TITLE XXIV. Of Proceedings in Special Cases. Chapter 114. Of proceedings against debtors by attachment, 513 517 520 Chapter 116. Of proceedings by and against corporations in courts of law, 519 Chapter 119. Of proceedings by and against public bodies, having certain corporate powers, and by and against officers representing them, Chapter 120. Of suits against sheriffs and other officers on their official bonds, Chapter 121. Of proceedings as for contempts, to enforce civil remedies, and to protect the rights of parties in civil actions, Chapter 122. Of proceedings for the collection of demands against ships, 524 529 531 533 boats and vessels, 537 Chapter 123. Proceedings to recover the possession of land in certain Chapter 127. Of the disposition of unclaimed property in certain cases, Chapter 128. Of the collection of penalties, forfeitures and fines, and of for 559 feited recognizances, 560 Chapter 129. Of arbitrations, 565 Chapter 130. Of the foreclosure of mortgages by advertisement, 568 571 573 Chapter 133. Proceedings to compel the delivery of books and papers by Of Writs of Habeas Corpus, Scire Facias, Informations, Writs of Mandamus, Prohibition, Error and Certiorari. Chapter 134. Of the writs of habeas corpus and certiorari, Chapter 136. Of informations in the nature of a quo warranto, and in cer Chapter 138. Writs of error and certiorari, 577 587 590 593 595 TITLE XXVI. Of the Limitation of Actions. Chapter 139. Of the limitation of actions relating to real property, 598 600 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. [UNANIMOUSLY PASSED BY THE CONGRESS OF THE THIRTEEN United STATES OF AMERICA, JULY 4, 1776.] 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; and that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute 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 abolute 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 Chapter 164. Of indictments and proceedings before trial, 696 Chapter 165. Of trials in criminal cases, 701 Chapter 166. Of new trials and exceptions in criminal cases, 702 Chapter 167. Of coroner's inquests, 703 Chapter 168. Of judgments in criminal cases, and the execution thereof, 705 Chapter 169. Of the fees of officers and ministers of justice in criminal ca Of Imprisonment for Offences, and the Government and Discipline of Prisons. 712 Chapter 171. Of county jails, and the regulation thereof, TITLE XXXIII. Chapter 173. Of the repeal of the statutes revised and consolidated in this act, 725 APPENDIX. Acts of congress relating to territories, Ordinance of July 13, 1787, Acts relative to the admission of Michigan into the Union, 739 744, 745 746 to 752 Abstract of the laws of the United States in relation to the naturalization of aliens, 752 Act of congress respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters, 756 Acts of congress relative to the authentication of public acts, records, and judicial proceedings, 757, 758 Act to provide for the publication of the revised statutes, 759 List of acts not repealed and consolidated in the revised statutes, 760 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. [UNANIMOUSLY PASSED BY THE CONGRESS OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, JULY 4, 1776.] 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; and that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute 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 abolute 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 a 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 dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of land. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers, to harass our people and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in time of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us; For protecting them, by a mock-trial, from punishment, for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states; For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; For imposing taxes on us without our consent; For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefit of trial by jury; For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences; For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies; For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments; For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries, to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already be gun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in |