DECLARATION OF TAKING UP ARMS:
RESOLUTIONS OF THE SECOND
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
JULY 6, 1775 1
[Since the colonial governors had taken steps to prevent
the assemblies from naming delegates to the Second Continental Congress,
the representatives to that body were chosen by irregular conventions. For
this reason the Second Continental Congress was, from the beginning, an
extra-legal, if not a revolutionary, assembly rather than a
constitutionally authorized gathering. While it took steps to defend the
colonies, it did not gather in a mood to declare immediate independence.
To clarify its
position, Congress adopted the Declaration reproduced
below. The first draft is said to have been written by John Rutledge, but
no copy of it has been found (for a brief sketch of the life of Rutledge
see p. 258). An early draft of this document, written by Jefferson, proved
too strong for the committee (Journals of the Continental Congress,
1774-1789, II, 128 n.). It was redrafted and toned down by John Dickinson
(cf. p. 261) and adopted after debate, on July 6, in order that Washington
might publish it on his arrival at the camp before Boston.]
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 reverence for our great
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 desperate 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.
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 labor, and an unconquerable spirit, they effected
settlements in the distant and inhospitable wilds of America, then filled
with numerous and warlike nations of barbarians. Societies or governments,
vested with perfect legislatures, were formed under charters from the
crown, and a 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.
Toward the conclusion of that war, it pleased our sovereign to make a
change in his counsels. From that fatal moment, 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 of then subduing
her faithful friends.
These devoted colonies were judged to be in such a
state, as to present victories without bloodshed, and all the easy
emoluments of statutable plunder. The uninterrupted tenor of their
peaceable and respectful behavior from the beginning of colonization,
their dutiful, zealous, and useful services during the war, though so
recently and amply acknowledged in the most honorable 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 neighboring 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 offenses shall be transported to England to be tried.
Several threatening expressions against the colonies
were inserted in His Majesty's speech; our petition, though 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 amongst 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 in 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 enforce due obedience 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 entirely
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 maneuver 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 as 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 magistrates,
should have liberty to depart, taking with them their other effects. They
accordingly delivered up their arms, but in open violation of honor, 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 supersede 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 burned Charles-Town, 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 received 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 feels, 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. We are
reduced to the alternative of choosing 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. Honor, 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
favor toward 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 perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties;
being with our [one] mind resolved to die free men rather than 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 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 offense. They boast
of their privileges and civilization and yet proffer no milder conditions
than servitude or death.
In our own native land, in defense 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 forefathers 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 a 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.
By order of Congress,
JOHN HANCOCK,
President
President
Attested,
CHARLES THOMSON,
Secretary
Secretary
PHILADELPHIA, July 6th, 1775
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