gotten

war. It is well enough to divert people, for a moment, so that they are refreshed; but no one has the right to co

can judge the necessity of all projects; and although our destiny, and the means to fulfill it, are written into it, the Declaration is the forgotten document of American history

the character and history of the American people is explained in the forgotten details of the Declaration; and nothing in

for our future evolves from this; moreover the unnecessary action is likewise defined. Our course before we were attacked and our plans for the world after the war may seem the mere play of prejudice and chance; but the destiny of Ameri

of the Declaration, but it does not attempt to indicate a course of

Germans or accept the view that the German

Declaration, proves that Germans are capable

tly with any single nation or

er the Declaration,

gulating specific economic problems, such

is against, everything in ou

sfully without accepting the active

only way we can lose the war is by

laration; I am sure that the whole grand plan of civilian unity (the plan of morale and propaganda) has to return to the leading lines of our history, if we want to act quickly, ha

nd the peace, we must be aware of our history and of the prin

It May

parts and all of them have

but if we remember that days were spent in revision and the effect of every word was calculated, we can ass

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 en

rica is based on human necessity-no

t a nation. It invokes first Nature

hrase; the habit of nations, to enslave or be e

the first utterance of America is addressed not to the nati

Nature-Nature

bed one of them of their power-because they were not fad-words, not the catchwords of a revolution; they

successful; we have failed only when we have addressed ourselves to governments. The time is rapidly coming when our only communication with Europe

gic of

the one with all the quotations. Ther

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 experiences 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, evidence a design to reduce them

e signers now appear for the first time, they say "we hold", they say that, to themselves, certain truths are self-evident. The first three of "these truths" are some general statements about "all men"; the fourth and fifth tell why governments are established and why they should be overthrown. These two are

n of the Declaration. The Declaration, it happens, never mentions the right to own property; but the argument for revolution is essentially the same: when a government ceases to function, it should be overthrown. The critical point is the definition of the

totalitarian State-for that State has all the inalienab

has been taken; and immediately we see that our historic opposition to Old Europe is of a piece with our present opposition to Hitler. The purpose o

protect their rights "derive their just powers from the consent of the governed". Always realistic, the Declaration recognizes the tendency of governors to reach out for power and to absorb whatever the people fail t

mpressed by the idea of any right being ours "for keeps", inalienable; and we have never thought much about the fundamental radicalism of the Declaration: tha

al-their equality lies

s cannot be

set up to prev

of the people is given by t

fails, the people give

of the Declaration the purpose of ou

int of

omplaint against George the Third. But the grievances of the Colonials were not high-pitched trifles; every complaint rises out of a definite desire to live under a decent government; and the whole list is like a picture, seen in negative, of th

Laws, the most wholesome and

mportance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be

f people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in

ortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for

peatedly, for opposing with manly firmness

slative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the S

nt", reserved for se

of Justice, by refusing his Assent to

alone, for the tenure of their offices, an

and sent hither swarms of Officers to hara

f peace, Standing Armies, without

e Military Independent of and

States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of Trial by jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to

e by declaring us out of his Pro

ed our Coasts, burnt our towns, an

death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarce

ive on the high Seas to bear Arms against friends

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 attention 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 j

of denunciation fall int

arted representa

bstructe

military abo

es without the con

ished the r

the way of the growth and

d to rule them, because

gnifies these things about

th the consent, by the repr

law, and would not tolerate any power s

ucrats, wanted to adjust their own taxes, and were afr

rest of the world, and no rest

ded to be

selves freemen and p

dheads. Little in the whole list reflects the special conditions of life in the colonies; troops had been quartered in Ireland, trial by jury suspended in England, tyrants then a

ctical

n government. And, with profound insight into the material conditions of their existence, they foreshadowed the entire

cting the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage

rica; if we understand it, we can go forward to understand our situation today. The other complaints point toward our systems of law, our militia, our constant rebellion against taxes, our mild appreciation of civil duties, o

Crown for obstructing the two pr

igr

nee

factors. Naturalization is the formal recognition of the deep underlying truth, the new thing in the new world, that on

g and his ministers threw the dam of Royal Prerogative; they meant to keep the colonies, and they knew they could not keep them if men from many lands came in as citizens; and they meant to keep the virgin lands from the Appalachians to the Mississippi-or as much of it as they could take from the Spaniards and the French. So as far back as 1763, the Crown took over all title to the 250,000 square miles of land which are now Indiana and Illinois and Michigan and Minnesota, the best land lying beyond the Alleghenies. Into this territory no man could enter; none could settle; no squatters' right was recognized; no common law ran. Suddenly the na

ca, was stopped; the inward movement, across the land, was stopped. The energies of America had always expressed themselves in mo

ople afterward chose to call "the American dream" was no dream; it was then, and it remained, the substantia

h and well-born who framed the Constitution. As Charles Beard is often made the authority for this econo

states were

born and of the dead-h

lification was never accepted and i

laration, created the Northwest Territory, the heart of America for a hundred years, in a

of the United States of America", the signers declare that "these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States...." In this clear insight, the Declaration says that the things separat

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, co

dependent States, the new nation arro

lev

lude

ct all

ish co

had to be separately written down; three of them-war-peace-alliances-are wholly international; the fourth, commerce, at least partly so. The si

edcoats in our midst; it is the beginning of our national, domestic life, but only because it takes the rule of our life out of English hands; and the mom

but if we live, life for all Europe, also. Like parachute troops, our address to Europe must precede our armies; we have to know what to say to Europ