The Founders Declared the Independent American Spirit [Commentary by Bill Muckler]

The Founders Declared the Independent American Spirit

by TLB contributing author Bill Muckler

We know the American Independence was formally declared on July 2, 1776, a date that John Adams believed would be “the most memorable epocha in the history of America.” On July 4, 1776, Congress approved the final text of the Declaration. It wasn’t signed until August 2, 1776.

But do we know how they told everyone Independence from England was declared? The technology we take for granted today did not exist then even its most primitive form. Do we know the hardships these brave British subjects undertook to become free? Shamefully, we take this hard-fought freedom much too lightly.

Reliance and Self-Responsibility Ruled

Our Founding Fathers and early American Patriots were resilient, can-do people, who found ways to make good things happen. They took personal responsibility to its highest level. They shaped our future from a dream; from a vision of faith and hope.

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.  — Anna Eleanor Roosevelt; Former First Lady of the United States

Thank God they were people inspired with the vision of Liberty and Freedom; motivated by self-governance and independence from tyranny. They accomplished what we could never do today. We are blessed that our Founders did not concern themselves with political correctness and were not delayed by regulations and environmental studies. If they had, we would still be paying high taxes to the Queen of England; and living as second class citizens.

We would not enjoy the lifestyle we have today without the sacrifices made by those early patriots. The Declaration of independence was much more than a document, it was the birth of the American spirit – the spirit that has guided the entire planet for more than 240 years.

Not Much More than a Civil War

The American Revolution started as little more than a civil war. George Washington’s Continental Army was outnumbered three to one by the British and their German mercenaries. Uninvited British forcefully quartered in American homes and forced Americans to feed and supply them. The British Navy dominated the high seas, cutting off supplies and arms. July 1776 was a most critical month in the history of the United States.

America sought support both domestically and internationally. The Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to draft a declaration of independence which would clearly state the reasons for their Revolution and acquire desperately needed soldiers, supplies, arms and ammunition.

The final text of the Declaration which was mostly based on the Declaration of Rights adopted by the Virginia Legislature on June 12, 1776 was penned by a 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson wrote the original draft which was revised in committee and later by the entire Congress. It was printed as a broadside on July 4th and distributed to be read publicly throughout the colonies. To achieve even wider distribution, Congress ordered it to be printed in newspapers as well. It wasn’t signed until August 2, 1776.

The Continental Congress saw the Declaration of Independence as a powerful tool. The support of nations like France, the Netherlands, and Poland was crucial. Declaring independence made it possible to take the Revolution out of the arena of civil war and put it directly on the international stage as a war for independence. The simplicity and eloquence of the Declaration of Independence immediately gained the attention of the world and has inspired democratic movements ever since.

Well, one of the most important things for Americans to be reminded of is that a lot of the exceptional nature of our country is founded in Judeo-Christian values that promotes individualism, personal responsibility, a strong work ethic, and a commitment to family, charity. — Jim DeMint; Former U.S. Senator from South Carolina

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 shown, 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.

https://i0.wp.com/2020americabook.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Bill-Muckler-The-Founders-Declared-the-Independent-American-Spirit-Banner1.jpg?resize=401%2C266He 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.

https://i0.wp.com/2020americabook.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Bill-Muckler-The-Founders-Declared-the-Independent-American-Spirit-Banner2.jpg?resize=401%2C188He 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 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 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.

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr.,
Arthur Middleton

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

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

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart
Abraham Clark

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett

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


The above transcript of the “Declaration of Independence” is a reprint. Variations in spelling are the result of spelling differences between today and 240 years ago. Indentations are my creation to facilitate reading the document. The “Charters of Freedom” can be accessed here.

When I wrote 20/20: A Clear Vision for America, I received, and still receive, comments telling me how ignorant and unpatriotic I am because I did not capitalize the word “united” as in “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America” —  close examination of the word “united” refers to the thirteen States of America coming together to unite and agree on a new course. Each colony was considered a separate state and a separate entity. 11 years later, on September 17, 1787, The Constitution was formally ratified.

Stay tuned. The Muckster is here with a Clear Vision for Our future.

Read more of my “casually sarcastic” articles to discover that I am an equal opportunity critic of all types of anarchy and nonsense. Check out the blog.

Spiritus meus es tu. Ego semper fidelis.

God Bless us all and God Save our America. Our country, our Constitution, our culture, our civilization and our children need you now more than ever. Don’t ever forget what these brave people did to unite us and save us from tyranny. ~Bill


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