To be the executioners, or fall Beneath his creatures' hands. He has excited Amongst ourselves domestic insurrection; And sought to bring on the inhabitants Of our frontier the savage Indian, Whose code of warfare, merciless and sure, Spares not, in undistinguished massacre, Age, sex, condition. We, in every stage Of these oppressions, have in humblest terms Petitioned for redress. To our petitions, Though oft repeated, there has been _one_ answer-- Repeated injury. A prince, whose life And conduct thus are marked by every act That may define a Tyrant, is unfit To rule o'er Freemen. Neither have we failed In due attention to our British brethren. From time to time, we have admonished them Of efforts, by their Legislature made, Unwarrantably to extend to us Their jurisdiction. How we emigrated, And settled here, we have reminded them. We to their native justice have appealed And magnanimity; and have conjured them, By common kindred ties, to disavow These usurpations, which, inevitably, Would mar our intercourse and friendship. They Have also turned a deaf ear to the voice Of Justice and of Consanguinity. So must we yield to the necessity Which forces us to separate, and hold them-- As we do hold the rest of human kind-- Our enemies in War, in Peace our friends. We, therefore, who are here to represent The States United of America, In General Congress met, for rectitude Of our intentions to the Judge Supreme Of all things here in confidence appealing, 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 from allegiance to the British Crown They are absolved: That all connecting ties Of policy between them and Great Britain Are, as they should be, totally dissolved: And that, as Free and Independent States, They have full power to levy war, conclude Peace, and contract alliances, establish Commerce, and do all other acts and things Which Independent States of right may do. This is our Declaration: to support it, With firm reliance on Divine protection, We to each other mutually pledge Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour. BEL PIEDE. Browning, whose household gods were planted Beside the banks of classic Arno, Once, in a dainty ballad, chanted The lady of the _bella mano_. Pass from the Arno to the Tiber, From Tuscan to a Roman lady; And let a humbler bard describe her-- This fair one of the _bel piede_. To Roman dame, as I and you know, Is rarely given a foot symmetrical; No Cinderellas--many a Juno-- Upon the Pincian we can yet recall. Those were the days when bonnets did not Expose the face to every starer; When skirts, worn short and airy, hid not The foot and ankle of the wearer.