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.
Free and independent states can establish laws for the state that need to be respected in that state alone. The state has the authorization.
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
The representatives of the United States of America is appealing to the supreme court to solemnly publish and declare that the United Colonies are ought to be free and independent states.
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 of the Head of a civilized Nation.
He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation. He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People. This is madness and is creating a conflict that needs to be resolved.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He is declaring war which poses a threat to the constitution, the American people, and our freedom.
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.
He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution. He is declaring himself much more powerful than the legislation.
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our Governments:
This is a violation of liberty because He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution. This violates the Constitution and what it stands for.
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 pre-tended 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:
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. These are the examples.
He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.
Who ever is doing this is authorizing armies to stand back and stand by during times of peace without the consent of the legislatures. This poses a threat.
refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
This means that He has refused the refusing to pass to places to people. This could mean that He didn't allow people to settle on new land.
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.
The legislative powers are incapable of annihilation. Annihilation means complete destruction or obliteration. The legislative branch is made up of the House and Senate, known collectively as the Congress. Among other powers, the legislative branch makes all laws, declares war, regulates interstate and foreign commerce and controls taxing and spending policies.
it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
People have the right to freedom of speech and to use their democracy. If people don't agree on something they can come together to find a solution or get rid of it. People have the right to peacefully protest and make themselves be heard.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
This should be referring to everybody. In America people should have the right to life, liberty and to pursue happiness.
that all Men are created equal,
This is established in the declaration of independence that all men are created equal. It is a sense of equality. However, during these times women were not created equal nor were slaves or black men. They were not treated as equal. So who does this statement apply to? Most likely white men.
a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
This stands out to me because the opinions of people should be respected. We should all respect people's opinion no matter what it is we have to acknowledge it, understand it, and respect the opinions of others. That's how we unite and find solutions.
Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world.
America was certainly the land of freedom and liberty. Poor Europeans were proud to become an American.
What attachment can a poor European emigrant have for a country where he had nothing? The knowledge of the language, the love of a few kindred as poor as himself, were the only cords that tied him: his country is now that which gives him land, bread, protection, and consequence
Poor Europeans were proud to call America their home and their country. They had more opportunities whereas Europe didn't acknowledge them.
The laws, the indulgent laws, protect them as they arrive, stamping on them the symbol of adoption; they receive ample rewards for their labours; these accumulated rewards procure them lands; those lands confer on them the title of freemen, and to that title every benefit is affixed which men can possibly require. This is the great operation daily performed by our laws.
Here in America the English settlers had a chance and had opportunity whereas Europe didn't. English settlers that came from a poor background had a better life in America than Europe. They would be rewarded for their work wheres Europe didn't even give them bread.
two thirds of them had no country. Can a wretch who wanders about, who works and starves, whose life is a continual scene of sore affliction or pinching penury; can that man call England or any other kingdom his country? A country that had no bread for him, whose fields procured him no harvest, who met with nothing but the frowns of the rich, the severity of the laws, with jails and punishments; who owned not a single foot of the extensive surface of this planet?
In Europe people were treated unfairly especially the poor. The poor would work for hours everyday, they wouldn't have anything to eat, and they wouldn't have a place to sleep. Many of the poor died from starvation and disease. The poor will not call Europe their home or country, it was a nightmare for them. That's why many wanted to come to America for a better life. A chance to start anew.
In this great American asylum,
The United States was a diverse country and it still is to this day. A country with many races and people from around the world.
they are mixture of English, Scotch, Irish, French, Dutch, Germans, and Swedes. From this promiscuous breed, that race now called Americans have arisen.
People from different countries voyaged to North America to start a new life one with opportunity and freedom. More than 50,000 settlers arrived to North America.
we are the most perfect society now existing in the world. Here man is free; as he ought to be; nor is this pleasing equality so transitory as many others are. Many ages will not see the shores of our great lakes replenished with inland nations, nor the unknown bounds of North America entirely peopled.
America was a country of freedom and liberty but it wasn't always that way. That freedom and those rights were only given to certain people. Mostly white wealthy men had freedom while slaves and black people had no freedom and no rights. Freedom wasn't always for everybody to begin with.
It is not composed, as in Europe, of great lords who possess every thing and of a herd of people who have nothing. Here are no aristocratical families, no courts, no kings, no bishops, no ecclesiastical dominion, no invisible power giving to a few a very visible one; no great manufacturers employing thousands, no great refinements of luxury. The rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as they are in Europe.
In Europe people were being under the king or queens rule and there was nothing they could do about it. When they discovered North America many left Europe to move to America the so called land of opportunity and freedom. There they would be able to free themselves from European rule and start over.
Here he beholds fair cities, substantial villages, extensive fields, an immense country filled with decent houses, good roads, orchards, meadows, and bridges, where an hundred years ago all was wild, woody and uncultivated
At the beginning when the English settlers arrived it was all forest and great plains stretched North America. As time went by houses were being built, roads, and towns. As the population grew so did structures.
He must greatly rejoice that he lived at a time to see this fair country discovered and settled
This stands out to me because English settlers were the ones to voyage across the ocean and stumble upon North America. However native Americans were the first to be in America.
“Freedom means that I can do anything I want.”
This is just not true because if freedom means you can do anything then you will be able to do things that you are not supposed to do because it is breaking the law depending on what you are doing. There are laws that must be follow in order to use that freedom in a civil manner otherwise it's chaos and anarchy.
Human history is a balancing act between the desire for individual freedom and the need to protect everyone’s freedoms.
It all started with the Bill of Rights that gave the American people rights. The constitution and civil rights are the rights that are given to the American with the help of the government.
Nor are they freedoms that we grant to each other without the oversight and protection of government institutions.
I agree with this statement because the government provides us with the policies and regulations regarding freedom.