In Congress, July 4, 1776

by Derek Hunter

When was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence? Was it when you were a kid? Have you ever read the whole thing? This Independence Day I’ve decided to turn the majority of my column over to the men (and yes, they were all men and all knew what a man and a woman were) who laid the groundwork for the greatest, freest nation human beings have ever seen.

I do this now because the concept of that country is, and has been for years, under assault by progressive politicians and activists who wrap themselves in the protections afforded all Americans as though they were meant only for them. They lie, they rewrite history, they divide people by highlighting only that which makes us different, not anything that unites us. It is, for lack of a more perfect word, evil. 

Below is a declaration against tyranny. The nation born from it, and the Constitution to follow would not have created a new tyranny; not embraced a powerful government simply because it was on this side of the ocean. Yet, this is what the political left would have you believe. 

Read it for yourself and see if you think that possible. 

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.

Continue reading at townhall.com.