Paraphrasing the Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence (Actual) Declaration of Independence (Paraphrased) 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. When it is time for people to declare independence of a parent country and form their own government, it is only decent and proper for them to explain the reasons. 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. The following are obvious: that everyone is born and starts off equal, and that everyone has certain rights they never relinquish (give up), some of which are life, freedom, and trying to be happy. -That to protect these rights, people institute (create) and maintain control over governments. -- That whenever such governments become counterproductive to (go against) the purpose for which they were created, the citizens have a right to change or get rid of the government and start a new one in order to try to better do the job of providing safety and happiness. Now, of course, it is only reasonable not to change, on the basis of whim or temporary problems, governments that have been around a long time; and historically people have pretty much preferred to suffer through some difficult times with their governments, when they feel they can endure (get through) it, rather than start over again with something new. But when the government repeatedly does various things in order to repress (hold down) the rights of ordinary citizens, everyone can, and should, cancel this government and start a new one that can do the job right. -- The Colonies have tried to put up with the current government, but it is now to the point where they are forced to have to get rid of it. The current king of Great Britain has done enough harm in trying to become an absolute dictator over them. For example: He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. 1. He won't allow the beneficial (good) laws the people need and want. 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. 2. He won't even allow his own administrators (government people) to pass really important laws until he gives his permission, and when his permission is sought, he never gets around even to responding. 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. 3. He won't even pass laws lots of people want unless they give up their priceless right of governmental representation -- a right only tyrants worry about people having. 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. 4. He has made it so difficult for legislatures even to meet that by the time they do, they are so tired they are willing to pass whatever he wants. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. 5. He gets rid of legislators who stand up to him when he treats people unfairly and criminally. 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. 6. Then, when he does that, he doesn't even allow new elections, thus effectively eliminating the government altogether that people need to protect themselves against external (outside) threats and internal chaos. 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. 7. He has tried to keep our populations small by preventing immigration, naturalization (from immigrants becoming citizens), and land distribution (giving land out to people and groups). He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. 8. He has stopped or slowed justice by not allowing the establishment of a proper judicial (court) system. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. 9. He has made judges rely on him for their job, their continuing employment, and their incomes and paychecks. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. 10. He has created many government positions and has sent government workers to fill them and make our lives miserable. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. 11. He has kept standing armies among us during peace time without the consent of our officials. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. 12. He has tried to place the military above the civil (governmental) authority. 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: He has tried to make us subject to (required to follow) an unconstitutionally recognized authority and agreed to their laws: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: 13. For quartering (housing) large numbers 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: 14. For excusing their murders in fake trials: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: 15. For blocking our foreign trade: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: 16. For imposing taxes without our consent/agreement: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury: 17. For depriving us in many cases of jury trials: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: 18. For taking us to foreign countries (England) to stand trial on fake criminal charges: 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 19. For replacing the government of a neighboring land (Quebec) as an example of what could happen to us: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: 20. For taking away our charters, abolishing our valuable laws, and changing the forms of government in fundamental ways: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 21. For taking away our legislatures and saying they (the British govenment) are the replacement: He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. 22. He has declared us no longer under his protection and has even waged war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 23. He has stolen from our ships and from our shores; he has burnt our towns and ruined people's lives. 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. 24. He is now sending large mercenary (hired) armies to do even more barbaric things to us. 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. 25. He has kidnapped our citizens at sea and forced them to be soldiers against us, and to execute their friends and relatives, and even themselves. 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. 26. He has stirred up rebellions among us and tried to get the barbaric Indians on our frontiers to destroy us. 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. 27. We have asked him nicely each time he has done one of these things to reverse it, but his answer was to do even worse. He should not be the leader of a democratic country. 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. The British people have not interceded (gotten themselves involved) with their leaders on our behalf either, even though we have told them what is going on and have asked them for help and fairness. So we must also hold them accountable for how we are treated. 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. Thus, we, as elected representatives of the United States of America, do what is the right thing, and officially declare ourselves separate from Great Britain in order to be a free and independent country altogether, with all the rights and responsibilities of every other nation. And we intend to do everything in our collective power to fulfill this declaration.