1349. COLONIES (The American), The Crown and.—
Our forefathers, inhabitants of
the island of Great Britain, left their native
land to seek on these shores a residence for
civil and religious freedom. At the expense
of their blood, to the ruin of their fortunes,
with the relinquishment of everything quiet
and comfortable in life, they effected settlements
in the inhospitable wilds of America;
and there established civil societies with various
forms of constitution. To continue
their connection with the friends whom they
had left, they arranged themselves by charters
of compact under the same common King,
who thus completed their powers of full and
perfect legislation and became the link of
union between the several parts of the empire.—
Declaration on Taking up Arms.
Ford ed., i, 464.
(July. 1775)
