constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their
Acts of pretended Legislation:--For quartering large bodies of armed
troops among us:--For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment
for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these
States:--For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:--For
imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:--For depriving us in many
cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:--For transporting us beyond
Seas to be tried for pretended offences:--For abolishing the free System
of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an
Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render
it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same
absolute rule into these Colonies:--For taking away our Charters,
abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms
of our Governments:--For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring
themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases
whatsoever.--He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of
his Protection and waging War against us.--He has plundered our seas,
ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the Lives of our
people.--He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign
Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny,
already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely
paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head
of a civilized nation.--He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken
Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become
the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by
their Hands.--He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has
endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless
Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished
destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these
Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our