--- In TheLongBranchCantina@yahoogroups.com, "Lucifer"
<rodlucifer@y...> wrote:
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 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 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 shall 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. 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 shall
be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to
attend to
them.
He has neglected to pass other Laws for the accomadation 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 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
purpose obstructing the Laws for 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.
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 harass 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 constitutions, 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;
{end
pt.1}
--- End forwarded message ---