Day 3: Declaration of Independence
The last section of the Declaration includes their powerful closing arguments showing the extent the colonists went to in petitioning the King and their fellow British citizens for redress. It ends with their final resolution and commitment.
“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 Brittish 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 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.”
Questions:
1) Upon whose authority did these representatives take their action to separate from England?
2) When they had laid out their case against the King for his acts of tyranny and announced their separation, who did these men turn to for protection in this declaration?
3) How many times does the Declaration invoke a form of God’s name in the document?
Answers:
1) The people of the colonies
2) They pledged to each other their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor, but put their full reliance on the protection of divine Providence (ie. God). They were committed to their cause and believed God would aid them in their cause because it was a just cause that man should be free of tyranny.
3) 4 times:
“Nature’s God”
“Endowed by their creator”
“Supreme judge of the world”
“Protection of divine Providence”
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