Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1820-07-04
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE,
july 4th, 1776.

dissolve the polltlCal DandS WHICH nave
connected them with another, and to as
sume among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station TO which the
laws of nature and of natures God ell
title them, a decent respect to the Cpl
Mons of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel
them to separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evi-
dent, that all men are created equal ;
that they are endowed by their creator
with certain unalienablc 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 pow
ers 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 abolish
it, and to institute a 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. Pru-
dence indeed, will dictate, that govern
ments long established should not be
changed for light and transient causes;
and accordingly all experience has shewn,
that mankind are more disposed to suf-
fer, while evils are sufferable, than to
right themselves by abolishing the forms
TO which they are accustomed: But
when long train of abuses and usurpa-
lions, pursuing invariably the same OBJ
iect, 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 con-
strains them to alter their former sys-
TENS of government The history of the
present king of Great Britain is histo-
ny of repeated injuries and usurpations,
all having in direct object the establish
ment of an absolute tyranny over these
States. To prove this, let facts be sub
ynitted 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 for immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their
operation till his assent should be OBJ
tanned; 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 re-
linquish the right Misrepresentation in the
legislature, 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
frmness his invasions on the rights OF
the people.
He has refused for long time after
ouch dissolutions, to cause others to be
elected; whereby the legislative pow
ers, incapable of humiliation, have re-
turned to the people at large for their
exercise, the state remaining in the mean
time exposed to all the danger of inva-
sion from without, and commissions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the
population of these states; for that pur-
pose obstlucting the laws for naturaliza-
ton of foreigners; refusing to pass
others to encourage their migration
hither, and raising the conditions of new
appropriations of lands.
He has INSTRUCTED 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 multitude Of new Of
fees, and sent hithcr swarms of officers
to harrass our people, and eat out their
substance. He has kept among US, in
time 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 20 sub
,ject US to a jurisdiction foreign to our
constitution, and unacknowledgedby our
laws; giving his assent to their acts OF
pretended legislation.
For, quartering large bodies of armed
troops among us.
:, For protecting them by mock trial,
from punishment for any murders which
=, ,,IJ co~ox,;+ ~, tho ;nba hifar,fc IF