Thanks to the strong convictions, bravery, and faith of our forefathers and special thanks to Nature's God and His divine hand of providence and protection, we have freedoms and the blessings that flow from those same freedoms that very few other nations on this earth have ever known. It is with this same formula of character and divine intervention that we too can continue to hope to pass on these freedoms and blessings to our own posterity.
Mark O'Neil
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies 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.
1 comment:
I agree that freedom should have limits. I ran across a good observation of
the limits of freedom and the state's power over it here (in a discussion of
Paine's "Common Sense:):
http://www.barefootsworld.net/nockoets2.html
"It would seem that in Paine's view the code of government should be that of
the legendary king Pausole, who prescribed but two laws for his subjects,
the first being, Hurt no man, and the second, Then do as you please; and
that the whole business of government should be the purely negative one of
seeing that this code is carried out."
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