IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
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 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 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 mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured 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 benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring 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 compleat 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 endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguishe
d 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 consanguinity. 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.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
What more needs to be said…
God Bless and may God continue to Bless America
Paul
| Jeremiah 17:9-10“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”
Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved. |
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: Abraham, accommodation, Adams, administration, Allegiance, Alliances, america, annihilation, Appropriations, Arbitrary, armies, arms, Arthur, Assent, attentions, bands, Bartlett, Benjamin, boundaries, Braxton, Brethren, Britain, british, Button, Caesar, Captive, Carolina, Carroll, Carrollton, Carter, cases, Charles, Chase, Citizens, Civil, Clark, Clymer, Colonies, Commerce, compliance, Connecticut, connection, Consent, constitution, convulsions, correspondence, Country, course, creator, Crown, dangers, Death, Declaration, Delaware, depository, desolation, Despotism, destruction, divine, Earth, Edward, Elbridge, Ellery, emigration, ends, enemies, English, establishment, events, evils, example, facts, Floyd, foreigners, Form, Fortunes, foundation, Francis, Franklin, free, friends, General, George, Georgia, Gerry, government, governments, Governors, great, Gwinnett, Hall, Hampshire, Hancock, Harrison, Hart, HEAD, Henry, Hewes, Heyward, History, hither, honor, Hooper, Hopkins, Hopkinson, human, Huntington, importance, Independent, Indian, Inhabitants, injuries, injury, instrument, insurrections, intentions, invasion, invasions, Island, James, Jefferson, Jersey, John, Joseph, Josiah, Judge, judges, Judiciary, jurisdiction, Jury, justice, Lands, Legislation, Legislative, Legislature, legislatures, Lewis, Life, Lightfoot, Livingston, Lyman, Lynch, Maryland, Massachusetts, matthew, McKean, measures, Mercenaries, Middleton, migrations, military, Morris, Morton, multitude, name, Nation, Naturalization, nature, needs, Nelson, North, Object, officers, offices, Oliver, operation, opinions, Oppressions, Paca, Paine, payment, peace, Penn, Pennsylvania, people, Perfidy, Philip, places, population, power, Prince, protection, Providence, Province, Prudence, Public, punishment, purpose, pursuit, read, records, rectitude, reliance, representation, Representative, Rhode, Richard, rights, Robert, Rodney, Roger, Ross, ruler, rush, Rutledge, salaries, Samuel, Savages, Self, separation, settlement, Sherman, Smith, South, State, Stephen, Stockton, subject, substance, Supreme, system, systems, Taxes, Taylor, tenure, Thomas, Thornton, times, Trade, Treat, Trial, truths, Tyranny, Tyrant, tyrants, usurpations, Virginia, Walton, warfare, Whipple, William, Williams, Wilson, Witherspoon, Wolcott, world, Wythe, York
The past month or so I have been asked or confronted with the statements about the Catholic faith. Most often from Catholics themselves. The questions range from the very basic to the very deep and for the most part the statements have almost always been anti-conservatism or pro-liberalism if you like. Me I look at them differently, I see most of the statements as anti-Catholic. But the liberals would tell me that I ma being closed minded and pre-Vatican 2 in my thinking. IT’s interesting how some can get such a different perspective on the documents of Vatican 2 than others (most others that is). Liberals are a small minority of our faith yet they seem to have such a strong hold on the faith.
Much like the political life, conservatives out number liberals, yet they [the liberals] seem to be able to convince the public that they are a majority. Interesting sociology study, if your into that sort of thing. I am, but have no interest in research, me I like to shoot from the hip, use my innate ability to always be right… It’s a gift and I am proud of it…. (For those that don’t know it, I am joking)
But back to the interesting part of all this, how can liberals do this, what power do they have that allows them to dupe the whole country in to thinking they have a majority. Obama was able to do it to win an election, but the funny thing is, I can’t find one person who said they voted for him. Yet the democratic party is able to claim they represent the majority, but the polls in the paper tell a different story.
The public square and the Church are really not all the different in a lot of ways. Both need human interaction to function in this physical world and both rely on humanity to run them. In the case of the Church we have priest, deacons and the laity to do the bidding and in the public square we have the peoples and politicians. Although lately it seems as if it is more often then not the special interest groups running the country. The few have replace the many in the name of “diversity” “fairness” and “political correctness”. The public square and the Church are suffering the same fate.
A fate of losing it’s identity, the fate of becoming bland and flavorless. We have created a generation of youth who are afraid to give opinions, for fear of offending someone. We have created a society that would rather live in the lie of “political correctness” than in the truth of reality.
The prayers at Church have been affected much in the same way public life has, Wal-Mart refused to wish shoppers a “Merry Christmas” for fear of offending some but not concerned about the others who may be offended by being wished “Happy Holidays”. The same is true in our prayers, each week we recite the creed as Mass, and each week about 1/2 the parishioners refuse to acknowledge that Jesus was a man, for fear of offending any woman that may be in attendance. “Born of the Virgin Mary and became man [human]”. Yes Jesus is human, and yes he did come down for all, and yes Jesus is God and yes God is neither male of female. But Jesus was born into a human body, and that body happened to be male. By overlooking his maleness you are overlooking in personhood. Jesus was man, Mary was woman…. Adam was man, Eve was woman…. It’s the way it works… Male and Female he made them both…
The political correctness has cheapened and diluted the sexuality of humanity! Not only in the Church but also in the public square! As Americans and as Catholics we must take back our faith and public squares from the liberals who’s only goal is to strip all sense of uniqueness from them.
The very people who claim to want to “free” us are truly binding us. It is the liberal mindset that is imposing morality (or lack of it) upon us all. With in the Church the liberals will insist that the prayers be changed and that gender neutral terms be used. Yet it is only the male terms that are changed, never the female form. Example: “The fall of man” is acceptable because it degrades man, yet it was Eve who first ate from the tree, so why are there no cries for it to be changed to “The fall of woman”? The liberals are willing to except the term, when it degrade the others, the non-protected group, in this case males. Yet Jesus, who is male, should not be referred to as such for fear of offending a female. Nor should God be referred to as the Father, for fear that someone may dislike the image. Yet God himself (of should I say he/she self) uses the father image to describe himself. I have heard the argument that what if someone had an abusive father, so therefore calling God the Father may make them feel bad. Truly I feel for anyone who has been abused, but using the same logic, what about Jesus as a brother, what if someone’s brother hurt them or died and they can’t deal with calling Jesus a brother, or how about a youths who’s mother ran out on them, should we than stop calling Mary the mother of Jesus because it may offend? Or better yet Mary can’t be called a Mother because some kids don’t have one, so maybe Mary is a caregiver and God is just the “sperm donor” this way we can make all feel welcomed.
In the public square I am called a races if I disagree with our President. The liberals have forced me into a corner in the hopes that I will abandon my convictions in favor of their liberal agenda. I must conform to the liberal ways, they must force me out of my conservativeness for my own good. And they will stop at nothing to achieve this goal. They will even enact laws to force my conservatism. Social healthcare is the first of many laws designed to make me dependent upon the liberal system. Yet they accuse the conservative of forcing our ideals unto others, of trying to legislate morality, yet it is the liberal judges that legislate form the bench, it is the liberal politicians that enact laws to prevent freedoms and liberties, yet the conservatives get the blame. The liberals wish to kill talk radio (fairness doctrine), force the faithful to choose between faith and the government (forced abortions) yet it is the conservatives who get the blame.
The public square and the Church share a fate, one of historic proportions, we, the conservatives, take back our places in the square and the Church. We must stand tall and fight the good fight. Too much is a stake, our country and our souls…
Paul
Like this:
Like Loading...
Tags: adam, agenda, Although, Americans, argument, attendance, bench, Born, Both, brother, Catholic, Catholics, christmas, church, conservatism, convictions, doctrine, documents, donor, election, example, Faith, fate, father, Female, gender, generation, gift, goal, government, himself, human, ideals, image, interaction, Jesus, judges, kids, legislate, liberalism, Liberals, Life, logic, male, Mart, mary, mass, Merry, mindset, Most, mother, obama, opinions, paper, parishioners, Paul, person, perspective, places, politicians, prayers, President, priest, proportions, Public, Radio, Self, shoppers, social, souls, Square, statements, system, tree, truth, Vatican, Virgin, woman, world, youth
