Posted on 07/04/2013 7:28:37 AM PDT by RaceBannon
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 harrass 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 & 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 Brittish 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.
The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1 Georgia: Button Gwinnett Lyman Hall George Walton
Column 2 North Carolina: William Hooper Joseph Hewes John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge Thomas Heyward, Jr. Thomas Lynch, Jr. Arthur Middleton
Column 3 Massachusetts: John Hancock 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
Column 4 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
Column 5 New York: William Floyd Philip Livingston Francis Lewis Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton John Witherspoon Francis Hopkinson John Hart Abraham Clark
Column 6 New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett William Whipple Massachusetts: 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 Hampshire: Matthew Thornton
-PJ
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
- Obama has refused to prosecute voting rights laws, immigration laws, income tax laws for his cronies, etc.
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.
- Obama is suing the state of Arizona to block them from enforcing their own state laws for complying with federal immigration laws.
- 2013: Obama is suing states to prevent the use of voter ID during elections.
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.
- During the campaign, Obama said that health care negotiations would be covered on C-SPAN. Over and over he said this. Finally, he relented to a single meeting with House and Senate members for one afternoon only, where he disrespectfully referred to them by first name and then spent the time lecturing them.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
- Obama fired Inspector General Gerald Walpin for getting too close to the illegal actions of his supporters.
- 2013: Obama effectively dissolved Congress when he himself declared them to be in recess, and then made a series of so-called recess appointments of people who bypassed "advise and consent" oversight.
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.
- Again, see Obama's actions regarding Arizona and immigration laws.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
- Obama's lawyers have been repeatedly arguing that We The People do not have standing in the Courts to question his Constitutional qualifications for office.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
- See the standing argument above.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
- Obama has created a shadow government of unappointed "czars," circumventing the confirmation process and oversight of Congress.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
- Obama has tried to form his civilian national security force, which nobody is quite sure about its intended purpose.
- 2013: Now we know that Homeland Security has been buying up billions of rounds of hollow-tipped bullets, and buying military anti-mine vehicles for domestic use. They are also talking about armed drone strikes against Americans on American soil.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
- Obama has fired most of the top decorated military officers, including: Gen. McCrystal, Gen. Petraeus, Gen. McKiernan, Gen. Mattis, Gen. Ham, Adm. Gaouette.
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:
- Sharia law, anyone?
- 2013: Gun Control treaties with the United Nations?
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:
- 2013: When will Ft. Hood murderer Maj. Nidal Hasan be tried? For Terrorism? Workplace Violence?
- And what about the mock trials for terrorists in New York City instead of at military tribunals at the military base at Guatanamo Bay?
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
- Making it "mandatory" to purchase health insurance?
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
- Lt. Col. Terry Lakin is refused all avenues of defense in questioning the legitimacy of Obama as commander-in-chief. See also the "standing" question, and the unsupported by case history decision to overturn Arizona's immigration enforcement law.
- 2013: What about the Coptic Christian film-maker who was jailed so Obama could claim that he was the start of the Muslim riots in Bhengazi?
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
- See the "czars" shadow government.
- 2013: What about the threats from the Obama administration to take over the health care of any state that refuses to enact Obamacare exchanges?
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
- Obama ignored centuries of contract law in order to take control of the auto industry and bypass legal bond holders to give the assets to the Labor Unions.
- 2013: They are again talking about seizing hard-earned and long-saved IRA and 401(k) private retirement accounts.
- Obama is deferring the employer mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act, a legally passed bill that was signed into law, as if the President has the power to capriciously decide which laws to follow and which to ignore..
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
- Obama is using the regulatory powers of the EPA, the IRS, etc., to force industries he doesn't like to close, while also handing out taxpayer money to risky industries that he favors, all without Congressional consent or oversight.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
- Again, see suing states.
- 2013: Obama ordering his agencies to make the sequester as painful as possible on ordinary Americans.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
- The response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico blocked early response. Obama refused international help, allowing the oil to reach our protected shorelines. Obama used the spill to stop drilling in the Gulf, putting thousands and thousands of people out of work.
- 2013: After attacking Bush on his response to Hurricane Katrina, Obama has failed to deliver on his response to Hurricane Sandy. Maybe the victims in Staten Island weren't "Holder's 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.
- 2013: While states are running out of money, Obama is sending billions of dollars in cash and millions of dollars in military equipment to our enemies in Libya, Syria, and Egypt, including al Qaeda terrorists who were responsible for destroying the World Trade Center in New York City.
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.
- 2013: Has anybody seen or heard from the survivors of the attacks on Benghazi?
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.
- SEIU thuggery? New Black Panthers at the polls?
- 2013: Saudi Arabian citizens, home of the 9/11 terrorists, are now "trusted flyers" in the United States, while our own citizens continue to be humiliated at our airports by amateur security guards.
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.
- Obama returning the Bust of Churchill to England and giving them useless tourist gifts in return? Obama ignoring Israel, and making their leaders wait while he dines on lunch? Obama making the Dahli Lama exit the White House through the garbage door?
excellent reply!
"Behind the Violence, Says Jane Alpert, Was Sex"--November 09, 1981--
"The leaders of the Weather Underground, she believes, followed a similar pattern of constantly shifting sexual alliances..."http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20080637,00.html
"...the Weathermen, when not engaged in group sex, committed such revolutionary acts as parading with a Viet Cong flag through a local park on Independence Day and spray-painting the walls of a high school with the slogans, "Off the Pigs," "Viet Cong Will Win," and "F#$k U.S. Imperialism."..."
Campus Wars: The Peace Movement At American State Universities in the Vietnam Era
Don't need no weatherman to see which way the Occupied wind blows.
Sounds oddly familiar.
bflr
George III was not a tyrant. He never even denied royal assent (vetoed) a single bill. In fact, no British monarch since Queen Anne has denied royal assent even once.
The British monarchy was already a figurehead by 1776, but the founders made it a nice scapegoat in their lust for power.
God bless the United States of America!!
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,
-PJ
Sorry.
-PJ
BookMark
May God guide our course.
Tatt
I’ve got a similar rollup of DoI grievances on my FR page. I like yours, too.
” May God cause our nation to weep, and see our true spiritual state, repent, pray for our leaders that they turn to the God of the Bible, and that our nation is healed. “
Amen!
We won that war and all the other wars. But we are desperately losing the peace.
Yikes a Torie.
Pretty ironic that the Egyptians did on this holiday what we should have done 4 years ago when this admitted foreign born Marxist was unconstitutionally elected.
.....my friend Bobby Roberts was killed at 20 years old on August 24, 1969 in Quang Nam province. He was a Marine. I posted the link below for anyone that cares to look at it.
On Sunday afternoons we played caveman and dug caves into the side of a creek embankment. We were 11 years old. When we got tired, we went swimming in the creek. That was back in the late fifties when creeks had water in them. Bobby always had a smile on his face. It was like it was painted on. Reportedly, he was shot in the head while doing his duty.
http://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/43740/BOBBY-L-ROBERTSarine.
The good memories are the best :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.