Saturday, July 3, 2010

Dunlap Broadside


This is Yale's copy of the Dunlap Broadside. Can't read it? Okay, here it is again, at least the first quarter or so of it:


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 to 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 shown 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.


We must ask ourselves, Why do we celebrate Independence Day? A question that must follow is, Why do we celebrate it on July 4? The answer to that question is a dangerous one, because the Declaration is the answer.

"Well, Junior, it's because that's when the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence."

Dangerous, because the question that must follow is, "What does that Declaration say?"

To answer to THAT question is to shine a light of illumination into the darkness toward the mind's ultimate freedom. For this preable is the most consice and profound statement of Natural Law the world has ever seen.

Dangerous, because The enemy of Natural Law must necessarily be evil; evil because he goes against the Creator mentioned here--whether He be an entity, or it be an accident (I have heard "First Cause" used as a universal name for the Creator)--and indeed sleeplessly works to usurp the authority of Natural Law.

The answer to that third question, "What does the Declaration of Independence say?" is what the Enemy does not want us to hear.

We know it was dangerous for the signers.

Would you sign it today?

2 comments:

  1. I'm not likely to be in that position. The question is, would todays leaders and/or legislators sign it, if it were to depose the despotic administration that has been working tirelessly to enslave us all?

    Cowardice is an ugly word, but I think it is accurate for much of what we see today.

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  2. Fair enough. It is our choice, however, to courageously choose such representatives that are willing and promise to the best of their ability to reduce or end such handouts from that despotic administration by which they keep us docile and enslaved. Independence from tyranny is independence from a gravy train that maintains the lifestyle to which we may have become acustomed and will otherwise need to work in liberty to sustain...or change.

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