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IN CONGRESS, THIS DAY, 239 Years Ago...
Divine Providence | July 4, 1776 | Jefferson, Franklin, Sherman, Adams, Livingston

Posted on 07/03/2015 8:59:27 PM PDT by jimjohn

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.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; independenceday; thedeclaration; theframers; therevolution
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To: jimjohn

Thanks for posting this.

This is why I don’t have any time for the losers who say America is dead, or isn’t worth fighting for anymore, or deserves to be broken up.

So long as a single American draws breath, the dream is alive. And these profound words from long ago live on to inspire us.


21 posted on 07/04/2015 6:30:03 AM PDT by highball ("I never should have switched from scotch to martinis." -- the last words of Humphrey Bogart)
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To: bluejean

>>Heartbreaking. 239 years later, the country is being dismantled and destroyed by its own now completely corrupt government. Grieves my soul.

The government is only the tool being used to dismantle. Place the blame on the Progressives who loudly demand that the country be reformed in their image, and on the “money people” who pay for their microphones.


22 posted on 07/04/2015 6:58:12 AM PDT by Bryanw92 (Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: jimjohn

Hard to believe there were so many courageous people in congress willing to put there lives on the line for freedom. When today is there even one? (maybe ted cruz, but that’s about it)


23 posted on 07/04/2015 7:06:23 AM PDT by Cubs Fan (Pam Gellar draws pictures, muslims murder people-- liberals speak out against the first)
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To: jimjohn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkjhu2GKYAs

Liberty! The American Revolution Part 5
It ends with this:
“By now everyone’s heard the old story of the soldiers tracking the blood of their feet on the frozen ground. It literally happened. But you don’t know a thousandth part of how we suffered. You never can.”


24 posted on 07/04/2015 7:16:26 AM PDT by Buttons12
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To: GregoTX

That is the blueprint for what despots do, always has been.


25 posted on 07/04/2015 7:22:56 AM PDT by going hot (Happiness is a momma deuce)
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To: jimjohn; Pharmboy; Doctor Raoul; indcons; Chani; thefactor; blam; aculeus; ELS; mainepatsfan; ...

This thread may interest the Rev. War Ping list. There’s some good stuff here.

FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Rev. War ping list.


26 posted on 07/04/2015 7:57:57 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: GregoTX

Some?! He’s a reincarnated King George.


27 posted on 07/04/2015 8:16:38 AM PDT by madison10 (If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter)
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To: jimjohn

The Lower Counties of Pennsylvania, present day Delaware, declared separation from England on June 15, 1776.

This is known as Separation Day in DE.

The Lower Counties were New Castle, Kent and Sussex, which make up he three counties of present day DE.

This was two weeks before the Declaration was signed in nearby Philadelphia on July 2, 1776.

Revolution was in the wind.

DE was also the first state to ratify the Constitution (Dec. 7,1787), and the last to abolish slavery (Dec. 1865)


28 posted on 07/04/2015 8:29:01 AM PDT by exit82 ("The Taliban is on the inside of the building" E. Nordstrom 10-10-12)
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To: dayglored

Amen.


29 posted on 07/04/2015 8:31:58 AM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (I'm fed up.)
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To: kaehurowing

Was just reading a book [How to Pray by Torrey] and Paul’s event in Acts 19 was referenced. A businessman who made idols for the false goddess Artemis/Diana started a protest against Christians because they were losing money. Nothing new under the sun.


30 posted on 07/04/2015 8:56:44 AM PDT by huldah1776
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To: jimjohn

Would it not indeed be wise, at this juncture, to compose a similar declaration against the current federal state. That a real leader would compose same and make it his, and our declaration.

The enumeration, the list would be quite long, and the violations demonstrably agains the very Constitution to which all members of that government are sworn to uphold.

Just a thought. Much more effective than a “Contract with America” though it could be renamed from that with the proviso that the actions must be taken or independence will ensue.


31 posted on 07/04/2015 9:16:51 AM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: jimjohn

Bfl


32 posted on 07/04/2015 9:24:59 AM PDT by goodnesswins (hey..Wussie Americans....ISIS is coming. Are you ready?)
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To: John S Mosby

The next President reading it at inauguration would do


33 posted on 07/04/2015 9:31:09 AM PDT by goodnesswins (hey..Wussie Americans....ISIS is coming. Are you ready?)
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To: jimjohn
On this day, Citizens of the Untied States were created. All subsequently born to them in this country became "natural born citizens."

Natural born citizens were those people born after this date to US Citizens newly created by the Declaration of Independence.

This is our founding document.

34 posted on 07/04/2015 11:25:51 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp
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To: bert; rockrr; DoodleDawg
On this day in 1776, the Virginia Convention assembled in Williamsburg declared the Transylvania Colony (Kentucky) purchase by the Richard Henderson & co null and void. In doing so, Virginia asserted control over it’s western lands and declared British law over the colonies invalid.

the action was a first act of independence

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Grant_Deed

And no doubt some people will argue that they did not have the right to do such a thing, but instead were duty bound to remain in the Union.

35 posted on 07/04/2015 11:30:56 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp
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To: exit82; rockrr; DoodleDawg
The Lower Counties of Pennsylvania, present day Delaware, declared separation from England on June 15, 1776.

This is known as Separation Day in DE.

The Lower Counties were New Castle, Kent and Sussex, which make up he three counties of present day DE.

This was two weeks before the Declaration was signed in nearby Philadelphia on July 2, 1776.

Revolution was in the wind.

DE was also the first state to ratify the Constitution (Dec. 7,1787), and the last to abolish slavery (Dec. 1865)

More relevant history for you.

36 posted on 07/04/2015 11:33:20 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp
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To: DiogenesLamp
Thanks for the ping.

And no doubt some people will argue that they did not have the right to do such a thing, but instead were duty bound to remain in the Union.

I suppose someone might but I have no idea who that would be.

37 posted on 07/04/2015 11:54:51 AM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: rockrr
I suppose someone might but I have no idea who that would be.

Enjoy your Fourth. We should all celebrate independence. :)

38 posted on 07/04/2015 12:01:02 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp
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To: bluejean

I like to call them enemies of the United States, not the government because that’s exactly what they are. People who love this country or even mildly respect it don’t do the kind of stuff like what they are doing.


39 posted on 07/04/2015 5:44:06 PM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (B. Hussein Obama: 19 acts of Treason and counting.)
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To: huldah1776

May God Almighty continue to bless this country far more than what she is deserving of......


40 posted on 07/04/2015 9:04:22 PM PDT by caww
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