"Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. ... Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us." - John Hancock
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On July 2nd, 1776, in the midst of the revolution, representatives of the thirteen British colonies meeting as the Second Continental Congress, voted to approve a resolution of independence from Great Britian. The 4th of July is celebrated as the day the document was signed by those 56 members of the Second Continental Congress. While there may be some dispute over the actual date the document was signed, the ripples caused by the purposeful and deliberate actions taken by these men reach out through time and impact us today.
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Trumbell's Declaration of Independence
(depicting 42 of the 56 signers)
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While many people are quite familiar with the preamble of the declaration...
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.
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I find that far fewer people are familiar with the grievances listed against the King of Britain and fewer still with the pledge by the signers included in the last sentence...
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.
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The revolution would last another seven years cost an estimated 25,000+ dead on the colonists side but independence from Britian was achieved and when the Treaty of Paris was signd on September 3, 1783 one struggle ended but another greater one started. The struggle to hold and maintain this new form of government in a world ruled by Kings.
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Grace & Peace
