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The Declaration of Independence was a protest against the abridgment
of such rights as the colonists claimed as subjects of the British
Crown. Their anger was directed against Parliament rather than
the King because restrictions were placed by law upon the colonists
which were not imposed upon citizens of Great Britain residing
in the mother country. These operated solely for the benefit
of the long-established home government and institutions. Spurred
by the spirit of independence engendered through the bitter experiences
and necessary self-reliance required in their century-and-a-half
battle to conquer the American wilderness, and fired by the indignities
and injustice to which they had long been compelled to submit,
they threw off the yoke of oppression and set up a government
that would forever guard them against tyranny, however it might
seek to impose its will. "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 entitled 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. 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." - Declaration of Independence. No man sought or wished for more than to defend his own. None hoped to plunder or spoil * * * and we all know that it could not have lived a single day under any well-founded imputation of passion. - Webster. Independence of the Colonies. - The American Colonies did not become free and independent until they were strong enough to throw off the yoke of the oppressor; strong enough to set up and control their own Government through the voice of the people; strong enough to protect and defend their country from aggression whether from within or without. Its enemies. - The "enemies within" who would make the Declaration of Independence a mockery play one group of Americans against another. They fan the flames of prejudice. They magnify fancied evils of injustices to the ignorant. They distort its language to suit their own ends so cleverly that many of the less informed follow them in the name of Americanism. Its survival. - Every American citizen must be constantly on guard if the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence are to survive. |
