GDG- We hold these truths to be self-evident

[Dennis Lawrence]

Twenty years ago, Morning Edition launched what 
has become an Independence Day tradition: hosts, 
reporters, newscasters and commentators reading the Declaration of Independence

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92108861

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 harass 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 benefit 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.

­ <http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/hancock.htm>John Hancock

New Hampshire:
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/bartlett.htm>Josiah 
Bartlett, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/whipple.htm>William 
Whipple, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/thornton.htm>Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/hancock.htm>John 
Hancock, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/adams_s.htm>Samuel 
Adams, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/adams_j.htm>John 
Adams, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/paine.htm>Robert 
Treat Paine, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/gerry.htm>Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/hopkins.htm>Stephen 
Hopkins, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/ellery.htm>William Ellery

Connecticut:
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/sherman.htm>Roger 
Sherman, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/huntington.htm>Samuel 
Huntington, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/williams.htm>William 
Williams, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/wolcott.htm>Oliver Wolcott

New York:
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/floyd.htm>William 
Floyd, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/livingston_p.htm>Philip 
Livingston, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/lewis.htm>Francis 
Lewis, <http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/morris_l.htm>Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/stockton.htm>Richard 
Stockton, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/witherspoon.htm>John 
Witherspoon, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/hopkinson.htm>Francis 
Hopkinson, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/hart.htm>John 
Hart, <http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/clark.htm>Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/morris_r.htm>Robert 
Morris, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/rush.htm>Benjamin 
Rush, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/franklin.htm>Benjamin 
Franklin, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/morton.htm>John 
Morton, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/clymer.htm>George 
Clymer, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/smith.htm>James 
Smith, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/taylor.htm>George 
Taylor, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/wilson.htm>James 
Wilson, <http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/ross.htm>George Ross

Delaware:
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/rodney.htm>Caesar 
Rodney, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/read.htm>George 
Read, <http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/mckean.htm>Thomas McKean

Maryland:
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/chase.htm>Samuel 
Chase, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/paca.htm>William 
Paca, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/stone.htm>Thomas 
Stone, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/carroll.htm>Charles 
Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/wythe.htm>George 
Wythe, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/rhlee.htm>Richard 
Henry Lee, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/jefferson.htm>Thomas 
Jefferson, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/harrison.htm>Benjamin 
Harrison, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/nelson.htm>Thomas 
Nelson, Jr., 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/fllee.htm>Francis 
Lightfoot Lee, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/braxton.htm>Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/hooper.htm>William 
Hooper, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/hewes.htm>Joseph 
Hewes, <http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/penn.htm>John Penn

South Carolina:
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/rutledge.htm>Edward 
Rutledge, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/heyward.htm>Thomas 
Heyward, Jr., 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/lynch.htm>Thomas 
Lynch, Jr., 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/middleton.htm>Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/gwinnett.htm>Button 
Gwinnett, 
<http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/hall.htm>Lyman 
Hall, <http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/walton.htm>George Walton