The Declaration of Independence

[Guest guest]

And this is why we seceded from England.

What's the difference between then and now, with the exception of

changing governments???

Doc

 

 

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies

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 [George

III] 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 benefits 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 and 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 the

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. The signers of the Declaration

represented the new states as follows: New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett,

William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual

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

 

For additional information about the Declaration of Independence, see

these sites:

 

National Archives and Records Administration:

Declaration of Independence

Library of

Congress: About the Declaration of Independence

 

 

Ian "Doc" Shillington N.D.

727-738-0554

DocShillington

[Guest guest]

Dear Susan,

I agree wholeheartedly.

When November slides around, if Ron Paul's name is not on the ballot, I

will be recommending to all of my friends to put it on there which is,

and always has been a legal thing to do.

One of the problems with the Diebold voting machines is that, (and I

could be wrong on this) they don't let you add a name to the ballot???

Perhaps someone could enlighten me on this.

Yours in Knowledge, Health, and Freedom,

Doc

 

 

 

Susan wrote:

> Doc,

> This is what I have been seeing coming for a long time and you are the

> first one I know who has seen it from the same visions of the

> Constitution, what can we do to bring our country back to the way it

> was meant to be?

>

> I vote and will continue to vote but the persons running now are not

> acceptable to me; I believe we need to bring about vast changes in our

> voting and the parties. As long as the Republicans and Democrats have

> sway in the nomiations and can control the electoral college we have

> no control over who we want in office except for the persons the

> parties elect. I believe we need to do away with the electoral

> college because there is no longer a need for it with our

> communication systems now in use. It was supposed to be to help in

> the voting process when the communications between the distances was

> slow but it is used now to control the nominations and popular vote to

> put the choice of the political party in office. The people's vote

> can be easily counted and reported now and the person recieving the

> most popular votes should be the one given the office. For several

> years I have voted the Independent ticket or written in the name of

> the person I would most like to see in office. I realize it is in a

> way throwing my vote away but I will not be forced to vote for someone

> who I do not believe will represent me and the people in the way they

> should.

>

> Susan

> An American by Birth

> Who has defended America

> in more ways than most will ever

> attempt.

> I have had my family threatened

> and had to back down too many times.

> I am ready to fight because I believe if we

> don't do something we will be in the same

> position our founders and forefathers were

> in before signing the Declaration of Independence.

>