Words by Thomas Jefferson
Music by David Parker Rose
Performance Credits:
Lead Vocals: David Parker Rose
Backup Vocals: David Parker Rose
Beat Boxing: David Parker Rose
Lead Ukulele: David Parker Rose
Rhythm Ukulele: David Parker Rose
Bass: David Parker Rose
Keyboard: David Parker Rose
Kazoo: David Parker Rose
Drums: David Parker Rose
Produced by David Parker Rose
Lyrics:
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.
(Oh yeah!)
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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 distance
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 harass 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:
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(Uh)
(Yo)
(Yeah)
(Alright)
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 offenses:
(Yo)
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.
(Oh)
(Yeah)
(Uh)
(Yo)
(Word)
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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.
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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.
