XVIII 
VINDICATION AND OFFER FROM CONGRESS TO PARLIA- 
MENT * 
Forasmuch as the enemies of America in the Par- 
liament of Great Britain, to render us odious to the 
nation, and give an ill impression of us in the minds 
of other European powers, have represented us as 
unjust and ungrateful in the highest degree; assert- 
ing, on every occasion, that the colonies were settled 
at the expense of Britain; that they were, at the ex- 
pense of the same, protected in their infancy; that 
they now ungratefully and unjustly refuse to con- 
tribute to their own protection, and the common 
defence of the nation; that they aim at independ- 
ence; that they intend an abolition of the Naviga- 
tion Acts; and that they are fraudulent in their 
commercial dealings, and purpose to cheat their 
creditors in Britain by avoiding the payment of 
their just debts; 
* Dr. Franklin was put on a committee to report to Congress a 
declaration to be published by General Washington, on his arrival in 
camp at Cambridge in the summer of 1775. This paper is doubtless 
one of the fruits of the discussions in that committee. It is in reply 
to what Mr. Vaughan calls ‘““a severe act of Parliament which reached 
the colonies about that time.”’ 
188