Mountain Views News     Logo: MVNews     Saturday, July 4, 2015

MVNews this week:  Page B:2

Mountain Views News Saturday July 4, 2015 
B2 THE DECLARATION 
The Declaration of Independence: 


A TRANSCRIPTION 

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. 

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 

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.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; 
and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct 
object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. 


He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend 
to them. 
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable 
to tyrants only. 
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State 
remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the 
conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
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 combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: 
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for 
introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
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, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction 
of all ages, sexes and conditions. 


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 


Note: The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated. 

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Column 6 
Georgia: 
Button Gwinnett 
Lyman Hall 
George Walton 
North Carolina: 
William Hooper 
Joseph Hewes 
John Penn 
South Carolina:
Massachusetts: 
John Hancock 
Maryland:
Samuel Chase 
William Paca 
Pennsylvania: 
Robert Morris 
Benjamin Rush 
Benjamin Franklin 
John MortonNew York: 
William Floyd 
Philip Livingston 
Francis Lewis 
Lewis Morris 
New Hampshire: 
Josiah Bartlett 
William WhippleMassachusetts: 
Samuel Adams 
Edward Rutledge 
Thomas Heyward, Jr. 
Thomas Lynch, Jr. 
Arthur Middleton 
Thomas Stone 
Charles Carroll of Carrollton 
Virginia:
George WytheRichard Henry LeeThomas Jefferson 
Benjamin HarrisonThomas Nelson, Jr. 
Francis Lightfoot LeeCarter Braxton 
George Clymer 
James Smith 
George Taylor 
James Wilson 
George RossDelaware: 
Caesar Rodney 
George Read 
Thomas McKean 
New Jersey: 
Richard Stockton 
John Witherspoon 
Francis Hopkinson 
John Hart 
Abraham Clark 
John Adams 
Robert Treat Paine 
Elbridge GerryRhode Island: 
Stephen Hopkins 
William ElleryConnecticut: 
Roger Sherman 
Samuel Huntington 
William Williams 
Oliver Wolcott 
New Hampshire: 
Matthew Thornton 

SIERRA MADRE CELEBRATES AMERICA 
SIERRA MADRE CIVIC CLUB CONTRIBUTES TO SUMMER FUN 



Nobody does summer fun andthe Fourth of July like SierraMadre. And the Sierra Madre 
Civic Club is right in the midst ofthings providing opportunitiesfor fun for the whole family.
Following up our very successfulConcert in the Park featuringa tribute to the Eagles, CivicClub will be participating in theFourth of July activities by sellingconfetti eggs and sponsoring thegames in the park. 

At 11:00 AM, following theparade, there will be a communitypicnic and celebration in 
Sierra Vista Park, 611 E Sierra 
Madre Blvd, Sierra Madre. The 
games will begin at 12:30PM. 
Participants will take part in 
everything from three-legged 
races, sack races, wheelbarrow 
races, and the bunny hop (for ages6 and under) to the shoe toss, theegg (not hard-boiled!) toss andthe water balloon toss. Chairs 
Darlene Traxler and Sharon 
Murphy emphasize that the 
games are for the entire familysince with the exception of thebunny hop, all the races and theshoe toss have different contests 
for participants in different age 
groups. Indeed, some of our 
fiercest competitors last year 
were the adults while the kids 
were the ones who laughed the 
most. The egg toss and the waterballoon toss are for competitorsof all ages and, as the messiest 

of the contests, generally attractthe most participants and elicitthe most shouts and laughter.
Ribbons will be awarded to the 
winners in all age groups, butreally, everyone who participatescomes away with a smile lookingfor all the world like a winner. 

In addition to coordinatingthe games in the Park, the SierraMadre Civic Club will againbe selling their famous (at leastin Sierra Madre) confetti eggs-
hollowed out egg shells, filledwith confetti, and covered with 
tissue paper. Look for Club 
members in Memorial Park on 
July 3, pulling a little red wagonalong the parade route on July4, and in Sierra Vista Park at 
the community picnic and 
celebration. The confetti eggswill cost $1 for a half dozen, $2 
for a dozen, and $3 for a carton of 
18 eggs. Buy early before we runout so you don’t miss the fun ofhitting someone with an egg andgenerating a smile rather than afrown. 

The Sierra Madre Civic 
Club is a civic and philanthropicorganization that meets the 
second Thursday of every monthat 7:30PM in the Hart Park 
House. 

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