Mayberry: My Declaration of Independence

(image created by Kent McManigal)

From Mayberry:

This was for tomorrow, but I just couldn't wait. What amazes me is how little I had to change....

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one to dissolve the political bands which have connected one 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.

I 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, one must withdraw consent to be governed, given that government has proved it's self prone to usurpation and tyranny— That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the Individual to alter or to abolish it, and to institute self government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to myself shall seem most likely to effect my 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 one under absolute Despotism, it is one's right, it is one's duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide for their own future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of Americans; and such is now the necessity which constrains me to alter my former Systems of Government. The history of the last many Presidents and the CONgress is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over this Individual, and to all Individuals that make up this once great nation. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

They have refused their Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

They have forbidden their Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till their Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, they have utterly neglected to attend to them.

They have 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.

They have authored legislation which is unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Founding Principles of this nation, for the sole purpose of fatiguing us into compliance with their ideology.

They have dissolved Representative Government completely, for opposing with manly firmness their invasions on the rights of the people.

They have refused for a long time, after such dissolution, to understand that their place is to represent, not dictate. They have succumbed to bribery, thievery, and coercion, and trampled on the Constitution for which many hundreds of thousands have fought and died to protect.

They have endeavoured to overpopulate these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to constrain others, and encouraging their migrations hither, for the sole purpose of placating their corporate campaign donors, and enlarging the rolls of Democrat voters.

They have obstructed the Administration of Justice by stacking the courts with judicial nominees representing only one ideology.

They have made Judges dependent on their Will alone for the attainment of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

They have erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

They are keeping among us, in times of domestic peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of the People, in direct violation of Posse Comitatus. They have constructed a mechanism to federalize the National Guard, under the vague pretense of an undefined emergency.

They have affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

They have combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving their Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For giving away our sovereignty, colluding with the United Nations, and contemplating treaties which destroy Constitutionally guaranteed Liberty:

For protecting them, by considering Trial for punishment for any "transgressions" by the World Court on the Inhabitants of these States:

For destroying 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 via the "Patriot Act":

For considering transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences via the World Court:

For abolishing the free System of American Laws, establishing 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 States

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Liberty, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

They have abdicated Representative Government here, by waging War against us.

They have plundered our savings, ravaged our earnings, burnt our livelihoods, and destroyed the lives of our people.

They are at this time contemplating 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 Heads of a civilized nation.

They have constrained our fellow Citizens who've taken the Oath to defend the Constitution to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

They are exciting domestic insurrections amongst us, and endeavour to bring on Socialists/Communists/Marxists, the merciless 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 Government, 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 American 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. I must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces my Separation, and hold them, as I hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

I, therefore, the Representative of myself before God, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of my intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the God that gave me life, solemnly publish and declare, That I am a Sovereign Individual, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent, that I am Absolved from all Allegiance to the President and CONgress, and that all political connection between myself and the Federal Government, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as a Free and Independent Individual, I have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent People may of right do.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, I pledge to each Sovereign Individual my Life, my Fortune, and my sacred Honor.