FCLLI5_declaration_independence

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Declaration of Independence 
 
Personal thoughts about the Declaration follow the excerpts below. 
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. 
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 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. 
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 our attention 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 intercept 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, as 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 of 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. 
When was the last time that a group of US political leaders of differing views agreed 
to" mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor", 
as they concluded in July 1776? 
Those are not just pretty words. Look up the punishment for treason in their 
time. If you ever wondered about the meaning of "cruel and unusual 
punishment", or the quote after the signing of the Declaration about needing to 
hang together or all hang separately, this should provide the very grim context 
of that era. 
All representatives should be respected, not because of their political party 
affiliation or seniority, but because they were chosen by voters through free and fair 
elections to do the work of government as public servants with their "sacred honor" 
at stake. They all serve the entire country by working with each other, and bring 
dishonor on their high offices by disrespectfully attacking each other. 
The individual freedoms which we take for granted are still remarkable in much of 
the world more than 200 years after our Revolutionary War. There is much in this 
"status quo" which merits vigilant conservative protection against the latest liberal 
ideas about how to mandate changes in our lives through federal government power. 
Not even the formidable military powers of Great Britain at the height of its empire 
could mandate changes against citizens who would no longer consent to their 
continued rule, whether in the birth of the United States or the independence of 
India roughly 170 years later. 
 
 
Then the ruthless tyranny of many despotic regimes has proven capable of lasting for 
very long in modern history. The ideals and achievements of the United States, as a 
united people who keep trying to improve our representative government, have stood 
in stark contrast to many foreign leaders who have sought to defend only their own 
unchecked powers to rule with impunity and misery for all. 
Such tyranny is not always a direct threat to us, but we should remain vigilant about 
abuses of the trust and power we place in the hands of our own elected officials in 
either political party. They are elected to serve the people of this country - not for 
their party to gain the power which they need to impose their own rules through 
federal government mandates. That is what we fought against, not to create and 
defend. 
In our system, it is up to us, the individual voters, to always remain vigilant against 
nascent tyranny or any other abuses of public trust or power by the elected officials 
of any party from any state. This is not a government of allegiance sworn to those 
who wield power today. We the people are still in charge here. 
Our oath of office is the other way around - to honor the power of the people who 
elect our leaders. We don't swear allegiance to our political party or to a particular 
leader. Our elected and appointed public officials swear to uphold the Constitutional 
protections which reflect the will of all the citizens of America, not the will of the 
current leaders or political party which have obtained a majority of votes at the 
time. 
 
 
 
Taken from http://www.surgeusa.org/legacy/declaration.htm 
 
Bibliography 
OLSON, K.W. An outline of American History. Material prepared for the University of 
Maryland, 1996.