The Declaration of Independence -- full transcript

Started by red_dirt, July 04, 2015, 01:07:11 PM

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red_dirt

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.

zewazir

Thanks for the post.  But I would be willing to wager that a significant percentage of members here have most if not all of that document committed to memory.

Possum

Quote from: zewazir on July 06, 2015, 10:02:50 PM
Thanks for the post.  But I would be willing to wager that a significant percentage of members here have most if not all of that document committed to memory.
Still like reading it. :thumbsup:

ChrisABrown

Quote from: red_dirt on July 04, 2015, 01:07:11 PM
-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.

The quoted above is the most important part.

All complaints on this board about government can be properly dealt with by the people using their right to alter or abolish.

Solar

Quote from: ChrisABrown on July 09, 2016, 09:44:40 AM
The quoted above is the most important part.

All complaints on this board about government can be properly dealt with by the people using their right to alter or abolish.
Welcome to the forum.
We sit at the precipice...
Official Trump Cult Member

#WWG1WGA

Q PATRIOT!!!

ChrisABrown

Quote from: Solar on July 09, 2016, 10:03:40 AM
Welcome to the forum.
We sit at the precipice...

Yes we do.  The one choice we really have is to use our exclusive right to define constitutional intent.

Do you agree and accept that the framers of the founding documents intended for us to alter or abolish government destructive to our unalienable rights?

Do you agree and accept that the ultimate purpose of free speech is to enable the unity adequate to effectively alter or abolish?

supsalemgr

Quote from: ChrisABrown on July 09, 2016, 10:43:38 AM
Yes we do.  The one choice we really have is to use our exclusive right to define constitutional intent.

Do you agree and accept that the framers of the founding documents intended for us to alter or abolish government destructive to our unalienable rights?

Do you agree and accept that the ultimate purpose of free speech is to enable the unity adequate to effectively alter or abolish?


Welcome to the forum.

The founders gave us the amendment process to make changes to the Constitution. For over 200 years that process has served us well. The challenge we face today is not that the Constitution, but the possibility of corrupt people changing or abolishing the whole content of the Constitution. The concept of separation of powers is sound as long as a single corrupt group does not control all three or one of the three allows corruption.
"If you can't run with the big dawgs, stay on the porch!"

ChrisABrown

Quote from: supsalemgr on July 09, 2016, 11:00:50 AM
Welcome to the forum.

The founders gave us the amendment process to make changes to the Constitution. For over 200 years that process has served us well. The challenge we face today is not that the Constitution, but the possibility of corrupt people changing or abolishing the whole content of the Constitution. The concept of separation of powers is sound as long as a single corrupt group does not control all three or one of the three allows corruption.

Completely true.

But for the entire time it has been congress amending.  And then, only when the states threatened their prerogative of using 3/4 of them.  That threat was not even formal, just implied.

It is time to use the constitution to protect itself because the federal government infiltrated since 1871, and it's un holy cohorts are trying scuttle it.  Use of Article V's, 3/4 states with conventions in each is long overdue.

But the purpose of free speech is abridged, therefore states citizens must work on their own to spread definition of prime constitutional intent to lawfully invoke the 9th amendment.


supsalemgr

Quote from: ChrisABrown on July 09, 2016, 11:32:55 AM
Completely true.

But for the entire time it has been congress amending.  And then, only when the states threatened their prerogative of using 3/4 of them.  That threat was not even formal, just implied.

It is time to use the constitution to protect itself because the federal government infiltrated since 1871, and it's un holy cohorts are trying scuttle it.  Use of Article V's, 3/4 states with conventions in each is long overdue.

But the purpose of free speech is abridged, therefore states citizens must work on their own to spread definition of prime constitutional intent to lawfully invoke the 9th amendment.

So are you suggesting a Constitutional convention? If so what should that convention do?
"If you can't run with the big dawgs, stay on the porch!"

ChrisABrown

Quote from: supsalemgr on July 09, 2016, 11:39:10 AM
So are you suggesting a Constitutional convention? If so what should that convention do?

Firstly, assure all amendments have constitutional intent as Article V requires.

If Article requires that, since only the people can define constitutional intent, the people have an unwritten right to prepare and assure states legislators are well directed by citizens while proposing and ratifying.

A phase of, "Preparatory Amendment" changes conditions enabling the education and unity of the public upon diverse constitutional intent.  After they has had opportunity to take effect, then the proposing of general amendment begins.

Technically it is not a "constitutional convention", it is a convention to propose amendments.

supsalemgr

Quote from: ChrisABrown on July 09, 2016, 11:44:57 AM
Firstly, assure all amendments have constitutional intent as Article V requires.

If Article requires that, since only the people can define constitutional intent, the people have an unwritten right to prepare and assure states legislators are well directed by citizens while proposing and ratifying.

A phase of, "Preparatory Amendment" changes conditions enabling the education and unity of the public upon diverse constitutional intent.  After they has had opportunity to take effect, then the proposing of general amendment begins.

Technically it is not a "constitutional convention", it is a convention to propose amendments.

So, if I understand what you are saying. A convention should be convened by at least 3/4 of the states. Their first step would be to confirm the Constitution as it is, but declare some amendments might be needed? Then, they would proceed with any changes?

I have no problem with the convention since our congress has been totally ineffective doing anything, especially stopping Obama's total disregard for the Constitution.

Just out of curiosity, what changes would you propose?
"If you can't run with the big dawgs, stay on the porch!"

ChrisABrown

#11
Quote from: supsalemgr on July 09, 2016, 01:18:11 PM
So, if I understand what you are saying. A convention should be convened by at least 3/4 of the states. Their first step would be to confirm the Constitution as it is, but declare some amendments might be needed? Then, they would proceed with any changes?

I have no problem with the convention since our congress has been totally ineffective doing anything, especially stopping Obama's total disregard for the Constitution.

Just out of curiosity, what changes would you propose?

Changes which tend to prepare state citizens to use their exclusive right to define constitutional intent through the 9th amendment.

The premise that the constitution needs some slight corrections to be a tool to defend itself.

"Preparatory Amendment" would logically be ending the abridging of the ULTIMATE PURPOSE of free speech, necessarily the same as a firearm.  Two other preparations are securing elections and reforming campaign finance. The ultimate purpose of free speech in a legal, constitutional sense is to enable the unity adequate to effectively "alter or abolish".  A revision of the First amendment something like thiIs draft here.

REV. Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; Congress shall see that nothing abridges the freedom of speech and the primary methods or systems of it shall not be abridged and be first accessible for the purpose of the unity of the people in order to alter or abolish government destructive to their unalienable rights, or with its possible greater meaning through understanding one another in; forgiveness, tolerance, acceptance, respect, trust, friendship and love protecting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Congress shall see that nothing abridges freedom of the press in its service to the unity of the people; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances or defense of this constitution.

supsalemgr

Quote from: ChrisABrown on July 09, 2016, 02:29:26 PM
Changes which tend to prepare state citizens to use their exclusive right to define constitutional intent through the 9th amendment.

The premise that the constitution needs some slight corrections to be a tool to defend itself.

"Preparatory Amendment" would logically be ending the abridging of the ULTIMATE PURPOSE of free speech, necessarily the same as a firearm.  Two other preparations are securing elections and reforming campaign finance. The ultimate purpose of free speech in a legal, constitutional sense is to enable the unity adequate to effectively "alter or abolish".  A revision of the First amendment something like thiIs draft here.

REV. Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; Congress shall see that nothing abridges the freedom of speech and the primary methods or systems of it shall not be abridged and be first accessible for the purpose of the unity of the people in order to alter or abolish government destructive to their unalienable rights, or with its possible greater meaning through understanding one another in; forgiveness, tolerance, acceptance, respect, trust, friendship and love protecting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Congress shall see that nothing abridges freedom of the press in its service to the unity of the people; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances or defense of this constitution.


That is fine, but how would it improve what we currently have? A corrupt government would not be impacted by this.
"If you can't run with the big dawgs, stay on the porch!"

ChrisABrown

#13
Quote from: supsalemgr on July 10, 2016, 04:34:41 AM
That is fine, but how would it improve what we currently have? A corrupt government would not be impacted by this.

The language of the revision of the 1st amendment empowers states citizens, in their states, as they have  controlled their states to see their states constitutions and laws amended to be congruent with intent, to share information about the destruction of unalienable rights with citizens of all states regarding that destruction and protection of those rights. 

Based on that information all states citizens may find unity adequate for lawful action over and to alter corrupt government or to alter or abolish and protect said rights in some way.

Citizens would have the right to serve a petition upon a state legislator signed by 200 other state citizens showing their understanding of the destruction of said rights and ways to protect them.  The legislator would be bound by law to file the petition with the state Supreme Court.  The state court bound by the same law must produce an order to the largest television broadcast network in the state to produce a documentary about the destruction of rights and protection of them.  That order would require broadcasting of said documentary in all states.

States have control over corporate licensure in states and the broadcast corporations corporate status would be lawfully revoked upon refusal to share said information in their states by agreement of states and amendment to creates laws supporting such action.

The petition would have 30 days to be challenged in court and the challenge would be decided by a jury of random citizens.

The information could not be otherwise generally available or promotable to successfully reach all citizens with funding greater than the average citizens disposable income for the state of filing.

The cost of the documentary and broadcast would be deducted from state/federal taxes.

This will set a standard of disclosure and engagement for difficult or controversial subjects that commercial news media must logically meet or loose credibility then ratings.

Based on this information, democratic, or other action can take place to stop the destruction or institute protection for unalienable rights.


supsalemgr

Quote from: ChrisABrown on July 10, 2016, 08:56:25 AM
The language of the revision of the 1st amendment empowers states citizens, in their states, as they have  controlled their states to see their states constitutions and laws amended to be congruent with intent, to share information about the destruction of unalienable rights with citizens of all states regarding that destruction and protection of those rights. 

Based on that information all states citizens will find unity adequate for action to alter or abolish or protect said rights in some way.

Citizens would have the right to serve a petition upon a state legislator signed by 200 other state citizens showing their understanding of the destruction of said rights and ways to protect them.  The legislator would be bound by law to file the petition with the state Supreme Court.  The state court bound by the same law must produce an order to the largest television broadcast network in the state to produce a documentary about the destruction of rights and protection of them.  That order would require broadcasting of said documentary in all states.

States have control over corporate licensure in states and the broadcast corporations corporate status would be lawfully revoked upon refusal to share said information in their states by agreement of states and amendment to creates laws supporting such action.

The petition would have 30 days to be challenged in court and the challenge would be decided by a jury of random citizens.

This will set a standard of disclosure and engagement for difficult or controversial subjects that commercial news media must logically meet or loose credibility then ratings.

Based on this information, democratic, or other action can take place to stop the destruction or institute protection for unalienable rights.

It all depends on the people implementing such. I believe we have now covered this thread. Time to go onto something else.
"If you can't run with the big dawgs, stay on the porch!"