Trumbull Gallery of Paintings in Yale College. 219 
No. 2.—Five Heaps. Oil Miniatures. 
Henry Lawrence, President of Congress, 1791. 
Joun Jay, Chief Justice of the United States, 1792. 
Joun Apams, Vice President of the United States, 1792. 
Grorce Hammonp, Minister from Great Britain, 1792. 
Trmpce F'ranxuin, grandson of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, 1792. 
No. 3.—T ne Battie or Bunxer’s Hiwt.—June 17, 1775. 
The Revolution which effected the separation of the British 
Colonies in North America from the parent state, and laid the foun- 
dation of the present United States, forms, and will forever remain, 
the most interesting period of human history. There have been 
many wars, in ancient as well as modern times, marked by more 
extensive devastation and ruin, but these have generally resulted 
in the establishment of some new variety of despotism, or some 
mere change of dynasty ; while this Revolution has not only pro- 
duced the establishment of a new and mighty empire, but an em- 
pire founded on a new principle,—the principle that man, under 
the guidance of the representative system, is capable of govern- 
ing himself, without the aid of antocracy, oligarchy, or aristocracy. 
The experiment is sublime,—has hitherto proved successful ; and 
may Providence secure its lasting success, so that its influence, 
which is already extensively felt by many nations, may perma- 
nently affect the happiness of the human race. 
Among the many unwise measures of the British Government, 
of which it is the province of history to preserve the unhappy 
record, perhaps no one had a more fatal effect in alienating the 
minds of the colonists, or led more directly or more surely to 
great result of separation, than the act of Parliament, passed in 
the year 1766, known by the name of the declaratory act, which, 
with a strange and blind fatality, accompanied the auspicious re- 
peal of the Stamp Act. By this it was declared, “that the Brit- 
ish Parliament had the right to pass laws binding the colonies in 
all cases whatsoever.” 
- This declaration was in such direct contradiction to the univer- 
sally received opinion of the British people, that representation, 
taxation, and legislation, were inseparably connected ; that it at 
once revolted the feelings of all thinking men in the colonies ; 
cancelled the otherwise salutary effect of the repeal of the obnox- 
ious Stamp Act, and gave rise to a series of the most eloquent and 
