On this 250th birthday of the United States of America, I turn to the Declaration of  Independence. It is the founding document of our country; the final version signed on July 4, 1776. It has particular relevance today.

Reading the Declaration of Independence

Most Americans have never read the full text of the Declaration of Independence. Even when I studied Civics — back when there were still Civics classes — we didn’t have to read this foundational document of our national beginning.

I probably would have found the historical charges it details to be self evident and somewhat of a yawn. Today, however, sections of it have particular relevance. Today, our democracy is more threatened than it has been since its founding.

Charges Against the King

Here are the charges levied against King George III by our Founders:

“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.

The Law

“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.

Representation

“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.

Immigration

“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.

Justice

“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:

Trade and Taxes

“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:

Government

“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.

Insurrection

“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.”

The Declaration of Independence Today

These were the people of the colonies speaking in plain language to the anointed King of England.

Some of these charges against King George III, many of them in fact, have been and are being replicated to day for the wanna-be king in the White House. It is dangerous to oppose him and his regime now. People are being arrested: recently a soldier on the steps of the Capitol and an Olympic athlete by the Reflecting Pool.

Two American citizens died while exercising their rights to speech and assembly. Disease is spreading both in the military and in the civilian population. Our country is being sold to the highest bidder for oil, gas, and mineral rights.

Donald Trump on the Declaration of Independence

As people with expertise, experience, character and morals are replaced with ignorant and inexperienced loyalists, things will get worse. To stand in opposition of a man who was merely elected grows more dangerous by the day.

In May of 2055, Terry Moran (ABC News) asked Donald Trump what the Declaration of Independence said. In reply, the President who does not read and knows nothing of history said,

“Well, it means exactly what it says. It’s a declaration, a declaration of unity and love and it means a lot and it’s something very special to our country.”

Unity and love are exactly what the Declaration of Independence DOES NOT say. It gets worse. This year he said he was “very upset” he was not mentioned in a document signed 170 years before he was born.

“It was faith that strengthened the Minutemen who stood up in Lexington Green and Concord Bridge and Philadelphia 250 years ago next week,” he said, adding, “Our Founders invoked the Creator four times in the

Declaration of Independence — four times. I wasn’t mentioned once. I’m very upset. Not once.”

The Danger to the Signers

Was signing the Declaration of Independence a dangerous thing to do then? Yes, it was.

The 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the cause of American liberty, knowing that treason could carry the death penalty under British law. Afterward, their lives ranged from political prominence to poverty, imprisonment, and even death. Their stories demonstrate personal sacrifice, political resilience, and enduring influence. Some of them suffered:

• Captured and executed: Five signers — George Walton, Thomas Heyward Jr., Arthur Middleton, Edward Rutledge, and Richard Stockton — were captured by the British and executed as traitors.
• Property destruction: Twelve had their homes ransacked or burned, often by British soldiers or looters.
• Family loss: Two lost sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.
• War-related deaths: Nine fought and died from wounds or hardships during the war.
• Poverty and displacement: Some, like Carter Braxton, lost all wealth to debt and British raids; Thomas McKeam was forced to move his family constantly to avoid capture.

Today, the greater risk is in accepting the destruction of our democracy as the way things are. May think it’s too dangerous, too risky, too much trouble to oppose it. But hiding won’t help us. Staying quiet won’t help you. We are all vulnerable to the power of the federal government should it be turned against us.

This 250th birthday of the United States of America is a great time to rededicate ourselves to our democratic form of government, and do whatever we can to support it.