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.
He was impatient with the delay in the passing of the Declaration of Independence, stating that "he that will not respond to its accents, and strain every nerve to carry into effect its provisions, is unworthy the name of freeman" and protesting for himself that "although these gray hairs must soon descend into the sepulcher, I would infinitely rather that they should descend thither by the hand of the public executioner than desert at this crisis the sacred cause of my country". He took his seat a few days before the fourth of July, and actively participated in the deliberations on the momentous question of a declaration of independence. ...He was a strong advocate of independence and it was a happy reply that he made to a gentleman who, in opposing the measure, declared that the country was not yet ripe for a declaration of independence.
The supposition that Witherspoon argued down John Dickinson and other congressional conservatives has the ring of authenticity about it. Witherspoon’s account of the incident, related to Ashbel Green is as follows:
The substance of the statement, made by myself in the hearing of the writer [Green], was, to the best of his recollection, to the following effect — That the principal argument relied on, for those who wished to postpone for a time the declaration of Independence, was, that a number of new members had recently entered Congress, who had not heard the whole of the previous discussions; and who could not therefore judge correctly of the reasons for, and against, an immediate declaration which had been so ably advocated and urged before they took their seats; and that the country at large needed more time for reflection, and was not yet ripe for so important and decisive a measure. To this the Doctor [Witherspoon] took an opportunity to reply; that although there were some members who had but recently come into Congress, it did by no means follow that they had not examined this important subject in all its bearings, and weighed the arguments fully, for prompt action on the one side, and for delay on the other. That this certainly had been done by himself, and he doubted not by others, to whom the objection applied: nor had they wanted ample means of information on the merits of the question, although they had not been favoured with hearing all the debates of the house. As to the country at large, it had been for some time past, loud in its demand for the proposed declaration, and in his judgment it was not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of becoming rotten for the want of it.
John WItherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic (appendix a)
(bolding mine, because this is the part that most often gets “quoted”.)
My DK user name is in recognition of John Witherspoon (as noted in my profile), who is my great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather. I’m also related to signer Benjamin Harrison V (and thus, Presidents William H. and Benjamin Harrison) via marriage of a blood relative (Anne Carter, daughter of Robert “King” Carter*) to that family. [Another descendant of the Harrisons later marred into a different branch of my family tree. In those days the well off and well connected families seemed to inter-marry quite a bit.]
The only thing my twig of the Witherspoon family tree (or at least recent generations thereof) inherited was his DNA. We are descended from his daughter Anne and her daughter with Samuel Stanhope Smith (who succeeded Witherspoon as president of Princeton U.) Anne received only a small stipend upon his death, while the bulk of his estate ultimately went to his sons (as was customary in those times.)
Up until a couple of years ago I was under the belief that he never owned slaves. None of the resource material I read mentioned any. Though I did not do an exhaustive search, and often was concentrating on familial connections rather than broader historical background. (Plus much of that research was in days before genealogy data was available on the internet. Searching a hodge podge of microfisch and print books is a much slower process.) Also, his main sources of income were as president of College of New Jersey (Princeton U.) and minister of the local Presbyterian church. IE. he did not rely on farming for income, as some of the other Founders did. But more recently I discovered his will listed two slaves. His association with slavery and free black Americans is, well, complicated, and at times contradictory.
Witherspoon’s relationship to slavery shifted when he accepted a position as president of the College of New Jersey in 1768. Slavery in the British North American colonies was unlike anything Witherspoon knew from his native country of Scotland, ✂ Witherspoon adapted to this new context by owning slaves himself, but he maintained a commitment to the religious instruction and education of people of African descent—much as he had with Jamie Montgomery in Scotland.
In 1774, while serving as president, John Witherspoon privately tutored two free African men—Bristol Yamma and John Quamine—at the request of fellow ministers and educators Ezra Stiles and Samuel Hopkins. Witherspoon did not appear to see a conflict between the relationship he had with Yamma and Quamine and the practice of slaveholding. While his colleagues Stiles and Hopkins would both eventually advocate for the abolition of slavery, Witherspoon’s motivations did not stem from antislavery sentiment. Rather, he hoped that these students would ultimately serve as missionaries and spread Christianity throughout Africa. And in 1779, when Witherspoon moved from the President’s House on campus into the newly completed country home he called “Tusculum,” he purchased two enslaved people to help him farm the 500-acre estate. ✂
That’s more than ten years from the time he arrived in the colonies to when he first acquired slaves. He was about 57 years old by then.
he also contributed to the founding of the United States by helping to draft the Articles of Confederation in 1777.
In the Articles of Confederation, leaders of the new country codified slavery as a national institution and delineated the nature of human property. In debates over Article XI, Witherspoon sided with Southern states and adamantly opposed the taxation of slaves, foreshadowing the conflict that would lead to the “Three-Fifths Compromise” at the Constitutional Convention ten years later. ✂
Lesa Redmond graduated from Princeton University in 2017 with a degree in History and a certificate in African American studies. Her independent research focused on Princeton University's connection to slavery. For her senior thesis, she explored Princeton's sixth President, John Knox Witherspoon, and his ties to slavery.
Witherspoon was on the Synod committee of the Presbyterian Church which formulated rules that included an abolition “declaration.” books.google.com/...
On May 26, 1787, an overture came before the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, calling on all pastors, churches, and “families under their care, to do every thing in their power consistent with the rights of civil Society to promote the abolition of slavery, and the instruction of Negroes whether bond or free.”
Two days later, delegates approved a watered-down version of the overture, praising “the general principles in favor of universal Liberty that prevail in America,” but noting that newly-freed slaves might be “dangerous to the community” and endorsing a plan “to give those persons who are at present held in servitude such good education as to prepare them for the better enjoyment of freedom.” They further recommended “to all their people to use the most prudent measures…to procure eventually the final abolition of Slavery in America.” www.history.pcusa.org/...
www.dailyrecord.co.uk/…
text version:
“There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.” John Witherspoon, Dominion of Providence, May 17, 1776.
text version:
"Let a man's zeal, profession, or even principles as to political measures be what they will, if he is without personal integrity and private virtue, as a man he is not to be trusted."
Additional Witherspoon quotes -
Those who wish well to the State ought to choose to places of trust men of inward principle, justified by exemplary conversation.
The Works of John Witherspoon (Edinburgh: J. Ogle, 1815), Vol. IV, p. 266.
Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and
corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction. A good
form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some
time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will
be ineffectual, and slavery must ensue.
text:
The Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, signer of the #DeclarationofIndependence, president of the College of New Jersey & leading Presbyterian clergyman, is credited with drafting this Oct 1781 congressional proclamation setting apart a day for public “THANKSGIVING & PRAYER.”
26 Oct. 1781: Congress called for a day of public “THANKSGIVING&PRAYER...to confess our manifold sins; to offer up our most fervent supplications to the God of all grace, that it may please him to pardon all our offences, & incline our hearts for the future to keep all his laws.”
In high school, when I was looking into which colleges to apply to, I was not aware of my family’s connection to Princeton Univ. That information was never shared with me by family members who knew of it. If I’d known then, I might have applied to attend (not that I would’ve been accepted.)
President of College of New Jersey (aka Princeton University) 1768-94:
Witherspoon began a series of highly successful trips throughout the colonies to preach, recruit students, and gather funds. While traveling through Virginia, he encouraged the Madisons of Montpelier to enroll their son James, who later graduated with the Class of 1771; later, he persuaded his friend George Washington to give 50 gold guineas to the College. (Washington was a longtime advocate of the place. “No college has turned out better scholars or more estimable characters than Nassau,” he said in a letter to his adopted son, a member of the Class of 1799.)
Witherspoon called the College’s pastoral setting a campus, thereby introducing that word into the American vocabulary.
www.princeton.edu/...
Too slow in arriving, but progress —
www.princeton.edu/...
A shout out to some young Californians —
www.princeton.edu/...
www.princeton.edu/...
Not only do I share this woman’s political opinion (many of her anti-dumbster tweets are hilarious), we share our common ancestry of Witherspoon. I may have to open a Twitter acct. to contact my new found cousin. —
text:
- I disagree with Roger Cohen. I don't think Despicable Donnie is a doughnut. (I *like* doughnuts!) I think he's a balloon -- empty on the inside except for hot air. No heart, no soul, no compassion, no empathy. Nothing but lies and vilification of those who refuse to worship him.
- Am I the only one who sees "Breaking News" on the crawl and thinks, OMG, what has that bigoted, traitorous psychopath done now?
* It is through my ancestor, Robert “King” Carter, that I am distant cousins with Pres. Jimmy Carter (a descendant of the same common ancestor, Lord Richard Croxton Carter) and Gen. Robert E. Lee (another descendant of “King”.) Bizarre. History classes in Jr. high and High school would’ve been much more interesting if I’d known that information then.
Days to save this democracy from dumbster — 206