Text of the Declaration of Independence

The full text of the Declaration of Independence:

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 Legislature, 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 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 attention to our Brittish 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.

If these guys in Washington knew anything about America, this country they think they rule, and if they knew anything about our history, they would not push us as much as they do.

The reckoning came once beginning on April 19, 1775, and is coming again.

Happy Birthday, America!

May we do what pleases our Creator, so He will again establish us as a beacon of hope to all humanity.

April in America

On April 18, 1775, British regulars came out of Boston to seize certain rebels and their munitions. They began their move late at night.

Rebels scouts rode ahead carrying news of the British movement. The rebels the British sought to seize escaped. Meanwhile, the rebel system to warn of movements of British troops was so efficient, that even as British troops were getting out of boats across the bay from Boston, rebel militia was already getting ready to meet them.

As the British forces approached Lexington in the colony of Massachusetts at dawn, rebel militia was forming up to meet them. The rebel leaders they had hoped to seize were long gone, but the British still sought rebel weapons and ammunition stored in Concord.

There was an initial skirmish, with rebel forces likely the first to open fire. The British proceeded toward Concord as more and more rebel militiamen converged on the area. By late morning on the 19th, the British regulars were concluding their search-and-destroy mission in Concord, as nearly a thousand rebel militiamen converged on the road leading back to Boston. The British, numbering less than 700 and very tired after having had very little sleep, marching all night, skirmishing with the rebel militia and carrying out their search for rebel supplies, were getting apprehensive as they saw themselves possibly being cut off far from their base in Boston.

Rebel militia chased the British regulars all the way back to Boston; by the time the British regulars reached Boston, rebel militia facing them numbered 15,000 - and the American Revolution had begun.

Fast forward 220 years.

A massive explosion (by some reports, more than one explosion) destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City.

The story our government has told us regarding the events surrounding that terrorist attack is not totally true, nor are the true parts the entire story.

There was a story behind the story we were told by our government. Sgt. Terrance Yeakey was brutally murdered because he knew something about that story; his death was ruled a suicide.

I draw strength reading about the achievements of Americans in 1775, as I consider the events of 1995.

As the Lord lives, the people who are behind the murder of Sgt. Terrance Yeakey will be brought to justice; as the Lord lives, the people who are behind the murder of Sgt. Terrance Yeakey will be brought to their knees.

First They Came For Our Arms

British General Thomas Gage had four regiments of troops and a difficult task to accomplish. The British colony of Massachussetts was troublesome, a center of anti-crown activity by "patriots". The surrounding countryside was controlled by patriot militias, and the population in Boston was restless and wanted to leave Boston. After all, conditions in the town were not good; the people were required to quarter British troops in their houses, and British troops who committed crimes were protected by military authorities.

On September 1, 1774, British forces had removed gunpowder and other military supplies from a magazine near Boston, and the colonists took the hint: arms would be a contentious issue.

As the situation grew worse in Boston, and Bostonians wanted to leave, General Gage realized he did not want them going and joining the patriots and militias in the countryside, so he offered them the option to leave the city, provided they left their weapons behind. They could deposit their arms at Faneuil Hall, and the arms would be returned to them when they came back to Boston.

Bostonians, wanting to leave the city, complied, and turned in their firearms and some swords.

This done, General Gage then refused them permission to leave Boston; he sent them home, and prepared his elite troops to seize patriot stocks of arms and munitions in two nearby towns.

The colonists had organized an intelligence network to watch the British movements in Boston. The signal was set in the Old North Church: two lanterns, indicating the British would move by sea. Seeing the signal, a colonist named Paul Revere slipped out into the countryside, quietly warning the militias that "the regulars are coming out".

Meanwhile, a force of mixed British units assembled in the middle of the night, and disembarked at Phipps Farm in Cambridge at midnight. After some time collecting their gear, they set out at 2:00 AM for Concord with orders to seize all colonial arms and munitions, but under strict instructions not to plunder or hurt the inhabitants.

As word spread that the British troops were coming for the patriots' weapons, the colonists realized this was it: they either used their weapons now, or there would never be a second chance, because once their arms were seized by the British, the colonists would be helpless before the crown's military governor.

As dawn broke, the British troops, tired from marching all night, began to approach Lexington, and found themselves facing dozens of colonial militiamen emerging from Buckman Tavern.

Both the colonial and the British commanders ordered their men to hold their fire, but despite this, at least one shot rang out, generally thought to have come from somewhere on the Colonial side.

That shot was heard around the world.