Declaration of Independence

Discussion in 'Freedom and Liberty' started by Clyde, Sep 7, 2007.


  1. Clyde

    Clyde Jet Set Tourer Administrator Founding Member

    The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
    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
     
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  2. Clyde

    Clyde Jet Set Tourer Administrator Founding Member

    Just re-read this:

    The quote below is what we always hear people quoting from the Declaration of Independence:

    "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."

    It is unfortunate that we stop there as our seditious forefathers gave their reason in the words that follow:

    "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"
     
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  3. oldawg

    oldawg Monkey+++

    Gotta love sedition when it's warranted
     
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  4. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    It's not sedition, if warranted.
     
  5. oldawg

    oldawg Monkey+++

    Good point.Thanks
     
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  6. Elessar

    Elessar Monkey+++

    I have read this wonderful lesson from our history more than once and I always get chills as I re-read it, again today. It feels as if I am in the presence of men of greatness and immense courage. Maybe someday, we will join together, as brave men, of conscience and fortitude, dare to aspire to greatness again, like our forefathers, who chose to rise up and fight for their God given "self-evident" rights; "...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."
     
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  7. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    Another point to note:
    When government becomes abusive and tyrannical, and every method has been taken in an attempt to redress the problems at hand, the only justifiable course of action was to rebel.
    And these men were not talking about opinionated thought based on political affiliation or public opinion, like we are bombarded with by the corporate media today. This goes far beyond, to the absolute point of origin concerning freedom. What was at stake then, and in every way what's at stake now is the very basic truth which symbolizes humanity --liberty. Either we are "subjects" of the governing authority, or we are sovereign creatures with rights. There can be no in-between.
    This is the very same struggle we find ourselves in today, with a ruling authority so pervasive and draconian, it assumes all power unto itself and can declare to the people it is justified. The modern "democracy" is the result of the corruption of power, which has been illegally and unconstitutionally assumed by an illegitimate form of corporatism, amounting to an oligarchy which operates under arbitrary law.

    The real kick in the pants, is that the government should not hold any power the people do not directly, officially, knowingly and willingly grant it. It was through subversion and incremental care that this government of today operates outside the boundaries of the constitution --and as such, it remains wholly illegitimate and has voided its duty to the republic. As long as the majority of people remain ignorant or indifferent, the gravity of legitimacy will not alter course, even if it is only an illusion.
     
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  8. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

    It's still TECHNICALLY sedition, but the Declaration practically commands us to do it. It certainly tells us it is our duty to do it.
     
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  9. marlas1too

    marlas1too Monkey+++

    sounds like everything obozo has been doing everything like the king did-----molon labe
     
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  10. -06

    -06 Monkey+++

    600+ Executive orders have him in the "drivers seat" or so he thinks.
     
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  11. bassic

    bassic Monkey+

    They certainly don't teach THAT document in schools anymore. :mad:
     
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  12. -06

    -06 Monkey+++

    Too busy teaching "acceptance", new (worthless) math, and touchy feely junk.
     
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  13. enloopious

    enloopious Rocket Surgeon

    This says that our rights are not there to have liens placed on them. For instance, a tax on water, breathing, eating, traveling freely, the right to work for a living, and all the others that the supreme court has deemed part of this can NOT be taxed or taken away for monetary debt reasons. Think about that for a minute. We, today as a people, allow them to tax just about everything. Your freedom is gone. Completely gone and nobody is doing anything about it. Who out there is doing anything at all? Post responses of people protesting, I'm sure they will be protesting for free money or to take a right away. While everyone is confined to their homes the legislators have been out writing and passing new laws. While its a $1000 fine for me to go out they are meeting and stripping more freedom, as if any was left. I'm sure the article underneath will get much support because facial recognition can now be used to find people who are sick, identify them, tax them, and throw them in prison.

    I am old. I remember when in 1984 they brought traffic cams to Los Angeles because it would help everyone get through the 1984 Olympics without having to wait in line. That was all the reason they needed to get this started. Of course local news said that they were only there to control traffic and would NEVER be used to track people. What a load of crap but everyone ate it up. As the Constitution says, it is all of our DUTY to tear this government down and start a new one. I hear a lot of hate from people on these forums about California. You think the people wanted those laws? No, what happened is that in the 1970s California was the 3rd largest GDP and the NWO could not succeed while that was true. Could you imagine the 3rd largest country in the world opposing the NWO? That would be a fight they don't want. So what did they do? They tore it down. They imported immigrants by the millions and still do today. They attacked it on every front, financial, ethical, moral, military. Those without values can not spot when people without values are elected. This is why they want to divide it into 6 different states. The fall of California is the fall of America but instead of people seeing this and reinforcing the state they piss on it. So of course the rest of the country falls after. People with morals and values should move there to strengthen it, not leave to hide and cower like children. But hey, what do I know, I'm just one of the idiots who left there.

    Washington State OKs Facial Recognition Law Seen as National Model
     
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2020
  14. enloopious

    enloopious Rocket Surgeon



    I'm pretty sure this explains everything.
     
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  15. HK_User

    HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

    Chip chipping away.
     
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  16. Idahoser

    Idahoser Monkey+++ Founding Member

    that's all George Soros has done here. It's just that, his safety and happiness is at odds with ours.
    So let's have no more talk of what might have been meant by the dead white guys hundreds of years ago - the government they designed is not the one we have to deal with.
     
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  17. TnAndy

    TnAndy Senior Member Founding Member

    But they put to words the cure for the govt one has at ANY time:

    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,
     
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  18. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    Something else to remember:

    The Declaration of Independence says, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
    This means that government gets all its power from the people. The people set up the government. The government does not run the people - and yet, here we are...
     
  19. arleigh

    arleigh Goophy monkey

    The problem is the democrats have stirred so much division no one knows who to trust.
    All think they are the good guy, and no one sees the errors of their own nature.
    Communism loves the lies that are generated, because disproving them is almost useless when you have so many dependent on liberal sources.
    Secondly the subversives in government are for the most part atheist, in which case "God given rights" do not exist.
     
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  20. enloopious

    enloopious Rocket Surgeon

     
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