Declaration of Independence: Assemblies and Massachusetts

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. (A law was passed by Parliament in the spring of 1774, by which the popular representative system in the province of Quebec (Canada) was annulled, and officers appointed by the crown had all power as legislators, except that of levying taxes. The Canadians being Roman Catholics were easily pacified under the new order of things, by having their religious system declared the established religion of the province. But "large districts of people" bordering on Nova Scotia felt this deprivation to be a great grievance. Their humble petitions concerning commercial regulations were unheeded because they remonstrated against the new order of things, and Governor Carleton plainly told them that they must cease their clamor about representatives before they should have any new commercial laws. A bill for "better regulating the government in the province of Massachusetts Bay," passed that year, provided for the abridgment of the privileges of popular elections, to take the government out of the hands of the people, and to vest the nomination of judges, magistrates, and even sheriffs, in the crown. When thus deprived of "free representation in the Legislature," and the governor refused to issue warrants for the election of members of the Assembly, they called a convention of the freemen, and asked for the passage of "laws for the accommodation of large districts of people." These requests were disregarded, and they were told that no laws should be passed until they should quietly "relinquish the right of representation in the Legislature--a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.")

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the repository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. (In consequence of the destruction of tea in Boston harbor in 1773, the inhabitants of that town became the special objects of royal displeasure, The Boston Port Bill was passed as a punishment. The custom-house, courts, and other public operations were removed to Salem, while the public records were kept in Boston and so well guarded by two regiments of soldiers, that the patriotic members of the Colonial Assembly could not have referred to them. Although compelled to meet at a place "distant from the repository of the public records," and in a place extremely "uncomfortable," they were not fatigued into compliance, but in spite of the efforts of the governor, they elected delegates to a general Congress, and adopted other measures for the public good.)

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. (When the British government became informed of the fact that the Assembly of Massachusetts in 1768 had issued a circular to other Assemblies, inviting their co-operation in asserting the principle that Great Britain had no right to tax the colonists without their consent, Lord Hillsborough, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, was directed to order the governor of Massachusetts to require the Assembly of that province to rescind its obnoxious resolutions expressed in the circular. In case of their refusal to do so, the governor was ordered to dissolve them immediately. Other Assemblies were warned not to imitate that of Massachusetts, and when they refused to accede to the wishes of the king, as expressed by the several royal governors, they were repeatedly dissolved. The Assemblies of Virginia and North Carolina were dissolved for denying the right of the king to tax the colonies, or to remove offenders out of the country for trial. In 1774, when the several Assemblies entertained the proposition to elect delegates to a general Congress, nearly all of them were dissolved.)

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of invasions from without and convulsions within. (When the Assembly of New York, in 1766, refused to comply with the provisions of the Mutiny Act, its legislative functions were suspended by royal authority, and for several months the State remained "exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsions within." The Assembly of Massachusetts after its dissolution in July, 1768, was not permitted to meet again until the last Wednesday of May, 1769, and then they found the place of meeting surrounded by a military guard, with cannons pointed directly at their place of meeting. They refused to act under such tyrannical restraint, and their legislative powers "returned to the people.")