[Anyone] Declaration

[totem at laplaza.org]

It's once again time to take back our country from the corporate thieves.

> 
>  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 Tyranny 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 complete the Works of 
Death, 
> Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with Circumstances of Cruelty and 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 Connexions 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 Connexion 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 Honour.
> John Hancock. 
> GEORGIA, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton. 
> NORTH-CAROLINA, Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn. 
> SOUTH-CAROLINA, Edward Rutledge, Thos Heyward, junr. Thomas Lynch, junr. Arthur Middleton. 
> MARYLAND, Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. 
> VIRGINIA, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr. 
Francis 
> Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton. 
> PENNSYLVANIA, Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. 
Smith, 
> Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross. 
> DELAWARE, Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read. 
> NEW-YORK, Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frank Lewis, Lewis Morris. 
> NEW-JERSEY, Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark. 
> NEW-HAMPSHIRE, Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton. 
> MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry. 
> RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE, &c. Step. Hopkins, William Ellery. 
> CONNECTICUT, Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott.
> IN CONGRESS, JANUARY 18, 1777.
> ORDERED, 
> THAT an authenticated Copy of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCY, with the Names of the 
> MEMBERS of CONGRESS, subscribing the same, be sent to each of the UNITED STATES, and that 
they 
> be desired to have the same put on RECORD. 
> By Order of CONGRESS, 
> JOHN HANCOCK, President.
> BALTIMORE, in MARYLAND: Printed by MARY KATHARINE GODDARD.
> 
> 



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