Action of Second Continental 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 harrass 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 pre-tended 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 and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy of 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 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 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.

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



Long term oppression and blatant injustices perpetrated by some toward others has always inspired a mutiny of sorts. Freeing ourselves from bonds that tie us down and deprive us of our innate need to be independent thinkers and followers of our own beliefs and practices is the ultimate Cause by which our Country was founded upon.

July 4th... Independence Day reminds us why it's so important to always stand up and fight for what we believe in.

God bless America!

And we will continue to defend our rights to bare arms, to be openly able to buy weapons capable of and used frequently to kill children in their classrooms, innocent people out on an evening and people who are trying to earn a living for a family at home.
Not only that, we will fight to our very last breath to protect the religious fanaticism that holds back the education of our children, that stifles our scientific standing in the world and that stands now in such a way that the rest of the world mock us for our beliefs.

God bless 'Murica!

Murdered children are still lost...

Americans are free to conduct ourselves accordingly.

We celebrate all those who die for our rights and to be free.

It's a toss-up on which is worse, the idiots willing to sacrifice our freedoms and liberties because corrupt politicians with an agenda and a liberal media selling their souls to the highest bidder say it's the right thing to do, and they are stupid enough to believe them, or the few idiots, usually taking "prescription drugs" of a psychotropic nature because they were certified defective by some doctor, now so controlled by other stupid laws and regulations, not to mention BIG PHARMA, that they will never address the real issue, so such senseless death/murder will always continue.... misery loves company, and these psychos usually want to take others with them.

Blame the cause, NOT the tool! Two idiots are never better than one!

And there is a 1st amendment included in the law of our land (as well as a 2nd), granting freedom of religion to all.

I'm agnostic, but even I can't blame religion for the liberalization of our education system and the decline of intelligence in present day education.

With liberals controlling education thru teaching positions and programs like common core, replacing American History with studies like "The Fundamental Teachings of Islam", our place in the world will continue to decline.

Poor and mindless leadership, so totally inept and unqualified to lead as this idiotic admin and its cronies, with it's freedom and privacy hating (other than their own) policies and lawless indifference to our Constitution..... try putting blame where it belongs..... be part of the solution, not the problem!

Meanwhile, back in this universe ...

Pf course, she is right whether you either consciously or unconsciously don't see what is going on around you

of course I don't think the weapons confiscated at crime scenes are actually put back on the streets to be used in other crimes.

and far as I know there's still private schools that do teach various religion based topics but you have to be able to afford specialized education, just like always.

as far as our scientific standing goes, I'll have to actually google that one.

Misery and idiocy do love company..... and there is sure no shortage of fools riding in the clown car it appears......

There will always be evil in the world so let's corral and subjugate the innocent and law abiding, making them more defenseless against the evil that men do.

After all, you will never get the lawless or criminal to comply.... so control and victimize those you can

And ignorance won't save them.

Again I recommend decaf. You were in 'Nam, did you know the Phoenix Program is be used as the model for the militarization of our police forces. Why don't you address things that are actually happening

I do see education as being an issue. But a feel the need to establish a few points first.

1. Gun violence is not the issue here in the U.S. VIOLENCE is. It's a broad category which needs to be addressed. Even though homicides have decreased dramatically since the 1990's it still shouldn't be ignored. There is also to reason to leave out victims of stabbings (like the first 3 killed in california's "shootings"), beatings, strangling, or anything that takes lives. To go after guns is ignorance brought on by fear.

2. Education has been suffering not because we haven't removed the mention of "god" from our classrooms fast enough (schools are actual quite anti-religious of Christians), but because we've removed anything that could ever leave a child feeling inadequate. Meaning; these sports, games, and classroom exercises in which there cannot be a declared "winner", or the dumbing down of our textbooks as students cannot keep up. The notion (which is very popular now) where the main student body must slow down to allow the one struggling to keep up. Etc. etc. etc. All these things are fabricated. Combine this with technology that keeps our children from face-to face contact with others and you have a generation with a poor grasp of reality, and very little coping skills.

That being said, our Country's principles are far beyond that of any other nation. If we were to actually follow our principles we wold research and explore why people are becoming more violent to find an answer, than address that answer, not through greater control, but through education and awareness, not through strict control.

In fact the mentality that a population needs to be strictly controlled is historically much, much more dangerous to children than freedom is.

Just saying...

To the OP, Great post. Happy July 4th everybody!

To the OP, Great post. Happy July 4th everybody!

so you honestly believe religion is holding back our education system and that its our 'religious' beliefs that bring about ridicule in other parts of the world?

that's disappointing,, I consider you one of the intelligent ones,,,

wow, we are in agreement

its about balance, it is the imbalance in our culture that is the issue

the GUNS wouldn't be an issue(although their ease of acquirement and their magnitude of ability to kill the most in the east time is disturbing to me and needs to be dealt with),,,if we weren't developing such a VIOLENT and incompassionate society where money matters and peoples lives do not,,,

BALANCE






not everybody should be able to own any gun

also

not all guns should be unavailable to everyone



common ground and balance equals COMMON SENSE