When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the political bands which connected with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinion's 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 established amongst men, deriving their just powers from the Consent of the Governed; that whenever a form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new form of Government, laying its foundation on such Principles and organizing its Power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence indeed, shall dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light or transient causes, and accordingly all experience has 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 a Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient sufferance of this Republic, and such is now the necessity which constraints it to alter its present system of Government. The History of the current government and administration of America is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over this Republic. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid World.
The American Bureaucracy has refused their assent to the law, the most whole, necessary, and constitutional for the public good.
For imposing taxes on us without our consent.
For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury.
The American Bureaucracy has forbidden their local governments from passing laws of immediate and necessary importance, unless they obtain their direct assent or relinquish the power to them federally; yet when that assent or power is yielded to them, they either neglect to pass such laws or pass totally backward or inexplicable ones.
They have obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing to abide by laws for establishing judiciary powers.
They have combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving their assent to their acts of pretended order.
For protecting the administrators of these injustices from the punishment of subjugations, by a mock trial, warping of facts, or burning of records, no matter the harm on the inhabitants of this Republic.
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world.
For taking away our Constitution, abolishing or ignoring our most sacred laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our government.
In every stage of these injustices we have asked for restitution in the most sincere of manners, yet our sincerity has been welcomed with further injustice and harm. A Government, 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 American 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 the just formation of this country. 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 kinship. 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 American Republic, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Justice of the world and all existence for the consistency of our intentions, do, in the name and authority of the good people of this Republic, solemnly publish and declare, that this American Republic is, and of right out to be, a Free and Independent Nation; that it is Absolved of all Allegiance to the American Bureaucracy, and that all political connection between them and the state of the American Bureaucracy, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as a Free and Independent Nation, it has the full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent Nations 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.
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.
Dillon Carey
Founder