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“One small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.”
Neil Armstrong, upon taking those first steps on the moon, July 20, 1969

May 25, 1961
President John F. Kennedy’s formally asks Congress and the nation to accept the gauntlet, cast by the Soviet Union’s recent launch of a man into space, of safely landing and returning a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

This speech, amounting to a springtime “state of the union” speech, defines where the nation is and where the President believes it should go. Kennedy defines specific goals and indicates the cost – the financial cost – of meeting these goals.

Kennedy believed that if the American people focused on a goal, we could achieve it – even the dream of landing a man on the moon – and by the end of the decade.

On July 20, 1969 the Apollo 11 landed the first man on the moon.

On a personal note:
Where were you when Armstrong landed on the moon?

Excerpt: IX. President Kennedy on space travel

Finally, if we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as did the Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere, who are attempting to make a determination of which road they should take. … Now it is time to take longer strides–time for a great new American enterprise–time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth.

I believe we possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or marshalled the national resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule, or managed our resources and our time so as to insure their fulfillment.

Recognizing the head start obtained by the Soviets with their large rocket engines, which gives them many months of lead time, and recognizing the likelihood that they will exploit this lead for some time to come in still more impressive successes, we nevertheless are required to make new efforts on our own.

For while we cannot guarantee that we shall one day be first, we can guarantee that any failure to make this effort will make us last. … But this is not merely a race. Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others. We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.

I therefore ask the Congress, above and beyond the increases I have earlier requested for space activities, to provide the funds which are needed to meet the following national goals:

First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.

We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations–explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight.

But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon–if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

Secondly, an additional 23 million dollars, together with 7 million dollars already available, will accelerate development of the Rover nuclear rocket. This gives promise of some day providing a means for even more exciting and ambitious exploration of space, perhaps beyond the moon, perhaps to the very end of the solar system itself.

Third, an additional 50 million dollars will make the most of our present leadership, by accelerating the use of space satellites for world-wide communications.

Fourth, an additional 75 million dollars–of which 53 million dollars is for the Weather Bureau–will help give us at the earliest possible time a satellite system for world-wide weather observation.

Let it be clear–and this is a judgment which the Members of the Congress must finally make–let it be clear that I am asking the Congress and the country to accept a firm commitment to a new course of action, a course which will last for many years and carry very heavy costs: 531 million dollars in fiscal ‘62–an estimated seven to nine billion dollars additional over the next five years. If we are to go only half way, or reduce our sights in the face of difficulty, in my judgment it would be better not to go at all. …

It is a most important decision that we make as a nation. But all of you have lived through the last four years and have seen the significance of space and the adventures in space, and no one can predict with certainty what the ultimate meaning will be of mastery of space.

I believe we should go to the moon. But I think every citizen of this country as well as the Members of the Congress should consider the matter carefully in making their judgment, to which we have given attention over many weeks and months, because it is a heavy burden, and there is no sense in agreeing or desiring that the United States take an affirmative position in outer space, unless we are prepared to do the work and bear the burdens to make it successful. If we are not, we should decide today and this year.

This decision demands a major national commitment of scientific and technical manpower, material and facilities, and the possibility of their diversion from other important activities where they are already thinly spread. It means a degree of dedication, organization and discipline which have not always characterized our research and development efforts. It means we cannot afford undue work stoppages, inflated costs of material or talent, wasteful inter-agency rivalries, or a high turnover of key personnel.

New objectives and new money cannot solve these problems. They could in fact, aggravate them further–unless every scientist, every engineer, every serviceman, every technician, contractor, and civil servant gives his personal pledge that this nation will move forward, with the full speed of freedom, in the exciting adventure of space.

X. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, let me emphasize one point. It is not a pleasure for any President of the United States, as I am sure it was not a pleasure for my predecessors, to come before the Congress and ask for new appropriations which place burdens on our people. I came to this conclusion with some reluctance.

But in my judgment, this is a most serious time in the life of our country and in the life of freedom around the globe, and it is the obligation, I believe, of the President of the United States to at least make his recommendations to the Members of the Congress, so that they can reach their own conclusions with that judgment before them. You must decide yourselves, as I have decided, and I am confident that whether you finally decide in the way that I have decided or not, that your judgment–as my judgment–is reached on what is in the best interests of our country.

In conclusion, let me emphasize one point: that we are determined, as a nation in 1961 that freedom shall survive and succeed–and whatever the peril and set-backs, we have some very large advantages.

The first is the simple fact that we are on the side of liberty–and since the beginning of history, and particularly since the end of the Second World War, liberty has been winning out all over the globe.

A second real asset is that we are not alone. We have friends and allies all over the world who share our devotion to freedom…

A third asset is our desire for peace. It is sincere, and I believe the world knows it. We are proving it in our patience at the test ban table, and we are proving it in the UN where our efforts have been directed to maintaining that organization’s usefulness as a protector of the independence of small nations. In these and other instances, the response of our opponents has not been encouraging.

Yet it is important to know that our patience at the bargaining table is nearly inexhaustible, though our credulity is limited that our hopes for peace are unfailing, while our determination to protect our security is resolute…

Finally, our greatest asset in this struggle is the American people–their willingness to pay the price for these programs–to understand and accept a long struggle–to share their resources with other less fortunate people … to show friendship to students and visitors from other lands … and, finally, to practice democracy at home, in all States, with all races, to respect each other and to protect the Constitutional rights of all citizens.

I have not asked for a single program which did not cause one or all Americans some inconvenience, or some hardship, or some sacrifice. But they have responded and you in the Congress have responded to your duty–and I feel confident in asking today for a similar response to these new and larger demands. It is heartening to know, as I journey abroad, that our country is united in its commitment to freedom and is ready to do its duty.

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Once upon a time…

About 600 African American soldiers, all armed and ready for battle, muster on Boston Common.

It is May, a saucy month in New England. The gardens are greening and life seems full of possibility. This particular day is no exception. It is, in fact, absolutely golden: warm, sunny, a day to wrap your arms around.

To be precise, it is the 28th of May, 1863 and despite the pleasant weather, we are at war with ourselves.
Shiloh. Harper’s Ferry.
Antietam has too-recently made its blood offering.
Fredericksburg. Chancellorsville.
Already this is a history of near loss for the Union Army, and a history of wondrous survival for the Confederates.

But here on Boston Common, there is both celebration and boldness in the air as the first Northern “coloured regiment” of the Union Army gets ready to march off to battle. Trained and armed just like their white counterparts, they are also uniformed and paid – just like their white counterparts.

But unlike their white counterparts, these soldiers and their white officers march with a death sentence over their heads. On Christmas Eve, 1862, nearly a month before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ General Orders #111 declare that any and all commissioned Union officers be considered “as robbers and criminals deserving death” upon capture. Further, whether the black soldiers be freed or runaway slaves, it no longer mattered once they crossed Southern lines. At that time, all were considered “slaves [who were to be] “at once delivered over to…the respective States to which they belong to be dealt with according to the laws of said States.”

Most of these men are free, but not all. They have come from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri…as far away as Bermuda. They all know the risks of serving in this regiment. In spite of these risks, perhaps because of these risks, they stand here now in regimental trim, ready to make their mark on history.

Among the souls here today are Lewis Henry Douglass and Charles Redmond Douglass, sons of the former slave and great abolitionist, Frederick Douglass.

James Caldwell, grandson of Sojourner Truth, is here as well. He has traveled from Battle Creek, Michigan.

So, too, is Stephen Atkins Swails, a young man who will survive to become a Reconstructionist lawyer, town mayor, and member of the 1868 electoral college. He also will be the first man of color to make lieutenant in this unit (Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune 30).

William Harvey Carney is here. He is one of the first to join that cold February (Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune 30). Twenty-three years old, Carney was born into slavery.

Both his parents were slaves but the family, now free, lives in New Bedford, Massachusetts. When he was 15, he “embraced the gospel” and later believed he would become a minister (The Liberator November 6, 1863), but he is here, instead, responding to a different type of calling:

Previous to the formation of colored troops, I had a strong inclination to prepare myself for the ministry; but when the country called for all persons, I could best serve my God serving my country and my oppressed brothers. (The Liberator 1863).

Leading these men are the sons of socially prominent, white abolitionist families: Col. Robert Gould Shaw, of Boston, who was married just a month prior, and Lt. Col. Norwood “Pen” Hallowell and his younger brother, Edward. Pen Hallowell will go on to lead the Massachusetts 55th, a second African American regiment formed after the success of the 54th. Edward Hallowell eventually will command the 54th.

The American author, Henry James, has a younger brother, Wilkie, who also signs on.

They are gathered now, in front of the State House and will march to Boston Harbor, famous for a different party during a different war. From there, they sail south. Their ultimate destination is Fort Wagner, South Carolina.

They arrive on July 18, 1863 having seen some prior skirmishes the month before. The fort is located on Morris Island and guards the southern approach into Charleston harbor. This battle will be the second attempt in a week to win the fort. The first attempt resulted in over 300 Union dead compared to the loss of 12 Confederate soldiers (www.wikipedia.org).

Col. Shaw writes:

July 18th. Morris Island
We are in General Strong’s Brigade, and have left Montgomery, I hope for good. We came here last night, and were out again all night in a very heavy rain. Fort Wagner is being very heavily bombarded. We are not far from it. (Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune 386)

Five thousand Union soldiers attack the fort. The Massachusetts 54th leads the way. Their approach is along the beach. They need to cross over a 30’ defensive embankment. It is here that Col. Shaw, leading his men by foot, raises his sword to storm the enemy walls.

“Forward 54th!” he cries. His men follow. Shaw is one of the first to reach the top of the wall.

The Union dead number into the thousands. Of the 600 soldiers of the 54th, 220 die as a result of the day’s battle. One of those soldiers, shot through the heart, is Col. Shaw. One of the survivors is William Carney.

At battle’s end, the Confederacy strip Col. Shaw’s body, briefly put him on display, then throw him into the bottom of a mass grave with other soldiers of the 54th. The action is intended as an insult, not least because officers’ bodies were, in those days, collected and returned from the battleground to the family for a formal burial. Not so in this case.

The intended insult ends up as a point of honor between Col. Shaw and his men. His family says that this is where their son would want to be, that he would have considered it an honor to be buried with his men.

His widow never remarries.

In the fire of battle, however, Carney sees the flag-bearer drop the company flag. Without giving it any thought, he picks up the flag before it can be captured and fights his way to the Fort Wagner wall. He is said to have kept the flag waving for 20 minutes during that desperate battle. When he finally gives up his position, family legend says that he actually wraps himself in the flag in order to protect it.

The action also makes him a very special moving target: a former slave, a black Union soldier, a company man bearing the company colors. Carney is wounded four times before he gives up the flag in safety. Twice in his body. Once in his arm. The last bullet grazes his head.

Even when a member of the NY 100th offers to carry the flag for him, Carney keeps going, refusing to give up the flag to any but a member of the 54th (“America’s Civil War” Hammond, March, 2007).

“The old flag never touched the ground,” he says when he finally collapses.

In 1900, 37 years after his act of bravery and 38 years after the medal’s inception, William Carney is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor “to be presented in the name of Congress, to such officers and non-commissioned privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action.”

William Harvey Carney is the first African American recipient.

“I only did my duty,” says Carney upon receiving it.

Follow this you-tube link to see an interesting little video about the Emancipation Proclamation and the Massachusetts 54th.

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Moon gazing.

Lovers’ moons.

Cows jumping over moons.

Goodnight Moons.

Man has had a love affair with that great silver orb probably since he first spied it washing his nights in light, shading his lover’s legs, or maybe just waxing and waning or doing cool things like turning copper.

When Rembrandt van Rijn was born on July 15, 1606, man did not dare consider ever setting foot on the moon. He hardly dared consider his own place in the universe. But Rembrandt surely considered the moon for he played with light and dark, brightness and shadow. This 17th century Dutch old master is most famous, perhaps, for his painting The Night Watch, which is just one of some 600 paintings he is credited with.

Rembrandt was a prolific experimenter, painting on canvas instead of common board and painting diverse subjects. He also is the creator of hundreds of etchings and even more drawings. But if you want to learn about moon walks and presidential dreams, read on, fair reader!

To see some of Rembrandt’s work, visit this link:

www.rijksmuseum.nl/index.jlp

On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 headed towards the moon with Neil Armstrong as commander, “Buzz” Aldrin as the lunar module pilot, and Michael Collins as the command module pilot.

This was the spacecraft, folks! This is the one that carries the first man to walk on the moon.

To see pictures from this voyage as well as to read (or hear) the astronauts report on the journey, go to this link: www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/ap11ann/

FirstLunarLanding/toc.html

In a speech to a joint session of Congress on March 25, 1961, President Kennedy asked Congress and the nation to make it a goal to safely land (and return) the first man to walk on the moon. Here is an excerpt from that speech

Now it is time to take longer strides–time for a great new American enterprise–time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth.

I believe we possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or marshalled the national resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule, or managed our resources and our time so as to insure their fulfillment.

Recognizing the head start obtained by the Soviets with their large rocket engines, which gives them many months of leadtime, and recognizing the likelihood that they will exploit this lead for some time to come in still more impressive successes, we nevertheless are required to make new efforts on our own. For while we cannot guarantee that we shall one day be first, we can guarantee that any failure to make this effort will make us last. … But this is not merely a race. Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others. We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.

I therefore ask the Congress, above and beyond the increases I have earlier requested for space activities, to provide the funds which are needed to meet the following national goals:

First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations–explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon–if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

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Ah! Dreams…“We are the stuff that dreams are made on,” said Shakespeare and it is true.

This is a very special dream week. It is a week of wonder in terms of the creative as well as the courageous. Fair Reader, read on!

All I Have to Do Is Dream, the Everly Brothers, 50 years ago this week, released that fabulous song.

Ten years later, Otis Redding’s (Sittin’ on the) Dock of the Bay was on top of Billboard.

In 1964, The Beatles had just released A Hard Day’s Night which was followed, just one year later, by that ode to teenage angst, The Rolling Stones’ (I can’t get no) Satisfaction.

Check out this weird musical medley of hits from the 1970s:
On the one hand is The Commodores’ Three Times a Lady sharing radio space with Debby Boone’s You Light Up My Life, while on a totally different third hand are Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson asking, Mammas, Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Cowboys.

That, in a clef note, was America in the late 1970s.

Some other high notes of the week:

Happy Birthday!
Wyoming (1890);

And happy birthday to the original raging bull, Jake la Motta (1921); to that heart-warming comedian Bill Cosby (1937); to tennis great Arthur Ashe (1943) … and to Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland (1274). That last one may be pushing it but ‘twas a great movie now, wasn’t it?

But! More important than Classic Coke’s return in 1985, or the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team winning the World Cup in 1999…

More important than Etch-a-Sketch making its happy debut in 1960…

Even of greater note than Geraldine Ferraro’s historic 1984 vice presidential nomination is the fact that…

On July 11, 1925, the Scopes Trial had just begun its second day of putting the freedom to teach evolution on trial.

Clarence Darrow would represent John Scopes, the Tennessee teacher who was accused of breaking a state law, the Butler Act, by teaching evolution in his science class.

The state was represented by that great orator and presidential aspirant, William Jennings Bryan.

Scopes was found guilty on July 21 (short trial) and fined $100.

It was, however, the Butler Act that was really on trial. Was it a fair law? (See the link below for the full text of the law.) It was repealed September 1, 1967.

On day 2 of the trial, Darrow argued that this law was, indeed, unconstitutional saying:

If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public school, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools… At the next session you may ban books and the newspapers. Soon you may set Catholic against Protestant and Protestant against Protestant [sic], and try to foist your own religion upon the minds of men. If you can do one you can do the other. Ignorance and fanaticism is ever busy and needs feeding. … After awhile, your honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed.

The trial became the inspiration for the play, Inherit the Wind. The title, by the way, comes from a Bible verse:

He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart. (Proverbs 11:29)

Be well!
Concord Star

Related links courtesy of UMKC Law School:

Full text of the Butler Act (Tenn. HB 185, 1925) and its repeal: www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/tennstat.htm

Background on the trial:
www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm

Transcript of the trial:
www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes2.htm

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In Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Buddhist traditions, seven is a sacred number for perfection, completion, spiritual fulfillment.

7 days of creation, 7 days in a week, 7 chakras, the original 7 planets… And, of course, 7 is a prime.

So who was born on this power house day?

George Cukor (1899), Academy Award-winning movie director

Satchel Paige (1906), hero of the Negro Leagues and major league pitcher, first African American inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. No errors in his entire career.

Robert Heinlein (1907), “the dean of science fiction” authored Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land, among others.

Other firsts:

1754:
Columbia University opens its doors, just under another incarnation as it was originally known as King’s College. (Thank you, King George III.)

1954:
Elvis hits the radio in Memphis! The song: “That’s All Right”.

1958:
Alaska becomes a state.

1981:

Sandra Day O’Connor is nominated by President Reagan to the Supreme Court. O’Connor will be the nation’s first female Supreme Court judge. As a justice, she is regarded as maintaining a centrist position except on her position on abortion where she was more conservative, and on the influence or import of foreign law, where she was more liberal. She retired in 2005.

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They were 26 to 70 years old.

Amongst them were former farmers, lawyers, printers, tax collectors, county sherriffs… They were, in many ways, quite ordinary and, as it turns out, they also were extra-ordinary if only to their dedication to a cause, an idea, a principle. They risked everything for that set of circumstances we call the Revolution.

On July 4, 1776, they published the Declaration of Independence, an extra-ordinary document because it is not just a declaration of war, but a well-reasoned explanation as to why a people would rebel against their government.

Should argument not be persuasive enough, they also listed their grievances.

If you have never read the entire Declaration, you should. The American Revolution was not fought only about taxes. It was fought over abuse of power.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

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 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:

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 benefit 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 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.

Post script to our history:

To view the original or learn more about the Declaration of Independence, go to: www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html

To view the original as well as previous drafts and transcripts, go to: www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm

To find out more about the signers, their age, occupaion, religion, etc., go to: www.usconstitution.net/declarsigndata.html

Did you know Ben Franklin, the oldest signer of the Declaration, was the only person to also sign the Paris Peace Treaty (1783) and the United States Constitution (1789)?

On a different note, if you’re ever interested in visiting the grave sites of the signers, go to: www.findagrave.com

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