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The Congress took the said resolution into consideration, and
are thereupon of opinion:
That the colonies of America are entitled to the sole and
exclusive privilege of giving and granting their own money; that this
involves a right of deliberating whether they will make any gift, for
what purposes it shall be made, and what shall be it's amount; and
that it is a high breach of this privilege for any body of men,
extraneous to their constitutions, to prescribe the purposes for
which money shall be levied on them, to take to themselves the
authority of judging of their conditions, circumstances and
situations; and of determining the amount of the contribution to be
levied.
That as the colonies possess a right of appropriating their
gifts, so are they entitled at all times to enquire into their
application, to see that they be not wasted among the venal and
corrupt for the purpose of undermining the civil rights of the
givers, nor yet be diverted to the support of standing armies,
inconsistent with their freedom and subversive of their quiet. To
propose therefore, as this resolution does, that the monies given by
the colonies shall be subject to the disposal of parliament alone, is
to propose that they shall relinquish this right of enquiry, and put
it in the power of others to render their gifts, ruinous, in
proportion as they are liberal.
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