Source 2c

Transcript

Proceedings of the Grand…

ASSOCIATION, &c.

We His Majesty’s most loyal Subjects and Delegates of the several Colonies of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the three lower Counties of New-Castle, Kent and Sussex, on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, and South-Carolina, deputed to represent them in Continental Congress, held in the City of Philadelphia on the fifth Day of September, 1774, avowing our Allegiance to his Majesty, our Affection and Regard for our Fellow-Subjects in Great Britain and elsewhere, affected with the deepest Anxiety, and most alarming Apprehension at those Grievance and Differences, with which his Majesty’s American Subjects are oppressed, and having taken under our most serious Deliberation the State of the whole Continent, find , that the present unhappy Situation of our Affairs, is occasioned by a ruinous System of Colonial Administration, adopted by the British Ministry about the year 1763, evidently calculated for enslaving these colonies, and, with them, the British Empire. In Prosecution of which System, various Acts of Parliament have been passed for raising a Revenue in America for depriving the American Subjects in many Instances, of the Constitutional Trial by Jury, exposing their Lives to Danger, by directing a new & illegal Trial beyond the Seas, for Crimes alleged to have been committed in America; and in Prosecution of the Same system, several late cruel, and oppressive Acts have passed respecting the Town of Boston and the Massachusetts-Bay, and also and Act for extending the Province of Quebec so as to border on the Western Frontier of the colonies, establishing an Arbitrary Government therein, and discouraging the Settlement of British Subjects in that wide extended Country; thus by the Influence of evil Principles and ancient Prejudices to dispose the Inhabitants to act with Hostility against the free Protestant Colonies whenever wicked Ministry shall choose to direct them.

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