OPINION
4A
W
e hold these truths to be self-evident:
That all men are created equal; and
they are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable 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, when-
ever any form of government becomes destruc-
tive to these ends, it is the right of the people to
alter or to abolish it, and to institute new govern-
ment, 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 govern-
ments 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 suffer-
able, than to right themselves by abolishing the
forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usur-
pations, pursuing invariably the same object,
evinces a design to reduce them under abso-
lute 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.
H
e 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 this 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
accommodations of large districts of people,
unless those people would relinquish the right of.
representation in the legislature — a right ines-
timable 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 fi rmness,
his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dis-
solutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby
the legislative powers, incapable of annihila-
tion, 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 migration hither,
and raising the conditions of new appropriations
of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of jus-
tice, by refusing his assent to laws for establish-
ing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will
alone for the tenure of their offi ces, and the
amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offi ces,
and sent hither swarms of offi cers to harass our
people and eat of 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 inde-
pendent of, and superior to, civil power.
H
e has combined with others to subject us
to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitu-
tion, and acknowledged 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 ben-
efi ts of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond the seas, to be
tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free system of English
laws in a neighboring province, establishing
therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging
boundaries, so as to render it at once an exam-
ple and fi t instrument for introducing the same
absolute rule into these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our
invaluable 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, burned 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 perfi dy scarcely
paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally
unworthy of 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 defi ne a
tyrant, is unfi t to be the ruler of a free people.
N
or 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 jurisdic-
tion over us. We have reminded them of the cir-
cumstances 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 inter-
rupt 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.
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JULY 4, 2016
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 the 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 Brit-
ish crown, and that all political connections
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 alli-
ances, 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 fi rm reliance on the protection of Divine
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other
our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
JOHN HANCOCK
July 4, 1776
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William
Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
Massachusetts-Bay: Saml. Adams, John
Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.
Rhode Island: Step. Hopkins, William
Ellery.
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Sam’el Hun-
tington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott.
New York: Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston,
Frans. Lewis, Lewis Morris.
Pennsylvania: Robt. Morris, Benjamin
Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Cly-
mer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson,
Geo. Ross.
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read, Tho.
M’Kean.
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall,
Geo. Walton
Maryland: Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos.
Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry
Lee, Th. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Ths. Nel-
son, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
North Carolina: Wm. Hooper, Joseph
Hewes, John Penn.
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thos.
Heyward, Junr., Thomas Lynch, Junr., Arthur
Middleton.
New Jersey: Richd. Stockton, Jno. Wither-
spoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark
Take the Independence Day patriotic presidential quiz
By GAIL COLLINS
New York Times News Service
I
ndependence Day weekend’s coming —
time to show a little patriotism.
Budweiser beer just renamed itself
“America,” for heaven’s sake.
If a Belgian brewing company can do that, the
least you can do is show you’re a well-educated
citizen. Let’s see whether you’ve been keeping up
with the presidential race:
1. Since endorsing Donald Trump for presi-
dent, Chris Christie …
A. Tracked down the man he once chased
down the boardwalk while waving an ice cream
cone and apologized.
B. Got the support of a full 18 percent of New
Jersey voters on whether Trump should pick
Christie as his running mate.
C. Told reporters he does not want to be the
vice-presidential nominee because “really, my life
is ruined already.”
2. When Marco Rubio ran for president, he
made it clear he was done with being a senator
forever. (“I have only said like 10,000 times I will
be a private citizen in January.”) This month he …
A. Told reporters he was pursuing a lifelong
dream of playing defensive back for the Miami
Dolphins.
B. Said he was running for re-election because
“I’ve discovered I’m not worth nearly as much
money as I thought in the private sector.”
C. Said he was running for re-elec-
announced he’s going to stop trying to
tion because, “Control of the Senate
answer for things the candidate says.
may very well come down to the race
But he’s still on the Trump bandwagon
in Florida.”
because …
3. After the demise of his presi-
A. “Everybody makes mistakes.”
dential campaign, Ben Carson joined
B. “… him talking about things and
the Trump team. When his candidate
saying things about things is different
claimed a federal judge was biased due
than him saying what he’s going to do.”
to his Mexican heritage, Carson said
C. “Hell, I don’t know. Go ask Paul
that Trump …
Ryan.”
A. “… was probably talking out
6. After he dropped out of the
Gail
loud rather than thinking.”
Republican
race, Sen. Lindsey Gra-
Collins
B. Believes all jurists should
ham endorsed Ted Cruz, whom
be examined for “the fruit salad
he loathes. Then when Cruz
Budweiser
of their life.”
dropped out, he …
C. Has many good Mexican
A. Endorsed William How-
beer just
friends among the caddies at his
ard Taft, noting, “He’s dead,
golf courses.
perfect.”
renamed itself but B. nobody’s
4. Paul Ryan began the
Said he’d “probably
month by endorsing Donald
write somebody in or just skip
‘America,’
Trump for president. Since then,
the presidential.”
for heaven’s
he’s denounced several of the
C. Compared the cur-
candidate’s more outrageous
rent campaign to “Game of
sake.
statements. When asked how
Thrones” and announced that it
many times he could do this
was “time for a woman presi-
without washing his hands of the whole campaign, dent, but only if it’s Daenerys the Dragon Queen.”
Ryan said …
7. Bernie Sanders’ biggest post-primary news
A. “Four.”
was that …
B. “I don’t know the answer to that, either.”
A. He’s going to endorse Hillary Clinton (but
C. “Did I tell you I saw John Boehner in Flor- that doesn’t mean he’ll vote for her).
ida? God, that man looks happy.”
B. He’s going to vote for Hillary Clinton (but
5. Duncan Hunter of California, one of the fi rst that doesn’t mean he’s endorsing her).
members of Congress to endorse Donald Trump,
C. He needs to take one more look
at Martin O’Malley.
8. When Britain voted to exit the European
Union, Donald Trump was visiting his golf course
in Turnberry, Scotland. Asked for his analysis of
the big event, Trump said …
A. “You know, when the pound goes down,
more people are coming to Turnberry, frankly.”
B. “Analysts have drastically overstated the
impact on the British economy; we will of course
have to keep a close eye on the manufacturing sector.”
C. “Vote? What vote?”
9. A former White House Secret Service offi cer
has written a tell-all book about the Clintons in which
he claims to have seen evidence that Hillary once …
A. Broke a law.
B. Broke a promise.
C. Broke a vase.
10. Campaigning in New York, Hillary Clin-
ton demonstrated she had lost some of her old city
sophistication when she …
A. Had trouble getting into the subway.
B. Made eye contact with a fellow passenger
in the subway.
C. Posed for a selfi e in front of Trump Tower.
11. When Clinton made her big speech on for-
eign policy this month, people couldn’t help notic-
ing that she appeared on stage in front of…
A. Huge pictures of Abraham Lincoln, Oprah
Winfrey and the pope.
B. Her grandchildren.
C. 19 American fl ags.
ANSWERS: 1-B, 2-C. 3-A, 4-B, 5-B, 6-B, 7-B,
8-A, 9-C, 10-A, 11-C
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher • LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
• CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
• DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
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