In assembly with no one, but standing firm on my own judgment:

When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for Individuals to dissolve the Political Bonds which have connected them to others, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

As one such Individual:

I hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all People are created equal, that they are endowed by their Nature with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property and Happiness. That to secure these Rights, Governments have been instituted among People, deriving their allegedly just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is My Right--the Right of any Person--to alter or to abolish it, and to institute No Government.

Instead, as is right, proper, and beneficial to a Free Person, to create and cooperate with only voluntary organizations which serve my needs, laying their Foundations on such Principles and organizing their Powers in such Form as to me shall seem most likely to effect my Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established are not easily changed, no matter how pressing the Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that People are more disposed to suffer, and to continue to suffer what 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 all People; and such is now the Necessity which constrains me to renounce, denounce, and secede from any and all former Systems of Government that pretended to have claim over me or the fruit of my labor.

The History of the present United States Government is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the People. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World:

It has refused its Repeal of Laws, the most unwholesome and destructive of the public Good.

It has forbidden its People to conduct business of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till its Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, it has utterly neglected to attend to them.

It has refused to allow ballot access for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation by Parties of their choosing, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

It has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from most who would wish to participate in their governance, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with its Measures.

It has dissolved Families, Businesses, and Peaceful Organizations repeatedly, for opposing with Firmness its Invasions on the Rights of the People.

It has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to compensate those harmed; whereby the Rights of the People, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; our Society remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Plunder from above, and Convulsions within.

It has endeavored to prevent the Population of the Land; for that Purpose obstructing the Naturalization of Foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

It has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing to Adhere to its own Laws and corrupting Law Enforcement Agencies with excessive Powers and unattainable goals.

It has made Judges dependent on political whimsy for the Tenure of their Offices and the Amount and payment of their Salaries, without any attempts to link their rewards to their performance in Administering the Law, or even simple diligence in Dispensing Justice.

It has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent Swarms of Officers everywhere to harass our People, and eat out their Substance. It has done so under the guise of protecting the people from their own judgment and short sightedness on matters of Food Safety, Natural Environment, Moral Rectitude, Financial Planning, and a myriad other pretexts which have served only to place the people in eternal bondage to their alleged servant-- their Government.

It has taken from among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of the young People called to die in Foreign Lands.

It has affected to render Military Paranoia superior to Economic Sanity, under the never-to-be-questioned pretext of National Security.

It has combined with others in the "United Nations" to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution and unacknowledged by our Laws, giving its Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation.

It has quartered Armed UN Troops among us, and pretends to have the legal and moral right to arbitrarily send People to Die for the sake of its meddlings in the affairs of Foreign Lands.

It has cut off our Trade with all Parts of the World, unless we consent to its Tariffs, Prohibitions, Regulations, and other blatant extortions.

It has imposed Taxes on us without our Consent.

It has deprived us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury.

It has transported us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offenses.

It has abolished the free System of Self-Governance in neighboring Provinces, such as Hawaii, and other populations indigenous to the territories it has conquered, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render itself beyond the power of any Individual or Association of Individuals to control.

It has taken away our Choices, abolishing our most valuable Rights, and altering fundamentally the Forms and Institutions of our Society, rendering it-- as an aggregate-- sickly, distorted, tortured, and deathward-bound.

It has suspended our own Rights, declaring itself invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

It has forced many to abdicate Self-Government by declaring us under its Protection and simultaneously waging War against us.

It has plundered our Family Savings, ravaged our Economy, imprisoned Harmless Persons, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

It is, at this Time, transporting large Armies, in Violation of its own "Posse Comitatus" law, 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 of a civilized Nation.

It has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive to bear Arms against their Fellows, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

It has excited domestic Insurrection amongst us, fomenting distrust and racial hatred against the brave and Freedom-loving Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the starving poor of the "Third World", whose known Destitution is an undistinguished Misery which they themselves would cure, if only allowed to come to the freest place on Earth, not to mooch, but to create wealth.

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 Government, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define Tyranny, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our American Citizen (Subject) Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over all of 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 to the Necessities of our Separation and hold them, as we hold the rest of Humankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

I, therefore, Representing no one but MYSELF, appeal to the Supreme Judge of the World-- be that Human Reason or an individual's God-- for the Rectitude of my Intentions, and do, in the Name of, and by the Authority I have over no one but myself, solemnly Publish and Declare, That I am, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent; that I have absolved from all Allegiance to the Governments at all levels of these United States, and that all political Connection between me and the United States of America, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as a Free and Independent Individual, I have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Free People may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of Natural Law, I pledge to any who will join me in Self-Governance my Life, my Fortune, and my Sacred Honor.

________________________________, a Free Person

Attest.

________________________________, Witness.

________________________________, Witness.

________________________________, Witness.

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