As all new institutions may have imperfections, which only time and experience can discover, it is agreed that the general Congress, from time to time, shall propose such amendments of this constitution as may be found necessary; which, being approved by a majority of the colony Assemblies, shall be equally binding with the rest of the articles of this Confederation.
ARTICLE XIII
Any and every colony from Great Britain upon the continent of North America, not at present engaged in our association, may, upon application, and joining the said association, be received into this Confederation, viz.: Ireland, the West India Islands, Quebec, St. John’s, Nova Scotia, Bermudas, and the East and West Floridas; and shall thereupon be entitled to all the advantages of our union, mutual assistance, and commerce.
These articles shall be proposed to the several provincial Conventions or Assemblies, to be by them considered; and, if approved, they are advised to empower their delegates to agree to and ratify the same in the ensuing Congress. After which the union thereby established is to continue firm, till the terms of reconciliation proposed in the petition of the last Congress to the king are agreed to; till the acts since made, restraining the American commerce and fisheries, are repealed; till reparation is made for the injury done to Boston by shutting up its port, for the burning of Charlestown, and for the expense of this unjust war; and till all the British troops are withdrawn from America. On the arrival of these events, the colonies will return to their former connection and friendship with Britain; but, on failure thereof, this Confederation is to be perpetual.
Whereas Ref. 020 It hath pleased God to bless these countries with a most plentiful harvest, whereby much corn and other provisions can be spared to foreign nations who may want the same.
Resolved, That [after the expiration of Six Months] from (and after) Ref. 021 the [20th of July Instant,] (being one full year after) Ref. 021 [being] the Day appointed by a late Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, for restraining the Trade of the Confederate Colonies, all the Custom-Houses [therein] (if the Act be not first rescinded) shall be shut up, and all the officers of the same discharged from the Execution of their several Functions, and all the Ports of the said Colonies are hereby declared to be thenceforth open to the Ships of every State in Europe that will admit our Commerce and protect it; who may [torn off] and expose to sale free of all Duties their respective Produce and Manufactures, and every kind of Merchandize, excepting Teas, and the Merchandize of Great Britain, Ireland, and the British West India Islands.
Resolved, That we will to the utmost of our Power, maintain and support this Freedom of Commerce for [two] years certain after its Commencement, any reconciliation between us and Britain notwithstanding; and as much longer beyond that Term, as the late Acts of Parliament for restoring the Restraining the Commerce and fisheries, and altering the Laws and Charters of any of the Colonies, shall continue unrepealed.
Endorsed—No. 2. (Articles of Confederation) Ref. 022 A proposal for opening the ports of N. A. brot. in by committee—read July 21, 1775—on motion postponed for future consideration.
DCX: VINDICATION AND OFFER FROM CONGRESS TO PARLIAMENT Ref. 023
Forasmuch as the enemies of America in the Parliament of Great Britain, to render us odious to the nation, and give an ill impression of us in the minds of other European powers, have represented us as unjust and ungrateful in the highest degree; asserting, on every occasion, that the colonies were settled at the expense of Britain; that they were, at the expense of the same, protected in their infancy; that they now ungratefully and unjustly refuse to contribute to their own protection, and the common defence of the nation; that they aim at independence; that they intend an abolition of the Navigation Acts; and that they are fraudulent in their commercial dealings, and purpose to cheat their creditors in Britain by avoiding the payment of their just debts;
And as by frequent repetition these groundless assertions and malicious calumnies may, if not contradicted and refuted, obtain further credit, and be injurious throughout Europe to the reputation and interest of the confederate colonies, it seems proper and necessary to examine them in our own just vindication.
With regard to the first, that the colonies were settled at the expense of Britain, it is a known fact, that none of the twelve united colonies were settled, or even discovered at the expense of England. Henry the Seventh, indeed, granted a commission to Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian, and his sons, to sail into the western seas for the discovery of new countries; but it was to be “suis eorum propriis sumptibus et expensis,” at their own costs and charges. Ref. 024 They discovered, but soon slighted and neglected these northern territories, which were, after more than a hundred years’ dereliction, purchased of the natives, and settled at the charge and by the labor of private men and bodies of men, our ancestors, who came over hither for that purpose. But our adversaries have never been able to produce any record that ever the Parliament or government of England was at the smallest expense on these accounts; on the contrary, there exists on the journals of Parliament a solemn declaration in 1642 (only twenty-two years after the first settlement of the Massachusetts, when, if such expense had ever been incurred, some of the members must have known and remembered it), “that these colonies had been planted and established without any expense to the state.” Ref. 025
New York is the only colony in the founding of which England can pretend to have been at any expense; and that was only the charge of a small armament to take it from the Dutch, who planted it. But to retain this colony at the peace, another at that time full as valuable, planted by private countrymen of ours, was given up by the crown to the Dutch in exchange, viz., Surinam, now a wealthy sugar colony in Guiana, and which, but for that cession, might still have remained in our possession. Of late, indeed, Britain has been at some expense in planting two colonies, Georgia and Nova Scotia; but those are not in our confederacy Ref. 026; and the expense she has been at in their name has chiefly been in grants of sums unnecessarily large, by way of salaries to officers sent from England, and in jobs to friends, whereby dependants might be provided for; those excessive grants not being requisite to the welfare and good government of the colonies, which good government (as experience in many instances of other colonies has taught us) may be much more frugally, and full as effectually, provided for and supported.
With regard to the second assertion, that these colonies were protected in their infant state by England, it is a notorious fact that, in none of the many wars with the Indian natives, sustained by our infant settlements for a century after our first arrival, were ever any troops or forces of any kind sent from England to assist us; nor were any forts built at her expense, to secure our seaports from foreign invaders; nor any ships of war sent to protect our trade till many years after our first settlement, when our commerce became an object of revenue, or of advantage to British merchants; and then it was thought necessary to have a frigate in some of our ports, during peace, to give weight to the authority of custom-house officers, who were to restrain that commerce for the benefit of England. Our own arms, with our poverty, and the care of a kind Providence, were all this time our only protection; while we were neglected by the English government; which either thought us not worth its care, or having no goodwill to some of us, on account of our different sentiments in religion and politics, was indifferent what became of us.
On the other hand, the colonies have not been wanting to do what they could in every war for annoying the enemies of Britain. They formerly assisted her in the conquest of Nova Scotia. In the war before last, they took Louisburg, and put it into her hands. She made her peace with that strong fortress restoring it to France, greatly to their detriment. In the last war, it is true, Britain sent a fleet and army, which acted with an equal army of ours, in the reduction of Canada; and perhaps thereby did more for us
