Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian., 1859-07-09
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENTS.
July 4th, 1776.

dOQ entltle them, decent respect to II
opinions of mankind requires that they shoul
declare the causes which impel them to sep.
ration.
We hold these truths to be self-evident =
that all men are created equal that they al
endowed by their Greater with certain una
ienable rights 4; that among these are life, lit
erty, and the pursuit of happiness; that,
secure these rights, governments are institut
ed among men, deriving their just powers fror
the consent of the governed and that, when
ever any form Of government becomes des
tructive of these ends-it is the right of tn
people to alter or abolish it, and to institut
new government, laying its foundations OF
such principles, and organizing its powers il
such form, as to them shall seem most likely
to effect their safety and happiness. Pru
dence, indeed, will dictate that governments
long established, should net be changed fo
| light and transient causes; and, accordingly
| all experience hath shown that mankind arr
are more disposed to suffer, while evils are
Suferable, than to right themselves by abol
ishing the forms to which they are accustom
ed. But when long train of abuses and us
urpations, pursuing invariably the same OBJ
ject, evinceS design to reduce them under
absolute despotism, it is their right, it is theil
duty, to throw off such government, and tC
provide new guards for their future security
Such has been the patient sufferance of the
colonies, and such is now the necessity which
constrans them to alter their former systems
of government The history of the present
king of Great Britain is history of repeated
injuries and usurpations, all having in direct
object the establishment of an absolute ty.
tofo To lni
facts be submitted to candid world.
lie 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 pressingimportance, unless
suspended in their operations till his assent
should be obtained; and, when so suspend
ed, 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 repository of their public records,
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into
compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses re-
peatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness,
his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused, for 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 conyulsions
within.
Hehas endeayored to prevent the popula
ton of these states; for that purpose obstruc-
ting the laws of naturalization of foreigners,
refusing to pass others to encourage their mi
grafton hither, and raising the conditions of
new appropriations of lands.
He has Obstructed the administration of
justice, by refusing his assent to laws for es-
tablishing 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 created 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 time of peace,
standing armies, without the consent of our
legislatures.
He has affected to render the military inde-
pendent Of and superior to, the civil powers.
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 Legisla-
ton.
For quartering large bodies ofa-med troops
among US;
For protecting them, by mock trial, from
punishment for any murders which they
may 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 con-
sent;
For depriving us, in many cases, of the
benefit of trial by jury;
For transporting US beyond seas to be tri-
ed for pretended offences;
For abolishing the free system of English
laws in neighboring provice, establishing
lhere.n an arbitrary government and enlarg-
ing 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, funda-
mentally, the forms of our governments
For suspendng our own legislatures, and
declaring themselves invested with power to
leglslate for us in ali cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by de-
claring us out Of his protection, and wagng
war against US.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our
coasts, burnt cur towns and destroyed the
lives of our people.
Heis, at this time, Transporting large ar
mics OF foreign mercenaries to complete the
works Of death, desolation, and tyranny, al
ready begun, with circumstances of cruelty
and pertidy scarcely paraleled in the most
barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the
head of civilized nation.
lie has constrained his fellow-citizens, tax
en- captive on the high seas, to bear arms
against their country, to become the execu-
TONERS of their friends and brethren, or to fall
themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic instructions
amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on
the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless
Indian savages, whose known rule of war
fare is an undistinguished destruction of all
ages and sexes, and conditions.
In every stage of these expressions, we
have petitioned for redress, in the most hu II
BILE 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 ruler of a free people
Nor have we been wanting in attention to
our British brethren. We have warned them
from time to time, of attempts made by thei,
legislature to extend an unwarrantable iuris
diction over us. Wehave reminded them o.
the circumstances of our emigration and set
tlement here. We have appealed to their ma
tive 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 beer
deaf to the voice ofjustice and consanguinity
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the neces
sity which denounces our separation, ant
hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind
enemies in war, in peace, friends.
We,therefore the representatives of the Un
ited States of America, in General Congress
assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judg
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