It was 248 years ago today that the world
found out that the Continental Congress in Philadelphia was really up.
Rather than trying to reconcile with England, they decided to break,
completely. More than that, these 56 men from all 13 colonies decided to
lay out for all the world, and history, to see why it was they chose
this path. The idea had been decided earlier, the language labored over,
and the printer finally got the finished product to make copies so the
colonists could be told what their leaders ultimately decided. It was
the debut of the Declaration of Independence.
We revere this document today, but that the time there was
nothing close to a guarantee that it would be remembered as anything
other than a blip in history; a warning about the dangers of lofty goals
in the face of tyranny.
If we had lost, the
signatories would have been hunted down and executed. It’s very likely
no copies of the document would have survived – why would King George
allow it? Royalty back when royalty ruled were not known for their
interest in maintaining a strict record for posterity, even of their
enemies and shortcomings, as seen by their subjects. It was much easier
to simply wipe it clean and pretend it never happened, except in legend
as a cautionary tale should anyone else get a “bug up their butts” about
freedom, liberty or independence.
Keeping copies
around could inspire others. This wasn’t the digital age, making copies
wasn’t easy or cheap. Things could be wiped from existence.
But
the Declaration of Independence was not wiped from existence because we
did not lose. As we now face a greater threat to our liberty from
within than without, it’s worth rereading that beautiful document on
this day, and as the two-and-a-half century anniversary fast approaches,
to inspire people to ensure that anniversary of this spirit endures not
only 2 more years, but forever. Here is the text and the reason for the
celebration of this day.
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.
It was signed by these men: Delaware: George Read, Caesar
Rodney, Thomas McKean. Pennsylvania: George Clymer, Benjamin Franklin,
Robert Morris, John Morton, Benjamin Rush, George Ross, James Smith,
James Wilson, George Taylor. Massachusetts: John Adams, Samuel Adams,
John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry. New Hampshire: Josiah
Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton. Rhode Island: Stephen
Hopkins, William Ellery. New York: Lewis Morris, Philip Livingston,
Francis Lewis, William Floyd. Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall,
George Walton. Virginia: Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee,
Carter Braxton, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Jefferson, George Wythe,
Thomas Nelson, Jr. North Carolina: William Hooper, John Penn, Joseph
Hewes. South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, Thomas Lynch,
Jr., Thomas Heyward, Jr. New Jersey: Abraham Clark, John Hart, Francis
Hopkinson, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon. Connecticut: Samuel
Huntington, Roger Sherman, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott. Maryland:
Charles Carroll, Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone, William Paca.
God bless them, and God bless the United State of America. Happy Independence Day.
Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.
