I Pledge Allegiance To The Flag of The
This land is
my land, this land is your land
From
From the
redwood forest to the gulf stream waters
This land
was made for you and me.
God Bless
Land that I
love
Stand
beside her
And Guide
Her
Through the
night
With the light
from above
Oh Say Can
You See
By The
Dawn’s Early Light
What so
proudly we hailed
At the
twilight’s last gleaming
Who’s Broad
Stripes and Bright Stars
Through The
Perilous Fight
Or The
Ramparts We Watched
Were So
Gallantly Streaming
And The
Rockets Red Glare
The Bombs
Bursting In Air
Gave Proof Through The Night
That Our
Flag Was Still There
Oh Say Does
That Star Spangled Banner Yet Wave
O’re The Land Of The Free
And The
Home Of The Brave
My Country Tis Of The
To Thee I
Sing
Land Where
My Fathers Died
From Every
Mountain Side
Let Freedom
Ring
Oh
Beautiful For Spacious Skies
For Amber
Waves Of Grain
For
Above The
Fruited Plain
God Shed
His Grace On Thee
And Found
Thy Good
With
Brotherhood
From Sea to
Shining Sea
The Declaration Of
IN CONGRESS,
A DECLARATION
By the REPRESENTATIVES of the
In GENERAL CONGRESS assembled
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,
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 out 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 and
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 British 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
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
as Free and
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
Fortunes, and our sacred
Honor.
JOHN
HANCOCK, President
Attest.
CHARLES
THOMSON, Secretary.
SIGNERS
Adams,
John MA Lawyer
Adams,
Samuel MA Political leader
Bartlett,
Josiah NH Physician, Judge
Braxton,
Carter VA
Farmer
Carroll,
Charles of
Chase,
Samuel MD Judge
Clark,
Abraham NJ Surveyor
Clymer,
George PA Merchant
Ellery,
William RI Lawyer
Floyd,
William NY Soldier
Franklin,
Benjamin PA Printer, Publisher
Gerry,
Elbridge MA Merchant
Gwinnett,
Hall,
Hancock,
John MA Merchant
Harrison,
Benjamin VA Farmer
Hart,
John NJ Farmer
Hewes, Joseph NC Merchant
Heyward, Thomas
Jr. SC Lawyer, Farmer
Hooper,
William NC Lawyer
Hopkins,
Stephen RI Judge, Educator
Hopkinson, Francis NJ Judge, Author
Huntington,
Samuel CT Judge
Jefferson,
Thomas VA Lawyer
Lee,
Francis Lightfoot VA Farmer
Lee,
Richard Henry VA Farmer
Lewis,
Francis NY Merchant
Livingston,
Philip NY Merchant
Lynch,
Thomas Jr. SC Farmer
McKean,
Thomas DE
Lawyer
Middleton,
Arthur SC Farmer
Morris,
Lewis NY Farmer
Morris,
Robert PA Merchant
Morton,
John PA Judge
Nelson,
Thomas Jr. VA Farmer
Paca, William MD Judge
Paine,
Robert Treat MA Judge
Penn,
John NC Lawyer
Read,
George DE Judge
Rodney,
Caesar DE Judge
Ross,
George PA
Judge
Rush,
Benjamin PA Physician
Rutledge,
Edward SC Lawyer
Sherman,
Smith,
James PA Lawyer
Stockton,
Richard NJ Lawyer
Stone,
Thomas MD Lawyer
Taylor,
George PA Ironmaster
Thornton,
Matthew NH Physician
Walter,
George GA Judge
Whipple,
William NH Merchant, Judge
Williams,
Wilson,
James PA Judge
Witherspoon,
John NJ Educator
Wolcott,
Oliver CT Judge
Wythe,
George VA Lawyer
The Preamble of the Constitution
of The