The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-07-07
IN CONGRESS-, JULY 4, 1875:

IN CONGRESS-, JULY 4, 1776:
The unanimous declaration of the hir-
teen United States Of America.
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 among the powers of the earth,
the separate and equal station to which
| the laws of Nature and of Natures God
entitle them, decent respect to the opin-
| ions of mankind requires 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 unalienable 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 powers from the
| consent of the governed; that whenever
! any form of government becomes destruc-
| tive 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 established should not be changed
for light and transient causes; and ac-
cordingly all experience hath shewn, that
mankind are more disposed to suffer,
while evils are sufferable, 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 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 fu-
ture security. Such has been the patient
sufferance of these colonies; and such is
now the necessity which constrains them
to alter their former systems of govern
ment. 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 alb
solute tyranny over these States. To
prove this. let facts be submitted to a
candid world. He has refused his assent
to laws, the most wholesome and neces-
sary for the public good. He has for
hidden his Governors to pass laws of inn
mediate and pressing Importance, unless
sent 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, unless those people
would relinquish the right of representa-
tion in the Legislature, a right ines
timable 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 Representa- |
tive Houses repeatedly, 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 legis-
lative 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 convui-
sions within. He has endeavored to pre-
vent the population of these States; for
that purpose Obstructing The laws for nat
uraliZatien of foreigners; refusing to pass
Others to encourage their migration
hither, and raising the conditions of new
of lands. He has OBJ
structed the administration of justice, by
refusing his assent to laws for establish
ing 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 harTass
Dur people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times 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 COM
Dined with others to subject us to a juris-
LECTION foreign to our constitution, and
lnacknowledged by our laws; giving his
lssent to their acts of pretended legisla-
ion. For quartering large bodies of
armed troops among us; for protecting
hem by mock trial, from punishment
or any murders which they should COM
nit on the inhabitants of these States; !
or cutting off our trade with all parts of !
he world; for imposing taxes on us
without our consent; for depriving us in
many cases of the benefits. of trial by I
ury; for transporting us beyond seas to ]
,e tried for pretended offences; for abOl-
shing the free system of English laws
n a neighboring province, establishing
herein an arbitrary government, and en-
arging its boundaries so as to render it
It once an example and fit instrument
or introducing the same absolute rule
nto these colonies; for taking away our
charters, abolishing our most valuable
avs and altering fundamentally the
orms of our governments. For suspend
ng our own legislatures, and declaring
themselves vested with power to legislate
ror us in all cases whatsoeye-. He has
abdicated government here, by declaring
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, desolation and tyranny,
already begun with circumstances of
cruelty and perfdy scarcely paralleled
in the most barbarous ages, and totally
of the head of a civilized ma
ton. He has constrained our fellow cit
zens taken captive on the high seas to
bear arms against their country, to be-
come the executioners of their friends
and brethren, or to fall themselves by
their hands. He has excited domestic
amongst us, and has en-
to bring on the inhabi-
tants of our frontiers, the merciless