Independence Day

“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 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.


The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
[Column 1]
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
[Column 2]
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
[Column 3]
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
[Column 4]
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
[Column 5]
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
[Column 6]
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton



Me Too!”

“That was heavy stuff those guys wrote. The guts it took to do that... and they were well aware of the consequences.”

“I thought it was repealed by Ronald Reagan.”

“I thought it was all about fireworks??? Where is the part about the fireworks, lol???”

“If I was England I'd have been mad to If I got a letter that long and had to read it all.”

“lol Mr.Dude! I too would be mad.”

“Now, my brothers and sisters, we must finish the job our founding fathers started. We must invade and claim Canada!”

“I get goosebumps every time I read that - also try Patrick Henry's speech - the one that concludes with the famous "give me liberty or give me death"”

“http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/henry-liberty.html "> give me liberty, or give me death ”

“British Government in 1776 = American Federal Government in 2001

Time for a tea party?”

“Le Subtil, that was probably the greatest speech ever delivered in our history! I wish our current politicians would have that kind of sincere passion about their country.”

“That Pat Henry dude was hard core.”

“Amen, Budda Bear.”

“hey Buddha Bear Im going to invade Canada on foot!”

“One thing that blows me away is all this talk about fighting for "freedom," as in Patrick Henry's line about "freedom or slavery."
Its just amazing that these people let slavery stand as an institution and that so many signers of the Declaration of Independence spent their lives supporting slavery and being enriched by it.”

“Yeah, Ped, but we did fix it, and that's really the point.”

“Someone post the Gettysburg Address. I get shivers when I read it.”

“Has anyone ever read what happened to the signers of that document?....and now the big question. How many of our present leaders would take that chance????
MOM...as for invading Canada....Why?”

“Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, given November 19, 1863 on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . . can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . . 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.

p.s. I first read this AT Gettysburg. Now THAT was moving. That whole place was spooky.”

“I knew that one by heart as I'm sure many of us did. Sent shivers for me too.

PedXing I guess we are a product of our times. The best of us do things for which we should be ashamed.”

“The Gettysburg address is moving. Lincoln was an amazing human being and an amazing leader. I do chuckle a little when I read "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here.." nearly 150 years after it was said.

I've also come to admire George Washington more and more. For starters, history is not full of generals who lead a successful revolution, attain state power and then peacefully walk away from power.”

“Happy 4th of July to all of you in the USA. Canada Day was on the 1rst and we are getting a little better at the 'flag wavin' stuff. But, you guys really know how to celebrate your independence!

I hope you all have a great party.”

“Lt.Dan
MOM is going to be hiking the AT through there. That's what she ment by that.”

“Happy Fourth to all. At the risk of sounding parochial, I've gotta say that Boston, as usual, had the best show in the country.

Belated wishes to all you Canucks. I lived in Canada for a while and it is an awesome country. Fought my first forest fire in BC many years ago.”

“What???? Words of praise for the Hub of the universe, for the Boss Town from Mr. Steiny?

LOL!”

“Hey Ped - I've got nothing against Boston as long as I don't have to live in it or drive in it. The nicest thing about Beantown is that it's there and I'm 100 miles away. And, in reality, what kind of a show would they really have if David Mugar weren't so generous.”

“I went to the Lake Union fireworks in Seattle. Nothing like a fireworks show to make a city look beautiful.

But the best fireworks show is still the Freedom Festival fireworks show between Detroit and Windsor, Ont.

It's kind of funny to celebrate Independence Day inside the Commonwealth, but what the hey...

Oh, and Detroit looks so beautiful.”

“Everyone enjoy, I have to work....bummer”

“I'm taking some time to consider the history and how much was risked to create this nation and to preserve it.

I'm going to work soon, too. One consolation: time and half.”

“Next to my birthday, this is my favorite day of the year.

Just like watching "A Christmas Story" all day long on Christmas, we watch the Revolution, on the History Channel. It's actually one of the few things the HC gets close to right.

This is a very important day in all of our lives. This day gave birth to the great country the Earth has ever seen.

We should also take a moment to reflect on the costs and contributions others have made supporting and defending this great land.

USA truly is a great place. It's too bad that most take it for granted and don't realize that even in their "worst" of times, it's still better than a lot of others in the world.

Bunch of spoiled and selfish brats.”

“Bummer Peddy, I'm on call, walking on eggshells....

Happy Birthday America.
8)”

“Well said Qface
No really, I'm being serious...
Honestly...”

“Well, I'm sure it should hit home with you. I'm referencing people like you when I talk about folks who don't understand how good they got it here.”

“On the contrary. I'm just trying to keep it that way.”

“Happy 4th of July, y'all!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“It's Independence Day and TJ is rolling over in his grave.

In his original draft he wrote:

" he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce:[11] and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another."

http://www.princeton.edu/~tjpapers/declaration/declaration.html

What a disaster it was to edit out that paragraph for political expediency.”

“http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JuJHfkXEI-o

San Diego; it was supposed to last 17 minutes but something went wrong and they all went off at once[b]”

“honestly, I would've left that thinking "that was the greatest fireworks show I've ever seen"”

“I’m pretty sure we had a minor mishap during our display last night too. The fireworks are lit off somewhere near the end of our old ore dock and at one point I’m certain that one didn’t fire according to plan. The ore dock was suddenly filled with a loud roar along with a lot of smoke and colored light. A minute later a huge plume of smoke drifted slowly through the crowd.

Another odd thing from our display: we had a nasty storm front blow through prior to the fireworks show. I’m not sure if it was the pressure or what but about two-thirds of the way through the show I noticed that the smoke from the fireworks was just hanging in the air and barely moving. Pretty soon there was enough of a smoke cloud that it started to conceal the display. By the finale it was pretty hard to see some of it.”

“actually, a similar thing happened out here - it was really hazy (I think moisture from the ocean) and, by the end, most of the fireworks were obscured by the smoke... in a way it kinda made it look cooler - but it was kinda weird.

global warming, dude. I'm telling you... (j/k)”

“"On the contrary. I'm just trying to keep it that way."

So if you think things are going well then don't #&%!$ about it so much.

One poor moron in the city next to us blew his leg off last night.

True story. The guy is a paraplegic, and he was lighting fireworks in his lap then setting them on the ground. The explosion was so great that it blew his leg clear across the street hitting his neighbors house. There was a church on the west side of the state that burnt down to the ground because of fireworks. We've been graced with new legistation legalizing fireworks that can leave the ground. I have to thank my lovely leaders at the state level of this; why I would have gotten a full night's sleep without some a--hole lighting shyt off over my house until 2 am for the last 2 weeks.

Real nice.

Other than that is was a great fourth!”

“I'm two days late....but still wishing the U.S folks a belated happy Independence Day.”

“Just now getting a few aerial bombs?

Hell, here in Alabammy, we live with NASA and the space program...and the fireworks show that.....

I personally rattled the windows a block over, the rocket cleared the 1500 foot level according to the altimeter read out....

..."The bombs bursting in air"...”

“Nice ST

Q you ignorant slut! We are headed for a financial cliff and you won't even acknowledge it. Have a nice day.
8)”

“"Just now getting a few aerial bombs?"

No, we had them and got rid of them a long time ago.

Yep, the forth sure is a time for freedom of speech through fireworks.

We enjoy professional fireworks; it's a great thing. But Bubba down the street who is half baked lighting shyt off on public property over private property is illegal and not very neighbor like.

It's not a few aerial bombs. I could live with that. It's the #&%!$ing jackwagons that like to light shyt off horizontal like that gets me a little peeved.

I'm sure you and everyone else noes the kind. I like what we've worked for and I don't want it ashed because a phucked up dumbass whose gots a 45* kicking has some #&%!$ envy.”