For some months past, every exertion had been made to place South Carolina, and especially its capital, Charleston, in a respectable posture of defence. Works were accordingly erected upon Sullivan's island; which is situated so near the channel, as to be a convenient post for annoying vessels when attempting to approach the town. These proved a judicious precaution. The place had soon to withstand a formidable attack. On the 28th of June, a British admiral, sir Peter Parker, entered the harbour, with six frigates and four smaller ships of war; mounting in the whole, two-hundred-and-seventy guns, and having on board three-thousand land-troops, under the command of sir Henry Clinton. To oppose these, the fort had twenty-six guns, consisting of nine, eighteen, and twenty-six pounders, manned by about four-hundred militia and soldiers of the line, commanded by colonel Moultrie. This small garrison made a most gallant and effectual defence. They fired with deliberation; for the most part took aim; and seldom missed their object. The ships were torn almost to pieces; the killed and wounded on board exceeded two-hundred men. The loss of the garrison was only ten men killed and twentytwo wounded. The fort being built of palmetto, was little damaged the shot which struck it was buried in its soft wood. Colonel Thompson, with seven-hundred men, was stationed at the east end of the island, to oppose the crossing of a British division,which had landed on Long island, in their rear; but, to effect that, no serious attempt was made. The Aring ceased in the evening; the vessels slipped their cables; before morning, they had retired about two miles; and, in a few days, the troops re-embarked, and the whole sailed for New York.

During this engagement, the inhabitants stood prepared to receive the enemy, wherever they might land. Impres sed with high ideas of British power and bravery, they were apprehensive that the fort would be either silenced or passed; and therefore resolved to meet the invaders at the water's edge, dispute every inch of ground, and trust the event to Heaven.

Two grand objects of the British armaments were decided; one, to relieve Canada, which had been successful; the other, to make a strong impression in the south, which ended in defeat. A third remained to be determined, the possession of New York. The command of the force designed to operate against the latter, was given to admiral lord

Howe, and his brother, general sir William Howe; officers, who, as well from their individual characters, as the known bravery of their family, stood high in ministerial confidence, and were commissioned either to subdue by the power of arms, or end the war by negotiation. The army amounted to thirty-thousand men ; a force which exceeded any before seen in America, and was, besides, supported by a numerous fleet.

On their approach, the enemy found every part of New York Island, and the most exposed parts of Long Island, fortified, and well defended by artillery. About fifty British transports anchored near Staten Island; which had not been so much an object of protection. The inhabitants of this place, either through fear or policy, or affection, expressed great joy on their arrival; and several assembling round their standard, joined by about sixty persons from New Jersey, were embodied as a royal militia.

But, whatever might be the hopes of Britain to obtain a more absolute dominion over her colonies, by arms, the time had now gone past when even the ancient connexion could be retained, by negociation. Offers of pardon were not less insulting than inappropriate. A new era had arisen in the west. The link, which had, for ages, bound England to her rising progeny, was, by the corroding influence of evil ministers, severed from its ancient hold. The chain which had stretched its political radii, to their common centre in Great Britain, now assumed a fresh arrangement, by attaching together the children in resistance to the parent. On the 4th of July, a few days after the arrival of this great armament, the congress at Philadelphia agreed on a declaration of INDEPENDENCE; thereby, absolving the colonies from every allegiance to the crown of England. The motion for this purpose, first made on the 7th of June, by Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, and seconded by John Adams, of Massachusetts, in conformity with the particular instructions of the former's constituents and the general voice of all the states, was decided by an almost unanimous vote.

"WHEN, in the course of human events," says this celebrated document," it becomes necessary for one people to disssolve 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 for 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 destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to 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. Το 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 dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose, obstructing the laws for naturalization of fereigners; 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.

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 times 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 pro

tecting 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 benefits 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 neighbouring 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 begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress, in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts made by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circum