“The aforesaid parties taking into their most serious consideration the melancholy and unsettled state of _Great-Britain_ and her _North-American_ colonies, proceeding, as they are fully persuaded, from a design in her most insidious and inveterate enemies, to alienate the affections of his majesty’s most loyal and faithful subjects of _North-America_ from his person and government—Therefore to prevent as much as in us lies, the dissolution of so inestimable an union, they do, in the presence of _Almighty God_, declare, that they bear the most unshaken faith and true allegiance to his majesty king _George_ the Third—that they are most affectionately and zealously attached to his royal person and family, and are fully determined, to the utmost of their power, to maintain and support his crown and dignity, and the succession as by law established; and with the greatest cheerfulness they submit to his government, according to the known and just principles of the BRITISH CONSTITUTION, which they conceive to be founded on the eternal and immutable principles of justice and equity, and that every attempt to violate or wrest it, or any part of it, from them, under whatever pretence, colour, or authority, is an heinous sin against God, and the most daring contempt of the people, from whom (under God) all just government springs. From a sacred regard to all which, and a just sense of the impending evils that might befal them in consequence of such a dreadful dissolution, they do hereby voluntarily, and of their own free will, as well for the support of his majesty’s just prerogative and the British constitution, as their own mutual security and preservation, agree and concede to associate, advise, protect, and defend each other in the peaceable, full, and just enjoyment of their inherent and accustomed rights as British subjects of their respective colonies, not in the least desiring any alteration or innovation in the grand bulwark of their liberties and the wisdom of ages, but only to preserve it inviolate from the corrupt hands of its implacable enemies—And whereas a certain pamphlet has appeared in America, in the form of an act of parliament, called and known by the name of the _Stamp Act_, but has never been legally published or introduced, neither can it, as it would immediately deprive them of the most invaluable part of the British constitution, viz. the trial by juries, and the most just mode of taxation in the world, that is, of taxing themselves; rights that every British subject becomes heir to as soon as born. For the preservation of which, and every part of the British constitution, they do reciprocally resolve and determine to march with the utmost dispatch, at their own proper costs and expence, on the first proper notice (which must be signified to them by at least six of the sons of liberty) with their whole force, if required, and it can be spared, to the relief of those that shall, are, or may be in