GOVERNMENT AND LAW. 



cumstancea of our emigration and settlement 

 here. We have appealed to their native justice 

 and magnanimity, and we have conjured them 

 by the ties of our common kindred to disavow 

 these usurpations, which would inevitably in- 

 terrupt our connections and correspondence. 

 They too have been deaf to the voice of justice 

 and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, 

 acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our 

 separation, and hold them, as we hold the 

 rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace 

 friends. 



We, therefore, the Representatives of the 

 United States of America, in General Congress 

 assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of 

 the world for the rectitude of our intentions, 

 do, in the name, and by authority of the good 

 people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and 

 declare, That these United Colonies are, and 

 of right ought to be, free and independent 

 States; that they are absolved from all alle- 

 giance to the British crown, and that all politi- 

 cal connection between them and the State of 

 Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dis- 

 solved ; and that as free and independent States, 

 they have full power to levy war, conclude 

 peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, 

 and to do all other acts and things which inde- 

 pendent States may of right do. And for the 

 support of this declaration, with a firm re- 

 liance on the protection of Divine Providence, 

 we mutually pledge to each other our lives, 

 our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Josiah Bartlett, 

 William Whipple, 

 Matthew Thornton. 



MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 



Samuel Adams, 

 John Adams, 

 Robert Treat Paine, 

 Elbridge Gerry. 



RHODE ISLAND. 



Stephen Hopkins, 

 William Ellery. 



CONNECTICUT.' 



Roger Sherman, 

 Samuel Huntington, 

 William Williams, 

 Oliver Wclcott. 



NEW YORK. 



William Floyd, 

 Philip Livingston, 

 Francis Lewis, 

 Lewis Morris. 



NEW JERSEY. 



Richard Stockton, 

 John Witherspoon, 

 Francis Hopkinson, 

 John Hart, 

 Abraham Clark. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



Robert Morris, 

 Benjamin Rush, 

 Benjamin Franklin, 

 John Morton, 

 George Clymer, 



James Smith, 

 George Taylor, 

 James Wilson, 

 George Ross. 



DELAWARE. 



Caesar Rodney, 

 George Read, 

 Thomas M'Kean. 



MARYLAND. 



Samuel Chase, 

 William Paco, 

 Thomas Stone, 

 Charles Carroll, of Car- 

 rollton. 



VIRGINIA. 

 George Wythe, 

 Richard Henry Lee, 

 Thomas Jefferson, 

 Benjamin Harrison, 

 Thomas Nelson, Jr., 

 Francis Lightfoot Lee. 

 Carter Braxton. 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



William Hooper, 

 Joseph Hewes, 

 John Penn. 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 



Edward Rutledge, 

 Thomas Hey ward, Jr., 

 Thomas Lynch, Jr., 

 Arthur Middle ton. 



GEORGIA. 



Button Gwinnett, 

 Lyman Hall, 

 George Walton. 



IN CONGRESS, ) 

 Ordered: JANUARY 18, 1777. f 



That an authenticated copy of the Declaration of 

 Independence, with the names of the members of Con- 

 gress subscribing the same, be sent to each of the 

 United States, and that they be desired to have the 

 same put on record. 

 By order of Congress. 



JOHN HANCOCK, President. 

 Attest, CHAS. THOMSON, Secy. 

 A true copy. 



JOHN HANCOCK, Presidt. 



THE MECKLENBURG DECLARA- 

 TION. 



Some thirteen months previous to the sign- 

 ing of the great Declaration of Independence 

 there was drawn up a document in Mecklen- 

 burg County, N. C., that was almost a model 

 in wording and sentiment of the great charter 

 of American liberty. There are different ac- 

 counts of the matter, but the most reliable is 

 this : 



At a public meeting of the residents of 

 Mecklenburg County, in the State of North 

 Carolina, held at Charlotte on the 20th day of 

 May, 1775, it was 



' ' Resolved, That whenever directly or indi- 

 rectly abetted, or in any way, form, or manner 

 countenanced, the unchartered and dangerous 

 invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great 

 Britain, is an enemy of our country to 

 America and to the inherent and inalienable 

 rights of man. 



" Resolved, That we, the citizens of Meck- 

 lenburg County, do hereby dissolve the politi- 

 cal bonds which have connected us to the 

 mother-country, and hereby absolve ourselves 

 from all allegiance to the British crown, and 

 abjure all political connection, contract or 

 association with that nation, which has wan- 

 tonly trampled on our rights and liberties and 

 inhumanly shed the blood of American pa- 

 triots at Lexington. 



' ' Resolved^ Tha.t we do hereby declare our- 

 selves a free and independent people': are and 

 of right ought to be a sovereign and self-gov- 

 erning association, under the control of no 

 power other than that of our God and the gen- 

 eral government of the Congress. To the 

 maintenance of which independence we sol- 

 emnly pledge to each other our mutual co- 

 operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our 

 sacred honor." 



Two other resolutions in the same docu- 

 ment, regarding administration of the law and 

 regulating the militia, having no present value, 

 are omitted. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED 

 STATES OF AMERICA. 



(Went into operation first Wednesday in March, 1789.) 



Preamble. We, the people of the United 



States, in order to form a more perfect union, 



