[Footnote 1:  This declaration is printed in full in Preston’s Documents Illustrative of American History, pp. 188-191.]

%113.  Declaration of Rights.%—­The ground taken in the declaration was: 

1.  That the Americans were subjects of the British crown.

2.  That it was the natural right of a British subject to pay no taxes unless he had a voice in laying them.

3.  That the Americans were not represented in Parliament.

4.  That Parliament, therefore, could not tax them, and that an attempt to do so was an attack on the rights of Englishmen and the liberty of self-government.

%114.  Grievances.%—­The grievances complained of were:  1.  Taxation without representation. 2.  Trial without jury (in the vice-admiralty courts). 3.  The Sugar Act. 4.  The Stamp Act. 5.  Restrictions on trade.

%115.  The English View of Representation.%—­We, in this country, do not consider a person represented in a legislature unless he can cast a vote for a member of that legislature.  In Great Britain, not individuals but classes were represented.  Thus, the clergy were represented by the bishops who sat in the House of Lords; the nobility, by the nobles who had seats in the House of Lords; and the mass of the people, the commons, by the members of the House of Commons.  At that time, very few Englishmen could vote for a member of the House of Commons.  Great cities like Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, did not send even one member.  When the colonists held that they were not represented in Parliament because they did not elect any members of that body, Englishmen answered that they were represented, because they were commoners.

%116.  Sons of Liberty.%—­Meantime, the colonists had not been idle.  Taking the name of “Sons of Liberty,” a name given to them in a speech by a member of Parliament (named Barre) friendly to their cause, they began to associate for resistance to the Stamp Act.  At first, they were content to demand that the stamp distributors named by the colonial agents in London should resign.  But when these officers refused, the people became violent; and at Boston, Newark, N.J., New Haven, New London, Conn., at Providence, at Newport, R.I., at Dover, N.H., at Annapolis, Md., serious riots took place.  Buildings were torn down, and more than one unhappy distributor was dragged from his home, and forced to stand before the people and shout, “Liberty, property, and no stamps.”

%117.  November 1, 1765.%—­As the 1st of November, the day on which the Stamp Act was to go into force, approached, the newspapers appeared decorated with death’s-heads, black borders, coffins, and obituary notices.  The Pennsylvania Journal dropped its usual heading, and in place of it put an arch with a skull and crossbones underneath, and this motto, “Expiring in the hopes of a resurrection to life again.”  In one corner was a coffin, and the words, “The last remains