The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-07-04
The Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of independence.
When, in the course of human events,
it becomes necessary for one people TO
dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with another, II to
assume among the powers OF the EARN
the separate and equal station 10 whlcn
the laws of nature and natures Goa
entities 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 to be self-evi-
dent: That all men are created equal;
that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable 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
become destructive of these ends, il is
the right of the people to altar or abol-
ish it, and TO institute a new govern
ment, laying its foundations on such
principles, and organizing Its powers
in such form, as to them snail seem
most likely to effect their safety and
happiness. Prudence, indeed, Will
dictate that governments long estao-
lished should not be changed for light
and transient causes, and, accordingly,
all experience hath shown that man
kind are more disposed to suffer, While
evils are sufferable, than to right them
selves by abolishIng the forms to whlch
they are accustomed. But, when a
long train of abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same object,
evInces IA design to reduce them under
absolute despoIism, it is their right, 1t
Is their duty, to throw off such govern
ment, and to provide new guards for
their" future 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 government. The history
OF the present king of Great Britain is
a history of repeated injuries and usur-
pations, all having in direct object the
establishment of Al absolute 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 necessary for
the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to
pass laws of immediate and pressing
/, Importance, unless suspended in their
3 operation till his assent should be OBJ
t rained, and, when so suspended, he
/. has utterly neglected to attend to them
He has refused to pass other law
for the accommodation of large dis
g tricts of people, unless those people
. would relinquish the right of repre-
$ sentatlon to the legislature; a right
\ iuestimable to them, and formidable to
y tyrants only.
He has called together Legislative
y bodies at places unusual, uncomforta
0 BILE, and distant from the depository o.
q their public records, for h sole pur
pose OF fatiguing them into compliance
with his measures.
He has dissolved representative
houses repeatedly, for opposing, will
manly firmness, his invasions on IN
= rights of the people.
q He has refused, for a long time afteI
Al such dissolutions, to cause others TO o
n elected: whereby the legislative pow
II ers, incapable of annihilation, hav
returned to the people at large for thel
exercise; the state remaining, In tn
u meantime, exposed to all the danger o
- invasion from without and convulsion
l. within.
If He has e~ndeavored to prevent tn
" population of these states; for ths
purpose, O~bstructing the laws for nal
&c uralization of foreigners; refusing
pass others t o encourage their mlgrs
in ton hither, and raising the condition
ee OF new appropriations of land.
IN He has INSTRUCTED the adminIstratio
~ ~ of Justice, by refusing his assent I
laws for establishing judiciary powers
v, He has made judges dependent o
cs his will alone for the tenure of the
nr Offices, and the amount and paymeI
IL of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of ne
ID offices, and sent hither swarms
lie officers to harass our people, and Ell
1t, out their substance.
ct He has kept among us, in times
OF peace, standing armies, without II
x consent of our legislature.
or He has affected to render milital
or independent of, and superior to, I'll
civil power.
,e, He has combined with others to su
iect us to a jurisdiction foreign to Of
constitution, and unacknowledged l
10 our laws; giving his assent to their &C
ID of pretended legislation:
Use For quartering large bodies of arm'
a. troops among us:
IN For protecting them, by a mot
trial, from punishment, for any mu
ders which they should commit on Il
ue inhabitants of these states:
70 For cutting off our trade with
ieo parts of the world
. .ae For imposing taxes upon US witho
m our consent:
his For depriving us, in many cases,
nd the benefits of trial by jury:
ize For transporting us beyond seas
as be tried tor pretended offenses:
VII For abolishing the free system
10 English laws in a n~eighboring PROVING
establishing therein an arbitrary &c
eminent, and charging It's houndarit
eep so as to render it at once an examI
and fit instrument for Introducing
you same absolute rule into these coloni'
IN For taking away u charters, alb
hat ishing our most valuable laws, a
the altering, fundamentally, the powers
our governments:
go For suspending our W legislator
npt and declaring themselves invested W
aI power to legislate for us In all ca
,rry whatsoever.
He has abdicated government he
but by declaring us out of his protecti(
opt and waging war against us.
VIII He has plundered our seas, raVae
" our coasts, burnt our towns, and
aiiv stroyed the lives of our people.
t to He is, at this time, transport
and large armies of foreign mercenaries
y il complete the works OF death, desc
Inal ton and tyranny already begun, W
)nts "atarces of orueltv and perfid
, Ie' scarcely paralleled in the most b
barous ages, and totally unworthy
nee the mead of q civilized nation,
tain He has constrained our fellt
say citizens, taken captive on the h
lacy seas, to bear arms against their co
~ try. to become the eXecutioners