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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (July 4, 1909)
1 V ,1 LM tm flPP fry ' ? v- - 1 1 i V . V .... ..,- - ? , .;;!' UVi. 1 V V --C- V7' JP1 . J li . I l . - ' 1 1 I i mm I ...... - - -; r - ' ' -'."v -,- ;;.,"''.. -- -V-v'- -s. .-v v -J HEN 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 Power of the earth ;theseparate"and eiuat-8tattorr to" which the Laws, ot Nature and of Nature's T 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'ereajed 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 f . I . i f . 1 - t T . f i- b I. A . power irom inc consent ot ine governca." 'j.nat wnenever any .rorm -ur.-uvviiiiicut uctwuita uc structive 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 princiftles and organizing Its powers in such form, as to them shall seem, most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness, frudence, indeed, will dictate thafc Governments long esUblished'sbould not b changed f?r. light and .transient: causes; and accordingly ' all experience ..hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils arc sufferable, than V 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, rto throw off . such- Government, and to provide - new GuardWpr 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- Th . . 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 La'ws,Jthe most wholesome and necessary for the public good.-, -He has forbidden hif Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless sns-.:. pended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has -utterly neglected' to" attend to them. V? ! ' - , He has refused to pass other Laws for the acc6mmodation 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. " ' . " . J He , 'has called together legislative bodies at placel unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from tha depository, of jtheir .Public Records, forthe sole purpose of, fatiguing them, into compliance with hi . measures. . ', ; . ,. . - t k - He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly. firmness-his inva sions on the rights of the people. ', , ,' :-' -L '.r: " '"- - '-t-- He has refused for a lonjr time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to: be., elected; wnereoy the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation,-have returned to 'the People, at 'large for their ex- . ercise; the State remaining, in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsions within. -y V - 1 - - '- He has endeavoured to prevent the population ;of these States; for that, purpose obstructing the Laws of 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 Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing! Judiciary Powers. . . , . r- He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone; for the tenure of their office and the amount and payment of their salaries. ' . ' t ' '",'. He has erected a multitude.'of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of i Officers, to .harass, our , People, and eat out their substance. . . ' ' , . , . ' ; . He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing . Annies without the -consent of pur. legis lature. ... :."'(;' " . v . - ' , : - He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Ovll Power. ' i . He has combined with others to subject us -to a jurisdiction foreign' to .T5Ur constitution," and ua acknowledged by .our laws giving hisAssent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: , ; For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: 1 v - : ; , k, ' For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for -any liarders which they shoald commit on the Inhabitants of these States: ; f , - , , For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: - - -,-t.'-- ' j4 h--, . For imposing taxes on us without our Consent: . ', ''-; For. depriving us in many cases of the benefits of Trial by Jury: V-V : : 5 ' For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses s, , ; ; . For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province,, establishing there- in 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: , ; , ; : , 7 J . .For itafcing .-away -our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and, altering ' fundamentally ' the Forms of our. Governments: , i ' ' ' -' " "For suspending. ur own Legislatures,, and declaring themselves invested' with1 Power 'to legist late for us in all cases whatsoever. ' - .- He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of 'his" Protection,, and '.waging; War J against us. , " ' ' ' , 1 ,', He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our-' towns,? and destroyed. the lives: of , our. people. . ' ' . . ... . . . . ' , . ; " . . ' - ' He, is at ihjs' time transporting Jarge armies of -foreign'' mercenaries to. cdmpteit-.the worksiof w death, desolation and tyrannj'r already begun twith circumstances, of .Crnelty ,&.perjidy ..scarcely partli--. i'r.lled,jn"thie most-barbarbns'ageslnd totally nworthy 1lhe Head of "a 'civilized nation. . v He has .constrained our fellow citizens taken Captive, on the Msh 'Seas, to. bear arms' against their ! Country, to become the executioners of their friends , and 1 Brethren, or .to fall . themselves by. their . v Hands. ' ' ; , - ':' r.' T''-"" ''-" - ' V - ' ' v He hasexejted domestic insurrection amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants , - of our frontiers,, the' merciless Indian-Savages, whose known rule of '-warfare i an undistinguished de struction of all ages, .exes and conditions. , -.-. A , .'-, " t. t ' In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the'most Jiumble terms: -Our repeated Petitions have been answered ontybyrepeated injury. A Prince, whose diaractcf is thus marked by every act which many define a Tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free-People. '. - .Nor: have We .been wanting in attention'to ourK British brethren.' We have warned them-rorti time to time of attempts by their legislature; to extend an unwarrantable jiinsdiction over ,u. cWe : "r'have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigfattonnd Seylcmciit here." .We. have 'appealed 'to their Viatwe-.justice1 and magnanimity, and we have "conjured them "by, the Ities of. our common kin . d red to- disavow, ; theseusurpations, iwhich would inevitably interrupt mir fonuetiHS and torrefpond " ehce. ' Thevl too. . have bce deaf to the voice of justice and of eonsangumitr,-.V"Ye! r.ni;t, therefore, ac quiesce;in the, necessity, which denounces our, Separation, and hold' -thenyoV -w ltulj the rft of nun- kind, Enemies -iiV War. in Peace Friends. " v V .; '.. ! v.-:.''-' V " ; ' 1 ,Y AWt, therefore, the Representatives of the tjnited States of America, fu general Congfe. arsem bled, appealing" to Pie Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude -of mtr in tent ions, do,' in .the! Name, and bvAuthoritv of the Good neooTeloF'theSe Colonies. ' sek-mnlv publi.'.h . and - declare. That "these United Colonics are, androf Right.ought. to be-Free and" Independent States;-and thai -they- are Absolved from all Allegiance to Uie British. Crown, and that all political connection" between then and -the State-of Great Britam, isand ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent Mate, they have full Power to levy .War. conclude Peace, contract Allianee. establish Commerce, and tu f! I alt other Aw and. Things which Independent States may of right do. l. And for t!;e -.support of . Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine -Providence, we miJtualiy rl'-lge to e. , other our Lives, our-Fortunes ant our' SacredJ Ionor,'-,
