: Treaty of Amity and Commerce between their High Mightinesses the States General of the United of America concerning Vessels recaptured Authentic Copy of the Provisional Articles figned at Paris, Nov. 30, 1782, by the Commissioners of A List of Presidents of the American Congress, ar- 473 PREFACE. : PREFACE. A CORRECT Edition of the Constitutions of the Confederated States of North-America being proposed, it was judged an object of utility to incorporate other authentic papers relatively connected with the subject. However well-informed the present age may be, pofterity will be curious to examine, not only the code of Continental Laws, but also to trace those progressive steps by which dependent Colonies afcended to the rank of Sovereign States. To assist impartial investigation in this particular, a selection of the most confequential records is submitted to the Public, disposed in such a series as to bear the mutual relation to each other of cause and effect. The Papers now exhibited acquire additional importance from the recognition of the Independence of America on the part of Great.. Britain. All offensiveness in the matter is obliterated, What was formerly treason, is now justifiable assertion; and even the famous Deelaration of Independence, so pointed against an exalted Personage, is no more than republican complaint furnishing the ground-work of fovereignty. Offended with Royalty, Congress renounce allegiance; and, confeffing by implication that the offence was well-founded Majesty sanctions every iota in the Declaration of Independence; generously acquiefces in the censures it contains, and deigns to confider the authors as the sovereigns of an extensive empire! The annals of Christian forgiveness cannot produce a parallellaneou With respect to the American Constitutions, it is obfervable that they differ in many particulars, fome participating more, others less, of the nature of a pure democracy; but they are all valuable, because all favourable to Liberty. The Legislators seem to have been seduloufly attentive to avoid the defects, and to adopt the excellencies of the English Conftitution; and, in proportion as this has been accomplished, America may promise herself duration of empire. Thinking, with honest Henry Marten, one man not wife enough to 66 govern govern them all *," the Americans framed Constitutions for the government of themselves; and, as their councils have hitherto been actuated by the spirit of wisdom, not a doubt can exist of their attaining the summit of political happiness. It would be obtrusive on the good sense of the reader, to anticipate the reflections that will naturally occur, on a perusal of the following pieces. In them may be traced the origin of a destructively inglorious war, which began in tyranny, and ended in the unhappy dismemberment of the empire. By a retrospective view of past calamities, future evils may be avoided; and, the Petition brought over by Mr. Penn, the Declaration of Independence, but, above all, the humiliating Treaties subjoined to this work, may serve as admonitory cautions to Monarchs and Ministers how they reject the Petitions, provoke the resentments, or infringe the liberties of a brave and free people. The arm of resistance should ever prevail, when directed against the heart of tyranny. " I do not think one man wife enough to govern us all." HENRY MARTEN to EDWARD HYDE. AMERICAN STATE PAPERS. WITHOUT infringing the province of History, by entering into the origin of the unhappy rupture with America, the measures adopted by the Colonies after the difpute commenced, may be thus concisely stated. On the 5th of September, 1774, a Continen tal Congress, consisting of Deputies from the respective Colonies, assembled at Philadelphia ; and on the 10th of October, they agreed on the following DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. THE good people of the several Colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, RhodeIsland, and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, alarmed at the arbitrary proceedings of the British Parliament and Administration, having severally elected deputies to meet and fit in General Congress in the city of Philadelphia, and those deputies so chofen being affembled on the 5th day of September, after settling several neceffary preliminaries, proceeded to take into their inost serious confideration the best means of attaining the redress of grievances. In the first place, they, as Englishmen, their ancestors, in like cafes, had usually done, for afferting and vindicating their rights and liberties, DECLARE, That the inhabitants of the English Colonies in North America, by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English Constitution, and the several Charters or Compacts, have the following RIGHTS: Resolved, |