GHIST 225: US History Kevin R. Hardwick Spring 2012 LECTURE 08 From the Stamp Act Resolutions to the Declaration of Independence

Samuel Adams, “Circular Letter” (1768) That the constitution [of Great Britain, as established in the Glorious Revolution of 1688] ascertains & limits both sovereignty and allegiance, & therefore, his Majesty’s American subjects, have an equitable claim to the full enjoyment of the fundamental rules of the British constitution. [CAPCT, vol. I, p. 198]

Thomas Hutchinson, “A Dialogue Between an American and a European Englishman (1768) European: What sort of connection do you imagine there is between Great Britain and her colonies? Are you and we parts of one and the same empire or are we not? American: We are certainly under one and the same sovereign. [CAPCT, vol. I, p. 215]

Thomas Hutchinson, “A Dialogue Between an American and a European Englishman (1768) American: The king might retain the executive power and also his share of the legislative without any abridgement of our rights as Englishmen; the Parliament could not retain their legislative power without depriving them of those rights, for after their removal they could no longer be represented, and their sovereign, sensible of this, by charter or commissions made provision in every colony for legislatures within themselves. [CAPCT, vol. I, p. 215]

Boston “Tea Party”

Coercive Acts, 1774: “The Able Doctor. America Swallowing the Bitter Drought.”

Stamp Act Resolutions, 1765: “Members of this Congress [are] sincerely devoted with the warmest sentiments of affection and duty to His Majesty’s person and Government.” “[We] esteem it our indisputable duty to make the following declarations of our humble opinion respecting the most essential rights and liberties of the colonists.” “His Majesty’s liege subjects in these colonies are entitled to all the inherent rights and liberties of his natural born subjects within the kingdom of Great Britain.”

Declaration of Independence, 1776: “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.”

Declaration of Independence, 1776: “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 governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or 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.”

Declaration of Independence, 1776: “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, and accordingly all experience hath shown 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 a government, and provide new guards for their future security.”