The colonies had been in conflict with England for over a year in June of 1776. A Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia on June 7 of that year. Richard Henry Lee from Virginia offered up a resolution with these now famous words:
“Resolved: 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.”
Lee’s words spurred the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. A committee of five was appointed to draft a statement making the case for the colonies, a statement to the world of the intent and the reason behind that intent.
Members of the Committee were John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Robert R. Livingston of New York and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Jefferson took on the task of actually drafting the document as we know it today.
The Continental Congress reconvened on July 1, 1776, and on the following day, the resolution for independence by Lee was adopted by 12 of the 13 colonies, with New York not voting. Minor changes were made to the Jefferson document.
Work on the document continued through July 3 and into the afternoon of July 4, when the Declaration was officially adopted by the Congress. Of the 13 colonies, nine voted in favor of the Declaration, two — Pennsylvania and South Carolina — voted No, Delaware was undecided and New York again abstained.
As we all know, John Hancock, President of the Congress made his signature large enough for King George to read “without his spectacles.”
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 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 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 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.
The complete list of those who signed were:
John Hancock (president of the Continental Congress), Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton.
Check out this link for the sobering fate of many of those who so pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. [H/T to TheOriginalG-d&Country for this source.]
Those are the facts about our Declaration of Independence, the history that we as school children have learned since the creation of this great nation that we celebrate, that we love and honor so.
Usually we humans can’t adequately find words to express our own sentiments, let alone those of a nation and successive generations to come, but Jefferson and that Continental Congress did just that.
The words have stood throughout several centuries as a clarion call for freedom, for breaking free of tyranny, for men to put aside their individual causes and join together to battle for the right of every man, woman and child together to become a people united in goal and resolve.
Today as we celebrate, today as we pledge allegiance to a flag that has gone from 13 stars to 50, may we remember not only the sacrifice, but the resolve. May we honor not only the words, but the unity and deeds of our forefathers. May each of us dig deep into our hearts and work out our differences for the betterment of our nation and our children and grandchildren.
Say a prayer for America today. Rekindle hope today. Honor the past by determining the future.
Please remember that this is a post in honor of our Independence Day. No political content, no rants, so slamming the other side. Today we are just Americans, honoring our country and each other.
What a great post! Thank you.
Pretty damn scary how many of those grievances are being repeated today by this government
This one in particular strikes me:
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
That’s the blueprint for the Fourth Branch of government sundance has so brilliantly exposed. They do indeed eat out our substance, daily, sometimes hourly.
In human history, only the life and death of Christ surpasses the miracle of America.
Leftists of all flavors crave the return of feudalism and elitism. America is the land of the common man.
Hillary barely campaigned in 2016. Biden barely campaigned in 2020.
Mixing with the common man was beneath them.
I beg , I implore the Second Amendment warriors who so populate this site: you must fight to protect these rights and all rights enshrined in the Constitution. Judge Thomas agrees. Any and all Democrats elevated to the Court do not agree. And the faint hearts like Kavanaugh or Comey Barrett are just wild cards. America’s destiny is at stake.
There are roles for all in the coming “emergencies”. Pick a subject and become expert. Consider your age and mobility capabilities. This will be an “all hands” affair.
You should expect to have total war visited upon you; we can see it taking shape right now. Food shortages, fuel shortages, grid blackouts and shipping restrictions are being discussed now as “will happen” conditions. I fully expect food, fuel and electrical power to be diverted away from red areas into blue areas in the near future.
A short list of what you can be doing:
0. Get your butt in shape as best you can. Exercise if you are able to. Eat quality, drink plenty of water, cut out the booze, get plenty of quality sleep. Acclimate to the outdoor temperature, whatever season it is. This is an outdoor activity.
1. Information – infiltrate unfriendly areas, report on unfriendly activities, participants
2. Supply – for every active security operative there are 8 – 10 working on supply and logistics. Start by becoming self sufficient, then producing surplus to support the cause of liberty.
3. Drones – expect drones to be used extensively
4. Radios and comms – do you have local, short range and long range communications capabilities? Relevant knowledge or experience?
5. Weapon maintenance and repair
6. Vehicle maintenance and repair
7. Passive resistance – there are many borderline legal / illegal things which can be done to disrupt the enemy. Sand in the gears, so to speak.
8. Medical – disease prevention and treatment, care of the injured.
9. Sanitation
10. Specialized knowledge
Thank you! Great list. I need to work on a couple of the items, like comms.
Number 11: Neighborhood gardens and mini-farms. If you have the space, start one. If you don’t but your neighbors do, share the work and the harvest with them. Self-sufficiency must conquer convenience if we are to survive this new colonialism of the progressive global government.
In fact, Feudalism is several steps up from Communism!
Leftist totalitarian Communists are worse than feudal lords.
Feudalism had a long legacy, beginning in the last days of the Roman Empire.
Russian Bolshevism lasted the length of one man’s life, ending with scarcely any dissenting voices.
The feudal system possessed some good elements but I know few men who regret the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Death of Christ? He is not dead, He is risen and very much alive. Our whole faith is based on that very fact.
Semper Fideles Raptor. I always recall this line in our forefathers declaration, “divine Providence”. I have no doubt that God’s Holy Spirit was with these men during this time.
Life, death, and RESURRECTION of Christ….
These are crucial words. We must remember them and perhaps list our own grievances. It is getting harder and harder to believe in this country as it is comprised today. Our forefathers are watching with tears in their eyes.
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.
Help us, Lord, as we adjust our thinking to face where we really are, not where we deceive ourselves to be. This is one of my favorite quotes, and it causes me to face it: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin
Yes. We should strive to learn and memorize them. Don’t let them be forgotten!
God is not unjust. The Founders would never be made to watch what is happening now. As we can see from reading the Declaration, they served this country with fidelity, love and courage. They valued truth and have earned their Rest in Peace.
My words were not written to besmirch the Founders or to declare God unjust. I believe those saints in heaven can still look at our world. You are welcome to believe what you wish, as I. Yes, they did serve their country with honor, and we should honor them still.
There is scripture which says “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” However, the “witnesses” are in heaven so they know the eventual outcome is good.
I’d hate to deal with the fury the Founders would have seeing the Klown Parade we’ve allowed to worm their way into control. It’s not a government, it’s a criminal cartel that believes it has a monopoly on violence.
In honor of Independence Day, perhaps everyone would share in a brief way why their ancestors came to America.
Some of my ancestors were Puritans who came here on the Mayflower. Some of my other ancestors came here later to escape England’s tyranny over Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Imagine what a toilet Britain was, that it was better to live in the woods and be attacked by natives than to remain subject to the crown.
My ancestors came primarily from Ireland, although some from England. They were persecuted; many of them entering into indentured agreements in exchange for passage. After 3 years working for someone else, they began to spread out across this great land as the territories were opened up.
Many of of them came from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, to PA, to SC, to GA, to AL, to AR to TX and then on to CA.
PS, forgot to mention that almost all of my ancestors served in the Revolution, and many in the Civil War. Even women have been credited with assisting in the Revolution (spreading “intelligence” of the enemy’s whereabouts, etc.)
Scottish and Irish, left for America in the early 1800s for a new life. Originally settled in Tennessee raising horses. One had the wanderlust and brought 7 wagon trains across to Oregon, eventually settling in California.
Well not to get into a lengthy story since I can trace my clan back the 1620’s here in our beloved nation. Without doubt they all came for freedom of worship and to move about freely without the monkey on their backs. One of my hobbies for the last 20 plus years is digging into the ancestry of the clan. Most came from England. However, there are quite a few from Scotland, France, Germany (Prussia), and Ireland.
Here’s a clip from my 5th Great Grand Pappy, there are many others but here’s just one:
JOSEPH SMITH, son of Ebenezer and Lydia (Hartshorn)Smith, was born in West Dedham Aug 25, 1746, and was descended in the fifth generation from Robert Smith. At the time of the breaking out the Revolution was working in Roxbury for Deacon Davis. He was a sergeant in Capt. Moses Whitting’s Company of Roxbury Minute Men which marched on alarm April 19, 1775. He took part in the Battle of Bunker Hill in Brewer’s Regiment. He was in the siege of Boston, also in fortifying Dorchester Heights.
I suspect we are cousins, 12 to 15 times removed
West Dedham is now the town of Westwood.
There is an old cemetery in the town with graves of those who fought in the war for independence.
There is a Captain William Gay and David Ellis buried there.
Also, the drummer boy, Robert Steele from the Battle of Bunker Hill who enlisted at the age of 15 and later became a Major.
My ancestors were kicked out of Canada because they wouldn’t sign their allegience to the British Crown.
Proud of my American and Cajun heritage..
My paternal grandfather has family roots in Massachusetts too distant for me to trace. He married a Dutch girl he met while stationed in Europe during WWI.
My maternal grandparents fled Eastern Europe when the Bolsheviks took power.
Europe was being convulsed by revolution and war. Those who could escape to peace and safety used whatever means they could find to book passage to America.
Were they still alive, it would surprise them greatly to see that the Bolshevik’s children have taken up the reigns of government here.
Irish mostly before independence though one branch showed up in the wake of the 1840s British genocide against the Irish. A few came across the Bering Strait 15,000? years before.
My husband’s family came for religious freedom and he descends from Revolutionary War Patriots.
It isn’t clear to me why my ancestors came but, once here, they played a part in forming & settling America. I, too, descend from Revolutionary War Patriots.
God Bless America. ❤️🇺🇸
Such a beautiful post, Menagerie. Thank you. I forwarded it to my son who will benefit greatly. He’s waiting for his “day to day life” to be affected by the changes occurring in our country. There are none so blind as those who will not see. I keep inviting him to wake up. Your beautiful presentation is a blessing. Thanks again.
My ancestors came from the Highlands of Scotland, in 1780. They weren’t escaping from anything. Edward Campbell brought his family to Charleston and bought a nearby plantation. Forty years later, after his wife died, he and one son, came to the Florida Territory. He homesteaded one square mile, as did his son, and then they bought the land around that. I am a Seventh Generation Floridian.
My father’s side was Blackfoot Indian. True First Americans…
Part Iroquois here …
On my dad’s side, my ancestors were draft dodgers. They were Mennonites who left Prussia to escape serving in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
My Mom’s paternal side came from Ireland. My Great Great grandfather was a landscaper for an English family. The law was that everything above the ground was for the English and everything below the ground was for the Irish. Well, he shot a rabbit to feed his family and then had to flee Ireland as a criminal and came to live in the USA. And with good old hard work was able to support and grow his family. Well, as Mike Rowe says, “that’s the way I heard it”
My father’s ancestors were Welsh coal miners who left Wales for America in order to farm (as a child I learned that “w” was a vowel!). They emigrated to Van Wert County, OH, in the early 1820’s after the settlement of this area by Europeans was permitted, finally settling east of there around Spencerville and Lima in Allen County sometime thereafter. The branch of the family directly in line to my family moved south in the early 1900’s, settling near Kissimmee, FL.
My mother’s family was Acadian French that settled along the bayous flowing to the Mississippi River in (what is now) Assumption Parish, LA, after the “le grand dérangement” in Nova Scotia. They became stores suppliers to the river-going boats.
Proud and grateful to God to be an American!
We need a new one!
NO.
“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.“
Who among our current elected representatives would make a similar pledge?
not many! My rep, Tom “send me money ” Cole, certainly not.
P Trump.
My “current” Louie Gohmert would.
Few or none.
As their Fortunes grew great, their Honor grew small.
And mean it? Suspect 100% would take it and 98% would be lying.
I answer this question with another simple question.
Who among our representatives in the Senate and the House were willing to remain or step out of chambers or even go outside of the Capitol building to meet and hear what “the people” had to say and also to talk/reason/converse with them on January 6, 2021?
The answer of course is 0.
Not a single 1 of the 535 ‘representatives of we the people’ was willing to listen to or converse with ‘We The People’, American Citizens about our concerns.
Thank you, Sundance!
JULY 4, 1776, AMERICA AND
WESTERN CIVILIZATION
Today is a great day to honor our cultural values and civic heritage.
Our mostly British founding colonists came from Europe. They brought to America the cultural, communal, and political values described in our Declaration of Independence. Our Constitution turned our values into a successful government.
As proud as we are of our nation and its values, we should also honor the centuries of struggle in Europe that produced Western Civilization. Everything we are, everything we value, came from the minds and sacrifices of Europeans.
We are rightfully proud of refining and advancing Western Civilization, but our debt to Europe is our cornerstone. We should always remember that Western Civilization’s values made us what we are
We became the vanguard of Western Civilization, coming to Europe’s aid twice to defeat resurgent ancient tyrannies. We stood by Europe in the dark era of the Cold War when the ancient style tyrannies threatened us beneath their communist banners.
We were Europe’s champion during the twentieth century. If we ably perform our civic duties, we will also be Western Civilization’s champion of the twenty first century.
If we honor the values of our founding ancestors, we will rally to defeat the enemies trying to destroy our values, whatever the cost.
If we fail to perform our civic duties, Western Civilization dies and the brutal, ancient tyrannies will again crush humanity.
Celebrate this great anniversary joyfully, remembering how deeply rooted we are in the past.
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.
I was 13 during our bicentennial celebration in 1976. May I live to see our country’s 250th celebration of freedom in 2026.
I had the privilege of flying over Boston Harbor in a helicopter watching a fleet of tall ships from many nations leaving after commemorating our great country’s 200th anniversary. A cherished memory I will take to my grave.
Graduating in 1976, the Celebration of the Bicentennial and Growing Up on the Great Lakes – WHAT’S A Boy to DO ? Join the Coast Guard and FLY.
Fond Memories.
MAY WE HONOR OUR FOUNDATIONS
PRAY for KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM and DISCERNMENT
to ENSURE The CONSTITUTION and The BILL Of RIGHTS
ARE RESTORED to Their INTENDED POSITIONS of AUTHORITY In The LAWS of THIS LAND
qrw
Menagerie- thanks very much for this beautiful reminder of what it means to be an American.
We are truly blessed that the Founders were Divinely inspired in their work of creating our Republic that was conceived in liberty and freedom.
If ever there was a time when we needed a reminder of what the essence of the USA is, it’s today when our great Republic is being threatened as never before.
God bless America. Always.
Thinking the same thing! New York had issues even back then.
Yes, as evidently did Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Delaware. Rather prophetic…
It makes me sad to think that my state of Massachusetts was at the forefront of the charge then, but has now sunk so low that it remains one of only two states which still “approve” of the Xiden Regime.
I’m in Plymouth County and, thankfully, there is a fair amount of conservatism here – especially with the well-informed. What I do see with the moonbats is their irrational hatred of all things PDJT. That translates into the potted plant having a ‘positive’ approval rating (well, that and probably oversampling from Cambridge).
In a local tavern recently, I eavesdropped on a conversation involving a mid-sixties woman lamenting that she needs to come out of retirement due to rising costs of everything. She innocently asked the table, “Were we better under Trump?” The contortions they put themselves in to deny their own lying eyes were stunning.
Like good leftists, they never admit they screwed the pooch.
By the way, have a great Independence Day! Try not to think about Baker.
For imposing taxes on us without our consent: The millions of illegals that Biden has welcomed with open arms pose a BIG tax on us.
Damn straight!
Thank you, Menagerie, for a wonderful post. You are the great mother of Patriots and you sustain those of us commited to this Our Country!
Always powerful, always motivating.
God Bless “real” America!
Happy Birthday America!
We note Communists in California on a county (Contra Costa) school board called for a boycott of the Fourth of July, and other “Leftists” have organized anti-July 4th rallies in support of Infanticide.
See:
https://www.al.com/news/2022/07/boycott-july-4th-at-alabama-abortion-rights-rally-protesters-say-there-is-nothing-to-celebrate.html
Pray for these lost souls. Please, Lord, awaken them.
Amen
But the lesson of New York is that it did not slow the march for freedom and independence.
What only a very few “Americans” realize is that when the (lower case) adjectives are removed (‘unanimous’, ‘thirteen’ and ‘united’) the Founders actually gave our new country its real name, “The States of America” !
Sadly, there’s a lot more of what the Founders had in mind that our citizens don’t know or believe in.
I remember Lincoln’s summary.
Government of the people,
By the people,
For the people.
This new liberal world order is a return to
Government of the serfs,
By the self-anointed elite,
For the self-anointed elite.
We don’t even get the respect of being considered people.
Lincoln was as bad, or worse than King George III. I advise going to Lew Rockwell’s site and read Dr. Thomas DiLorenzo’s article for today. He’s done extensive work on the myth of “honest” Abe.
Whatever gripes there are about Lincoln, you will never be able to take away that he freed the slaves.
Nor will you be able to take away the beautiful clarity of his summation of our system of government that I quoted above.
He didn’t invent it. That was scores of years before he was President. Before he was even born. He even abused that very freedom.
It is also likely that the summation is the distillation of the thoughts of millions of Americans throughout all that many years. Throwing that away because he did something bad is the height of folly.
Baby vs baby’s bathwater level of folly.
You know, there is always something to use to attack our leaders. FDR did lots of horrible things. But that can’t take away from him that he led us through WWII past the point victory was assured. And winning WWII ended the depression he made worse and kept going all while pretending to be solving it.
Frankly, I think FDR egged the Japanese on to attack us, the way the currently installed White House resident is trying to egg Russia to attack Nato. Not that the Japanese weren’t already preparing to defeat Americans before FDR upped the sanctions. America was even preparing the Philippines and far flung bases for that attack. (Raises a lot of questions about MacArthur’s actions. And about the President committing so much to help MacArthur keep his promise.) But no amount of caterwauling about FDR is ever going to take away that his leadership was essential for defeating the evils of Hitler.
Doing what is evil in order to attain good results is, itself, evil.
That’s also the justification of tyranny.
And Lincoln freed the slaves that were in the areas of the South under federal occupation. It did not apply to the north or the territories under northern control.
The 14th Amendment freed the slaves. Four states refused to sign on, one was Mississippi and the others were northern states. I believe NJ, OH and ….cannot remember the other. Lincoln was dead by then, martyred and canonised by the Republicans in control of the government.
And Lincoln had nothing to do with the 14th amendment?
No influence on it at all?
Thomas Sowell has stated and written some very honest, clear-minded facts about that.
Here’s one:
The people at that time did not have a plan… did not know what to do with 20 percent of the US population; black slaves, once they were freed.
The hagiography of Abraham Lincoln will never be erased. His face is on Mount Rushmore.
Hopefully that means the demonization of Lincoln will never succeed.
The quote I put forward is part of celebrating the Declaration and the Constitution. A great thing to do on the Anniversary of the Declaration.
And I spun it as a warning of how the left is actively trying to destroy the great things we are celebrating.
And right on cue, out comes the attack. Demonizing Lincoln to attack the principles and freedoms we are celebrating.
I have no clue if the attacker is left or right, or even understands how his attack is an attack on our freedoms.
I have no clue if he is wittingly acting just like the left. Or even if he wants them to succeed in tearing down this country.
But I stand proudly to celebrate this country and our freedoms and defend them.
We should honor the people who achieved these great things. Honor them warts and all.
PRELIMINARY STATEMENT (Or Restatement of Social Contract)
When in the Course of human events, it becomes optional for an American to claim all sovereign title formerly held by his Government, and deliver said unclaimed freight to the Judge Advocates General of the military originally charged with its protection, a decent respect for the covenant with our Creator—being the condition precedent for United States sovereignty—requires that he should declare the causes leading to the claim and constrains him to conclude that man has not evolved an inch from the slime that spawned him.
These truths were once self-evident; back when students were taught civics rather than social studies; before they were indoctrinated with disgust for traditional safeguards against tyranny—Family, Creator and our Social Compact. While all men are created equal, they are individually endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, That among these are Life, Liberty, and that which makes the Pursuit of Happiness possible—the inalienable right of self-ownership with all its attendant duties of virtue. — That to secure these rights, mankind leaves the state of nature to establish government by consent by ceding certain alienable rights conferring specifically enumerated powers through a constitution adorning and preserving a social compact. That the Declaration of Independence is our social compact; it is “a legal instrument, a juristic act of ultimate solemnity, effecting the most fundamental constitutional change, a change in the very source and foundation of law. … It is our one legal document on which all else rests.” It forms a Real Covenant against Tyranny as the condition precedent for the existence and exercise of sovereign power. — That whenever those entrusted with the powers of Government become destructive of these ends, they effectuate an abandonment of all legitimate claim to sovereign title under the compact, leaving it as res derelictae until justice is restored through the investigation and punishment of those responsible for the treason. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be [reset] 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 [restoring] the forms to which they [were] 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 not to be wondered, that they should then rouze themselves, and endeavour to put the rule into such hands which may [restore] to them the ends for which [their] government was at first erected. Such has been the patient sufferance of loyal Americans; and such is now the necessity which constrains the undersigned to challenge the honor of the United States Navy, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard in keeping their oath to defend this nation against its defining enemy. The history of the neo-Machiavellian globalists, deep state, Big Tech, Fourth Industrial Revolutionaries, and their technocratic totalitarian Party of Woke’s illegitimate President is a history of repeated injuries, usurpations and betrayals—“jettisoning all the norms and conventions of tennis-court morality”—having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the people of the United States. 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 doctors from saving lives by prohibiting early treatment of COVID with hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.
They have waged cognitive warfare against the American people for the purpose of destroying the United States to “build back better” as a technocratic totalitarian satellite of Communist China.
They have falsely accused their brethren of insurrection and have been holding them political prisoners by keeping non-violent misdemeanor offenders in solitary confinement for more than a year.
They have erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
They have affected to render the permanent bureaucracy independent of, and superior to, the civil power.
They have locked us down, masked us up, and socially distanced us into isolation loneliness, and ruin while pushing children to suicide—as if we were property of the Chinese Communist Party.
They have been psychologically torturing children—conditioning them to be meek and obedient collectivists for their Communist Chinese benefactors.
They have been forcibly injecting children with an experimental gene-altering pharmaceutical—that has killed hundreds of thousands and permanently disabled millions—to protect against a virus that poses zero threat to pediatric patients.
They have plundered our savings, ravaged our businesses, and burnt our Bill of Rights.
They have murdered our mothers and grandmothers in furtherance of shaming us into submission to their tyrannical rule over us.
They have done this by abdicating government here and levying “unrestricted (cognitive) warfare” against us.
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.
Did I miss anything?
They have plundered our stores, robbed us of our savings, and are denying us the liberty of working to enrich ourselves and our families by restricting our ability to move freely about the country.
They have imposed unnecessary regulations on our industries. They have caused us to be invaded by foreign state’s and allowed our territory to be sold to our adversaries.
Awesome! I’ll tack it on. Thanks!
It’s a good start!
As a delegate of the American Republic of Georgia, now so-called, I’ll sign that declaration!
Thanks!
To quote Rocky & Bullwinkle: “And now here’s something we hope you’ll really like.”
https://www.houseofstone76.com/
Read the open letter I wrote to Naomi Wolf.
I will wager ANYTHING that Sundance won’t be able to refute my argument or deny the conclusion.
Spoiler Alert: Donald Trump is the President of the United States because five states committed depraved indifference murder of their nursing home residents, and thus could not cast votes on January 6.
No joke. Six pages; you’ll see.
Happy Fourth of July,
Bob Stone
They have stolen our elections and therefore rendered Americans’ free and fair elections null and void.
Thanks. Can’t believe I forgot that.
Bob Stone:
You missed:
“This is why we celebrate the day that this nation, whose government commits these egregious tyrannical abuses, declared Independence in 1776.”
This is off-topic. Menagerie, the author of the article above, specifically stated:
“Please remember that this is a post in honor of our Independence Day. No political content, no rants, so slamming the other side. Today we are just Americans, honoring our country and each other.”
Perhaps this otherwise good post could be put in today’s Presidential Thread.
I thought about that, and I respectfully disagree. What’s been done to us far exceeds anything we accused King George III of. What’s crystalizing now is a new form and magnitude of tyranny the world has never known. We’re far past the point of this being a mere hypothetical or theoretical novelty. Everything in Locke’s 2nd Treatise, as reflected in the Declaration, says we no longer have a legitimate sovereign government.
They’re in breach of our social compact; which, in real property terms, looks something like this:
THIS INDENTURE, made the 4th Day of July 1776
Between
Creator Incorporeal (Hereinafter: “Creator, Inc.”), having its principal office in Creation, at the corner of ubiquity and omnipresence,
party of the first part, and
The Delegates (Hereinafter: “The Planning Board”) of the Thirteen Colonies (Hereinafter: “The United States”), having its principal office at Pennsylvania State House, Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
party of the second part,
WITNESSETH, in consideration of pleasing Divine Providence by Contradicting and Prohibiting Tyranny from the land claimed herein, the party of the first part does hereby grant and release unto the party of the second part, the heirs or successors and assigns of the party of the second part, all sovereign title (Chose in Sovereignty) to:
ALL that certain plot, piece or parcel of land presently comprising the “United States” Subject to a Declaration Of Covenants And Restrictions Against Tyranny, Dated July 4, 1776, executed and simultaneously recorded herein “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence” (More particularly described within Schedule “A” attached hereto), running with all territory comprising said “United States” forever.
In Witness Whereof: John Hancock, … yada, yada, …
Failing to post this here would have dishonored the agreement and our Creator.
It isn’t respectful at all.
They have stolen our futures by failing to pass a budget and live within the means of the taxes they levy. They have spent us into the position of being far and away the largest debtor nation on earth.
They developed and inflicted covid on the world, and then mandated population control “vaccines” to kill and main Americans.
“Delaware was undecided and New York again abstained.”
The more things change the more they stay the same.
I just liked the meme and wanted to share.
This was a great article. Thank you and I hope your independence day is blessed
I love it!
Thank you! Awesome post and it’s great to remember our foundations are solid, honorable and just.
May God Bless you all, and may God Bless America!
Here is the first draft of the Declaration of Indepence:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0161-0002
Here is a link to the third draft of the Declaration of Independence:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0161-0004
It is very interesting to read the first draft and compare to the others. New York, Georgia and South Carolina objected to the first draft. See if you can tell what they took out.
It is interesting to compare with the final.
If I recall right Jefferson’s original forbid slavery. The southern states objected and at the same time the Continentals were facing attack. To present a united front they eliminated the portion that was objected to.
Exclude: “…by prompting our negroes to rise in arms among us; those very negroes whom by an inhuman use of his negative he hath refused us permission to exclude by law:..”
Were they opposed because New York wanted to transport slaves, while Georgia and South Carolina wanted to exploit them for agricultural purposes?
The signers of the Declaration of Independence would have already thrown out our current President and Speaker. And the chortling in the corners by McCarthy and McConnell with their collaborators would be done.
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/signers-factsheet
Birthdates of Signers🇺🇸
The final copy of the Declaration of Independence listed 27 reasons against King George some of which are relevant with today’s tyranny.
For establishing … an arbitrary government (fraud elections)
For … altering fundamentally the forms of our governments …
He has made judges dependent on his will alone
Subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution … giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of trial by jury
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people
For imposing taxes on us without our consent (in our case inflation)
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us (BLM, Antifa, FBI)
He has burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people
He has refused his assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good (close borders).
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance
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
All that is old is new again.
The tactics of those who control the world’s money are indeed well-worn. It is an eternal evil
Found this today.
Maybe good for researchers to find obscure connections…
LittleSis* is a free database of who-knows-who at the heights of business and government
https://littlesis.org/
“mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
One of the most extraordinary things about the Founders is that they knew this and went ahead anyway. We need that sort of wisdom in our leaders today.
This is the line that jumps out at me; I keep wondering at what point will the evil no longer be sufferable?
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, SUNDANCE, and my CONSERVATIVE TREEHOUSE PATRIOTS!
Good morning, Patriots and Freedom lovers! 🇺🇸
I can only -try to- imagine what President Donald J Trump, and those working with him; to restore (to save) this truly great nation have sacrificed — to date.
God, Bless all of them❣️
GOD BLESS AMERICA and the PATRIOTS that serve her.
If you don’t like America – LEAVE IT!
On July 4, 2022 the formerly United States are in their 2nd year of despotic control by a Crime Syndicate that everyone – EVERYONE!- knows full well did not win the 2020 election. The corrupt mechanisms used by the Crime Syndicate to grab control away from We The People are still firmly operative, unquestioned and unchallenged within the Uniparty, and will certainly be used again in the midterms and in 2024 to keep the Crime Syndicate in place. Pretending this is not so will do nothing to make the tyranny go away. On July 4, 2022 we can celebrate a naive dream that the Crime Syndicate, for some random reason, will allow a GOP congressional majority to be voted in (belly laugh!!!), then allow President Trump to run and win in 2024 (LOL! LOL!), but please, we all know that is never the nature, purpose or modus operandi of Crime Syndicates…
How quickly so many eagles turned into ostriches.
Have a great 4th of July America. To all my fellow treeper Patriots, have an amazing day, with family and friends. 🇺🇸🇺🇸
Thank you Menagerie. And The Conservative Treehouse. God bless and happy birthday to, America.
I love this ” rag tag bunch of conservative misfits..”
Be resolved to take time this year to read more about our founders. The more you read, the more you will be impressed with their knowledge and insight. Read your constitution several times. Take time to learn about what you don’t understand. Electoral college? How the amendment processes work? Who can be impeached and who can’t? Enjoy your day and know there are more of us than them, those who want to keep this country as it was founded. May God get us back on track so He can bless America.
Happy Independence Day to all Patriotic loving Americans
Sundance Thank You
You are my ROCK
Tea
Yes….
And Menagerie, you are the crumpet. 🫖 🥧
-Thank you❣️
The words of the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution still resonate today. Happy July 4th to everyone! May God bless our country.
Yes…
The living document
Guided by The Living Word
The sinfulness of man has brought us right back to the conditions the colonists so succinctly stated on 7/4/1776.
I particularly like the second paragraph, and how it applies to the tyrannical Biden regime …
cross posted at https://freedomaustralia.freeforums.net/thread/2541/why-celebrate-fourth-july
Happy J4!!
This is my favorite historical Document! I implore every American to read the entire Declaration. May GOD bless America! PS: Have a Happy 4th. And don’t blow your fingers off. 🙂
James Madison from Essays for the National Gazette, 1792:
Another great, well-written piece. Thanks Menagerie!
God Bless America! Let Freedom Ring!
Amen and thank you and may God continue to bless these United States of America.
Thank you for taking the time to share and help us contemplate where we have come from, so we may perhaps, better consider where our future should lead us.
Interesting that in this time of new, but similar discontent(s), we should be once again be subject to a “special relationship” with the British.
Is it fate that we again must consider “abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism” in a time where we are once again entwined with the British?
Are we now once again ruled by an entangled globalist elite “having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States”?
Indeed, a solemn day to reconsider where the nation started, where we find ourselves now and where we want to be in the future!
Oh John Handcock, where are the nations greatest citizens?
“where are the nations greatest citizens?”
They are scattered about – apart – unincorporated – some unsure – some very sure.
We, the People are due our place in refining our governments. Many still live in ignorance – a few not.
Radical Liberalism created this country – but those two words have been hijacked and are wrongly viewed by the Right.
Finding what we were is a step forward to acknowledging the next step – Uniting in compromise of principles, but uniting nonetheless, for without Union what else is there but evil and rabble.