Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence

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T. Mather, 1840 - 460 pages
 

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Page 375 - Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad...
Page 56 - 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.
Page 375 - ... a jealous care of the right of election by the people, a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics from which there is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism...
Page 52 - DO, in the name and by the 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 connexion between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved...
Page 51 - MR. PRESIDENT: Though I am truly sensible of the high honor done me, in this appointment, yet I feel great distress, from a consciousness that my abilities and military experience may not be equal to the extensive and important trust. However, as the Congress desire it, I will enter upon the momentous duty, and exert every power I possess in their service, and for the support of the glorious cause.
Page 107 - Congress it is expedient that on the second Monday in May next a convention of delegates, who shall have been appointed by the several States, be held at Philadelphia for the sole and express purpose of revising the articles of Confederation and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States, render the federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation of the...
Page 375 - ... a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority...
Page 344 - Resolved, That by two royal charters, granted by king James the first, the colonists aforesaid, are declared entitled to all the privileges, liberties, and immunities, of denizens and natural born subjects, to all intents and purposes, as if they had been abiding and born within the realm of England.
Page 365 - Caesar had his Brutus — Charles the First his Cromwell — and George the Third — [" Treason " cried the Speaker ; " treason ! treason ! " echoed from every part of the house.
Page 21 - ... may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it...

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