Junius Unmasked: Or, Thomas Paine the author of the Letters of Junius and the Declaration of IndependenceMoody, Joel
History
Junius Unmasked: Or, Thomas Paine the author of the Letters of Junius and the Declaration of Independence
Moody, Joel
Francis, Philip, 1740-1818; Junius, active 18th century; Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809; United States. Declaration of Independence
"Oh, ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the
tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world
is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been haunted round the
globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her
like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. Oh!
receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind."
ORIGINAL DECLARATION.[B]
I now place before the reader the original draft of the Declaration of
Independence, as it was presented by Jefferson. I have placed in
brackets the matter struck out or amended by Congress.
It will be remembered that Mr. Jefferson was chairman of the committee
to draft the document; Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and
R. R. Livingston, being the other four of the committee; that they
changed but a word or two in it; and that John Adams became its champion
in Congress, and fought manfully for every word of it. Jefferson said
nothing, as he scarcely ever spoke in public:
1. "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for
one people to dissolve the political bonds 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 for the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.
2. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
[inherent and] inalienable 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 and abolish it, and to institute new
government, laying its foundations 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, [begun at a distinguished period, and]
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 sufferings of
these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains
them to [expunge] their former systems of government. The history
of the present king of Great Britain, is a history of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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