Posted on 07/03/2010 3:51:54 AM PDT by AK_47_7.62x39
The average American "celebrates" July 4 by barbecuing, drinking a beer or two, and watching fireworks. I am convinced most Americans have NEVER (since high school, anyway) read this most amazing, audacious, inflammatory and revolutionary document. Everyone should pull it out, read it, and give friends printed copies when they come over.
Most of the document is a set of gripes, but the really "meaty" sections are paragraphs one and two, and then the last one. Some of the more salient points of this jaw dropping, in your face statement of defiance are below:
1) Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and whenever that consent is withdrawn, it is the right of the people to "alter or abolish" that government and "to institute a new government." -- That is, Governments are ESTABLISHED (under God, if you are a Christian like me and believe Romans 13) solely on the authority of the people, and may be change, OR REPLACED at the pleasure of those people. The DOI declares revolution to be THE RIGHT of the people.
2) "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, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other things which independent states may of right do (emphasis in original)."
Each colony was considered to be a free and independent state, or nation, in and of itself. There was no such thing as "the United States of America" in the minds of the founders. The independent colonies were simply united for a particular cause: seceding from the British empire. Each individual state was assumed to possess all the rights that any state possesses, even to wage war and conclude peace. Indeed, when King George III finally signed a peace treaty he signed it with all the individual American states, named one by one,
The idea of some "indivisible" (I refuse to say that word in the pledge of allegiance) "United States" as a consolidated, monopolistic government is a fiction invented by Lincoln and instituted as a matter of policy at gunpoint and at the expense of some 600,000 American lives during 1861–1865. I know, I know, we ratified the Constitution a 11 years later, but we ain't celebrating THE CONSTITUTION on July 4, are we? Nor are we interested in some arcane babblefest about "neoconfederacy" or slavery.
The founding fathers today would be considered a bunch of reactionary firebrand hotheads and every one of them would today CERTAINLY be on some FBI watch list and be a "person of interest" to the thugs in DC.
READ THE DOCUMENT (I have posted it below) and consider that decentralization of power or establishing new governments need NOT be an act of bloodshed. All of Eastern Europe, South Africa, the Philippines, the old Soviet Union..., all are modern day examples of states who followed the pattern of the principles in the DOI and SECEDED from tyrannical centralized governments (or overthrew them) without a drop of blood being shed.
AGAIN, READ THE DOCUMENT, and consider the question: Are you sure one revolution was enough?
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.
Unfortunately but apparently one revolution was not enough.
Another brief point of interest:
Thomas Jefferson clearly thought the states had the right to LEAVE the union if they wished. He defended the right of secession in his first inaugural address by declaring, “If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left to combat it.” In fact, the greatest threat to the Union in the early years occurred under his watch. There were two of them, with states threatening to leave. The most serious was over the Louisana Purchase. His attitude towards the potential fissure (which was very real) was (and I quote) “God bless them.”
Revolution -again- should NOT only conjure up visions of internal civil and military strife with internal warfare. It may be as simple as free men standing up to a tyrannical central state and saying “NO! You have no such authority and we will not submit! If you push us, we will resist and/or leave!”
The founders were WAY WAY WAY more reactionary and incendiary than we usually consider.
This is not correct. The consolidation of America was created by the Constitution. Washington, Hamilton, Madison all explicitly sought for and achieved the consolidation of the colonies into one empire. It's exactly what they wanted. This was understood at the time:
The American spirit has fled from hence: it has gone to regions where it has never been expected; it has gone to the people of France, in search of a splendid government — a strong, energetic government. Shall we imitate the example of those nations who have gone from a simple to a splendid government? Are those nations more worthy of our imitation? What can make an adequate satisfaction to them for the loss they have suffered in attaining such a government — for the loss of their liberty? If we admit this consolidated government, it will be because we like a great, splendid one. Some way or other we must be a great and mighty empire; we must have an army, and a navy, and a number of things. When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: liberty, sir, was then the primary object. We are descended from a people whose government was founded on liberty: our glorious forefathers of Great Britain made liberty the foundation {54} of every thing. That country is become a great, mighty, and splendid nation; not because their government is strong and energetic, but, sir, because liberty is its direct end and foundation. We drew the spirit of liberty from our British ancestors: by that spirit we have triumphed over every difficulty. But now, sir, the American spirit, assisted by the ropes and chains of consolidation, is about to convert this country into a powerful and mighty empire. If you make the citizens of this country agree to become the subjects of one great consolidated empire of America, your government will not have sufficient energy to keep them together. Such a government is incompatible with the genius of republicanism. There will be no checks, no real balances, in this government. What can avail your specious, imaginary balances, your rope-dancing, chain-rattling, ridiculous ideal checks and contrivances?Patrick Henry, June 5th, 1788
pinglist
If we don’t reel in our “Federal” government soon, this document will become just another joke of history. Does the GOP have the balls to save our freedom or will BONER and Co© let it slip through their fingers as they lick the boots of K Street?
Thanks for the post. Everone should read this document periodically. Also, read the Constitution, it is a long read, boring in most places, but something that all Americans should read.
I agree. This method worked for Gandhi, Tutu and Rosa Parks. It will work for us too. If not... well... it then becomes 2A time.
There are some who believe that the “republic” as a collection of free states was doomed from the Constitution itself and was a huge mistake. I know of historians who claim this, and pull out statements like the above from Patrick Henry as sheer prescience. (WHAT A MAN!!! WHAT A HERO AND TRUE PATRIOT!!!) to support them.
There were elements of that stuff, to be sure, and the Constitution was a compromise. Jefferson, interestingly enough, had no part in its construction, although he did swear an oath to uphold it.
Thanks for posting. It was like I was reading it with fresh eyes — this is the first time I’ve read the Declaration of Independence when I felt that I was living under an oppressive government. The first several of his “bill of particulars” against the British government (my term I think) reminded me very much of what is happening to the poor people and Governors on the Gulf Coast states and to the people in Arizona and the other border states:
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.
"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them." --Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1787. ME 6:373, Papers 12:356
"Governments, wherein the will of every one has a just influence... has its evils,... the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing. Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietam servitutem. [I prefer the tumult of liberty to the quiet of servitude.] Even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourishes a general attention to the public affairs." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. ME 6:64
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere." --Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams, 1787.
"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion... We have had thirteen States independent for eleven years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half, for each State. What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion?" --Thomas Jefferson to William S. Smith, 1787. ME 6:372
"Most codes extend their definitions of treason to acts not really against one's country. They do not distinguish between acts against the government, and acts against the oppressions of the government. The latter are virtues, yet have furnished more victims to the executioner than the former, because real treasons are rare; oppressions frequent. The unsuccessful strugglers against tyranny have been the chief martyrs of treason laws in all countries." --Thomas Jefferson: Report on Spanish Convention, 1792.
"If our country, when pressed with wrongs at the point of the bayonet, had been governed by its heads instead of its hearts, where should we have been now? Hanging on a gallows as high as Haman's." --Thomas Jefferson to Maria Cosway, 1786. ME 5:444
"The commotions that have taken place in America, as far as they are yet known to me, offer nothing threatening. They are a proof that the people have liberty enough, and I could not wish them less than they have. If the happiness of the mass of the people can be secured at the expense of a little tempest now and then, or even of a little blood, it will be a precious purchase. 'Malo libertatem periculosam quam quietem servitutem.' Let common sense and common honesty have fair play, and they will soon set things to rights." --Thomas Jefferson to Ezra Stiles, 1786. ME 6:25
"The tumults in America I expected would have produced in Europe an unfavorable opinion of our political state. But it has not. On the contrary, the small effect of these tumults seems to have given more confidence in the firmness of our governments. The interposition of the people themselves on the side of government has had a great effect on the opinion here [in Europe]." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787. ME 6:57
"The late rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm than I think it should have done. Calculate that one rebellion in thirteen states in the course of eleven years, is but one for each state in a century and a half. No country should be so long without one. Nor will any degree of power in the hands of government prevent insurrections." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. ME 6:391
"[An occasional insurrection] will not weigh against the inconveniences of a government of force, such as are monarchies and aristocracies." --Thomas Jefferson to T. B. Hollis, July 2, 1787. (*) ME 6:155
"Cherish... the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787. ME 6:58
Thomas Jefferson clearly thought the states had the right to LEAVE the union if they wished. He defended the right of secession in his first inaugural address by declaring, “If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left to combat it.” In fact, the greatest threat to the Union in the early years occurred under his watch. There were two of them, with states threatening to leave. The most serious was over the Louisana Purchase. His attitude towards the potential fissure (which was very real) was (and I quote) “God bless them.”
____________________________________________________________
That’s a man with a generous spirit and a broad mind. God bless Jefferson in the age to come.
Madison wrote to Washington before the Philly convention:
Conceiving that an individual independence of the States is utterly irreconcileable with their aggregate sovereignty, and that a consolidation of the whole into one simple republic would be as inexpedient as it is unattainable, I have sought for middle ground, which may at once support a due supremacy of the national authority, and not exclude the local authorities wherever they can be subordinately useful.
In other words, he's saying we couldn't get a total consolidation if we tried, but we can get close to it.
As antifederalist Brutus correctly noted later during the ratification debates:
It must be very evident, then, that what this Constitution wants of being a complete consolidation of the several parts of the union into one complete government, possessed of perfect legislative, judicial, and executive powers, to all intents and purposes, it will necessarily acquire in its exercise in operation.
It's obvious.
“If we don’t reel in our “Federal” government soon, this document will become just another joke of history. Does the GOP have the balls to save our freedom or will BONER and Co© let it slip through their fingers as they lick the boots of K Street?”
It is not up to them...it is up to us.
This is my belief as well. But I see the whole project as having been doomed from the start. All the leaders understood that someone was going to seize control of the continent. We were destined to have a government powerful enough to match the European powers, so that we could be the ones to grab all that land. Had we remained true to the spirit of liberty, France, Spain, or England would have gotten all that land, and we weren't going to let that happen.
We need renewal, and it may require more blood.
The document is due for retirement. Its flaws are obvious. The centuries of federal court pronouncements and precedents are impossible to unravel. It's a deception to read the Constitution and think it describes our government. You have to read through scores of SCOTUS decisions to determine the true extent of their power.
I agree with you. However, we need more than just a fighting spirit. We need a new system. The Constitution deserves to be scrapped for something better. Without first developing and designing that better system, revolution is pointless.
Too bad for Jefferson (and for us) that he was totally bested by Washington and Hamilton, who saw things much differently. Even more of a pity that Jefferson’s good friend Madison played such a key role in instituting this government that is so contrary to Jeffersonian ideals.
Great post. Thank you.
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