A Short History of the United States Part 66

South Carolina; settlement of; nullification in; secession of.

Spain; pioneers of; Treaty with (1795); War with.

Spotsylvania, battle of.

"Squatter Sovereignty."

Stamp Act.

Stamp Act Congress.

Stark, General.

Steamboat, the.

Stephen, A. H.

Steuben, Baron.

Stowe, Mrs. H.B.

Stuart Tyranny in the colonies.

Stuyvesant, Dutch governor.

Sumter, fall of Fort.

Tariffs; 1789; of 1816, 1824, 1828; the Compromise; McKinley; Dingley.

Taylor, General Zachary; portrait; his Mexican Campaign; President; death.

Tea Tax.

Tec.u.mseh or Tec.u.mthe.

Telegraph, the.

Tenure of Office Acts; Crawford's; of 1867.

Texas; Republic of; admitted to the Union.

Thirteenth Amendment.

Thomas, General George H.; portrait; his services.

Ticonderoga.

Tippecanoe, battle of.

Townshend Acts, the.

Treaties; 1778 (with France); 1783 (with Great Britain); Jay's Treaty; 1795 (with Spain); 1800 (with France); Louisiana Purchase; of Ghent; Florida Purchase; 1842 (with Great Britain); Oregon Treaty; 1848 (with Mexico); Gadsden Purchase; 1898 (with Spain).

Trent Affair.

Trenton, battle of.

Twelfth Amendment.

Tyler, John; portrait; Vice-President; President.

United States, area and population of; in 1800; in 1830; in 1860.

Van Buren, Martin; President; defeated for Presidency.

Verrazano (ver-ra-tsa'no).

Vespucius, Americus; portrait; his voyages.

Vicksburg, Campaign of.

Vinland.

Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.

Virginia Resolves of 1769.

Virginia, settlement of.

War of 1812.

Was.h.i.+ngton, George; portrait; his early life; first campaign; on the Boston Post Act; in Continental Congress; in Revolutionary War; in Federal Convention; President; his neutrality proclamation; farewell address; death.

Was.h.i.+ngton City.

Webster, Daniel; portrait; his reply to Hayne.

Webster, Noah, portrait; his Dictionary.

Whig Party, the.

Whiskey Insurrection.

Whitney.

Wilderness, battle of the.

Williams, Roger.

Wilmot Proviso.

Wolfe, General.

Writs of a.s.sistance.

X.Y.Z. Affair.

Yorktown, capture of.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

_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 a.s.sume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's G.o.d ent.i.tle 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 inst.i.tuted 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 to abolish it, and to inst.i.tute 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 shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolis.h.i.+ng 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 a.s.sent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

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

He has refused to pa.s.s 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 of Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pa.s.s others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his a.s.sent to Laws for establis.h.i.+ng 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 mult.i.tude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to hara.s.s our People, and eat out their substance.

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

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 const.i.tution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his a.s.sent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: