Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-07-07
DeciarttIop of Independence.

Declaration of Independence.
When, in the course of human events, it be-
comes 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 natures God entitle them,
a decent respect to the opinions OF mankind re-
quires 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 inalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness. That to secure these rights, gov
ernments are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the contest of the gov
erned; and that, whenever any form OF govern
ment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
right of the people TO alter or abolish il, and to
institute new government, laying its foundation
on such principles, and organizing its power in
such form as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their safety and happiness. Prudence. in
deed, will dictate that governments, long eStab-
lished, should not be changed for light and tran
silent causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath
shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer,
while evils are sufferable, than to right them
selves by abOlishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses
and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same
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solute 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 the 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
DrOra tbi, lot facts ha submitted I'm a candid
world:
He has refused his assent to laws the most
wholesome and necessary tor the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws
of immediate and pressing Importance, unless
suspended in their operations till his assent should
be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has ut
terly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the &C
commodation of large districts of people, unless
those people would relinquish the right of repre-
~sentation in the Legislature-a right i~nestimable
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 f~atiguing them into compliance with
his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses re
peatedly for opposing with manly irmness his in
vasions OH the rights of the people.
He has refused, for II long time, after such dis
solutions, TO cause others IN be elected; whereby
the legislative powers, incapable of humiliation.
have returned to the people at large for their ex-
ercise; the State remaining. in the meantime, ex-
posed to all the dangers of invasion from with
out. and commissions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population
of these States; for that purpose, obstructing the
laws of naturalization of foreigners, refusing to
pass others to encourage their migration thither,
and raising the conditions of new appropriations
of lands.
He has INSTRUCTED the administration ofjustice,
by refusing his assent to laws for establishing ju-
dietary 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 peo-
pie, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among US, in time OF peace, stand
ing armies, without the consent OF our Legisla-
lures.
He has affected to render the military indie
pendent of, and superior to, the civil power.
He has combined, with others, 10 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 of 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 con
sent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefit
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 neighboring province, establishing therein an
arbitrary government, and charging its bounda
ries 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 Government:
For suspending our own legislatures, and de-
claring themselves invested with power to legs
late for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government shere. by declar-
ing 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 complete the works
of death, des0lation and tyranny already be
gun, with circumstances of cruely and per-
hdy 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 Instructions amongst
us, and has endeavored to bring on the IN
habitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian
savages whose known rule OF warfare is an indis-
tinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and con
ditions.
In every stage of these expressions, we have
pet toned for redress in the most humble terms
Our repeated petitions have been answered
only by repeated injuries. A prince whose char
actor 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 attention to ouI
British brethren. We have warned them, from
time to time, of the attempts by their Legislature
to extend an unwarranted jurisdiction over US
We have reminded them of the circumstances oil
our emigration and settlement here. We have
appealed to their native Justice aud magnanimity,
and we have conjured them, by the ties of our
common kindred, TO disayow these usurpations,
which would inevitably interrupt our connections
and correspondence. They, too, have been deal
10 the voice of Justice and 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. dc
in the name and by the authority of the good PEG
pie 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,