The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-07-15
I776.
D & Oh AzR A N
IND EP END
or THE UNITED rArEs OF AMERICA, IN


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, amcng the
powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the laws Of nature and ma
lures 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 10 be self evident,
that all men are created equal that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain un-
alienablc rights /; that among there are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That,
to secure these rights, governments are insti-
tuted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed; that, whencv-
or any form of government becomes destructive
Of these ends, it is the right of the people to
alter or to abolish it, and to substitute a new
government, laying its foundation on such
principles, and organizing its powers in such
form, rs to them shall seem most likely to eff
feet their safety and happiness. Prudence, in
deed, will dictate that governments long es-
~tablished, SHOULD not be changed for light and
transient causes ; and, accordingly, all expert
ence hath shown, that mankind are more dis
posed to suffer, while evils are siderable, 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 o design
to reduce them under absolute despotism, it
is their right it is their duty, to throw off
such government and provide new guards for
their future security. Such has been the pa
tient sufferanoe of these colonies, and such is
now the necessity which constrains them to
altar their former systems of government The
history of the present king of Great Britain is
q history of repeated injuries and usurpations,
Ill us ~ I;ronkaobia1k Aba sfobl:abp,an
Of an absolute tyranny over these States. To
prove this, let facts be submitted to acan
candid world -
He has refused his assent to avs 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, un-
less those people would Telinquish 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, uncom Portable, and distant
from the depository of the public records, for
the sole purpose of fatiguing them into COM
plianee with his measures /;
He has dissolved, representative houses re-
peatedly, for opposing, with manly hrmness,
his inyasions of the rights of the people;
He has refused, for a long time after such
dissolntions, to cause others to be elected
whereby the legislative powers, incapable. of
apnihilation, have returned to the people at
large for their exercise the State remaining,
in the mean time, exposed to all the danger of
invasion from without, and commissions within;
He has endeavored to- prevent the popula-
fion of these States, for that purpose, obstruct-
ing the laws for naturalization of foreigners
refusing to pass others to encourage their mi
grafton hither, and raising the conditions of
new appropriations of land
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 erected a multitude of new offices,
and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our
people, and eat out their substance; 4
He has kept among us, in times of peace,
standing s-armies, without the consent of our
He has affected to render the military inde-
pendent of, and superior to, the civil power.
He has combined, with others, to subject US
to q Jurisdiction foreign to our constitution,
and unaeknowledged by our laws /; giving his
assent to their acts ofpretended legislation
HOL qudrteIlHS diSe Uouios VI S-oOPe
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 of our trade with all parts of
the world
For imposing taxes on us without our con-
sent.
For deprigipg us, in many cases. of t1e ben
affz 0f trial nv 1urv
For transporting. us beyond the seas to be
tried for pretended offenses;
For aboiishing the free. system of English
laws in q neighboring province, establishing
therein an arbitrary government, and enlarg-
ing It's boundaries, so as 10 render ii at; once
an example and ft instrument fo- introducing
the same absolute rule into these colonies ~
For taking away our charters, abolishing
our most valuable laws, and altering, funda-
mentally, the powers of our government;
For suspendiDg our own legislatures: and
declaring themselves invested with power to
~Iegislate for US in all cases whatsoever;
He has abdicated government here, by de-
war againstus
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our
coasts, burnt our owns, and destroyed the
lives of our people
p He is, at this time, transporting large ar
mics of foreign mercenaries. to complete the
work of death, desolation, and tyranny, al
ready begun, with circumstances of cruelty and
perfdy scarcely paralleIed in the most barbt r.
GUS ages, and totally unworthy the head Of a
civilized nation
He has constrained our fellow citizens, ia
ken 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 las excited domestic Instructions
amongst us, and has endeayored to bring on
the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless
Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare
I..4.-a.:..aC ILL.,