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FROM SEVERAL

Me Bryant

LITERARY WORKS,

COMPRISING

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, SPEECHES

OF PHILLIPS, TALLMADGE, EMMET, CURRAN, &c.
POETRY BY MOORE ; PICTURE OF ENGLAND;
VIEW OF AMERICA; CHARACTER OF
BONAPARTE; BIOGRAPHY, &c. &c.

BY T. O'CONNOR,

Editor of the Military Monitor, Shamrock, Globe, &c.

NEW-YORK:

PRINTED FOR THE EDITOR.

1824.

THE

NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY,

Astor, Lenox and Tiiden/

Foundations.
1904

13013

THE Compiler of this work, having submitted his plan to a very respectable literary friend, had it returned, with the following character of the SELECTIONS, which is now given as an appropriate

INTRODUCTION.

"To the Man of taste, who would add a truly valuable volume to his library; to the student, who would acquire a pure and classical style; to the parent, who would place in the hands of his child, the productions of some of the best orators, writers, and statesmen of the present age, this compilation will be found of great intrinsic value. The good will find in it much to commend; the captious, little on which to fasten the talons of envy, while the most scrupulous moralist will not encounter a line to shock his feelings, or to alarm his apprehensions. No work, of equal magnitude, hitherto, published in the United States, presents more talent, or will give more satisfaction to the reader.The lover of eloquence will dwell on it with rapture; and the man of letters of whatever country or profession, will find in it a sumptuous entertainment for the mind. The American, the Irishman, the Englishman, the Scotchman, and the Frenchman, will each find flowers of their respective nations, collected into a bouquet, on which each may gaze with satisfaction and delight."

A DECLARATION,

By the Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled, July 4, 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.

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 a 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 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 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 assent to laws, the most wholesome, and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained: and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass 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.

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