The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1894-06-30
The Declaration Of Independence.

dissolve the pO litical bands winch nave
connected them with another, and to
assume among the powers of b earth
the separate and equal station to which
the laws of nature and natures God
entitle them, a descent respect 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 are created equal;
that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain ~inalienable rights; that
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 be-
comes destructive of these ends, it is the
right of the people to alter or abolish it,
and to institute new government, laying
its foundation on 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,
accordingly, all experience hath shown,
that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are siderable, than to
right themselves by a~bOlishing the forms
to which they are accustomed. But,
when a long train Of abuses and usurpa-
tons, pursuing invariably the same
object, evinces a design to reduce them
under absolute despOtism, it is their
right, it is their duty, to throw of such
government, and to provide new guards
for their future security. Such has been
the patient s~ufferance Of these 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 q
history of repeated injuries and usurpa-
tons, all having in direct object the
establishment of an absolute tyranny
over these states.
To prove this, let facts be submitted
to q 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
importance, unless suspended in their
operation till his assent should be OBJ
tanned: and, when 50 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 relin-
quish the right OF representation to the
legislature; q right inestimsble to them,
and formidable to tyrsnts only.
lie 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 representative houses
repeatedly, for opposing, with manly
| irmness, his invasions ON the rights Of
the people.
He has refused, for . long time alter
such dissolutiOns, 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 danger Of invasion
from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the
population of these states; for that pur-
pose, obstructing the laws for natural
ization Of foreigners; refusing to pass
others to encourage their migration
hither, and raising the conditions OF
new appropriations Of land.
He has DISTRACTED 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 Of their Offices,
and the amount and payment of their
salaries.
He has erected q multitude of new
offices, and sent hither swarms of officers
to harass our people, and eat out their
substance.
He has kept among US, in times OF
peace, standing armies, without the
consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render military
independent of, and superior to, the
civil power.
He has combined with others, to sub
ject US to q jurisdiction foreign to Oul
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 q mock trial
from punishment, for any murders
which they should commit On the in
habitants of these states:
For cutting OH our trade with al
parts of the world:
For imposing taxes upon US without
our consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, Of
the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond 9 to bt
tried for pretended 0ffenses:
For abOlishing the free system o.
English laws in q neighbOring province
establishing therein an arbitrary gov
eminent, and enlarging its boundaries
30 as to render 1t at once an example
and ft instrument for introducing thu
same absolute rule into these colonies
For taking away our charters, abOl
ishing our most valuable laws, anC
altering, fundamentally, the powers OF
our governments:
For suspending our Own legislatures
} and declaring themselves invested will
power to legislate for us In all case
whatsoever.
He has ahdicated government here
by declaring US out of his protection
and waging wal against US.
He has plundered u seas, ravaged
our coasts, burnt Our towns, and des
rOyed the lives of our people.
He is, at this time, transporting largt
armies of foreign mercenaries to com
plete the works of death, desOlatiOl
and tyranny already begun, with cir
cumstances OF cruelty and peridit.
scarcely paralleled in the most barbarOu'
ages, and totally unworthy the head o
a civilized nation.