They said:
"To sum up, in a word, the great cause of complaint against Great
Britain, your committee need only say, that the United States, as a
sovereign and independent power, claims the right to use the ocean,
which is the common and acknowledged highway of nations, for the
purposes of transporting, in their own vessels, the products of their
own soils and the acquisition of their own industry to any market in the
ports of friendly nations, and to bring home, in return, such articles
as their necessities or convenience may require, always regarding the
rights of belligerents as defined by the established laws of nations.
Great Britain, in defiance of this incontestable right, captures every
American vessel bound to or returning from a port where her commerce is
not favored; enslaves our seamen, and, in spite of our remonstrances,
perseveres in these aggressions. To wrongs so daring in character and so
disgraceful in their execution, it is impossible that the people of the
United States should remain indifferent. We must now tamely and quietly
submit, or we must resist by those means which God has placed within our
reach.... The sovereignty and independence of these States, purchased
and sanctified by the blood of our fathers, from whom we received them,
not for ourselves only, but as the inheritance of our posterity, are
deliberately and systematically violated.
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