The Declaration of Independence
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
248 years have elapsed since the publication of this momentous document which declared the formation of a new nation. That nation would, without any prejudice, become one of the greatest nations ever to come into being. The United States of America became great because of the core principles expressed in this short and powerful document. We are in decline as a nation because we have abandoned these same principles. We would do well to remind ourselves of them once again, express repentance as a people, and return to our first principles. If the Declaration lacks in any particular aspect it is this, it fails to name Jesus Christ explicitly as the sovereign King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords. May we double down once again upon these great principles and may we be even more explicit moving forward about who the God of Nature is so that he might heal our people and set us back upon solid ground. Lord we ask for your mercy for the good of our children and their children’s children. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen 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 Nature’s God entitle 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-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 destructive 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 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 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 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 usurpations, 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 suspended in their operation till his Assent 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 Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distance 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 firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, 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 convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed 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 a 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 legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our 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 a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate 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 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 & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a 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 unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of con- sanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, 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 rectitude of our 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 INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political 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 Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts 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 Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Lesson
Vocabulary/Key Terms: (Find Them in the Text)
Entitle: give (someone) a legal right or a just claim to receive or do something.
Endow: provide with a quality, ability, or asset.
Unalienable: not subject to being taken away from or given away by the possessor.
Abolish: formally put an end to (a system, practice, or institution).
Prudence: correct action, in accord with what is true and good, fitting the needs of the moment.
Transient: lasting only for a short time, impermanent.
Shewn: i.e. “shown”.
Usurpation: overruling the authority of another.
Invariably: never changing.
Evince: to reveal the presence of or indicate.
Despotism: the exercise of absolute power, especially in a cruel and oppressive way.
Tyranny: cruel and oppressive government or rule.
Magnanimity: the virtue of generosity.
Disavow: deny any responsibility or support for some person, action, or event.
Consanguinity: the fact of being descended from the same ancestor.
Acquiesce: accept something reluctantly but without protest.
Rectitude: morally correct behavior or thinking; righteousness.
Absolved: declared free from all obligation, guilt, or wrongdoing.
People/Characters: (Find Them in the Text)
God: The Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth; Yahweh.
King (George III): King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death in 1820. He was the longest-lived and longest-reigning king in British history.
Places: (Find Them in the Text)
Great Britain: Great Britain is an island separated from the European mainland by the English Channel and North Sea. It comprises the nations of England, Scotland and Wales.
Events/Dates: (Find them in the Text)
July 4, 1776: The 13 colonies declare themselves states, independent from British rule and authority.
Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)
Happiness, Liberty (Freedom), Prudence
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
What did the founders of our nation believe entitled the United States “to assume among the powers of the earth,” a “separate and equal station” alongside all other nations?
Where did the founders believe human rights come from?
What are the three “unalienable rights” mentioned in the Declaration?
According to the founders, what is the reason “governments are instituted among”?
According to the founders, from what source do governments derive their “just power”?
According to this Declaration what should be done with any government “becomes destructive” towards the unalienable rights of the people?
What does “prudence dictate” according to the founders?
According to the founders “mankind are more disposed to” do what, than what?
What did the founders believe the King of Britain was seeking to establish?
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
Why did the founders believe it had become necessary for colonies “to dissolve the political bands” which had connected them with England?
Why might the order in which founders listed the “unalienable rights” of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” matter?
What is meant by the founders saying that “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation?”
What does it mean for a truth to be “self-evident”?
Why should “long established” governments not be set aside for “light and transient” reasons?
If you were to summarize in a nutshell the grievances listed by the United States Congress against King George of England, what would you say is their essential claim as to what the King has failed to do which justifies their declaration of independence?
The founders declared that “as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.” Why was it important that the states be declared “free and independent” prior to declaring war, making peace, forming alliances, etc.?
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
What is the difference between rights and duties? Offer a definition for both terms. Explain carefully what makes them distinct from one another but also any connection that may exist between them.
Can human rights exist apart from their being granted by God? If they can, how, in what way and to what extent? If they cannot, why not?
Do you believe it was just for American colonies to cast off the rule of King George and establish a new and independent nation? Why or why not?
Do you believe that American citizens should see it as their duty today to affirm the principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence? Whether you would answer yes or no, what implications might your answer have upon the politics of our own day?
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
Genesis 1:26-27 states “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Why is this passage important to the Declaration of Independence?
Read Romans 2:12-16. How might this passage of Scripture relate to matters brought up in the Declaration?
Read Romans 13. How should the teaching of the apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, affect our thinking about the Declaration of Independence?
Read John 18:1-11. Do you think this passage is in conflict or harmony with the ideas expressed about the source of government’s authority in the Declaration? Explain your answer.
Commenting so I can find easier later for reference.