Politically Incorrect Guide To The Constitution (Politically Incorrect Guides) (39 page)

The Congress of the United States
shall have power to adjourn to any
time within the year, and to any place
within the United States, so that no
period of adjournment be for a longer
duration than the space of six months,
and shall publish the journal of their
proceedings monthly, except such
parts thereof relating to treaties,
alliances or military operations, as in
their judgement require secrecy; and
the yeas and nays of the delegates of
each State on any question shall be
entered on the journal, when it is
desired by any delegates of a State, or
any of them, at his or their request
shall be furnished with a transcript of
the said journal, except such parts as
are above excepted, to lay before the
legislatures of the several States.

Article X. The Committee of the
States, or any nine of them, shall be
authorized to execute, in the recess of
Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the United States in Congress
assembled, by the consent of the nine
States, shall from time to time think
expedient to vest them with; provided
that no power be delegated to the said

Committee, for the exercise of which, by
the Articles of Confederation, the voice
of nine States in the Congress of the
United States assembled be requisite.

Article XI. Canada acceding to this
confederation, and adjoining in the
measures of the United States, shall be
admitted into, and entitled to all the
advantages of this Union; but no other
colony shall be admitted into the
same, unless such admission be
agreed to by nine States.

Article XII. All bills of credit emitted, monies borrowed, and debts contracted by, or under the authority of
Congress, before the assembling of the
United States, in pursuance of the
present confederation, shall be
deemed and considered as a charge
against the United States, for payment
and satisfaction whereof the said
United States, and the public faith are
hereby solemnly pledged.

Article XIII. Every State shall
abide by the determination of the
United States in Congress assembled,
on all questions which by this confederation are submitted to them. And
the Articles of this Confederation shall
be inviolably observed by every State,
and the Union shall be perpetual; nor
shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them; unless
such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be
afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State.

And Whereas it hath pleased the
Great Governor of the World to incline
the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to approve
of, and to authorize us to ratify the said
Articles of Confederation and perpetual
Union. Know Ye that we the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power
and authority to us given for that purpose, do by these presents, in the name
and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and

confirm each and every of the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual
Union, and all and singular the matters
and things therein contained: And we
do further solemnly plight and engage
the faith of our respective constituents,
that they shall abide by the determinations of the United States in Congress
assembled, on all questions, which by
the said Confederation are submitted to
them. And that the Articles thereof
shall be inviolably observed by the
States we respectively represent, and
that the Union shall be perpetual.

In Witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in Congress. Done
at Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania the ninth day of July in the
Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven
Hundred and Seventy-Eight, and in
the Third Year of the independence of
America.

On the part and behalf of the State
of New Hampshire:

Josiah Bartlett

John Wentworth Junr. August 8th
1778

On the part and behalf of the State
of Massachusetts Bay:

John Hancock

Samuel Adams

Elbridge Gerry

Francis Dana

James Lovell

Samuel Holton

On the part and behalf of the State
of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations:

William Ellery

Henry Marchand

John Collins

On the part and behalf of the State
of Connecticut:

Roger Sherman

Samuel Huntington

Oliver Wolcott

Titus Hosmer

Andrew Adams

On the part and behalf of the State
of New York:

James Duane

Francis Lewis

Wm Duer

Gouv Morris

On the part and behalf of the State
of New Jersey, November 26, 1778:

Jno Witherspoon

Nath. Scudder

On the part and behalf of the State
of Pennsylvania:

Robt Morris

Daniel Roberdeau

John Bayard Smith

William Clingan

Joseph Reed 22nd July 1778

On the part and behalf of the State
of Delaware:

Tho Mckean February 12, 1779

John Dickinson May 5th 1779

Nicholas Van Dyke

On the part and behalf of the State
of Maryland:

John Hanson March 1 1781

Daniel Carroll

On the part and behalf of the State
of Virginia:

Richard Henry Lee

John Banister

Thomas Adams

Jno Harvie

Francis Lightfoot Lee

On the part and behalf of the State
of No Carolina:

John Penn July 21st 1778

Corns Harnett

Jno Williams

On the part and behalf of the State
of South Carolina:

Henry Laurens

William Henry Drayton

Jno Mathews

Richd Hutson

Thos Heyward Junr

On the part and behalf of the State
of Georgia:

Jno Walton 24th July 1778

Edwd Telfair

Edwd Langworthy

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the
thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human
events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands
which have connected them with
another, and to assume among the
powers of the earth, the separate and
equal station to which the Laws of
Nature and of Nature's God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions
of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them
to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness.-That to secure
these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the gov-
erned,-That whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the Right of the People
to alter or to abolish it, and to institute
new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect
their Safety and Happiness. Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that Governments
long established should not be
changed for light and transient causes;
and accordingly all experience hath
shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by
abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of
abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Object evinces a
design to reduce them under absolute
Despotism, it is their right, it is their
duty, to throw off such Government,
and to provide new Guards for their
future security.-Such has been the
patient sufferance of these Colonies;
and such is now the necessity which

constrains them to alter their former
Systems of Government. The history
of the present King of Great Britain is
a history of repeated injuries and
usurpations, all having in direct object
the establishment of an absolute
Tyranny over these States. To prove
this, let Facts be submitted to a candid
world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws,
the most wholesome and necessary for
the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to
pass Laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their
operation till his Assent should be
obtained; and when so suspended, he
has utterly neglected to attend to
them.

He has refused to pass other Laws
for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people
would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right
inestimable to them and formidable to
tyrants only.

He has called together legislative
bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository
of their public Records, for the sole
purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative
Houses repeatedly, for opposing with
manly firmness his invasions on the
rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time,
after such dissolutions, to cause others
to be elected; whereby the Legislative
powers, incapable of Annihilation,
have returned to the People at large
for their exercise; the State remaining
in the mean time exposed to all the
dangers of invasion from without, and
convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the
population of these States; for that
purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to
pass others to encourage their migra

tions hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent
to Laws for establishing Judiciary
powers.

He has made Judges dependent on
his Will alone, for the tenure of their
offices, and the amount and payment
of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New
Offices, and sent hither swarms of
Officers to harrass our people, and eat
out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of
peace, Standing Armies without the
Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to
the Civil power.

He has combined with others to
subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to
our 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 repeated
Petitions have been answered only by
repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act
which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to
be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in
attentions to our Brittish brethren. We
have warned them from time to time
of attempts by their legislature to
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction
over us. We have reminded them of
the circumstances 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 interrupt 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 Allegiance to the British
Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of
Great Britain, is and ought to be totally
dissolved; 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
Independent States may of right do.
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we
mutually pledge to each other our
Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred
Honor.