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Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 02:31 pm: | 
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UNITED STATES HISTORY
American Revolution
American Revolution (1775-1783), conflict between 13 British colonies on the eastern seaboard of North America and their parent country, Great Britain. The war resulted in the colonies becoming a separate nation, the United States of America. It is also known as the American War of Independence.
Causes of the Revolution
The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) left Great Britain with the expensive responsibility of administering newly acquired territory in North America. The British Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765 to raise revenue to pay a share of the empire's defense costs. The Stamp Act required the colonists to use specially stamped paper for all official documents, newspapers, and pamphlets. It provoked almost unanimous opposition among the colonists, who regarded it as a violation of the right of English subjects not to be taxed without representation. Riots broke out in colonial cities, and American merchants pledged not to buy British goods. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in March 1766, yielding to the demands of economically depressed British merchants.
In 1767 Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, which imposed taxes on lead, glass, tea, paint, and paper imported by Americans from Britain. Once again the colonists protested vigorously and boycotted British goods. In 1770 a riot occurred between British troops and citizens of Boston (then in the Massachusetts Bay Colony). The troops fired, killing five people in the so-called Boston Massacre.
Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts but retained the tax on tea. In 1773 Parliament passed the Tea Act, reducing the tax on tea in an attempt to rescue the English East India Company from bankruptcy. The colonists refused to buy English tea and would not permit British ships to unload it in Philadelphia and New York City. In Boston, in the so-called Boston Tea Party, a group of citizens dumped cargoes of tea from British ships into Boston Harbor. In retaliation, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774—called the Intolerable Acts by the colonists—which were designed to punish Massachusetts and demonstrate Parliament's sovereignty.
First Continental Congress
The Virginia assembly called for a meeting of representatives from the 13 colonies and Canada to consider joint action against the encroachments on colonial rights. The meeting, known as the First Continental Congress, took place in Philadelphia in September 1774. The Congress attempted to define America's rights, place limits on Parliament's power, and agree on tactics for resisting the Coercive Acts. By the time the Congress adjourned, hostilities had begun between Britain and the colonies.
Lexington and Concord
The first armed encounter of the American Revolution took place in Massachusetts in April 1775. British lieutenant general Thomas Gage was aware that colonial militia members were being trained and reorganized into active elements known as minutemen. On the night of April 18, 1775, Gage sent troops to seize munitions being gathered at Concord. Colonial messengers, including a local silversmith named Paul Revere, rode on horseback into the countryside to give the alarm. On April 19 the British force exchanged fire with militia troops at Lexington, killing eight Americans. The American militia staged a counterattack from the cover of hedges, trees, and buildings, forcing the British to retreat to Boston.
Second Continental Congress and the Siege of Boston
The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775. The delegates established the Congress as the central government for “The United Colonies of America,” adopted the militia troops as their own “Continental Army,” and appointed George Washington as commander in chief. Meanwhile, American troops clashed with the British in the Battle of Bunker Hill. After two failed assaults, British major general William Howe succeeded in penetrating American lines. Although the Americans retreated, British losses far outweighed those of the colonists.
During the winter of 1775-1776 American colonel Henry Knox brought heavy guns and mortars to Boston. In March Washington began setting up the artillery on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston. Howe, taken by surprise, removed his troops from Boston and sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia, to receive reinforcements.
The British Invasion of the North
Washington foresaw that New York City, with its spacious harbor and immediate access to the interior, was the most likely place for the British to launch an invasion. In June 1776 General Howe arrived off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, with a fleet commanded by his brother, Admiral Richard Howe. The fleet was carrying the strongest expeditionary force Britain had ever sent overseas.
As both sides prepared for battle, American reluctance to declare independence was diminishing. The idea gained overwhelming support after Thomas Paine published Common Sense in January 1776. Paine's arguments denounced monarchy and dissolved any lingering attachment to Great Britain. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted a Declaration of Independence declaring the colonies free and independent states.
In August 1776 British troops began landing in Gravesend Bay. American troops were pushed southwestward across New Jersey and then across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. Although the American army was severely weakened, Washington kept the cause alive. On Christmas night, in a blinding snowstorm, he led his troops across the Delaware in a surprise attack that overwhelmed enemy soldiers in Trenton, New Jersey. On January 3, 1777, Washington struck again in the Battle of Princeton. He then took up a strong position on high ground at Morristown while the British retreated to New York.
The Campaign of 1777-1778
In 1777 the British planned to divide the colonies in two, separating New England from the southern colonies. British troops under Major General John Burgoyne attempted to reach Albany, New York, but were thwarted by American troops in the Battles of Saratoga. Howe moved south into Pennsylvania with the main British force to attack Philadelphia. Washington attacked Howe in the Battle of Germantown, but was defeated after hard fighting and took his troops into winter quarters at Valley Forge.
France had been secretly sending money and supplies to the colonists since the beginning of the Revolution. In February 1778 France signed a treaty of commerce and alliance with the United States. Thereafter, France openly supplied arms, clothing, money, and naval assistance to the new nation. At the beginning of 1779 Spain joined France in supporting the Americans, forcing Britain to face the prospect of a major European war.
The British Campaign in the South
In December 1778 a British seaborne expedition captured Savannah, Georgia, and proceeded to gain control of other settlements in the state. The Americans, however, established control over the entire region north of the Ohio Valley. The British continued gaining territory in the South but struggled to maintain their troops in a hostile countryside. In 1781 Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis moved British troops north into Virginia and fortified a position at Yorktown.
In August Washington received word that the French fleet was en route to Chesapeake Bay and decided immediately to attack Yorktown. The French fleet arrived and drove off the British fleet, establishing a tight blockade of Cornwallis's army. American and French troops under Washington's command laid siege to Yorktown, forcing Cornwallis to surrender in October (see Yorktown, Siege of).
Treaty of Paris
Yorktown marked the end of serious hostilities in North America, but peace negotiations dragged on until the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783. Great Britain recognized the independence of the former colonies as the United States of America and acknowledged the new nation's boundaries as extending west to the Mississippi, north to Canada, and south to the Floridas.
The Encarta Desk Encyclopedia Copyright 1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. |
Iamike
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 02:44 pm: |
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Thanks Blake!
Last week Jay Leno asked a bunch of people about Independence Day. Only one person even knew what it was about or the date the Declaration was signed. One was even an elementary teacher. |
Firebolteric_ma
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 03:22 pm: |
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Excellent post there Blake! |
Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 03:26 pm: |
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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 Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton |
Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 03:31 pm: |
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After the United States was established, the political philosophy enunciated in the declaration had a continuing influence on political developments in America and Europe. It served as a source of authority for the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States. The document's influence is evident in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted by the National Assembly of France in 1789, during the French Revolution.
The Encarta Desk Encyclopedia Copyright 1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. |
Ryker77
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 03:48 pm: |
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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 erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. ATF, FBI, CIA, State police, local polics, DOT, etc etc etc.
And what is the number of local, state, and federal "uncomfortable" agencies that only seam to serve the purpost of "fatiguing them into compliance" ?
Like the IRS? Like how home brew BioD makers are getting harrassed? Like how cops target out of towners for speeding? etc etc I had a bogus traffic ticket I had to fight. The government DA wouldn't grant me a speedy trial unless I did so in writing. But they would NOT provided me with the forms or an example of how to get my right to a speedy trial.
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.
Still to this day judges in some cases are appointed based on previous friendships or cronies.. etc etc. Some Judges also are working the private sectors for huge profits.
Then don't neglect Bushes allowing a convicted purger to not serve his jury awarded punishments.
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:
Like NAFTA and the North American Union they are trying to sneak in?
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: State, local, federal income, gas taxes, car tags, property taxes, etc etc etc.........
I wish that before any Congress member votes on a bill/law that they would be required to read the Declaration first} |
Ducxl
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 04:09 pm: |
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THere are points here i'd argue but..It's Independence day.The 4th of July.I won't add the miserable things i see.
Happy 4th of July my fellow Americans.Want change? Vote for it... |
Oldog
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 05:11 pm: |
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Not here, not today.
Lets salute the best working democratic republic on this planet.
for all of its faults its still the best.
Want change? Vote for it... 
Thanks Blake Nice thought and an iteresting read 
Happy Independence day One and All  } |
Wile_ecoyote
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 05:25 pm: |
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Not here, not now. AMEN With all that faces us these days try to put the best spin on life in America. We all know it could be alot worse. Live in the moment and celebrate with your family and friends. Appreciate what we have and be grateful for "the best democratic republic" in the world. (thanks Old dog) I for one am extremely grateful for the good people I have met through Bad Web. All have been so helpful with my newby questions and errant ways that had it not been for them, my X1 might be nothing more than a smoldering pile o-crap. Ya'll are great. Be safe ride hard. |
Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 06:45 pm: |
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We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America..
.
.Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names, ... |
Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 07:00 pm: |
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http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experien ce/charters/constitution_transcript.html
http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experien ce/charters/constitution_amendments_11-27.html
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Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 06:10 pm: |
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The Bill of Rights: A Transcription
Congress of the United States
begun and held at the City of New-York, on
Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
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Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 06:13 pm: |
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Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
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Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 06:14 pm: |
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Amendment III
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
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Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 06:16 pm: |
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Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. |
Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 06:20 pm: |
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Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
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Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 06:22 pm: |
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Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
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Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 06:23 pm: |
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Amendment VII
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
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Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 06:24 pm: |
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Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
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Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 06:25 pm: |
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Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
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Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 06:27 pm: |
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Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
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Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - 07:14 pm: |
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83.100.252.23 |
Blake
| | Posted on Thursday, July 05, 2007 - 01:02 am: |
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It seems that there is a disgruntled Brit who doesn't like our posts here. 
Thanks for the encouragement Mike, Eric, Duc and Dog.  Michele and I enjoyed sitting together and reading the above documents. It was rainy here most all day, so we just hung out and got all patriotic.
Geez Ryker. Bad ol' King George lives again eh? ;) I gotta admit, I agree with some of your points. I'm all for strict constructionist judges. We need a LOT more of them. Some of the power that congress asserts through the commerce clause is way out of line in my view.
Hope y'all had a happy Independence Day. I sure did. Thanks for sharing part of yours with me.
(Message edited by blake on July 05, 2007) |
Oldog
| | Posted on Thursday, July 05, 2007 - 01:28 am: |
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Michele and I enjoyed sitting together and reading the above documents
Cool! Thanks for having us in your "living room", It was in the 80's here I went to SC got some "contra ban" and shot it off at a friends cook out, its that hooligan thing.. } |
Unibear12r
| | Posted on Thursday, July 05, 2007 - 03:33 am: |
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Happy fourth to all...
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Ratyson
| | Posted on Thursday, July 05, 2007 - 11:08 am: |
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I hope everyone had a fun and SAFE Independence Day celebration!!
Thanks for the post Blake. There are so many who have no clue about what this day is celebrated for.
It isn't about selling cars, or other merchandise.. It is about the Birth of our Great Nation!
It is also about a group of people who sacrificed their livelyhood, their property, and their lives, in order to provide a better place for those who would come after them. Remember, the supporters of American independence were treated as outcasts and troublemakers. Many of them lost their businesses, homes, and even their lives at the hands of those who didn't want freedom from England.
Independence was about as popular with the people as Bush is now, if not worse.
These people stuck to their guns no matter what, and in the end they succeeded.
God bless America!!
(Message edited by ratyson on July 05, 2007) |
Arbalest
| | Posted on Thursday, July 05, 2007 - 12:34 pm: |
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Blake, did you know that the first battle of the Revolution was a naval battle? Do you know where it was, or where the British captain is buried? |
Blake
| | Posted on Thursday, July 05, 2007 - 02:33 pm: |
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I sure don't. But I'd like to. |
Aesquire
| | Posted on Thursday, July 05, 2007 - 08:35 pm: |
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Declaration of Independence in American, by H. L. Mencken, 1921 http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/decind.html
1921
WHEN THINGS get so balled up that the people of a country got to cut loose from some other country, and go it on their own hook, without asking no permission from nobody, excepting maybe God Almighty, then they ought to let everybody know why they done it, so that everybody can see they are not trying to put nothing over on nobody.
All we got to say on this proposition is this: first, me and you is as good as anybody else, and maybe a damn sight better; second, nobody ain't got no right to take away none of our rights; third, every man has got a right to live, to come and go as he pleases, and to have a good time whichever way he likes, so long as he don't interfere with nobody else. That any government that don't give a man them rights ain't worth a damn; also, people ought to choose the kind of government they want themselves, and nobody else ought to have no say in the matter. That whenever any government don't do this, then the people have got a right to give it the bum's rush and put in one that will take care of their interests. Of course, that don't mean having a revolution every day like them South American yellow-bellies, or every time some jobholder goes to work and does something he ain't got no business to do. It is better to stand a little graft, etc., than to have revolutions all the time, like them coons, and any man that wasn't a anarchist or one of them I.W.W.'s would say the same. But when things get so bad that a man ain't hardly got no rights at all no more, but you might almost call him a slave, then everybody ought to get together and throw the grafters out, and put in new ones who won't carry on so high and steal so much, and then watch them. This is the proposition the people of these Colonies is up against, and they have got tired of it, and won't stand it no more. The administration of the present King, George III, has been rotten from the start, and when anybody kicked about it he always tried to get away with it by strong-arm work. Here is some of the rough stuff he has pulled:
He vetoed bills in the Legislature that everybody was in favor of, and hardly nobody was against.
He wouldn't allow no law to be passed without it was first put up to him, and then he stuck it in his pocket and let on he forgot about it, and didn't pay no attention to no kicks.
When people went to work and gone to him and asked him to put through a law about this or that, he give them their choice: either they had to shut down the Legislature and let him pass it all by himself, or they couldn't have it at all.
He made the Legislature meet at one-horse tank-towns, so that hardly nobody could get there and most of the leaders would stay home and let him go to work and do things like he wanted.
He give the Legislature the air, and sent the members home every time they stood up to him and give him a call-down or bawled him out.
When a Legislature was busted up he wouldn't allow no new one to be elected, so that there wasn't nobody left to run things, but anybody could walk in and do whatever they pleased.
He tried to scare people outen moving into these States, and made it so hard for a wop or one of these here kikes to get his papers that he would rather stay home and not try it, and then, when he come in, he wouldn't let him have no land, and so he either went home again or never come.
He monkeyed with the courts, and didn't hire enough judges to do the work, and so a person had to wait so long for his case to come up that he got sick of waiting, and went home, and so never got what was coming to him.
He got the judges under his thumb by turning them out when they done anything he didn't like, or by holding up their salaries, so that they had to knuckle down or not get no money.
He made a lot of new jobs, and give them to loafers that nobody knowed nothing about, and the poor people had to pay the bill, whether they could or not.
Without no war going on, he kept an army loafing around the country, no matter how much people kicked about it.
He let the army run things to suit theirself and never paid no attention whatsoever to nobody which didn't wear no uniform.
He let grafters run loose, from God knows where, and give them the say in everything, and let them put over such things as the following:
Making poor people board and lodge a lot of soldiers they ain't got no use for, and don't want to see loafing around.
When the soldiers kill a man, framing it up so that they would get off.
Interfering with business.
Making us pay taxes without asking us whether we thought the things we had to pay taxes for was something that was worth paying taxes for or not.
When a man was arrested and asked for a jury trial, not letting him have no jury trial.
Chasing men out of the country, without being guilty of nothing, and trying them somewheres else for what they done here.
In countries that border on us, he put in bum governments, and then tried to spread them out, so that by and by they would take in this country too, or make our own government as bum as they was.
He never paid no attention whatever to the Constitution, but he went to work and repealed laws that everybody was satisfied with and hardly nobody was against, and tried to fix the government so that he could do whatever he pleased.
He busted up the Legislatures and let on he could do all the work better by himself.
Now he washes his hands of us and even goes to work and declares war on us, so we don't owe him nothing, and whatever authority he ever had he ain't got no more.
He has burned down towns, shot down people like dogs, and raised hell against us out on the ocean.
He hired whole regiments of Dutch, etc., to fight us, and told them they could have anything they wanted if they could take it away from us, and sicked these Dutch, etc., on us.
He grabbed our own people when he found them in ships on the ocean, and shoved guns into their hands, and made them fight against us, no matter how much they didn't want to.
He stirred up the Indians, and give them arms and ammunition, and told them to go to it, and they have killed men, women and children, and don't care which.
Every time he has went to work and pulled any of these things, we have went to work and put in a kick, but every time we have went to work and put in a kick he has went to work and did it again. When a man keeps on handing out such rough stuff all the time, all you can say is that he ain't got no class and ain't fitten to have no authority over people who have got any rights, and he ought to be kicked out.
When we complained to the English we didn't get no more satisfaction.
Almost every day we give them plenty of warning that the politicians over there was doing things to us that they didn't have no right to do. We kept on reminding them who we was, and what we was doing here, and how we come to come here. We asked them to get us a square deal, and told them that if this thing kept on we'd have to do something about it and maybe they wouldn't like it. But the more we talked, the more they didn't pay no attention to us. Therefore, if they ain't for us they must be agin us, and we are ready to give them the fight of their lives, or to shake hands when it is over.
Therefore be it resolved, That we, the representatives of the people of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, hereby declare as follows: That the United States, which was the United Colonies in former times, is now a free country, and ought to be; that we have throwed out the English King and don't want to have nothing to do with him no more, and are not taking no more English orders no more; and that, being as we are now a free country, we can do anything that free countries can do, especially declare war, make peace, sign treaties, go into business, etc. And we swear on the Bible on this proposition, one and all, and agree to stick to it no matter what happens, whether we win or we lose, and whether we get away with it or get the worst of it, no matter whether we lose all our property by it or even get hung for it.
Author's Note
When this was reprinted in A Mencken Chrestomathy, the author added the following note:
"From THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE. THIRD EDITION, 1923, pp. 398-402. First printed, as Essay in American, in the Baltimore Evening Sun, Nov. 7, 1921. Reprinted in THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE, SECOND EDITION, 1921, pp.
388-92. From the preface thereof: 'It must be obvious that more than one section of the original is now quite unintelligible to the average American of the sort using the Common Speech. What would he make, for example, of such a sentence as this one: "He has called together 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"? Or of this: "He has refused for a long time, after such dissolution, to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise." Such Johnsonian periods are quite beyond his comprehension, and no doubt the fact is at least partly to blame for the neglect upon which the Declaration has fallen in recent years, when, during the Wilson-Palmer saturnalia of oppressions [1918-1920], specialists in liberty began protesting that the Declaration plainly gave the people the right to alter the government under which they lived and even to abolish it altogether, they encountered the utmost incredulity. On more than one occasion, in fact, such an exegete was tarred and feathered by shocked members of the American Legion, even after the Declaration had been read to them. What ailed them was simply that they could not understand its Eighteenth Century English.' This jocosity was denounced as seditious by various patriotic Americans, and in England it was accepted gravely and deplored sadly as a specimen of current Standard American." |
Arbalest
| | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 07:01 am: |
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Blake, sorry, I may have misspoke. The first naval battle occurred AFTER Lexington and Concord. A brief synopsis:
"In early June 1775, the men and women of the fledgling settlement of Machias found themselves on the horns of a difficult dilemma hard on the heels of the news of Lexington & Concord.
In order to obtain critical supplies, the settlers had to have their lumber shipped to Boston to build barracks for British troops. If they refused, they faced hunger and the wrath of Lieutenant Moore, commander of the armed British vessel Margaretta, which sat in the harbor, its guns leveled at their homes. If they complied, they betrayed the American cause. They chose to fight!" Moore was critically injured in the ensuing battle and was treated at Machias' Burnham Tavern, where he died. He is buried in Machias, Maine.
Mike Lydon |
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