The daily Astorian., July 04, 2017, Page 6A, Image 6

OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 4, 2017
‘We hold these truths to be self-evident’
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, govern-
ments are instituted among men, deriv-
ing their just powers from the consent of
the governed; that, whenever any form
of government becomes destructive to
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 dis-
posed to suffer, while evils are suffer-
able, than to right themselves by abol-
ishing 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 press-
ing 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 inestimable to
them, and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative
bodies at places unusual, uncomfort-
able, 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 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 meantime
exposed to all the dangers of invasion
from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the
population of these states; for that pur-
pose obstructing the laws for naturaliza-
tion of foreigners; refusing to pass oth-
ers to encourage their migration hither,
and raising the conditions of new appro-
priations 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
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 con-
sent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the mil-
itary independent of, and superior to,
civil power.
He has combined with others to sub-
ject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our
constitution, 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 inhab-
itants 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 benefi 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 gov-
ernment, and enlarging boundaries, so
as to render it at once an example and
fi t instrument for introducing the same
absolute rule into these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abol-
ishing our invaluable laws, and alter-
ing, 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, rav-
aged our coasts, burned our towns, and
destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large
armies of foreign mercenaries to com-
plete the works of death, desolation and
tyranny, already begun with circum-
stances 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 cit-
izens, 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 insurrec-
tions amongst us, and has endeavored to
bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers
the merciless Indian savages, whose
known rule of warfare is an undistin-
guished 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 peti-
tions have been answered only by
repeated injury. A prince whose charac-
ter is thus marked by every act which
may defi ne a tyrant, is unfi t to be the
ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in atten-
tions 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 circum-
stances 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 com-
mon kindred, to disavow these usurpa-
tions, 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 man-
kind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives
of the United States of America, in Gen-
eral 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 pub-
lish and declare:
That these united colonies are, and
of right ought to be, free and indepen-
dent states; that they are absolved from
all allegiance to the British 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, con-
clude 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 dec-
laration, with a fi rm reliance on the pro-
tection of Divine Providence, we mutu-
ally 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, Wil-
liam Ellery.
Connecticut: Roger Sherman,
Sam’el Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oli-
ver Wolcott.
New York: Wm. Floyd, Phil. Living-
ston, Frans. Lewis, Lewis Morris.
Pennsylvania: Robt. Morris, Benja-
min Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Mor-
ton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Tay-
lor, 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. Harri-
son, Ths. Nelson, 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.
Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John
Hart, Abra. Clark
Your Fourth of July quiz
By GAIL COLLINS
New York Times New Service
H
appy extremely long
Independence Day weekend!
As our thoughts turn to the
nation’s glorious
beginnings, it’s not
actually necessary to
wonder what would
have happened if
Donald Trump had
been a founding
father. Really, stick
to the fi reworks.
Still, the demands of concerned
citizenship never wane. Let’s see how
much attention you’ve been paying to
current presidential events.
1. Celebrating 100 days in offi ce,
Trump looked back philosophically
on his White House experience and
said …
A. “I thought it would be easier.”
B. “I thought there would be bet-
ter food.”
C. “I thought I could do it from
Mar-a-Lago.”
2. In another 100th-day interview,
Trump was grilled by CBS’ John
Dickerson about his Twitter claim that
Barack Obama had his phones wire-
tapped. Trump defensively explained
that …
A. “I have huge sources.”
B. “I don’t know how to spell
tapp.”
C. “I don’t stand by anything.”
3. Speaking to the graduating class
at the Coast Guard Academy, Trump
said …
A. That he had come to regret get-
ting out of military service for bone
spurs.
B. That no politician in history
“has been treated worse or more
unfairly” than Donald Trump.
C. That having a great Coast
Guard was the key to having a great
cruise ship industry.
4. The president is leaving next
week on his second trip overseas. We
have hardly gotten over the fi rst one.
On a visit to Israel, Trump canceled
a speech at the historic Masada site
because …
A. He needed more time to prepare
his remarks on Middle East peace,
which he was planning to deliver in
Hebrew and Arabic.
B. He wanted to throw a party for
Israeli spies to make amends for leak-
ing their secrets to the Russians.
C. It involved riding a cable car.
5. During Trump’s visit to Saudi
Arabia, Commerce Secretary Wilbur
Ross was thrilled by the signs that the
Saudis were “liberalizing their soci-
ety.” Ross pointed out that …
A. “They’ve got women all over
the place.”
B. “There was not a single hint of
a protester anywhere there during the
whole time we were there.”
C. “The lunch at the airport was
terrifi c.”
6. At the meeting of NATO leaders
in Belgium, Trump …
A. Won hearts when he said that
his fi rst childhood memory was hear-
ing about the Marshall Plan.
B. Won applause with his praise
for “down-home Brussels hospitality.”
C. Shoved the prime minister of
Montenegro out of the way so he
could get to the front of the group.
7. The president has also been
doing a lot of diplomacy in Washing-
ton. He recently met with the presi-
dent of Panama and bragged that …
A. He’s been “working very, very
hard” to get to know the names of the
countries in Central America.
B. “We did a good job” building
the Panama Canal.
C. Teddy Roosevelt did not get
nearly as many votes as Donald
Trump.
8. The budget Trump’s administra-
tion sent to Congress …
A. Counted the same $2 trillion
twice.
B. Projected how much money the
government could save if the national
parks were turned into golf courses.
C. Was titled “Plan to Help Every-
one Work,” or PHEW.
9. The tax plan Trump’s adminis-
tration released …
A. Called for a large entrance fee
for news conferences.
B. Called for a constitutional
amendment banning hotel occupancy
taxes.
C. Was only one page long.
10. Trump criticized Obama for
calling the Republican health care bill
mean, claiming …
A. “He actually used my term.”
B. “He underestimates the leader-
ship potential of Mitch McConnell.”
C. “He got that from a wire tapp.”
11. The public is getting to know
the Trump Cabinet. For instance,
there’s H.R. McMaster, the national
security adviser, who constantly tries
to save the president from making
monster misstatements on foreign pol-
icy. Trump likes to refer to him as …
A. “My Hector Protector.”
B. “A pain.”
C. “What’s-his-name who
replaced Mike Flynn.”
12. Health and Human Services
Secretary Tom Price has a deputy
overseeing family planning issues
who …
A. Has said “contraception doesn’t
work.”
B. Believes abortion causes cancer.
DAVID F. PERO, Editor & Publisher
Founded in 1873
C. Both of the above.
13. When asked about her father’s
Twitter habits, Ivanka Trump — who
has an offi ce in the White House and
the offi cial title of special adviser to
the president — said …
A. “You know, I try to stay out of
politics.”
B. “This interview is about Work-
place Development Week.”
C. “God, I could tell you stories.”
14. The American ambassadors to
France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Den-
mark and Sweden …
A. Are all former executives at
Goldman Sachs.
B. Joined together to petition the
president to stop calling Europe “that
phony continent.”
C. Haven’t been nominated.
Answers: 1-A, 2-C, 3-B, 4-C, 5-B,
6-C, 7-B, 8-A, 9-C, 10-A, 11-B. 12-C,
13-A, 14-C
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