The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-07-06
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
IN CONGRESS. JULY 4. 177s.


States of america:
when in the course of human events it becomes
necessary for 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
| ture and of natures God entitle them, decent
spect to the opinions 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 created equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalenable rights; that
among these life, liberty and the pursuit OF hap
piness. That to secure these rights Governments
are instituted among men, deriving tner l ust
whenever any form of government becomes de-
structye of these ends, is the right of the people
to alter to abolish It. and to institute new Gov
eminent, laying its foundation such principles,
and organizing 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 accord
ingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are
disposed to suffer, while evils sufferable
than to right themselves by abolshing the forms to
which they are accustomed. But when long train
of abuses and usurpatons, pursuing invariably the
same object, evinces design to reduce them under
absolute despotsm 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 suferance of these colonies; and such
is now the necessity which constrains them to alter
their former system OF government. The history
of the present King OF Great Britain is history of
repeated injuries and usurpatons all having in di-
rect object the establishment of an absolute tyranny
these States. To prove this, let facts be sub
| mitted to a candid world
He has refused his assent to laws, the most whole
| some and necessary for the public good.
| He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws OF
immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspend
ed in their operation till his assent should be OBJ
| tanned; and, when so suspended, he has utterly
neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accom-
mediation of large districts of people, unless those
people would relinquish their right of representation
in the Legislature, right inestimable to them and
formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the de-
p0sitory of their public records for the sole purpose
of fatiguing them into compliance with his meas
ures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly,
for opposing with manly hrmness his invaslons on
the rights of the people.
! He has refused for long time after such dssolu-
lions to cause others to be elected whereby the
legislative powers incapable of humiliation have
returned to the people at large for their exercise;
the State remaining in the meantime, exposed to all
the dangers of invasion from without and conVul-
sions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of
these States for that purpose obstructng the laws
for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass
others to encourage their migratiOns hither, and
raising the conditions of new appropriations OF
| lands.
| de has INSTRUCTED the administration of justice,
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 multitude of new offices, and
sent hither swarms of officers to harrass people
| and eat out their substance.
| He has kept among u.s. in times of peace, stand
ing armies without the consent of our Legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independ-
| ent of and superior to the civil power.
| He has combined with others to subject us to a
! jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution and unac-
knowledged by our laws giving his assent to their
acts of pretended legislation for quartering large
| bodies of armed troops among u.s. for protecting
| them by mock trial, from punishment for any
murders which they should commit on the inhabl-
tants of these States for cutting off our trade with
| all parts of the world for imposing taxes on us
without consent; for depriving us in many cases
of the benefits of trial by jury for transporting us
beyond to be tried for pretended ofeEses; tor
aboishing the free system of English laws In
neghooring province, establishing therein an arbl-
trary Government, and charging it's boundaries so
as to render it at once example and fit instru-
ment for introducing the absolute rule into
these colonies for taking away charters, abol-
ishing our most valuable laws and altering funda-
mentally the forms of our governments for sus-
pending our own Legislatures, and declaring them
selves invested with power to legslate for us IN all
cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here by declaring
us out of his protection, and waging war against
us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged coasts,
burnt towns, and destroyed the lives OF our
people.
He is at this time transporting large armies Of
foreign mercenares to complete the works of death,
desolation and tyranny already begun with clrcum-
of cruelty and perhdy scarcely paralleleQ
the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the
head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow-ctizens taken cap
tive on the high to bear arms against their
country to become the executoners of their friends
and brethren, to fall themselves by their hands.
|. He has excited domestic instructions amongst
u.s. and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants
| of frontiers the merciess Indian saVages,
whose known rule of warfare is an und1st1ngulshed
destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. .
In every stage of these Cppress1ons we have petit
toned for redress in the most humble terms. Our
repeated petitions have been answered by repeated
injury. prince, whose character is thus m arked
by every act which may define tyrant, is unfit to
be the ruler of free people Nor have we been
wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We
have warned them from time to time OF attempts by
their Legislature to extend an unwarrantabe Juris-
diction over us. We have reminded them OF the
| circumstances of our emigration and settlement
here We have appealed to their native justice ana
magnanimity and we have conjured them by the
ties of our common kindred to disayow these usur-
pations which would inevitably interrupt our con-
nections and correspondence. They too have been
deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity
which denounces our separation, and ho!o then 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 recttude of Intentions, do, in the name and
by authority of the good people of these colonies,
solemnly publish and declare that these United
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and in
pendent States: that they are absolved from all
allegiance to the British Crown and that all poiti
cal connection between them and the State of Great
Britain is, and ought to be- totally dissolved; and
that as free and Independent States, they have full
power to levy war, conclude peace, contract ALI
and things which independent States may of right
do. And for the support of this Declaration, with
a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Provi-
dence we mutually pledge to each other our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
JOHN HANCOCK, GEO. TAYLOR,
BUTTON Gw1NNErT JAMES WILSON,
LYMAN HALL GEO. Ross,
GEO. WALTON, CESAR RODNEY,
VIM. HOOPER, GEO. READ,
JOSEPH HEwEs, IHo MChEAN,
JOHN PENN, VIM. FLOYD,
EDWARD RUTLEDGE, PHILIP LIVINGSTON,
Tuos HAYWARD JUNR., FRANCIS LEWIS,
THOMAS LYNCH, JUNR., LEWIS MORRIS,
I ARTHUR MIDDLETON, RICHD STOCKTON,
SAMUEL CHASE, JNo WITHERsPooNs
WnT PACA FRANCIS HoPKINsON.