I've run this post almost every July 4th in the 12 years I've been
blogging. There were only two years I didn't and both of those posts
were about problems that must have seemed really big but that are still here
(2012, 2014). My lesson is that while they were important, the big picture is to
remind ourselves of the history, and enjoy the day with family and
friends. The problems will still be here on the fifth.
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 to 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 shown 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 meantime
exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions
within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of
these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of
foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 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 legislature.
He
has affected to render the military independent of and superior to 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 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 offenses:
For
abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring 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 in 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, burned
our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at
this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete 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 endeavored to bring on
the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known
rule of warfare, is 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 attention 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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I would have highlighted portions that I think are particularly
apt today, but the whole thing would be highlighted.
Enjoy your day. To those who serve - and have served - to provide
this gift of liberty for us: Thank You from the bottom of my
heart.
