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of taxation, internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in America without their consent. (5.) That the respective Colonies are entitled to the common law of England, and more especially, the great and inestimable privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage, according to the course of that law, (meaning the trial by jury.) (6.) That the Colonies 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 applicable to their several local and other circumstances. (7.) That they are likewise entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted and confirmed to them by royal charters, or secured to them by their several codes of provincial law. (8.) That they have a right peaceably to assemble, consider of their grievances, and petition the King; and that all prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for the same, are illegal. (9.) That the keeping of 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. (10.) That 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.

§ 24. Such is, in substance, the Bill of Rights claimed in behalf of all the Colonies by the Continental Congress, the violation of which, constituted the main grounds, upon which the American Revolution was founded; and the grievances, under which the Colonies labored, being persisted in by the British government, a resort to arms became unavoidable. The result of the contest is well known, and has been already stated; and it belongs to the department of history, and not of constitutional law, to enumerate the interesting events of that period.

the British Parliament practically to exert over the Colonies the power of internal legislation and taxation, as was attempted by the Stamp Act, in 1765, it was boldly resisted; and it brought on the memorable controversy, which terminated in their Independence, first asserted by them in 1776, and finally admitted by Great Britain by the Treaty of 1783. At an early period of that controversy, the first Continental Congress, in 1774, drew up and unanimously adopted a declaration of the rights of the Colonies, the substance of which is as follows: (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. (2.) That our ancestors, who first settled the 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. (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. (4.) That the foundation of English liberty is a right in the people to participate in their legislative councils; and as the English colonists are not represented, and, from their local and other circumstances, cannot properly be represented, in the British Parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial assemblies, 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 interests of both countries, they cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of the British Parliament, as are bonâ fide restrained to the regulation of their external commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial advantages of the whole empire to the mother country, and the commercial

of taxation, internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in America without their consent. (5.) That the respective Colonies are entitled to the common law of England, and more especially, the great and inestimable privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage, according to the course of that law, (meaning the trial by jury.) (6.) That the Colonies 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 applicable to their several local and other circumstances. (7.) That they are likewise entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted and confirmed to them by royal charters, or secured to them by their several codes of provincial law. (8.) That they have a right peaceably to assemble, consider of their grievances, and petition the King; and that all prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for the same, are illegal. (9.) That the keeping of 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. (10.) That 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.

§ 24. Such is, in substance, the Bill of Rights claimed in behalf of all the Colonies by the Continental Congress, the violation of which, constituted the main grounds, upon which the American Revolution was founded; and the grievances, under which the Colonies labored, being persisted in by the British government, a resort to arms became unavoidable. The result of the contest is well known, and has been already stated; and it belongs to the department of history, and not of constitutional law, to enumerate the interesting events of that period.

CHAPTER IV.

Revolutionary Government.

§ 25. BUT it may be asked, and it properly belongs to this work to declare; What was the political organization, under which the Revolution was carried on and accomplished? The Colonies being, as we have seen, separate and independent of each other in their original establishment, and down to the eve of the Revolution, it became indispensable, in order to make their resistance to the British claims either formidable or successful, that there should be harmony and unity of operations under some common head. Massachusetts, in 1774, recommended the assembling of a Continental Congress at Philadelphia, to be composed of delegates chosen in all the Colonies, for the purpose of deliberating on the common good, and to provide a suitable scheme of future operations. Delegates were accordingly chosen in the various Colonies, some by the legislative body, some by the popular representative branch thereof, and some by conventions of the people, according to the several means and local circumstances of each Colony. This first great Continental Congress assembled on the 4th of September, 1774, chose their own officers, and adopted certain fundamental rules to regulate their proceedings. The most important rule then adopted was, that each Colony should have one vote only in Congress, whatever might be the number of its delegates; and this became the established course throughout the whole Revolution. They adopted such other measures, as the exigency of the occasion seemed to require; and proposed another Congress, to be assembled for the like purpose, in May, 1775, which was accordingly held. The delegates of this last Congress were chosen in the same manner as the preceding; but principally by conventions of the people in the several

ing other great measures, all leading to open war, finally, in 1776, made the Declaration of Independence, which was unanimously adopted by the American people. Under the recommendations of the same Congress, suitable arrangements were made to organize the State governments, so as to supply the deficiencies in the former establishments; and henceforth the delegates to the Continental Congress from time to time assembled, were appointed by the State legislatures.

§ 26. The Continental Congress, thus organized by a voluntary association of the States, and continued by the successive appointments of the State legislatures, constituted, in fact, the National Government, and conducted the national affairs until near the close of the Revolution, when, as we shall presently see, the Articles of Confederation were adopted by all the States. Their powers were no where defined or limited. They assumed, among others, the power to declare war and make peace, to raise armies and equip navies, to form treaties and alliances with foreign nations, to contract public debts, and to do all other sovereign acts essential to the safety of the United Colonies. Whatever powers they assumed were deemed legitimate. These powers originated from necessity, and were only limited by events; or, in other words, they were revolutionary powers. In the exercise of these powers, they were supported by the people, and the exercise of them could not, therefore, be justly questioned by any inferior authority. In an exact sense, then, the powers of the Continental Congress might be said to be coextensive with the exigencies and necessities of the public affairs; and the people, by their approbation and acquiescence, justified all their acts, having the most entire reliance upon their patriotism, their integrity, and their political wisdom.

§ 27. But it was obvious to reflecting minds, upon the slightest consideration, that the union thus formed, was but of a temporary nature, dependent upon the consent of all the Colonies, now become States, and capable of being dissolved, at any time, by the secession of any one

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