Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-07-07

and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will
dictate that governments long estab
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
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 desire to reduce them under
absolute depotism, it IS their right, it 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 record OF repeated injuries and usur-
pations. all having in direct object the
establishment of an 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 sus-
pended in their operation till his assent
should be obtained; and when so sus-
pended he has utterly neglected to at
tend 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
representation in the legislature
right inestimable TO them. and formi-
dable to tyrants only. He has called
together legislative bodies at places
unusual. uncomfortable. and distant
from the depository of their public rec
ords, for the sole purpose of fatiguing
them into compliance with his meas
ures. He has dissolved representative
houses repeatedly. for opposing. with
manly firmness, his inyasions on the
rights of the people He has refused
for long time after such dissolutions,
to cause others to be elected; whereby
the legislative powers, incapable of
humiliation, have returned to the peo-
pie at large for their exercise, the state
remaining, in the meantime. exposed
to all the dangers of invasion from
without and commissions within He
has endeavored to prevent the popula-
ton OF these states for that purpose oh
structing the laws for naturalization of
foreigners; refusing to pass others IN
encourage their migration hither and
raising the condition of new approprla
tons Of lands. He has obstructed the
administration of justice, by refusing
his assent to laws for establishing in
dietary powers. He has made iudees
dependent on his will alone. for the
tenure of their offices, and the amount
and the 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 |
substance. He has kept among us. I'm
times of peace, standing armies. with !
out the consent of our legislatures. He |
has affected to render the military in
dependent OF and superior to the civil |
power. He has combined with Others |
to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign |
to our constitution, and unacknowl- |
edged by our laws. giving his assent to |
their acts OF pretended legislation For |
Quartering large bodies of armed |