IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett
, William Whipple
, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock
, Samuel Adams
, John Adams
, Robert Treat Paine
, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins
, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman
, Samuel Huntington
, William Williams
, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd
, Philip Livingston
, Francis Lewis
, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton
, John Witherspoon
, Francis Hopkinson
, John Hart
, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris
, Benjamin Rush
, Benjamin Franklin
, John Morton
, George Clymer
, James Smith
, George Taylor
, James Wilson
, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney
, George Read
, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase
, William Paca
, Thomas Stone
, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe
, Richard Henry Lee
, Thomas Jefferson
, Benjamin Harrison
, Thomas Nelson, Jr.
, Francis Lightfoot Lee
, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper
, Joseph Hewes
, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge
, Thomas Heyward, Jr.
, Thomas Lynch, Jr.
, Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett
, Lyman Hall
, George Walton
From my viewpoint, it would be worth everyone's while to read the below linked BILLIANT ARTICLE by SPENGLER in the Asia Times:
7/03/07: SPENGLER: What they didn't say at Kennebunkport
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/IG03Aa03.html
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA. May we have the ultimate collective intelligence, will, and capacity to defend and protect it's constitution, bill of rights, culture, border, common language, and citizenry before it's too late!
Posted by: PETE | July 04, 2007 at 08:32 PM
It sounds better and better every time I read it. I must have read it a million times by now, but everytime I read it, it sounds like it's new, and it always fills me with pride and inspiration. These men placed everything they had on the line to ensure that we could be free, live in the blessings of liberty. It's astounding that so few could do so much for so many.
A pleasure as always Monica.
Posted by: Matthew | July 04, 2007 at 11:01 PM
These words from the Declaration of Independence have a familiar ring, in these times.
"In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury."
We are a very patient and peace-loving nation! How long will we alow the enemy to attack us and our friends before we assume a true war footing?
Posted by: kcwold | July 05, 2007 at 02:26 PM
Monica,
You and other opinion makers helped persuade me to create a "Personal DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE and BELIEF" blog on July 4, 2007. I was glad to see the full text of our founding document on your site. It confirms my feeling that what I have done and am doing to declare my personal "independence" from political parties and simply be an "American," is best for my small contribution to the American cause. I do not "depend" upon the current day "usurpers" in Washington or party idealogues for final word and in determining "right" or "wrong."
The only way to get civic sanity back is for the citizen to rebel through the election and expressed opinion making process; and working within the system which can more fully be guarded by a vigilant and connected community of communicating patriots, but not necessarily as a strict or die-hard party affiliate.
I urge all to read the Declaration of Independence and to also determine if in the lines there might reside a way to "personalize it" to the needs of the present day in a sensible and yet powerful way.
James
www.jmpratt.com
http://jmprattcom.blogspot.com/
Posted by: James Pratt | July 05, 2007 at 03:39 PM
The listed Declaration reminds me (again) of a solution I thought of that, had it been instituted about three decades ago (at the bicentennial), would have solved the "corruption creep" so evident and set in today with minimal impact. Doing this now, however, would complicate things too much to work well without some changes.
The core idea is this: Rebuild the governments, one and all. Every part needs to be overhauled, from the chokehold of laws (including the illegal Federal Income Tax law, and the neutered Sex Offender Registry-associated laws), to the military (charging MILLIONS to train each soldier (literally! My roommate is a vet, and he was shown the inflated costs of about $2M per in the early '90s)) to the rights and priveliges of each branch of government (such as pay for Congress being authorised by... CONGRESS???).
The whole problem requires we re-declare and alter the government to serve the country (comprised of it's people), rather than the other way around. If the government will not serve the country by acceeding to this, then IT MUST GO.
Posted by: Matthew Barton | July 06, 2007 at 01:24 PM
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY MONICA!
LOOK FORWARD TO THIS WEEKEND'S SHOW!!
STEVE
INTERNET RADIO NETWORK
Posted by: Steve | July 06, 2007 at 01:27 PM
We should never forget for a moment that we are citizens, not subjects!
Posted by: Tom TB | July 06, 2007 at 03:29 PM
Monica
Have you seen this? a note this has been postponed why I wonder? it was set for 7-11 This is about talk radio imus and FCC an Illinois congress person.
http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0102/t.7036.html
Posted by: Ree | July 08, 2007 at 01:41 PM