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Milestone
Events » Declaration
of Rights » Text Version

The Declaration of Rights - Full Text

Whereas, since the close of the last war, the
British Parliament, claiming a power of right to bind the people of
America, by statute, all cases whatsoever, hath in some acts
expressly imposed taxes on them and in others, under various
pretenses, but in fact for the purpose raising a revenue, hath
imposed rates and duties payable in these colonies established a
board of commissioners, with unconstitutional powers, and extended
the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty, not only for collecting the
said duties, but for the trial of causes merely arising within the
body of a county.

And whereas, in consequence of other statutes,
judges, who before held only estates at will in their offices, have
been made dependent on the Crown alone for their salaries, and
standing armies kept in time of peace. And whereas,
it has lately been resolved in Parliament, that by force of a
statute, made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Henry the
Eighth, colonists may be transported to England, and tried there
upon accusations for treasons, and misprisions, or concealments of
treasons committed in the colonies, and by a late statute, such
trials have been directed in cases therein mentioned.

And whereas, in the last session of Parliament,
three statutes were made; one, entitled "An act to discontinue, in
such manner and for such time as are therein mentioned, the landing
and discharging, lading, or shipping of goods, wares and
merchandise, at the town, and within the harbor of Boston, in the
province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America"; and another,
entitled "An act for the better regulating the government of the
province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England"; and another,
entitled "An act for the impartial administration of justice, in the
cases of persons questioned for any act done by them in the
execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults in
the province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England." And another
statute was then made, "for making more effectual provision for the
government of the province of Quebec, etc." All which statutes are
impolitic, unjust and cruel, as well as unconstitutional, and most
dangerous and destructive of American rights.

And whereas, assemblies have been frequently
dissolved, contrary to the rights of the people, when they attempted
to deliberate on grievances; and their dutiful, humble, loyal, and
reasonable petitions to the Crown for redress, have been repeatedly
treated with contempt by His Majesty's ministers of state:

The good people of the several colonies of New Hampshire,
Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Castle, Kent
and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and
South Carolina, justly alarmed at these arbitrary proceedings of
Parliament and administration, have severally elected, constituted,
and appointed deputies to meet and sit in general congress, in the
city of Philadelphia, in order to obtain such establishment, as that
their religion, laws, and liberties may not be subverted.

Whereupon the deputies so appointed being now assembled, in a
full and free representation of these colonies, taking into their
most serious consideration, the best means of attaining the ends
aforesaid, do, in the first place, as Englishmen, their ancestors in
like cases have usually done, for asserting and vindicating their
rights and liberties, declare,

That the inhabitants of the English colonies in North America, by
the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English
Constitution, and the several charters or compacts, have the
following rights:

Resolved, 1. That they are entitled to life,
liberty, and property, and they have never ceded to any sovereign
power whatever, a right to dispose of either without their consent.

Resolved, 2. That our ancestors, who first
settled these colonies, were at the time of their emigration from
the mother country, entitled to all the rights, liberties, and
immunities of free and natural-born subjects, within the realm of
England.

Resolved, 3. That by such emigration they by no
means forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of those rights, but that
they were, and their descendants now are, entitled to the exercise
and enjoyment of all such of them, as their local and other
circumstances enable them, to exercise and enjoy.

Resolved, 4. That the foundation of English
liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to
participate in their legislative council: and as the English
colonists are not represented, and from their local and other
circumstances, can not properly be represented in the British
Parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of
legislation in their several provincial legislatures, where their
right of representation can alone be preserved, in all cases of
taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their
sovereign, in such manner as has been heretofore used and
accustomed. But, from the necessity of the case, and a regard to the
mutual interest of both countries, we cheerfully consent to the
operation of such acts of the British Parliament, as are bona fide,
restrained to the regulation of our external commerce, for the
purpose of securing the commercial advantages of the whole empire to
the mother country, and the commercial benefits of its respective
members; excluding every idea of taxation, internal or eternal, for
raising a revenue on the subjects in America, without their consent.

Resolved, 5. That the respective colonies are
entitled to the common law of England, and more especially to the
great and inestimable privilege of being tried by their peers of the
vicinage, according to the course of that law.

Resolved, 6. That they are entitled to the
benefit of such of the English statutes as existed at the time of
their colonization; and which they have, by experience, respectively
found to be applicable to their several local and other
circumstances.

Resolved, 7. That these, His Majesty's colonies,
are likewise entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted
and confirmed to them by royal charters, or secured by their several
codes of provincial laws.

Resolved, 8. That they have a right peaceably to
assemble, consider of their grievances, and petition the King; and
that all prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitment for
the same, are illegal.

Resolved, 9. That the keeping a standing army in
these colonies, in times of peace, without the consent of the
legislature of that colony, in which such army is kept, is against
law.

Resolved, N. C. D. 10. It is indispensably
necessary to good government, and rendered essential by the English
constitution, that the constituent branches of the legislature be
independent of each other; that, therefore, the exercise of
legislative power in several colonies, by a council appointed,
during pleasure by the Crown, is unconstitutional, dangerous, and
destructive to the freedom of American legislation.

All and each of which the aforesaid deputies, in behalf of
themselves and their constituents, do claim, demand, and insist on,
as their indubitable rights and liberties; which can not be legally
taken from them, altered or abridged by any power whatever, without
their own consent, by their representatives in their several
provincial legislatures.

In the course of our inquiry, we find many infringements and
violations of the foregoing rights, which, from an ardent desire,
that harmony and mutual intercourse of affection and interest may be
restored, we pass over for the present, and proceed to state such
acts and measures as have been adopted since the last war, which
demonstrate a system formed to enslave America.

Resolved, N. C. D. That the following acts of
Parliament are infringements and violations of the rights of the
colonists; and that the repeal of them is essentially necessary in
order to restore harmony between Great Britain and the American
colonies, viz;

The several acts of 4 Geo. 3. ch. 15, and ch. 34.--5 Geo. 3. ch.
25.--6 Geo. 3. ch. 52.--7 Geo. 3. ch. 41, and ch. 46.--8 Geo. 3. ch.
22, which impose duties for the purpose of raising a revenue in
America, extend the powers of the admiralty court beyond their
ancient limits, deprive the American subject of trial by jury,
authorize the judges' certificate to indemnify the prosecutor from
damages, that he might otherwise be liable to, requiring oppressive
security from a claimant of ships and goods seized, before he shall
be allowed to defend his property, and are subversive of American
rights.

Also the 12 Geo. 3. ch. 24, entitled "An act for the better
securing His Majesty's dock yards, magazines, ships, ammunition, and
stores," which declares a new offense in America, and deprives the
American subject of a constitutional trial by jury of the vicinage,
by authorizing the trial of any person, charged with the committing
any offense described in the said act, out of the realm, to be
indicted and tried for the same in any shire or county within the
realm.

Also the three acts passed in the last session of Parliament, for
stopping the port and blocking up the harbor of Boston, for altering
the charter and government of the Massachusetts Bay, and that which
is entitled "An act for the better administration of justice," etc.

Also the act passed in the same session for establishing the
Roman Catholic religion in the province of Quebec, abolishing the
equitable system of English laws, and erecting a tyranny there, to
the great danger, from so total a dissimilarity of religion, law,
and government of the neighboring British colonies, by the assitance
of whose blood and treasure the said country was conquered from
France.

Also the act passed in the same session for the better providing
suitable quarters for officers and soldiers in His Majesty's service
in North America.

Also, that the keeping a standing army in several of these
colonies, in time of peace, without the consent of the legislature
of that colony in which such army is kept, is against law.

To these grievous acts and measures, Americans can not submit,
but in hopes that their fellow subjects in Great Britain will, on a
revision of them, restore us to that state in which both countries
found happiness and prosperity, we have for the present only
resolved to pursue the following peaceable measures:

1st. To enter into a non-importation,
non-consumption, and non exportation agreement or association.

2. To prepare an address to the people of Great
Britain, and a memorial to the inhabitants of British America, and

3. To prepare a loyal address to His Majesty;
agreeable to resolutions already entered into.

Appearing in a book entitled The Constitutions of the Several
Independent States of America, printed in London, 1783.

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