A Re-Declaration of Independence | Eastern North Carolina Now

    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 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, 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 federal government is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to the good People of North Carolina, to fellow States (the parties who have been deprived of sovereign power with each injury and usurpation), and to a candid world:

    [List of abuses by King George and Parliament]

    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 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.

    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.

    THE HISTORY OF THE PRESENT FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS A HISTORY OF REPEATED ABUSES AND USURPATIONS, ALL HAVING THE DIRECT EFFECT OF ESTABLISHING AN ABSOLUTE TYRANNY OVER THE STATES AND THE PEOPLE --

    "A constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government; and government without a constitution is power without a right. All power exercised over a nation, must have some beginning. It must be either delegated, or assumed. There are not other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation. Time does not alter the nature and quality of either." - Thomas Paine, Rights of Man (1791-1792)

    "People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people." - Alan Moore, author of the book V for Vendetta

    The history of the present federal government is a history of repeated abuses and usurpations, all having in direct effect of establishing an absolute Tyranny over the States and the People. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to the good People of the several united States (the parties who have been deprived of sovereign power with each injury and usurpation) and to a candid world:

    For totally ignoring the Preamble to the Bill of Rights, which explains in detail WHY the first ten amendments were added to the Constitution and how important they were regarded by the States (so much so that several states would not have ratified the Constitution without a promise that a Bill of Rights would be added). The Preamble to the Bill of Rights reads: "The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added. And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution." The PURPOSE of the Bill of Rights, not only in essence but in direct wording, was to "prevent misconstruction or abuse" of (the federal government's) powers." It is true that some of the amendments are "declaratory clauses" which mean that they are designed to "prevent misconstruction of the Constitution by explaining how the document SHOULD be interpreted. A good example are the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. The rest of the amendments of the Bill of Rights are "restrictive clauses" designed specifically to prevent ABUSE of federal powers by creating external limitations curtailing those powers. Here is a News Flash: No one at the time of our founding thought any of the rights would cease to exist without the approval of the Bill of Rights. In fact, it was widely understood that our rights were endowed by our Creator and a product of our very humanity. Theophilus Parsons perhaps summed it up best during the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention when he said: "No power was given to Congress to infringe on any one of the natural rights of the People."

    Sadly, thanks to the rhetoric of the federal government, government agencies and officials, and political candidates, too many people today don't understand this, our most essential of founding principles. They have never read the Preamble (and neither have members of government), and hence, they will likely never understand this which is our country's original purpose. To be clear, the REASON the judicial branch, as well as the other branches, of the government has ignored the Preamble to the Bill of Rights is because it DOES NOT want to limit its powers over the American people and in its operation as a government and its action over the past 200 or so years and borne this out. I suspect that the reason it has weakened and allowed the government to limit the guarantees of freedom and civil rights in these first ten amendments is to ultimately allow the federal government to establish a monopoly over the meaning, intent, and scope of the Constitution - the document that created it and delegated its precise powers. [See the next item for further thoughts on this matter, and See the next section which specifically addresses violations of the ten amendments contained in the Bill of Rights].

    For allowing the US Supreme Court and other federal courts to establish a monopoly over the meaning and intent of the Constitution, as the government would have it interpreted, that is. Federal courts (especially the Supreme Court) - ignoring solemn responsibility of adhering to and interpreting cases strictly according to the Constitution, it has allowed the government to view the Constitution as a "living, breathing document," thus allowing the federal courts alone to enact social change rather than allow the people to do so when they are ready through the representatives they send to legislate on their behalf. and even worse, to render the Constitution a document that means whatever the government wants it to mean. The courts have rendered it an essentially blank document. A perfect example is the ruling by the Supreme Court (or should I say, the opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts) in the healthcare case (National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (2012), In the Court's blinding desire to uphold the healthcare bill, they expanded the taxing power to punish people for not conforming to conduct that the government wants. Even though over 70% of Americans don't want their government to have the power to force particular conduct on them nor believe their Constitution allows it, the Supreme Court did some questionable and detestable legal maneuverings to deny the people their right to define their government. Another perfect example is the Roe v. Wade opinion (410 U.S. 113 (1973), where the high Court came out with a new right (the right to an abortion), essentially out of thin air, simply for the purpose of allowing women total control over her body so she can either have the personal freedom she wants or to be able to compete equally in business or in the marketplace with a man. It was, safe to say, a manufactured opinion with no grounding whatsoever in the Constitution or Bill of Rights.


    Through loosey-goosey interpretation of the Constitution (the last check on government), the federal courts have secured a monopoly for the government. Former US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia admitted as much: "Within the last 20 years, we have found to be covered by due process the right to abortion, which was so little rooted in the traditions of the American people that it was criminal for 200 years; the right to homosexual sodomy, which was so little rooted in the traditions of the American people that it was criminal for 200 years. So it is literally true, and I don't think this is an exaggeration, that the Court has essentially liberated itself from the text of the Constitution, from the text and even from the traditions of the American people." Abraham Lincoln once said: "We the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." Inherent in that statement is the right of the people to get rid of abusive federal judges - those who use personal political philosophy and personal social views to influence their rulings rather than pure constitutional interpretation - rather than have them appointed for life where too much damage can be done.

    As we should all know, the Constitution sets up three branches of government, with a checks and balances setup. In theory each of the three branches; Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, should all have equal power and they should have the ability to stop the other from trampling the rights of the citizens and the principles set forth in the constitution. But Thomas Jefferson saw the Judicial branch of the government as the one branch that was capable of slowly changing those rights and enacting laws without the consent of the people. In fact it was he, the founder of the Democratic-Republican Party, who first attempted to impeach a US Supreme Court justice, Justice Samuel Chase. It was unsuccessful. Samuel Chase, a Federalist, vigorously and aggressively worked to enforce the highly unconstitutional Sedition Act, but only against Democratic-Republicans. He seemed to make it his mission to shut them up; he left an Federalist offender alone. Jefferson didn't believe a justice which such a flagrant discrimination against an opposing political party should sit on the bench and rule on national constitutional matters.

    Here are some of the wise words Jefferson wrote over the years warning of the tendency of the federal courts to become too powerful and destructive of the Constitution written in Philadelphia in 1787, signed by the delegates, and ratified, one by one, by each State:

    In his letter of September 11, 1804 to Abagail Adams, he wrote: "Nothing in the Constitution has given them [the federal judges] a right to decide for the Executive, more than to the Executive to decide for them . . . The opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves, in their own sphere of action, but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch."

    In his letter of August 18, 1821 to Charles Hammond, he wrote: "The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body, (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow,) working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little to-day and a little to-morrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States, and the government of all be consolidated into one."

    In his letter of October 23, 1823 to Monsieur A. Coray, he wrote: "At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in a way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, little by little, the foundations of the Constitution, and working its change by construction before anyone has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account."

    In his letter of October 31, 1823 to Monsieur A. Coray, he wrote: "At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that the invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is no made to be trusted for life, if secured against all inability to account."

    Compare what Thomas Jefferson wrote about the federal judiciary to what Abraham Lincoln warned in his First Inaugural Address: "...The candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government, upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties, in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having, to that extent, practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal." -- from his First Inaugural Address (1861)