XVIII
VINDICATION AND OFFER FROM CONGRESS TO PARLIA-MENT
 *
Forasmuch as the enemies of America in the Parliament
 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; asserting,
 on every occasion, that the colonies were settled
at the expense of Britain; that they were, at the expense
 of the same, protected in their infancy; that
they now ungratefully and unjustly refuse to contribute
 to their own protection, and the common
defence of the nation; that they aim at independence;
 that they intend an abolition of the Navigation
 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.”’

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