" 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.
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
instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed, --
That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive 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 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 shewn, 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.
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 pressing importance,
unless suspended in their 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
accommodation 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, 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
firmness 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 mean time exposed to all
the dangers of invasion from without, and
convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the
population of these States; for that purpose
obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of
Foreigners; refusing to pass others to
encourage their migrations 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.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will
alone, for the tenure of their offices, and
the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices,
and sent hither swarms of Officers to
harrass our people, and eat out 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
independent of and superior to the Civil
power.
He has combined with others to subject us
to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution,
and unacknowledged 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
benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried
for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English
Laws in a neighbouring Province,
establishing therein 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:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing
our most valuable 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, burnt our towns, and destroyed the
lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies
of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the
works of death, desolation and tyranny,
already begun with circumstances of
Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy
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 endeavoured 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 define a Tyrant, is unfit to
be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to
our Brittish 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 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
mankind, 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 from 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. 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."

I was expecting to see a firework display

@WalkSoftly: thx bro

Happy birthday U.S.A

And salute!!