohibited from the
fisheries in
the seas near their coasts, on which they
always depended
for their sustenance; and large reinforcements of ships and
troops were immediately
sent over to general
Gage.
Fruitless were
all the entreaties, arguments, and eloquence of an
illustrious band
of the most distinguished peers, and
commoners, who
nobly and strenuously asserted the justice of our cause, to
stay, or even
to mitigate the heedless fury with
which these accumulated
and unexampled outrages were hurried on. -- equally
fruitless was
the interference of the city of
London, of Bristol,
and many other respectable towns in our favor.
Parliament adopted
an insidious manoeuvre calculated to
divide us, to
establish a perpetual auction of taxations where colony should
bid against colony,
all of them uninformed what
ransom would
redeem their lives; and thus to extort from us, at the point of
the bayonet,
the unknown sums that should be
sufficient to
gratify, if possible to gratify, ministerial rapacity, with
the miserable
indulgence left to us of raising, in our own
mode, the prescribed
tribute. What terms more rigid and humiliating could
have been dictated
by remorseless victors to
conquered enemies?
in our circumstances to accept them, would be to deserve
them.
Soon after the
intelligence of these proceedings arrived on this
continent, general
Gage, who in the course of the last
year had taken
possession of the town of Boston, in the province of
Massachusetts-Bay,
and still occupied it a garrison, on
the 19th day
of April, sent out from that place a large detachment of his
army, who made
an unprovoked assault on the
inhabitants of
the said province, at the town of Lexington, as appears by
the affidavits
of a great number of persons, some of
whom were officers
and soldiers of that detachment, murdered eight of the
inhabitants,
and wounded many others. From
thence the troops
proceeded in warlike array to the town of Concord, where
they set upon
another party of the inhabitants of
the same province,
killing several and wounding more, until compelled to
retreat by the
country people suddenly assembled to
repel this cruel
aggression. Hostilities, thus commenced by the British
troops, have
been since prosecuted by them without
regard to faith
or reputation. -- The inhabitants of Boston being confined
within that town
by the general their governor, and
having, in order
to procure their dismission, entered into a treaty with
him, it was stipulated
that the said inhabitants having
deposited their
arms with their own magistrate, should have liberty to
depart, taking
with them their other effects. They
accordingly delivered
up their arms, but in open violation of honour, in
defiance of the
obligation of treaties, which even savage
nations esteemed
sacred, the governor ordered the arms deposited as
aforesaid, that
they might be preserved for their
owners, to be
seized by a body of soldiers; detained the greatest part of
the inhabitants
in the town, and compelled the few
who were permitted
to retire, to leave their most valuable effects behind.
By this perfidy
wives are separated from their husbands, children
from their parents,
the aged and the sick from their
relations and
friends, who wish to attend and comfort them; and those who
have been used
to live in plenty and even
elegance, are
reduced to deplorable distress.
The general,
further emulating his ministerial masters, by a
proclamation
bearing date on the 12th day of June, after
venting the grossest
falsehoods and calumnies against the good people of
these colonies,
proceeds to "declare them all, either
by name or description,
to be rebels and traitors, to supercede the course
of the common
law, and instead thereof to publish
and order the
use and exercise of the law martial." -- His troops have
butchered our
countrymen, have wantonly burnt
Charlestown,
besides a considerable number of houses in other places; our
ships and vessels
are seized; the necessary
supplies of provisions
are intercepted, and he is exerting his utmost power
to spread destruction
and devastation around him.
We have rceived
certain intelligence, that general Carleton, the
governor of Canada,
is instigating the people of that
province and
the Indians to fall upon us; and we have but too much reason to
apprehend, that
schemes have been formed to
excite domestic
enemies against us. In brief, a part of these colonies now
feel, and all
of them are sure of feeling, as far as the
vengeance of
administration can inflict them, the complicated calamities of
fire, sword and
famine. [1] We are reduced to the
alternative of
chusing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of
irritated ministers,
or resistance by force. -- The latter is
our choice. --
We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so
dreadful as voluntary
slavery. -- Honour, justice,
and humanity,
forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received
from our gallant
ancestors, and which our
innocent posterity
have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the
infamy and guilt
of resigning succeeding generations
to that wretchedness
which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail
hereditary bondage
upon them.
Our cause is
just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources
are great, and,
if necessary, foreign assistance is
undoubtedly attainable.
-- We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of
the Divine favour
towards us, that his Providence
would not permit
us to be called into this severe controversy, until we were
grown up to our
present strength, had been
previously exercised
in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of
defending ourselves.
With hearts fortified with these
animating reflections,
we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare,
that, exerting
the utmost energy of those powers,
which our beneficent
Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we
have been compelled
by our enemies to
assume, we will,
in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and
perseverence,
employ for the preservation of our
liberties; being
with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live
slaves.
Lest this declaration
should disquiet the minds of our friends and
fellow-subjects
in any part of the empire, we assure
them that we
mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so
happily subsisted
between us, and which we sincerely
wish to see restored.
-- Necessity has not yet driven us into that desperate
measure, or induced
us to excite any other nation
to war against
them. -- We have not raised armies with ambitious designs of
separating from
Great-Britain, and establishing
independent states.
We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to
mankind the remarkable
spectacle of a people
attacked by unprovoked
enemies, without any imputation or even suspicion of
offence. They
boast of their privileges and
civilization,
and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death.
In our own native
land, in defence of the freedom that is our
birthright, and
which we ever enjoyed till the late violation
of it -- for
the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest
industry of our
fore-fathers and ourselves, against
violence actually
offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down
when hostilities
shall cease on the part of the
aggressors, and
all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not
before.
With an humble
confidence in the mercies of the supreme and
impartial Judge
and Ruler of the Universe, we most
devoutly implore
his divine goodness to protect us happily through this
great conflict,
to dispose our adversaries to
reconciliation
on reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from
the calamities
of civil war.
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