Culture
The Declaration of Independence — Recitation & Background (2025)
In this special Independence Day episode, the hosts of Patriot Lessons explore the significance of the Declaration of Independence, reciting its full text while providing historical context. They disc...
The Declaration of Independence — Recitation & Background (2025)
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Interactive Transcript
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Welcome back our fellow Patriots to the Patriot Lessons American History and Civics
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Podcast, where we renew the spirit of America by learning about what makes America the greatest
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nation in the world, including our founding first principles, key documents and speeches,
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founding fathers and other great Patriots, as well as flags and other key symbols.
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I am Mike Gerard and thanks for joining us.
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I'm taking over the introduction on this episode because, well, a tree crashed through
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Judge Warren's home.
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The family is fine and things can be fixed, but he's hotel surfing at the moment.
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These are tumultuous times.
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When this episode is being released in July of 2025, war is raging between the Ukraine
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and Russia.
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China is a looming threat.
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President Trump's one big beautiful bill has passed.
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Tariffs are kicking off across the globe.
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Elon Musk is threatening to start a new political party.
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Iran's nuclear facilities were just bombed and its government has issued a fatwa to
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assassinate President Trump.
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Hamas has rejected a ceasefire with Israel.
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The culture wars are at a fevered pitch.
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Meanwhile, pride in America has slumped to its lowest level since it has been measured
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by poles.
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Now, we know that pride is the very first sin.
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So having some humility is a good thing.
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Still, we live in very precarious times.
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In 1998, 70% of Americans believed that patriotism was very important.
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Today it is just 38%.
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Only 58% express that they are extremely or very proud of America with certain demographics
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with substantially lower scores.
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Clearly, there are many reasons for this, but a large one is that we don't bother to
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teach or learn what makes America an exceptional nation.
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Only 20% of students are proficient in civics, and only 13% are considered proficient in
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history.
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Stayed in another way, 80% of our students are not proficient in civics, and 87% are
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not proficient in history.
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We are academically bankrupt.
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Now why would we expect our students and citizens to embrace patriotism when they don't
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even understand the basics of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, or our history?
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Judge Warren, as a former member of the State Board of Education in Michigan, can
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attest to how poorly schools across the nation teach the Declaration of Independence.
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This is extremely troubling.
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The whole point of public education was threefold, reason first, to teach students how to read,
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so they could read scripture and be saved.
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Second, to assimilate immigrant populations into the polity.
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Third, to learn about civics and history so that students could be fully engaged and
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educated citizens.
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And we seem to fail in large measures on all three.
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First, our illiteracy rates are too high, and our reading levels are too low for way
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too many of our students.
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Second, because many schools don't teach civics and history well, students can hardly
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become attached to the republic.
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Third, many of our founding fathers believed that a republic could only survive if the
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people were virtuous and to be virtuous, they would need not only a grounded moral code,
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but they would need to truly understand world and American history.
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In brace the Declaration of Independence and defend the Constitution.
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However, civics and history have been relegated to the back burner, low priority subjects.
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What should be first is last.
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Moreover, many schools are now teaching anti-American curriculum that denigrate and attack our founding
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first principles and history.
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As Judge Warren's book America Survive a Guide Documents, studies upon studies reveal
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that are K through 12 students, college students, and the general public struggle with even the
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basics of American history and civics.
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When he wrote the book more than 15 years ago, just a little more than half of the people
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could identify the three branches of government.
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Now, it's less than half.
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This really isn't that hard.
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It's the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
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If we are to emerge through this tumultuous period as a strong, unified, and free people,
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we must understand and embrace the foundation of our freedoms and equality.
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That's why this episode goes to the heart of the American Experiment and Self-Government
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to give us all a refresher on the most fundamental document in American history, the Declaration
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of Independence.
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This episode is being released on the July 4th holiday in 2025.
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And actually, July 4th is a terrible name.
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It's more accurately named Independence Day.
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One of the earlier episodes we released was a recitation of the full text of the Declaration
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of Independence.
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That was a solo episode by Judge Warren.
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And that was before he got great help from a trio of cold narrators, the dynamic David
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Derwicky, me, Mike Gerard, and bombastic Brent Bassett.
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Since then, we have literally gone line by line and sometimes word by word through the
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Declaration of Independence and now are doing the same thing with the Constitution.
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And if you haven't listened to those prior episodes, they're evergreen.
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So please enjoy our catalog.
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And today, we're interrupting our review of the Constitution and returning to recite
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the full Declaration of Independence in honor of Independence Day.
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And even if you've heard all of our prior episodes, you can never really hear the Declaration
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of Independence too much, especially on or near Independence Day.
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Plus, this episode does have some new insights.
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An incase you're not familiar, Judge Warren actually has a tradition of reading the entire
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Declaration of Independence on Independence Day.
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He usually has a big bash and requires each attendee, even little kids, to read a sentence
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or two.
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And now you can join in on all the fun and start your own tradition by reciting the Declaration
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of Independence or just listen here if need be.
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And on behalf of all of us here at Patriot Lessons to all of you listening, Happy Independence Day.
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The Declaration of Independence is vitally important because it explained why American colonists
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threw off the shackles of British oppression and became independent of the British Empire.
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It also explained for Americans that our country is based on the first principles of the rule
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of law, unalienable rights, limited government, the social compact, equality and the right
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to alter or abolish oppressive government.
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As Judge Warren has written in his book America's Survival Guide, the Declaration of Independence
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is the pole star, the guiding light for revolutionary changes in America after 1776.
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Abolitionists harken to the Declaration of Independence when fighting to abolish slavery.
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They pointed out how can the country found it on the ideal that all men are equal are
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part of the social compact and have unalienable rights defending the institution of slavery.
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Over the long term, it could not.
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Frederick Douglass in an Independence Day speech in Rochester, New York reflected on the
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magnificence of the Declaration.
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Fellow citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this Republic.
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The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men.
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They were great men too, great enough to give fame to a great age.
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It does not often happen to a nation to raise at one time such a number of truly great men.
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The point from which I am compelled to view them is not certainly the most favorable,
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and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration.
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They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did and the principles they
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contended for I will unite with you to honor their memory.
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Douglass was speaking here years before the Civil War and the emancipation of the enslaved.
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He was painfully aware of the hypocrisy of slavery in the land of the free and hit his audience
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with a searing indictment of the failure of the land of the free to live up to its first principles.
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What to the American slave is your fourth of July?
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I answer a day that reveals to him more than all other days in the year the gross injustice and
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cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham, your boasted liberty
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and unholy license, your national greatness swelling vanity, your sounds of rejoicing are empty
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and heartless, your denunciations of tyrants brass fronted impudence, your shouts of liberty and
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equality hollow mockery, your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgiving with all your
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religious parade and salemnity are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety and hypocrisy,
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a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.
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There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people
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of the United States at this very hour. Douglass was an amazing order, perhaps the best in American
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history and I dare say no one today measures up. Douglass and many other abolitionists
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used the declaration to demand emancipation. There is no question that the abolitionist embraced
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the declaration as the great argument for eliminating slavery. They profoundly argued that all men
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and women were children of God and that they were all equal before God and therefore it was a
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violation of God's will and the natural law to place large swaths of people in chains.
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They also pointed out that being equal every person had the right to have their unalienable
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rights respected and to be part of the social compact. This belief animated Abraham Lincoln's
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emancipation proclamation and the ratification of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery,
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the 14th Amendment that required all persons to have the equal protection of the law and the 15th
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Amendment which gave all men the right to vote. Likewise, the declaration of independence was
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the motivating cause of the suffrage movement. How could a country found it on the ideal that all
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people are equal are part of the social compact and have unalienable rights, defend denying women
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the right to vote and equal protection under the law. Over the long run, it could not. Elizabeth
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Cady Stanton, who was a leading light in the women's suffrage movement, drafted the Senate
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of Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions in 1848 which mimicked the Declaration of Independence,
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including the Immortal Fraze. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women
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are created equal. Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and their successors used the Declaration of
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Independence as the intellectual ammunition that achieved women's suffrage. They pointed out that
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women as children of God were created equal, were endowed with unalienable rights and belonged
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in the social compact. Their struggle culminated in the adoption of the 19th Amendment,
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granting all women the right to vote, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requiring women
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to be treated equally in employment and similar settings. And the Declaration of Independence was
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called upon during the civil rights struggles of the 20th century. Giants like Martin Luther King
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Jr. and Thurgood Marshall called upon the Declaration of Independence's embrace of the equality of men
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as the intellectual bulwark for ending segregation and truly giving people of all races a stake in
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the American experiment. In his I Have a Dream speech, Martin Luther King called upon the
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unfulfilled promise of the Declaration. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up,
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live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are
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created. I have a dream that one day on the red hill of the jaw, the sons of former slaves and
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the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
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I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi are state sweltering with the
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heater injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression,
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be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream.
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My poor little children, one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of
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their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream.
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Yes, he was truly an amazing speaker and this line of thinking eventually led to this
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historic civil rights acts of the 20th century. And today some advocates for the LGBTQ
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plus community are doing the exact same thing, calling upon the Declaration as support for being
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treated equally in employment, marriage and other areas of American life. Now we are not suggesting
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that America has finished striving for equality between the races and genders far from it.
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But we need to recognize just how far we have come and that the progress we have made was in large
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measure due to our commitment to fulfill the promises of the Declaration of Independence.
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Plus, the effect of the Declaration of Independence goes far beyond the United States.
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Although it is an intensely American document and rooted in the American experience,
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there is no doubt that it expresses universal first principles that should apply everywhere.
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Our podcast statistics reveal that we have listeners from across the world and we love that.
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This show really is meant for a global audience and we are so pleased to reach out to people everywhere.
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If you agree, please share and follow this show with family, friends and others interested in our
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topics regardless of where you live. And get them started with this episode as we focus on both the
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most American and the most universal document in the American experience, the one that started it all.
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In 1839, John Quincy Adams explained how the Declaration is universal and timeless.
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The truths are the Declaration of Independence are not limited by time or place. They belong to the
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nature of man and every age and in every climb. They may be subdued but they can never be suppressed.
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They are truths at Constantinople and Peking, at London and at Paris, at Charleston and at Philadelphia.
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Indeed, over the generations, the Declaration of Independence has inspired many across the globe.
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Australian commentator Charles Edel, writing for the Washington Post, observed,
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The Declaration was written to justify the independence of the early American Republic.
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But its message of unalienable rights, equality and liberty have echoed through time and
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across borders. This message speaks to men and women seeking freedom from oppressive governments.
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In fact, British-born Harvard professor David Armitage has written an entire book about the
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global reach of the Declaration, the Declaration of Independence, a global history. And in
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address at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, he explained how unique and impactful the Declaration
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truly is. The Declaration of Independence may have had special significance for Americans at that
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point and it certainly did, but as Jefferson prophesied its power as a symbol was potentially
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global in extent. Even during Jefferson's own lifetime, the Declaration had already become
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something more practical than a symbol, in fact. It provided the model for similar declarations
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of independence around the world that declared the independence of other peoples and states.
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Even by the time that Jefferson himself wrote in 1826, the American Declaration had been joined by
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more than 30 other declarations of independence from Northern and Southern Europe, from the Caribbean,
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from Central America and from South America. There are more than 20 declarations of independence
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after 1810, just in Central America and in Spanish America alone. None of those documents would have
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existed without the model of the American Declaration of Independence. None of the later declarations
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of independence around the world that I'll refer to later would have existed either at the moment
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which we speak, more than one half of the countries represented at the United Nations have a
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document that they call a Declaration of Independence. I'll talk about some of the differences between
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those documents and the American document in a moment, but the very model, what I call in my book,
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in particular, the very genre of a Declaration of Independence was undoubtedly invented in June and
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July 1776. I say this with some regret, I have to say, when I began writing this book some years ago,
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I was expecting that it would be a whole chapter at the beginning on all the declarations of
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independence before 1776. I came to this as a British historian, an Atlantic historian. You may
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have picked up, I'm not an American, I'm going to take American citizenship later this year, but I came
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to this topic thinking I'm going to smash American exceptionalism. I'm going to have a whole
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whole chapter about all the other declarations of independence. The first one wasn't invented on
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the Fourth of July. I'm going to take down that miss, but I'm a good enough historian that after a
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year of searching in the archives and the documents, there are no precedent. There are no precedent.
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Well, that was a long clip, but he says it better than we can summarize the global impact of the
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Declaration. However, the Declaration's adoption has hardly been universal, and at times it has been
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perverted to do great evil. Armitage's book further explains, as narrated by bombastic
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Brent Bassett. In September 1945, the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh opened his declarative independence
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with the immortal statement from the 1776 declaration. All men are created equal. They are endowed by
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their creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
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happiness. However, Ho immediately updated those words. In a broader sense, this means all the
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peoples of the earth are equal from birth. All the peoples have a right to live, to be happy, and free.
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It would be hard to find a more concise summary of the message of the Declaration
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for the post-colonial predicaments of the late 20th century.
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Unfortunately, Ho Chi Minh's announced commitment to the first principles of the Declaration of
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Independence were overshadowed by a murderous communist tyranny which slaughtered approximately
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a million people. That's right, Mike Gerard. That is why it's so important to actually know
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what the Declaration of Independence truly means. It can be our most powerful defense against
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tyrannical action, and it can also be perverted into a monstrous excuse for genocide.
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We really need to understand it and defend its true meaning. As Armitage confirms, we were the
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first country in human history to lay out in writing while we believed when we forged our nation.
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We laid out our origins, purpose, and the founding first principles in the Declaration of
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Independence. Those first principles are on alenaborites, limited government, the social compact
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equality, the rule of law, and the right to ought to orbihlsh an oppressive government.
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When we recite the Declaration today, we won't be stopping the comment on the text.
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That is for past or future episodes. And trust me, if you haven't listened to our series before,
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those episodes take deep dives in every sentence, phrase, and sometimes word of the Declaration.
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But today we will address a small morsel of the historical background to help you gain a better
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understanding of the drafting of the Declaration. Bambastic Brunt Bassett will take it from here.
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Beginning with the passage of the Sugar Act in 1764 and Stamp Act in 1765, the British began to
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oppress the colonists. This oppression is detailed in the listing of grievances in the Declaration.
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On April 19, 1775, the first shots of the revolution were fired at Lexington and Concord,
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and we have an episode all about that too. With the outbreak of fighting in the colonies against
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British oppression, the British closed down and dissolved various colonial legislative bodies.
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In response, Virginia created a revolutionary government called the Virginia Convention.
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On May 15, 1776, the Virginia Convention passed a resolution instructing Virginia's delegates
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in the Second Continental Congress to propose to Congress that it should declare the United
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Colonies free and independent states absolved from all allegiance to or dependents upon the Crown
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or Parliament of Great Britain. In accordance with his states instructions and egged on by John Adams,
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on June 2, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia moved that the Second Continental Congress
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adopt the following resolution of independence. Resolved that these United Colonies are
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and of right ought to be free and independent states that they are absolved from all allegiance
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to the British Crown and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain
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is and ought to be totally dissolved. That it is expedient forthwith to take the most
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effectual measures for forming foreign alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared
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and transmitted to the respective colonies for the consideration and approbation.
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John Adams seconded the motion. However, wanting to ensure that all their states supported the
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resolution, Congress decided to delay consideration of the resolution until July. Meanwhile,
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on June 10, the Congress decided that it should explain the reasons for independence.
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If it was approved by issuing a declaration of independence, most people attribute authorship
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of the Declaration of Independence to Thomas Jefferson. And like much of what you learned in high school,
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it is partially true. On June 11, the Second Continental Congress appointed a committee of five
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men to draft the declaration. The most famous member was Benjamin Franklin. He was a worldwide
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celebrity. At the time, he clearly was the most notable and famous American in the world.
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From Pennsylvania, he was a printer, inventor, author, cultural and political critic,
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diplomat and political leader. He was the only member of the committee who was not a lawyer.
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Another member was John Adams. He had eminently and successfully defended the soldiers who
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committed the Boston massacre. And he did so to protect liberty and to show the British that
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Massachusetts followed the rule of law. He was a leading patriot in Boston, the epicenter of
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colonial resistance to British oppression. He was also the driving force to the adoption of
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the resolution of proving independence. Roger Sherman from Connecticut was a former judge
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and extremely active member of Congress, who served on several key committees. He was widely
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respected for his hard work and political acumen. He and only he signed the Continental Association,
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the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.
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New Yorker Robert Livingston actively opposed British oppression as early as the Stamp Act,
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was likely a New York member of the Sons of Liberty and a leading political leader in New York.
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And then of course, there was Thomas Jefferson, a wealthy aristocratic member of the planter class
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in Virginia. He was only 33 and caught the eye of Adams and the Continental Congress when he
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wrote in 1774 a searing indictment of British oppression. The pamphlet was entitled a summary
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view of the rights of British America and it eloquently attacked the British for attempting to
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squash freedom in America. The Congress likely expected Adams to primarily draft the Declaration.
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However, Adams had other ideas. He wanted Jefferson's eloquence to lead the day.
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Adams later wrote that he and Jefferson discussed the matter and that Adams pointedly told
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Jefferson to write it. Jefferson responded by asserting that Adams should do so. Adams replied,
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I will not. Reasons enough. Jefferson replied, what can be your reasons?
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Reason first, you are a Virginia and a Virginia ought to appear at the head of this business.
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Reason second, I am a noxious, suspected and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third,
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you can write ten times better than I can. Jefferson relented. He got to work and then shared
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his draft with the committee. Adams and Franklin made some suggestions which Jefferson readily accepted.
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The final draft was completed and submitted to Congress in late June and then a raging debate
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began on Monday, July 1st. Jefferson never said a word while the Congress sliced and diced some
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of the drafts. Through critiques, felt like dagger blows. Adams, on the other hand, defended the
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initial draft with all his power. But Congress would have its way and there were significant revisions,
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many of which improved the flow, tempo, vibrancy and meaning of the draft, and some which were
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unforgivable. The most infamous of these was deleting a passage condemning the king for perpetuating
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the slave trade. Meanwhile, the Congress debated Richard Henry Lee's resolution for independence and
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approved it on July 2nd. On July 4th, the Declaration explaining Lee's resolution was ratified.
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A final version of the Declaration was drawn up and signed on August 2nd. That's a long way of
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saying independence was technically established on July 2nd, 1776. That's when the Second
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Constantinople Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, approved Richard Henry Lee's resolution,
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severing all ties with the English Empire and creating a new country. But we celebrate that
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independence on July 4th because it was then that the Congress approved the Declaration,
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which explained why we had become a new nation and the nation knew that it had given birth to a
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nation completely unique in human history. And now is the time for our reading. Gather your friends
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and family around to listen, it's good to be free and understand the foundation of our liberties.
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And here we go.
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In Congress, July 4th, 1776, the unanimous Declaration of the 13 United States of America.
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When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the
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political bans that have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the
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earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's got entitle them.
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A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which
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impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal,
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that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life,
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liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted
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among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form
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of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish
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and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing
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its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.
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Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for
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light and transient causes, and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more
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disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to write themselves by abolishing the forms
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to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
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the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right,
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it is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security.
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Such has been the patient's sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity
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which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present
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king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct
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object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted
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to a candid world. He has refused his ascent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the
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public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance,
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unless suspended in their operation till his ascent shall be obtained, and when so suspended,
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he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the
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accommodation of large districts of people unless those people would relinquish the right of
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representation in the legislature, a right in estinable to them and formidable the tyrants only.
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He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable and distant from
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the depository of their public records for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with
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his measures. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for pressing with mainly
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firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time after such
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dissolutions to cause others to be elected whereby the legislative powers incapable of annihilation
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have returned to the people at large for their exercise. The state remaining in the meantime
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exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsions within.
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He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states. For that purpose, obstructing the
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laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither
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and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of
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justice by refusing his ascent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges
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dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices and the amount in payment of their
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salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to
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harass our people and eat out their substance. He has kept among us in times of peace,
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standing armies without the consent of our legislature. He has affected to render the military
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independent of and superior to civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a
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jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws giving his ascent to
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their acts of pretended legislation for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us,
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for protecting them by mock trial from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the
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inhabitants of these states, for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world,
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for imposing taxes on us without our consent, for depriving us in many cases of the benefits of
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trial by jury, for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses, for abolishing
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the free system of English laws and a neighboring province, establishing their in and arbitrary
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government and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument
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for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies. For taking away our charters,
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abolishing our most valuable laws and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments,
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for suspending our own legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us
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in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection
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and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coast, burned our towns and
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destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of forward mercenaries
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to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with the circumstances of
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cruelty and perfidy, scarcely, paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the
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of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow citizens taking captive in the high seas to
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bear arms against their country to become the executioners of their friends and brethren,
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or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us,
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and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages,
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whose known rule of warfare is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sex and conditions.
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In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms,
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our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus
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marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
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Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time
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of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.
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We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed
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to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common
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kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondents.
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We must therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation and hold them
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as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends.
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We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general Congress,
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assembled, appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions,
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due in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, silently publish
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and declare that these United colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states,
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that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political
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connection between them and the state of Great Britain is an ought to be totally dissolved.
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And that as free and independent states, they have the full power to lovey war, conclude peace,
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contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states
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may have right do. And for the support of this declaration, with the firm reliance on the
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protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and
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our sacred honor.
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Francis Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon,
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Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Samuel Adams,
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John Adams, Robert Treat Payne, Elbridge Gary, Steven Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman,
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Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, Matthew Thornton.
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Dear Patriots, thank you for listening to the profound words of the Declaration of Independence.
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Some key takeaways from this episode. The United States of America became independent
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in July 2nd, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress approved a resolution of independence,
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proposed by Richard Henry Lee, and seconded by John Adams. The Declaration of Independence was
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drafted by Committee of Five, primarily by Thomas Jefferson, with assistance from Committee
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members Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, with significant revisions by the Second Continental
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Congress. The Declaration was approved on July 4th. The Declaration is a monumental pivot point in
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history, forming for the first time a government established on the self-evident truths of the
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first principles of unalienable rights, limited government, the social compact, equality, the rule of
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law, and the right to alter or abolish an oppressive government. The Declaration has been a major
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force for fundamental reform in America, in connection with the abolition of slavery, the
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enfranchisement of women, and civil rights. The Declaration of Independence declares universal
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principles that have had a strong and powerful influence across the globe. Please join us next time
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when we continue our exploration of the Constitution. Until then, have a blessed Independence Day.
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God bless you and God bless America.
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Thank you our fellow Patriots for listening. Please subscribe to our podcast and rate us. That is,
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if you're going to give us those five golden stars, we can be found on Apple Podcasts,
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Google Play, Spotify, and many other platforms. You can also find much more at PatriotWeek.org,
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which includes videos, lesson plans, TV episodes, and many other goodies. Patriot Week is celebrated
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every year from September 11th, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, through September 17th,
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the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution. It has been recognized by the US Senate and many
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states. Patriot Week was started by then 10-year-old Leo Warren when she pounded on the table and
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demanded a new celebration of America. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and on Instagram,
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or reach out directly at mworenatpatriotweek.org. Also consider Judge Warren's book, America's Survival Guide,
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How to Stop America's Impending Suicide by Reclaiming Our First Principles and History,
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by visiting AmericaSurvivalGuide.com, Amazon, or any other online retailer. Until next time,
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God bless you and God bless America.