Declaration of Independence

Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence wrote:

“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.”

Jefferson goes on to say that peoples often times take the abuse of “Government” rather than to do the right thing and abolish the form of government they are accustomed to (which was a monarchy at that time). He redresses the people by stating: “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.” That is to say that when the government does not protect the God given rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness; then the Government needs to be adjusted for the benefit of the people. Not their detriment! Not to garner them defenseless against a tyrannical government.

 Some of the complaints against the government at that time were:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers. 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.

With that great document the birth of our nation was at hand; we were forced to claim our rightful independence from tyranny. That is our birth right! Sic Semper Tyranus