Declaration of colonial rights.
In the first Continental Congress (1774) a committee of two from each colony framed and reported, in the form of a series of ten resolves, a declaration of the rights of the colonies: 1.
Their natural rights; 2.
That from their ancestry they were entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural-born subjects of
England; 3.
That by the emigration to
America by their ancestors they never lost any of those rights, and that their descendants were entitled to the exercise of those rights; 4.
That the foundation of all free governments is in the right of the people to participate in their legislative council; and as the
American colonists could not exercise such right in the British Parliament, they were entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, where the right of representation could alone be preserved.
(They conceded the right of Parliament to regulate
[
35]
external commerce, but denied its right to tax them in any way, without their consent, for raising an internal or external revenue.) 5.
That they were entitled to the common law of
England, and more especially the great privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage according to the course of law; 6.
That they were entitled to the benefit of English statutes at the time of the emigration of their ancestors; 7.
That they were entitled to all the immunities and privileges conferred upon them by royal charters or secured to them by provincial laws; 8.
That they had a right peaceably to assemble, state their grievances, and petition the
King without interference of ministers; 9.
That the keeping of a standing army in any colony, without the consent of the legislature, was unlawful; 10. That the exercise of legislative power in several colonies by a council appointed during pleasure by the crown was unconstitutional, dangerous, and destructive to the freedom of American legislation.
The report of the committee designated the various acts of Parliament which were infringements and violations of the rights of the colonists, and declared that the repeal of them was essentially necessary in order to restore harmony between
Great Britain and the
American colonies.
The acts enumerated were eleven in number —namely, Sugar act, stamp act, two quartering acts, tea act, act suspending the New York legislature, two acts for the trial in
Great Britain of offences committed in
America, Boston Port bill, the act for regulating [subverting] the government of
Massachusetts, and the Quebec act.
Declaration of Independence 
