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| Painting depicting the signing |
My day this month happens to land on July 4th…our American
Independence Day. On this day in July 1776, the Declaration of
Independence was signed. The image below is of the actual document,
which is now housed in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. I wonder how
long it’s been since you read it? Or have you ever read the full text? Most of
us probably only know a few lines or the most famous “quotes”. So, I thought it
would be appropriate to post the whole thing so you can read in its entirety.
Considering the state of politics today, it's difficult to
imagine what it must have taken to get all of these men to agree on
anything. Many would then go on to write the Constitution, Bill of Rights,
and all documents that served as the foundation of the United States of
America. It's pretty amazing...land amazing still we continue to abide by them,
no matter what kind of turmoil we might be going through.
Declaration of Independence
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
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| Image of the actual Declaration |
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.
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 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 complete 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
Kristin Wallace is the USA Today Best Selling
Author of inspirational and contemporary romance, and women’s fiction filled
with “Love, Laughter and a Leap of Faith”. She is the author of two best
selling series, Shellwater Key Tales (sweet contemporary romance) and
Covington
Falls Chronicles (inspirational romance). Her tenth published novel released
April 24
th - Last Stop At Paradise, Book 3 in the Shellwater Key
Tales.
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Over 245 years ago, our great country was born into a Republic of thirteen colonies based on a foundation of law and order, freedom, morality, and spirituality. The Constitution was designed to represent the people, all the people, and the people were in charge. That's where our country's story began. Since then, we've been in a relentless battle to maintain our original freedoms. This has resulted in assassinations, wars, scandals, corruption, crimes, manipulation, and oppression.
