Happy Independence Day! 

Record Group 360: Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention

Series: Miscellaneous Papers of the Continental Congress

Transcription: 

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 bonds 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 affect 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 is 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 meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. _____He has endeavored to prevent the Population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 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 harass our People, and eat out their substance. ____He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislature._____ 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 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 offenses:___ For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring 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 in 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, burned our towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.____He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete 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 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 endeavored 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 British 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 the 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 the 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.

Button Gwinnett Wm Hooper John Hancock Rob Morris Wm Floyd Josiah Bartlett

Lyman Hall Joseph Hewes Samuel Chase Benjamin Rush Philip Livingston Wm Whipple

Geo Walton John Penn Wm Paca Benj Franklin Fran Lewis Sam Adams

Tho Stone John Morton Lewis Morris John Adams

Edward Rutledge Charles Carrol of Carrollton Geo Clymer Rob Treat Paine

Ja. Smith Elbridge Gerry

Geo Taylor Step. Hopkins

Tho Heyward Jnr James Wilson Rich Stockton William Ellery

Thomas Lynch Jnr George Wythe Gro. Ross Jn Witherspoon Roger Sherman

Richard Henry Lee

Arthur Middleton Th Jefferson Ceasar Rodney Fra. Hopkinson Sam Huntington

Benj Harrison Geo Read John Hart Wm Williams

Th Nelson jr. Tho M Kean Abra Clark Oliver Wolcott

Francis Lightfoot Lee Matthew Thornton

Carter Braxton

That line is rather fitting…

(/j obv)

Dude the way my jaw dropped 😭 out of ALL THE POSES… also the way jefferson is so tall like damn

“[Independence Day] will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival… It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this continent to the other from this Time forward forever more,”

--John Adams (about the vote to declare Independence on July 2, 1776)

Photo: Williamsburg, Virginia

"We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it."

– William Faulkner

chat

Anyway, shoutout to these guys today

And happy 247th anniversary of the signing of this awesome document

The Signing of the Declaration of Independence -- Sandow Birk 

The Signing of the Declaration of Independence, 2022 by Sandow Birk (b. 1962)

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July 4th – a Very Big Deal

Of course it is. On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, announcing the colonies’ separation from Great Britain. Fast forward to 2023, and many of us see this day as simply a paid holiday, family picnics, gatherings and fireworks shows. And much of it was just that, as our celebration was early, on July 2nd, Sunday night. It was a…

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July 4th Celebration - Happy Independence Day America by Lutfi Shedraway Via Flickr: We the people.... Nothing is more profound in the history of this nation than the proclamation declaration. Till today, it echoes what the founding fathers of this land aspired for the people of America. It also spelled over to many nations where people wanted the be heard and be free. The photo is taking from a free public domain picture of "We the People..." and many other photos I took in my travels within the US This is a digital photos on a black camera photo used as a Canvas layered with the "We The People" and other photos to bring the different photos into one.

So the vulva like comes out through the urethra or vagina and it is... well it is a grower I guess that gets shed.

Throughout the beleaguered French nation, impromptu celebrations cropped up to mark American independence, with one American soldier remarking in a letter home dated July 8, 1917, “Whenever one sees a French flag, there is an American flag.”

“You have this embracing of Americans for what they bring and it’s a time where they begin to really identify themselves in the 20th century,” said Vogt.

But unfortunately, the embracing of American culture only went so far. Despite the doughboys best efforts, the culinary marvel that was and is a hot dog never caught on.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July! 

This is the Dunlap Broadside, the first printed version of the Declaration of Independence.  

File Unit: Rough Journals, 9/5/1774 - 3/2/1789

Series: Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774 - 1789

Record Group 360: Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention, 1765 - 1821

Transcription:

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.

A  D E C L A R A T I O N

BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

IN GENERAL CONGRESS ASSEMBLED.

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 fame 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 may 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, fo

as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the fame 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 cir-

cumstances of Cruelty and 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 repeat-

ed Injury.  A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be Ruler of a free People.

         NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our British 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 inevitable interrupt our

Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and 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, ap-

pealing 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, so-

lemnly 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 dis-

solved; 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.

Signed by ORDER and in BEHALF of the CONGRESS,

JOHN HANCOCK, PRESIDENT.

ATTEST.

CHARLES THOMSON, SECRETARY.

PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED BY JOHN DUNLAP.

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Stolen Land ✌🏻😒

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