cumscribed with definite powers,
to assist in working the great machine of government, erected for their
use, and, consequently, subject to their superintendence; and in order
that these, our rights, as well as the invasions of them, may be laid
more fully before his Majesty, to take a view of them from the origin
and first settlement of these countries.

'To remind him that our ancestors, before their emigration to America,
were the free inhabitants of the British dominions in Europe, and
possessed a right, which nature has given to all men, of departing from
the country in which chance, not choice, has placed them, of going in
quest of new habitations, and of there establishing new societies, under
such laws and regulations, as to them shall seem most likely to promote
public happiness. That their Saxon ancestors had, under this universal
law, in like manner left their native wilds and woods in the North of
Europe, had possessed themselves of the island of Britain, then less
charged with inhabitants, and had established there that system of laws
which has so long been the glory and protection of that country. Nor was
ever any claim of superiority or dependence asserted over them, by that
mother country from which they had migrated: and were such a claim made,
it is believed his Majesty's subjects in Great Britain have too firm a
feeling of the rights derived to them from their ancestors, to bow down
the sovereignty of their state before such visionary pretensions. And it
is thought that no circumstance has occurred to distinguish, materially,
the British from the Saxon emigration. America was conquered, and her
settlements made and firmly established, at the expense of individuals,
and not of the British public. Their own blood was spilt in acquiring
lands for their settlement, their own fortunes expended in making that
settlement effectual. For themselves they fought, for themselves they
conquered, and for themselves alone they have right to hold. No shilling
was ever issued from the public treasures of his Majesty, or his
ancestors, for their assistance, till of very late times, after the
colonies had become established on a firm and permanent fooling. That
then, indeed, having become valuable to Great Britain for her commercial
purposes, his Parliament was pleased to lend them assistance, against
an enemy who would fain have drawn to herself the benefits of their
commerce, to the great aggrandizement of herself, and