Today, I’m going to offer something a little different. I often struggle with the question of patriotism, whether it is right for a Christian to be devoted to any nation and the possibility that said devotion might surpass devotion to Christ, but for this day, I’m going to put that concern aside and celebrate Independence Day. First, with what started it all:
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 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 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.
Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress,
JOHN HANCOCK, President.
Attest.
CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and
religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(John Adams)
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