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COMPLETE HISTORY

OF THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

EMBRACING THE WHOLE PERIOD FROM

THE DISCOVERY OF NORTH AMERICA.

DOWN TO

THE YEAR 1820.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

BY FREDERICK BUTLER, A. M.

Author of "A Catechetical Compend of General History," "Sketches of
Universal History," and "Farmer's Manual."

"QUI TRANSTULIT SUSTINET.”

VOL. III.

HARTFORD:

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR.

........

1821.

DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT, SS.

L.S. BE IT REMEMBERED; That on the eighteenth day of Janua

ry, in the forty-fifth year of the independence of the United States of America, Frederick Butler of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Author, in the words following, to wit, "A Complete History of the United States of America, embracing the whole period from the discovery of North America, down to the year 1820. In three volumes. By Frederick Butler, A. M. Author of "A Catechetical Compend of General History,"-"Sketches of Universal History," and "Farmer's Manual." Qui transtulit sustinet." In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An act "for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts "and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the "times therein mentioned."

66

CHARLES A. INGERSOLL, Clerk of the District of Connecticut.

A true copy of Record, examined and sealed by me,

CHARLES A. INGERSOLL, Clerk of the District of Connecticut.

ROBERTS AND BURR, PRINTERS.

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THAT WE way correctly understand this most interesting and important subject, it may be necessary to examine the principles of that tenure, by which the citizens of the American colonies held the right of soil, as well as the principles of that jurisprudence by which they were governed.

I shall first attempt to shew, what are the principles of the rights of property, in a state of nature, and how those principles are either changed, or confirmed, by the laws of civil society I shall next attempt to argue from these premises, the illegality of that claim which Great-Britain attempted to exercise over the American colonies, when she assumed the right to tax them; and the injustice of the measures she adopted, when she made her appeal to arms, and attempted to enforce her demands by the sword. I shall also attempt to shew, how unwise and absurd that whole system of British politics was, which compelled the colonies to dissolve their connection with the mother country, and declare their independence.

By the laws of nature, occupancy, and possession, is the only law of title; the law of force gives no just right of property, because it is a maxim in nature" that might often overcomes right."

When the christian princes of Europe, granted letters patent to foreign adventurers, to discover, and possess the soil of foreign lands, they knew that they had no more right to grant such authority, than the Popes of Rome bad

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