Action of Second Continental 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
shown, 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 endeavored 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 herein 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 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 endeavored 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 GreatBritain, 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.
"Nature's God"
"Nature's God" is presumably meant to convey the deistic concept of
Nature itself as god, in stark contrast to the gods of other,
monotheistic and pantheistic religions. No appeal to an "other" is
implied by the phrase "Nature's God."
"declare the causes"
This is a genuinely admirable position. It is always wiser in the
long term, and manifestly more considerate in the immediate, to openly
explain one's motives and views, even if they are not open to
amendment. This constitutes a recognition of the humanity of the
opposition.
"all Men are created equal"
This clause has always been deeply problematic. Only a very oblique
interpretation stands up to scrutiny. This interpretation, paraphrased,
is "each human starts his or her life with the same panoply of rights
established by law, which he or she will eventually be capable of
exercising." It is patently absurd to hold that all men are created
equal from a biological perspective, or in terms of the capacities and
propensities that follow from biological traits. Even genetically
identical twins are measurably different at birth, with these
differences sometimes of such magnitude that one twin becomes a
healthy adult while the other is plagued by an acute organic mental
illness. It is furthermore repugnant to hold that the panoply of
rights with which a man starts his life, is not likewise held by
women. The conundrum into which the scholar is thrust by this clause
is compounded by the observation that it is pointedly meaningless and
without consequence, to assert that all newborn infants are born with
the same panoply of rights, since a neonate is manifestly incapable of
exercising those rights, and is in fact incapable of independent
survival.
"Governments"
The use of the word government is unfortunate, since obviously, a
human principally governs himself, and the State is an organization
which interferes only with the activities of a particular human only
when his activities necessarily impact the rights of others.
"History of the present King"
This can now safely be read as "History of the present Oligarchy," in
reference to the national security establishment, the executive branch
as a whole, and the transnational corporations whose private agendas
have been made the agenda of the executive and legislative branch
through the use of open and legal bribes in the form of campaign
contributions.
"suspended in their Operation till his Assent"
Consider the following wording by Senator John McCain (R-AZ), from
Senate bill 909 of the 105th Congress (1997-1998):
SEC. 901. WAIVER AUTHORITY.
(a) AUTHORITY TO WAIVE- The President may by executive order
waive provisions of this Act, or the applicability of any such
provision to a person or entity, if the President determines that
the waiver is in the interests of national security, or domestic
safety and security.
These clauses are, more generally, an impeachment of "rule by decree."
Rule by decree is now an established component of the presidency, and
how this came to pass is a tragic tale.
"Accommodation of large Districts"
The USA is now replete with examples of such legal phenomena. It is
quite impossible for an individual (for example, a contract worker)
whose career leads him to frequent moves, to gain permission to carry
a firearm for self-protection. Even among those states that provide a
method to gain such permission at all, in most, requirements for
duration of residency and character testimonials by local residents
preclude permission.
A large number of Americans know from experience that marijuana is the
only medication which effectively treats the symptoms of their serious
diseases (cancer, AIDS, etc), but the federal government assures them
and those who would provide them with the plant, that they are subject
to immediate arrest for the cultivation, sale, purchase, and
possession, of this plant.
In fact, the list of abuses by the federal government in this category
is encyclopedic.
"Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant
from the Depository of their public Records"
There are several modern equivalents to this. One is the monstrously
titanic volume of legislation churned out by the myriad state
legislatures, and by the federal government. This vast, endlessly
self-referential, and routinely inconsistent (especially between the
laws of one state and those of another) body of laws precludes
comprehension, both for agents of law enforcement, and for the public
at large.
Another example is the routine redistribution of prisoners to prisons
often more than a thousand miles from the site of the crime and the
court of conviction.
Perhaps the cardinal example of this phenomenon is the suggestion, by
executive officers in federal agencies, that a dissatisfied applicant
appeal to Congress to initiate the process of altering standing
laws (for example, culminating in a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" in
the case of the FCC). This suggestion is specious to the point of
offense. Only vast armadas of corporations benefit from more than
whimsical treatment by members of Congress and their staffs, and in
general, an individual or group of individuals is roundly snubbed.
Democracy has been rendered a sham through labyrinthine and herculean
barriers to entry.
"dissolved Representative Houses"
This historic complaint corresponds to the modern circumstance of
legislative and executive dissolution of successful referendums. In
1996, voters in both California and Arizona voted to legitimize and
legalize the use of certain drugs, prohibited on a blanket basis by
the federal government, for medical purposes. The Arizona legislature
simply cancelled the result, since an obscure clause of the Arizona
constitution specified that the state legislature can do so if the
referendum was approved by fewer than a given percentage of
*eligeable* voters. The actual margin of victory for the referendum
was overwhelming, and nevermind that the clause of the Arizona
constitution exploited by the legislature would allow them to remove
any elected official as a consequence of an epidemic of low voter
turnout on a national level.
Lawmakers in California have not attempted to bring about such a
miscarriage of justice. Consequently, the President of the USA has
publically announced that the federal government will continue to
zealously enforce and prosecute precisely those activities that the
voters of California voted unambiguously to legitimize and legalize.
"raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of
Lands"
In modern times, the federal government uses a phalanx of strategems
to maintain and expand control over the land and resources of the
country. Star attractions are the planting of endangered species, and
general abuse of power justified nominally by reference to
environmental law. Truly vast tracts of land in the West are simply
guarded and often laid to waste by military exercises. Local
authorities abuse zoning and construction law to effectively destroy
people's freedom to do as they will with their own private property.
Indeed, ownership and control are identical, so the arrogation of
control over private property by the State does, in fact, quite
literally comprise theft in whole or in part of that property.
"Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of
Officers"
There is little need for clarification here. Instead, I will simply
list the bulk of the relevant acronyms: ATF, BOP, CIA, FBI, USM, SS,
EPA, FAA, FCC, FTC, NRC, SEC, CDC, HHS, FDIC, FEMA, GSA, IRS, GPO,
NARA, NASA, NIMH, NIH, NOAA, NTIS, SBA, FCC, NRO, NSA, DIA, USCSOI,
NMFS, USFS, DOE, FMS, NIST, NCDC, NSF, GAO, LOC, ACDA, CFTC, CNS,
CPSC, DEA, BXA, ESA, EDA, ITA, MBDA, NTIA, PTO, FWS, USGS, BIA, BLM,
MMS, NPS, USBR, SMRE, ISC, OIA, USPP, ILAB, BLS, ETA, MSHA, OSHA,
OSBP, PWBA, VETS, WB, PBGC, BTS, FHA, FTA, NHTSA, RSPA, USCG, MA, FRA,
SLSDC, DNFSB, ED, EEOC, EXIM, FDA, FEC, FLRA, HUD, INS, MSPB, NEA,
NEH, NLRB, NPR, OGE, OMB, OPM, OSC, OTS, RRB, SSA, AID, CCR, FSA, FAS,
FCIC, FCS, FSIS, AMS, APHIS, GIPSA, NRCS, ARS, NAL, REEUSDA, ERS,
NASS, RUS, RHS, RBCDS, USIA, USPS, USTR, VHA, VBA, NCS, VA-OIRM,
VA-OSDBA, VOA
"protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any
Murders which they should commit"
For an encyclopedic survey of crimes by local and federal law
enforcement agents, committed typically with impunity, check out my compendium of bogosities, particularly the ATF and
DEA material.
"abolishing our most valuable Laws"
The USG (particularly the DEA, ATF, FBI, and SS) engage in the
systematic, widespread, blatant curtailment of internationally
recognized and treatied human rights, and more relevantly, the blatant
curtailment of many of the rights granted by the Bill of Rights in the
Constitution. This clearly represents an abolition tantamount to, if
not more offensive than, those of the King in the 18th century.
"known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages,
Sexes and Conditions"
This is woefully and tragically inaccurate, and presages the continued
and unforgiveable genocide of the indigenous people of the
continent.
"the Supreme Judge of the World"
This appears to be a reference to a theistic god, an other, an
external and omnipotent authority, and so is repugnant.
"a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine
Providence"
This is blatantly repugnant, and manifestly counter to reason and
pragmatism.
"we mutually pledge to each
other our Lives, our Fortunes"
I can ascribe no meaning of virtue or merit to this statement and the
sentiments it can be contrued to represent.