On this day in 1776 The Declaration of Independence, prepared by Thomas Jefferson, was approved and signed by the Continental Congress in America.
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.
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Quote of the Day
“Let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”
On this day in 1776 Richard Henry Lee’s resolution that the American colonies “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States” was adopted by the Continental Congress.
In 1850 Benjamin Lane patented a gas mask with a breathing apparatus.
In 1937 American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart disappeared in the Central Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world at the equator.
And in 1962 Wal-Mart Discount City opened in Rogers, Arkansas. It was the first Walmart store.
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Quotes of the Day
“A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves… and include all men capable of bearing arms. . . To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms.”
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“The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”
Richard Henry Lee
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On this day in 1956 Elvis recorded these two songs.
The last 2 days we had the duck, duck part, so now it’s the goose’s turn. Or geese/goslings in this case….
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On this day in 1847 the U.S. Post Office issued its first adhesive stamps.
In 1863, during the Civil War, the first day’s fighting at Gettysburg began.
In 1867 Canada became an independent dominion.
In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt and his “Rough Riders” waged a victorious assault on San Juan Hill in Cuba.
And in 1961 the first community air-raid shelter was built. The shelter in Boise, ID had a capacity of 1,000 people and family memberships sold for $100.
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Quote of the Day, since it’s her birthday and we were discussing her character yesterday…..
“Playing good girls in the 30s was difficult, when the fad was to play bad girls. Actually I think playing bad girls is a bore; I have always had more luck with good girl roles because they require more from an actress.”
Here’s some more wood ducks and ducklings. And turtles. 🙂
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On this day in 1097 the Crusaders defeated the Turks at Dorylaeum.
In 1859 Charles Blondin became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
In 1936 the probably soon to be banned Margaret Mitchell book, “Gone with the Wind,” was published.
And in 1958 Congress passed a law authorizing the admission of Alaska as the 49th state in the Union.
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Quote of the Day
“What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don’t like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don’t expect freedom to survive very long.”
Thomas Sowell
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Today in 1966 The Supremes made the studio recording of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.” It’s also the birthday of Florence Ballard, a member of the original Supremes.
On this day in 1787 Edward Gibbon completed “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” It was published the following May.
In 1893 The New York stock market crashed. By the end of the year 600 banks and 74 railroads had gone out of business.
In 1905 the battleship Potemkin succumbed to a mutiny on the Black Sea.
And in 1967 the world’s first cash dispenser was installed at Barclays Bank in Enfield, England. The device was invented by John Sheppard-Barron. The machine operated on a voucher system and the maximum withdrawal was $28.
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Quote of the Day
“A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.”
Mark Twain
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Let’s have readers choice for the music this weekend. What’ll it be? 🙂
On this day in 1804 the Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the mouth of the Kansas River after completing a westward trek of nearly 400 river miles.
In 1870 the first section of the boardwalk in Atlantic City, NJ, was opened to the public.
In 1945 the U.N. Charter was signed by 50 nations in San Francisco, CA.
And in 1959 U.S. President Eisenhower joined Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in ceremonies officially opening the St. Lawrence Seaway.
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Quote of the Day
“You’re a person a lot longer before and after you’re a professional athlete. People always say to me, ‘Your image is this, your image is that.’ Your image isn’t your character. Character is what you are as a person. That’s what I worry about.”
Derek Jeter
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On this day in 1964 the Beatles released this album/song in the US.
Yesterday I was asked a question. It’s a good question, but one I feel I cannot answer on my own. It requires the input of each and every one of you. So here goes…….
Our former scepter wielding blog administrator turned world-famous author is about to start a blog of her own. She would like to hat-tip us here at WVs and would link to us as well. While I’d be honored to even have our little blog mentioned, we’re kind of a closed community. We’ve all shared things we may not have if it were more open. That appeals to many of us, and some might feel limited by it, and not so free to share were that to change. And being linked there would open us to the world to gawk at. 🙂 While it would be nice to have some more like-minded folks join us, trolls are always a problem too. It probably won’t be many new folks coming, but who knows. I thought it best to get your opinions.
So what are your thoughts on it?
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On this day in 1580 The Book of Concord was first published. The book is a collection of doctrinal standards of the Lutheran Church.
In 1867 Lucien B. Smith patented the first barbed wire.
In 1868 Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were readmitted to the Union.
And in 1964 President Lyndon Johnson ordered 200 naval personnel to Mississippi to assist in finding three missing civil rights workers.
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Quote of the Day
“In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.”
store.
Wandering Views 