Breaking Up With Britain: A Revolutionary Breakup Letter

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"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." These revolutionary words launched not just a nation but a radical new concept of governance that would transform the world. The Declaration of Independence represents America's founding philosophy - a bold assertion that legitimate political authority flows from the people themselves, not from monarchs or bloodlines.

Listen as the full text of this remarkable document unfolds, from its philosophical introduction about unalienable rights through its methodical case against King George III. The Declaration lists twenty-seven specific grievances, each building toward the conclusion that the king had established a "design to reduce them under absolute Despotism." The document's authors painstakingly explain their reluctance to break political ties with Britain, insisting rebellion came only after a "long train of abuses."

Beyond its historical significance, the Declaration contains profound insights about the proper relationship between citizens and government. When it proclaims that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed," it establishes a revolutionary standard for legitimate authority that continues challenging tyranny worldwide. The signers' pledge of "our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor" reminds us of the tremendous personal risk they accepted - each committed high treason against the crown, facing execution if the revolution failed.

Take this opportunity to reconnect with the actual words that founded our nation rather than simplified summaries. What strikes you most about this founding document? Share your thoughts and reflections as we celebrate these principles of liberty that continue inspiring freedom movements around the world nearly 250 years later.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
In Congress, july 4th 1776, the unanimous declaration
of the 13 United States ofAmerica.
When, in the course of humanevents, it becomes necessary for
one people to dissolve thepolitical bands which have

(00:22):
connected them with one anotherthe political bands which have
connected them with one anotherand to assume, among the powers
of the earth, the separate andequal station to which the laws
of nature and of nature's Godentitle them, a decent respect
to the opinions of mankindrequires that they should
declare the causes which impthem into the separation.

(00:45):
We hold these truths to beself-evident that all men are
created equal.
That they are endowed by theircreator with certain unalienable
rights.
That among these are life,liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.
That to secure these rights,governments are instituted among

(01:07):
men, deriving their just powersfrom the consent of the
governed.
That whenever any form ofgovernment becomes destructive
of these ends, it is the rightof the people to alter or to
abolish it and to institute newgovernment laying its foundation

(01:29):
on such principles andorganizing the powers in such
form as to them shall seem mostlikely to affect their safety
and happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictatethat governments long
established should not bechanged for light and transient

(01:49):
causes, and accordingly.
All experience has shown thatmankind are sufferable than to
write themselves by abolishingthe forms to which they are

(02:10):
accustomed.
But when a long train of abusesand usurp it, usurp it you, oh
my gosh.
Usurpations pursuing invariablythe same object, evinces a

(02:31):
design to reduce them underabsolute despotism.
It is their right, it is theirduty, to throw off such
government and to provide newguards for their future security
.
Such has been the patientsufferance of these colonies and
such is now the necessity whichconstrains them to alter their

(02:55):
former systems of government.
The history of the present Kingof Great Britain is a history of
repeated injuries andusurpations, all having in
direct object the establishmentof an absolute tyranny over the
states, over these states.
To prove this, let facts besubmitted to a candid world.

(03:18):
He has refused his assent tolaws the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governorsto pass laws of immediate and
pressing importance unlesssuspended in their operation

(03:38):
until his assent should beobtained, and when so suspended,
he has utterly neglected toattend to them.
He has refused to pass otherlaws for the accommodation of
large districts of people unlessthose people would relinquish
the right of representation inthe legislature, a right,

(04:00):
inestimable to them andformidable to tyrants only.
He has called togetherlegislative bodies at places
unusual, uncomfortable anddistant from depository of their
public records, for the solepurpose of fatiguing them into
compliance with his measures.

(04:22):
He has dissolved representativehouses repeatedly for opposing
with manly firmness hisinvasions on the rights of the
people.
He has refused for a long time,after such disillusions, to
cause others to be elected,whereby the legislative powers,
incapable of annihilation, havereturned to the people at large

(04:45):
for their exercise, the stateremaining in the mean time
exposed to all the dangers ofinvasion without and convulsions
within.
He has endeavored to presentthe population of these states
for that purpose, obstructingthe laws of naturalization of

(05:06):
foreigners, refusing to passothers to encourage their
migrations hither and raisingthe conditions of new
appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed theadministration of justice by
refusing to assent to laws forestablishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent onhis will alone for the tenure

(05:30):
of their offices and the amountand payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude oftheir offices and the amount and
payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude ofnew offices and sent hither
swarms of officers to harass ourpeople and eat out their
substance.
He has kept among us, in timesof peace, standing armies
without the consent of ourlegislatures.

(05:51):
He has affected to render themilitary independent of and
superior to the civil power.
He has combined with others tosubject us to a jurisdiction
foreign to our Constitution andunacknowledged by our laws,
giving his assent to their actsof pretended legislation for
quartering large bodies of armedtroops among us.

(06:13):
Legislation for quarteringlarge bodies of armed troops
among us for protecting them bya mock trial from punishment for
any murders which they shouldcommit on the inhabitants of
these states.
For cutting off our trade withour all parts of the world.
For imposing taxes on uswithout our consent.
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by

(06:33):
jury.
For transporting us beyond seasto be tried for pretended
offenses.
For abolishing the free systemof English laws in a neighboring
province, establishing thereinarbitrary government and
enlarging its boundaries so asto render it at once an example
and fit instrument forintroducing the same absolute

(06:57):
rule into these colonies.
For taking away our charters,abolishing our most valuable
laws and altering fundamentallythe forms of our governments.
For suspending our ownlegislatures and declaring
themselves invested with powerto legislate for us in all cases
whatsoever.
He has abdicated government hereby declaring us out of his

(07:20):
protection and waging waragainst us.
He has plundered our seas,ravaged our coasts, burnt our
towns and destroyed the lives ofour people.
He is at this time transportinglarge armies of foreign
mercenaries to complete theworks of death, desolation and

(07:40):
tyranny already begun, withcircumstances of cruelty and
perfidy scarcely paralleled inthe most barbarous ages and
totally unworthy the head of acivilized nation.
Barbarous ages and totallyunworthy the head of a civilized
nation he has.

(08:00):
He has excited domesticinsurrections amongst us and has
endeavored to bring on theinhabitants of our frontiers the
merciless indian savages whoseknown rule of warfare is an
undistinguished destruction ofall ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of theseoppressions we have petitioned

(08:20):
for redress in the most humbleterms.
Our repeated petitions havebeen answered only by repeated
injury.
A prince whose character isthus marked by every act which
may define a tyrant as unfit tobe the ruler of the free people.
Nor have we been wanting inattentions to our British

(08:42):
brethren.
We have warned them from timeto time of attempts by their
legislature to extend anunwarrantable jurisdiction over
us.
We have reminded them of thecircumstances of our immigration
and settlement here.
We have reminded them of thecircumstances of our immigration
and settlement here.
We have appealed to theirnative justice and magnanimity

(09:04):
and have conjured them, by theties of our common kindred, to
disavow these usurpations whichwould inevitably interrupt our
connections and correspondence,inevitably interrupt our
connections and correspondence.
They too have been deaf to thevoices of justice and of
conjuguity.
We must therefore acquiesce inthe necessity which denounces

(09:30):
our separation and hold them aswe hold the rest of mankind.
Enemies in war, in peace,friends.
We therefore, therepresentatives of the United
States of America and GeneralCongress assembled, appealing to
the Supreme Judge of the worldfor the rectitude of our

(09:52):
intentions due, in the name andby authority of the good people
of these colonies, in the nameand by authority of the good
people of these colonies,solemnly publish and declare
that these united colonies are,and the right ought to be, free
and independent states, thatthey are absolved from all
allegiance to the british crownand that all political
connection between them and thestates of great britain is, and

(10:15):
ought to be totally dissolved,and that, as free and
independent states, we have fullpower to levy war, conclude
peace, contract alliances,establish commerce and to do all
other acts and things whichindependent states may have
right due and for the support ofthis Declaration.

(10:38):
With a firm reliance on theprotection of divine providence,
we mutually pledge to eachother our lives, our fortune and
our sacred honor.
Amen.