terests. Examined in detail, some of its Rome the capital more conspicuous features, so far, have of Italy. Tembeen the enactment of an amendment to the Pope at an poral power of the Constitution, providing that "the end. right of citizens of the United States to 1870-1872. vote shall not be denied or abridged by War. OverFranco-Prussian the United States, or by any State, on throw of the account of race, color, or previous con- French Empire. dition of servitude;" the satisfactory the Commune. Paris ruled by settlement of the Alabama Claims by Final establishment of a arbitration with Great Britain, before a Republic. tribunal at Geneva; the final restoration 1871. The new to the Union of all the States lately in German Conrebellion; some serious troubles at the federation forSouth in connection with this work of the imperial mally assumes restoration, and with the readjustment of name and digsociety there to its new conditions; a con- nity. siderable reduction of the national debt; the admission of Colorado to the Union-38th State; the agitation of the question of San Domingo annexation; and the failure of the much wished for and long attempted civil service reform. 1870. Population of the United States 38,500,000. APPENDIX. THE STATES. THE thirty-eight States are as follows: the original thirteen being named in the order in which they ratified the Constitution; the remaining twenty-five, in the order of their admission : 19. Indiana, 1816. 29. Iowa, 1846." 37. Nebraska, 1867. 38. Colorado, 1875. THE TERRITORIES. ARRANGED IN THE ORDER of their ORGANIZATION. PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. GEORGE WASHINGTON, of Virginia, 1789-1797. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, of Massachusetts, 1825-1829. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, ADOPTED BY CONGRESS JULY 4, 1776. A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED. WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes de structive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world: He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome, and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation, till his assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 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. 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. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. 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 mean time, exposed to all the danger of invasions from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose, obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. |