Declaration of Independence

[tom]

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

   The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

   hen 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.

[tom]

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.  

   

   — John Hancock  

   

   New Hampshire:  

   Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton  

   

   Massachusetts:  

   John Hancock, 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 York:  

   William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris  

   

   New Jersey:  

   Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark  

   

   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  

   

   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  

   

   North Carolina:  

   William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn  

   

   South Carolina:  

   Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton  

   

   Georgia:  

   Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

[mndoug]

Thanks for posting, Tom.  At this time of year, I always try to imagine what it must have been like to have the b*lls to pen and sign this.  The closest thing I can imagine would be if the citizens of one state wrote a note to the powers in Washington, D.C., telling them "We're leaving the USA!"  And then the mayors of the major cities in that state all signed their names...

   

   Can you imagine?

[chopprs]

That would be GREAT!!!

    Obama could be President of........Washington D.C.!

[silvershooter]

THANKS FOR POSTING THIS TOM!

   even if our best days are behind us, hopefully we can still have some good days going forward.

[tom]

The signers were all men of property; some were very wealthy.  When they signed the Declaration of Independence they placed everything at risk.  They became revolutionaries and traitors.  Even then, there were only a few in the countrywith real courage.  But those few were able to create a nation.  Samuel Adams was a terrorist; George Washington made war on the established government.  But they gave us a nation.

   

   Today, those of us who live in Wyoming are celebrating our first day of bearing arms without the king's seal.  Fifteen years ago there was scarcely a soul who believed that this could happen.  But a few men and women both in and out of the legislatures of the several states decided to act.  They risked their fortunes and sometimes their freedom.  Now we're seeing a sea change.  We have actually reversed the trend of gun control.  Undoubtedly the excesses of the first George Bush and the Clintons had a great deal to do with it.  But without our delegates, our legislators, who braved accusations of right-wing extremists, madmen, fools, etc. it never could have happened.  Even today, a time when people must be very careful of words and associations, we still have men and women of courage and virtue.

   

   The Declaration of Independence is still alive and healthy in the hearts of the brave.

[chopprs]

Since I can remember the sway towards pro gun in the country has never been to this degree....all in the closest to a Socialistic state that I can ever remember our country being in. I must say that I am dumbfounded that the left have not protested this to a further degree. Perhaps it is simply that they are all too busy with trying to tax us to death and figure out how to tear up the Constitution all together.  

   It is APPALLING that there are actually several Supreme Court Justices that feel the Constitution should just be torn up...... How the F*&% they got to be where they are is beyond my realm of understanding!

[tom]

Chopprs,

   

   The gun controllers don't know what to do.  The constitutional carry movement consists of individuals, some virtuous legislators, some individuals who make calls, write e-mails, etc.  The organizations who actually coordinate plans are almost all very small, voluntary, and local.  The gun control advocates can't use their usual tactics of lies and misinformation to smear this group of people because these people don't care.  The NRA has a huge paid staff, many of whom wish to be part of the Washington establishment.  They certainly wish to be socially acceptable.  Wyoming Gun Owners has no paid employees, just people who want to live their lives without interference, and don't care what anybody thinks.  If one of the latter were proposing a toast, it would likely be, "Here's to those who wish me well; and those who don't can go to Hell."

[jack_t]

"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. . ."

   

   That always gives me chills.  The signers believed it was *necessary*.  Not just a good idea, not just a cool thing to do, not just doing the popular thing, but *necessary*.  Like Tom said, most of the signers were quite wealthy and quite influential.  They bet everything because they felt it was *necessary*.

   

   It's a wonderful thing.

[silvershooter]

Tom, you may be 100% correct with your statement:  "The gun controllers don't know what to do."

   However, it could be that they are selectively choosing their battles. They know that if they take on the lion(the majority of freedom loving/2nd Amendment supporting Americans) head on they will loose. It's much smarter to sneak up from behind and tie a bunch of heavy UN documents and ammo regulations to the lions tail and wear it down.  

   

   I think we need to continue working within the law and at the ballot box to maintain our freedoms. In my view it is far more likely we will need our arms to defend ourselves during the chaos of an economic and governmental collapse, than it would be for us to need them to rebel against our government. Obviously, it took unimaginable courage for men like George Washington to step out in faith pledging their lives and homes and futures to fight against the British Empire.  

   

   Here's a 4th of July quote(hope it's accurate):  

   "A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." -George Washington (quote found at the Buckeye Firearms Association)

   

   compare that with: "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them,........And it's not surprising then they get bitter, THEY CLING TO GUNS and RELIGION..." -our current President

   (quote found at http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/obama-explains.html">http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/obama-explains.html)

   

   I may not have an Ivey league degree and take 20 golf vacations a year, but I will boldly, not bitterly, hold to my guns for as long as God allows. They are my tools and a means to protect myself and my family. I don't need to be bitter, my firearms provide a measure of peace in a dark world; an encouragement of respectful and polite behavior in an increasingly selfish and sick society. -Silvershooter

[bud]

I'm sure you are aware that the ATF allowed over 1400 firearms to go across the boarder to Mexico. They said it was to see if they could track them! They were ar15s, ak47s, m14w, and high cap mag pistols to name a few. Well, they lost track of them, and one of those firearms was used to kill one of our own boarder agents.

   

   I think Eric Holder knew about it, but he denies it. IMPO I think they did it on purpose so they could say a large amount of firearms were going across the boarder from the USA because of gun shows and gun dealers. Trying of course for a reason of gun control.

   

   ATF accused of allowing U.S. firearms to flow into Mexico ...

   blog.chron.com/.../atf-accused-of-allowing-u-s-firearms-to-flow-int... - Cached

   Mar 10, 2011 � ATF accused of allowing U.S. firearms to flow into Mexico. ... charged that ATF agents allowed hundreds of firearms to flow from gun stores ...

[tom]

Let's be glad the Founding Fathers committed treason.  Otherwise...

   

   http://www.youtube.com/kateysfirearmsfacts">http://www.youtube.com/kateysfirearmsfacts

[westerly1965]

Bud you hit that right on the head.  It was intentional to push a gun control agenda.  Holder knew about it but will never fess up.  I really wish something would be done about it but I doubt it will.

   

   And thanks to Tom for posting this thread.  Happy fourth of July.

[mndoug]

The thing (one of the many things) that makes America so unique is the Second Amendment.  I often take pains to explain to people from other countries WHY firearms are such a part of the American culture.  I tell them it's 1) Because our country, unlike most, was born from an armed revolution fighting encroachments on Liberty; 2) our Founders distrusted government so much that they feared even the new government they had just created might someday need to be opposed with arms; 3) Because of this fear, THEY WROTE GUN RIGHTS INTO THE CONSTITUTION - the very fabric of what is supposed to govern the nation.

   

   I've found that most people from other countries (hell, most people in our OWN country) don't understand "why" we love our guns and fight so hard to keep them... but when it's explained to them like that, they think about it a little more.

[silvershooter]

you make a good point mndoug, and I don't remember that part of our history being taught in public schools, after all they are government schools. I have zero desire to ever fight an armed rebellion against my government(that's a fight we wouldn't win and we wouldn't want to actually fight against our fellow citizens-soldiers and police), we have to fight at the ballot box, on our school boards, at our local and state governments...to sustain the message of freedom and win back the minds of the blinded sheep. We are also winning battles right now in the  courts with pro-2nd amendment decisions like in DC and many states. I guess were winning by monetarily supporting the NRA,GOA,SAF and so on).

   now if the need arose to fight a more sustained invasion on our southern border from iranian terrorists or drug lords or from chinese ships landing their million man army on our coast to collect their iou's I'd step up. That would probably just mean a hit and run campaign(resisting and then running back to an underground bunker) but hey I'd be doing my part, at least until I ran out of bullets, and then I'd be night-trekking it to the canadian rockies How about our troops in Korea and so many other foreign lands get re-stationed along our borders. Maybe Ron Paul as president would work to disband the ATF and they could keep their jobs by being hired as Border Patrol Agents. It doesn't have to just be in the southwest, there's plenty of need for border agents along the Florida beaches too. That would be a nice gig for an agent, transfer to a sunny beach and watch for drug smugglers and iranian or chinese submarines. During WWII a german sub actually landed on the FL east coast.

[chopprs]

The point here is that a good lot of the military and police would NOT do it!

[silvershooter]

winning in Pennsylvania just last week(castle doctrine law signed):

   

   http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?ID=6970">http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?ID=6970

   

   chopprs, in a state of emergency or martial law who knows what would happen. there sure were some gun confiscations and real power abuses by military and police against white homeowners after Katrina. I wouldn't want to be in a big city if it really hits the fan.

[tom]

Chopprs,

   

   Enough of them would.  Think Katrina.

[tranquilo]

"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....."

   

     Hmmm..... I wonder what the signers of the Declaration of Independence would think about abolishing prayer in school; teaching our children that the idea of a Creator is unscientific and that it was a scientific fact that humans evolved from lower life forms that were formed by some mysterious coming together of molecules at some point in time billions of years ago.  

   

   I wonder what the signers would think about the Supreme Court justices that said it was legal for the mother of an unborn child and her doctor to systematically dismember said child while still in the womb and dispose of it as so much garbage?

   

   I wonder what the signers would have to say about state judges who declare, against the expressed wishes of their citizens, that same sex marriages are legal and to deprive homosexuals of this "right" is unconstitutional?

   

   I wonder what they would say about politicians who believe that it is government's job to "spread the wealth around"?  Would they say it was a vote buying scheme?

   

   Just wondering.....

[tom]

"Hmmm..... I wonder what the signers of the Declaration of Independence would think about abolishing prayer in school; teaching our children that the idea of a Creator is unscientific and that it was a scientific fact that humans evolved from lower life forms that were formed by some mysterious coming together of molecules at some point in time billions of years ago."  

   

   I wonder what they would have said if they knew that the government were in the school business.  As far as scientific issues are concerned, most, certainly Jefferson and Franklin, would have accepted scientific evidence.

   

   I wonder what the signers would think about the Supreme Court justices that said it was legal for the mother of an unborn child and her doctor to systematically dismember said child while still in the womb and dispose of it as so much garbage?  

   

   They would have viewed the doctor-patient relaionship as private and horrified that the goveernment were involved in any way.  This was the Eighteenth Century, not the Nineteenth.

   

   I wonder what the signers would have to say about state judges who declare, against the expressed wishes of their citizens, that same sex marriages are legal and to deprive homosexuals of this "right" is unconstitutional?

   

   They would have opposed this.  They understood that marriage is between a man and a woman.  

   

   I wonder what they would say about politicians who believe that it is government's job to "spread the wealth around"? Would they say it was a vote buying scheme?

   

   They'd do what they did before.

[tranquilo]

I don't believe the great majority of the signers would accept the theory of evolution as having any scientific backing and I believe both Jefferson and Franklin would have recognized the flimsy nature of the so called evidence used to back that theory.

   

   As far as abortion is concerned, I believe the signers would be horrified that the U.S. federal government has made it legal for our nation's most defenseless citizens to be legally murdered in direct violation of the Sixth Commandment.  Actually it is the theory of evolution that gives license to those who advocate the barbaric practice of abortion; their reasoning follows thus:  "there is no Creator to whom I am accountable, therefore I will do whatever I feel is in my best interest".  In the mother's case it is terminating an unwanted pregnancy; in the abortionist's case it is making money for performing the murder.

[Kevin]

I wonder what the Founding Fathers would think about abolishing slavery and letting women vote?  

     

   I also wonder why they missed everything in the Bill of Rights when working on the Constitution? What were they thinking?

[tranquilo]

The Bill of Rights

   (1791)

   "The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added, and as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution.  Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States; all or any of which articles, when ratified by three-fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said Constitution....."

   

   The Constitution, being drawn up by imperfect people, was not then nor is it now a perfect document; the founding fathers, knowing this, provided a way to amend it.  The injustices of slavery and denying women the right to vote were later corrected.  In my opinion, the right to life of the unborn child should also be made clear by a Constitutional amendment.

[Kevin]

Seriously, I know that abolishing slavery was a deal-breaker for those "God-fearing" slave state representatives to the Constitutional Convention, so that is why it was put off. I understand that the same male mindset that could accept slavery as a reasonable practice could just as easily ignore Women's suffrage.  

     

   I just don't understand why, given the reason that the first battles of the War for Independence at Lexington and Concord was the British attempt to seize arms and powder, that not one of the signers of the Constitution read it and asked: "Dudes, where's the 'NO MESSING WITH CIVILIAN FIREARMS' rule?"  

   

   

   It's not an easy issue, but let's get the Federal and state legislatures and state and Federal Supreme Courts up to a 50-50 mix of women and men, plus a few female presidents under our belt, before we consider an amendment giving fetuses rights. That might give science enough time to develop surgically implantable artificial wombs so right-to-life men can bear their fair share of the burden.  

     

   Until then, it should be the woman's decision. I'm all for spending tax dollars on contraceptive education and providing contraceptives to any men and women who are old enough to create a baby but can't afford birth control supplies, rape prevention and punishment, as well as foster care and adoption support.

[tranquilo]

The travesties of slavery and denying women the right to vote pale in comparison to the multiple millions of murdered unborn babies since Roe v. Wade.  These babies are both male and female and come from every race and ethnic origen represented here in the U.S.  The mass murder of these innocent, defenseless citizens is something that has not escaped the eye of their Creator.

[wildtim]

quote:

   

   I also wonder why they missed everything in the Bill of Rights when working on the Constitution? What were they thinking?

   

   You are falling into the same fallacy a lot of our congressmen and even judges have.

   

   The thing is the constitution contains everything the government is, or should be allowed to do.  The Bil of Rights should be completely superfluous.  

   

   Unfortunately people today make the mistake of referencing the bill of rights as what people are allowed not as simply examples of things the government doesn't control.  

   

   As for abortion,  it isn't about Womens rights at all, of course women have the rights to their own bodies.  It is about when human life begins  if a human exists it has rights, inalienable ones,  just by existing.  

   

   

quote:

   

   can't afford birth control supplies

   

   WTF,  There is no right to fucking I ain't buying you supplies.  Just don't ***.

[bud]

Probably won't be long until this post will be deleted.

[petergunn]

Yep, Bud. I think you can see the future.  

    Who ya picking for the world series?  8^)

[chopprs]

Wildtim, you kiss your mother with that mouth?

[lewiss]

Would someone PLEASE delete this thread?