PagePedia™
History
Segments Presented by Lyle Harvey
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
(Read at the Page Methodist Church on July 6, 2008)
The early
settlers of Pleasant Valley, Page and all of Nebraska were very patriotic.
They would gather each 4th of July to celebrate the birth of this nation
and listen to someone read aloud the Declaration of Independence. We
do not do this today but the Declaration of Independence is still a
remarkable document.
I have given
all of you copies to take home and read. There is also a paper attached
that shows what happened to the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Today, I will read a small portion of this document written primarily
by Thomas Jefferson and unanimously adopted by all thirteen colonies.
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 thee
Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter
their former Systems of Government.
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 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.
Lyle Harvey
Index
| Next
