If it had been an act of usurpation to have declared the Independence of the C"dony, without the "consent" of the Colony, previously given, on the former occasion, how much less flagrant was the act, also without having obtained that "consent," on the later occasion, which is now under consideration ? Were John Jay and those whom

^ Jounml of tlte Provincial Congress, " Tuesday, P.M., Whitf. Pr.AiNS, "July 9th, 177G."

The Jimniid of the CoiitiiienUil Oingrrss, of Jlonday, the fifteenth of July, stated that a coi)y of the first, second, and fourth of these very important Itesolutionshad been enclosed, with a number of other papei-s, in a letter dated on the eleventh of that month, and sent to that Congress ; that the letter and the papers which were enclosed in it were received by the Continental Congress, on Monday, the fifteenth of July ; that the three Resolutions named were entered at length, on the Jfrnrnal of that Congress; and that " the letter, with the papers enclosed," was referred to (be Hoard of War.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

he controlled really honest and sincere, when, on the eleventh of June, preceding, they made the confession of their legal incapacity to make such a declaration of Independence, unless with the previously-obtained "consent" of that "good people" whose servants and deputies they then acknowledged themselves to have been ? If so, what possible ground is there for consistently regarding them as either honest or sincere, when, on the ninth of July, the occasion which is now under notice, while they were yet without that " consent" of their principals and constituents which had been previously regarded as essential to ensure validity to any such action, they actually, on their own motion, made such a declaration ; severed the political connection which had previously existed between the Colony and Great Britain; abrogated all the Laws under which the Colony had been previously governed ; de[)osed the previously existing Colonial Government ; and usurped, to themselves, without the slightest limitation, the absolute and despotic control of every thing relating to the Civil, the Ecclesiastical, and the Military concerns of all who were within the Colony, not sparing even the consciences, the opinions, the properties, the liberties, or the lives of those who presumed to say to them, "What doest thou?"