13 Currently Applicable Abuses and Usurpations
On this, the day prior to our Independence Day, I read from the Declaration of Independence to see if any of the 27 grievances our forefathers mentioned in this document might apply today. Although one could construe some of the others as partially applicable, dependening on the perception of the reader, I believe 13 to be either directly, or at the very least perceptively, pertinent and timely. I have listed these here. In this context we can here replace "He" with "They". Let us also remind ourselves, we the people are not blameless in the current situation. By our disengagement, apathy, cowardice and laziness we have harmed our republic. Now it is time to come to attention and become engaged, concerned, brave and tireless in our work at preservation of our republic. This we owe to our forefathers and to our posterity.
"-- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain --
that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that
government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from
the earth."~Abraham Lincoln
— 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. —
1. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
2. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amountand payment of their salaries.
3.He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harassour people and eat out their substance.
4.He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of ourlegislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
5.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:
6.For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
7.For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they shouldcommit on the Inhabitants of these States:
8.For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
9.For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
10.For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
11.For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
12.For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentallythe Forms of our Governments:
13.For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
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.
