Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-07-04
Oglo Statesrrrarr,
DECLARATION ".
-oF-
AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE,
As Delivered In the State House i'm
Philadelphia, on tho Ath of
July, I770.

becomes necessary for one people to dis.
| solve the political bands which have con-
nected them with another, and to assume,
among the powers of the earth, the separate
and equal station to which the laws of ma
ture and of natures God entille them, a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind
requires that they should declare the causes
which impel them to the separation. .I.
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; thatamong these, are life.
| liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That,
to secure these rights, governments are in-
stituted among men, deriving their Just
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 or
ganiZing 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 es-
tablished, should 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 abolshing the forms
to which they are accustomed. But, when
a long train OF abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same object,
evinces design to reduce them under an
sOlute despotism, 1t is their right, it is their
duty, to throw off such government, and to
provide new guards for their future securi-
ty. Such has been the patient sufferance
OF these colonies, and such Is now the ne
cessity which constrains them to alter their
former systems of government. The his
tory of the present King of Great Britain is
a history of repeated injuries and usurpa-
tions, all having, in direct object, the es-
adjustment of an absolute tyranny over
these States. To prove this, let facts be
submitted to 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 import
ance, unless suspended in their operation
till his assent should be obtained; and,
when so suspended, he has utterly neglect
ed to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the
accommodation of large districts of peo-
pie, unless those people would relinquish
the right of representation in the legisla-
ture; q right inestimable to them, and
formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies
at places unusual, uncomfortable, and dis
tant 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 firm
ness, his invasions on the rights OF. the peo-
pie.
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 peo-
pie at large for their exercise; the State
remaining, in the mean time, exposed to
all the danger of invasion from without,
and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the popu-
lation of these States; for that purpose,
Obstructing the laws for naturalization of
foreigners; refusing to pass others to en-
courage 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 oftheir offices,and
the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected multitude of new offices,
and sent hither swarms of officers to
harass our people, and eat out their sub
stance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace,
standing armies, without the consent of
our legislature. .r
He has affected to render the military in
dependent OF, and superior to, the civil
power. Id.
He has combined, with others, to subject
us to jurisdiction foreign to our constitu-
ton, and unacknowledged by our laws;
giving his assent to their acts Of pretended
legislation: la
For quartering large bodies of armed
troops among us: t.....-.
For protecting them, by a mock trial,
from punishment, for any murders which
they should commit on the inhabitants of
these States: s.s.# r.liI -E
For cutting off our trade with all parts
of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our
consent: 'H 0H. iU' rur
For depriving us, in many cases, of the
benefits of trial by jury: Il
For transporting us beyond seas to be
tried for pretended offenses: N..gE
For abolishing the free system of English
laws in a neighboring province, establish
ing therein an arbitrary government, and
its boundaries, so as to render it
at once an example and fit instrument for
introducing the same absolute rule into
these colonies: v .1 t.s.Yi .L.E..fv roil
For taking away our charters, abolishing
our most valuable laws, and altering, fun
damentally, the powers of our govern
ments: .s.r .,fr. .I-.h ....-
For suspending our own legislatures,
and declaring themselves invested with /
power to legislate for us in all cases what
soever. eng 5tu. ger s
He has abdioated government here, by
declaring us out of his protection, and
waging war against us. N .tsrf 5r4r
He has plundered our seas ravaged our
coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the
lives of our people. r.t,d.
He is, at this time, transporting large
armies of foreign mefcenarles to complete
the works of death, desolation, and tyran-
ny, already, begun, with circumstances of
cruelty and perfdy scarcely paralleled in
the most barbarous ages, and totally un-
worthy the head of civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow -eitlzens,
taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms
against their country, to become the ex-
eeutioners Of their friends and brethren,
or to fall themselves by their hands. Id
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 warfare is an undistInguished de- !
struction, of all ages, sexes and condi-
tions. ~ s,,e, r,,,,,s,, s-.,,, ~.
have petitioned for redress, In the mos 1