Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

T R E 4 5 O N

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

We’re not going back!

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

White supremacy is terrorism.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Republicans in disarray!

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us,

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us,

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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.

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.

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Reader Interactions

45Comments

  2. 2.

    Adam L Silverman

    @eemom: That is my next scheduled post paired with the abolitionist version of My Country Tis of Thee.

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    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.

    Some call her “Pocahontas.”

  8. 8.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SiubhanDuinne: To be fair, the British/American rule of war against them “was an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”

  10. 10.

    debbie

    @Duane:

    According to Cokie Roberts:

    KING: Our next question is about reconciling two conflicting ideas. It comes from Collette Hanna. She writes (reading) I understand what it took to make the declaration, but what was the rationale behind gaining independence from one country while enslaving people from other countries?

    ROBERTS: Ironically, Jefferson, the slave owner, had included a paragraph condemning the king for his refusal to allow legislation to, quote, “prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce,” meaning slavery. But it was struck from the declaration in order to get full congressional agreement. Decades later, Jefferson said it was the slave owners of Georgia and South Carolina and the slave traders of the North who
    KING: Our next question is about reconciling two conflicting ideas. It comes from Collette Hanna. She writes (reading) I understand what it took to make the declaration, but what was the rationale behind gaining independence from one country while enslaving people from other countries?

    ROBERTS: Ironically, Jefferson, the slave owner, had included a paragraph condemning the king for his refusal to allow legislation to, quote, “prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce,” meaning slavery. But it was struck from the declaration in order to get full congressional agreement. Decades later, Jefferson said it was the slave owners of Georgia and South Carolina and the slave traders of the North who insisted on excising the language.

    (Can’t do multiple links on this iPad, but this is from NPR this morning.)

  12. 12.

    lamh36

    @RepMaxineWaters
    53m53 minutes ago
    More
    Happy 4th of July! Peace, justice, and equality for all, and that includes the children who have been separated from their parents. In the name of freedom, we must ensure we reconnect the children and parents who’ve been apart from one another for far too long. ??

  13. 13.

    Yarrow

    TRAVEL ADVICE UPDATE:

    Showings of patriotism expected across the USA today. Expect large red, white and blue gatherings, hot dog consumption, “U-S-A” chants and firing of decorative explosives. British nationals are encouraged to hide their tea.
    pic.twitter.com/BYS6vb3DKw
    — British Embassy Washington (@UKinUSA) July 4, 2018

  15. 15.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow: Here you go:

  16. 16.

    SiubhanDuinne

    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.

    I don’t care who you are, these words bring chills every time.

  19. 19.

    Mnemosyne

    In case anyne has not yet set their DVR, Turner Classic Movies is airing 1776 at 10:15 pm EDT / 7:15 pm PDT. Still the best musical ever written about the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

    Fun fact: the fountain in the courtyard where Richard Lee is persuaded to ride home to gather more support is the same one that was later used for the opening credits of “Friends.”

  20. 20.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mnemosyne:

    Still the best musical ever written about the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

    And the award for tallest little person goes to….

  24. 24.

    hueyplong

    @Duane: Back at the time, Samuel Johnson was all over your point when he said that “the loudest yelps for liberty” came from the drivers of slaves.

  25. 25.

    eemom

    @Mnemosyne:

    the best musical ever written about the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

    Not the only one?

    I like it too, except the John/Abigail scenes/songs. Too soppy. Prefer the raw sex of “He Plays the Violin”.

  26. 26.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    I love both of the GotG movies, and not only because Chris Pratt takes his shirt off in both of them.

    But it doesn’t hurt that he does.

  28. 28.

    oatler.

    @Mnemosyne: “Good Lord, we’re free already and he hasn’t even left yet!”
    “You’re obnoxious and disliked.”
    “Confound it, why must New York always abstain??”

  30. 30.

    lamh36

    @Mnemosyne: Oh…I do too, but it was LOL how incredulous my mom was “damn walking raccoon”…LOL

    I’m LOL thinking bout what she would have thought of Groot….LOL

  32. 32.

    Jager

    I sent the Jackie Venson video from a previous thread to my niece Laura in Austin asking if she’d ever seen her play.

    Laura replied “Yes, yes, yes, she is incredible”.

  33. 33.

    kattails

    Oath of allegiance of the Aragonese to their Monarch: “We, who are as good as you, swear to you, who are not better than us, to accept you as our King and sovereign, provided you observe all our liberties and laws, but if not, not.”

    This quote has popped into my head several times over the last eternity–uh–year and a half. Seems like a good a time as any to toss it out there. I had done it in calligraphy years ago at the request of a friend and it’s stuck with me. Before posting, I double-checked and found it under Catalan-Aragonese Oath of Allegiance. “Barcelona was governed in the Middle Ages by an oligarchy of nobles, merchants, shopkeepers and, unusually, artisans who formed… the Council of One Hundred, in the 13th century.” The city’s charter of citizens’ rights predates the Magna Carta by a century. (Website iberianature.com, I’m lousy at links).

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    @eemom:

    I think other people had tried to musicalize it, but obviously this was the most successful attempt. The John and Abigail parts aren’t my favorite — they stuck a little too close to the actual letters for thise sequences to be good songs.

    And, of course, Benjamin Franklin gets all of the best lines, and Howard Da Silva delivers them perfectly.

  35. 35.

    Duane

    @hueyplong: The contradiction is blinding. Obama becoming President was an eye opener too. The disrespect shown him still makes me mad.

  36. 36.

    Miss Bianca

    @SiubhanDuinne: Reading the whole thing gives me chills. These guys were really putting their necks on the line. It’s so easy, when you learn about the American Revolution in school, to be led to think of the colonists’ victory as somehow inevitable – but it really wasn’t. It was very, very evitable indeed.

  37. 37.

    Miss Bianca

    @Duane: Adam can speak better to this point, I know, but the English – and that is how the colonists thought of themselves – made a point of a distinction between ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom’. Somehow, the concept of ‘liberties’ applied only to…white property-owning English men, go figure. They were all mad because they felt that King Geoge was infringing on their ‘liberties’, treating them not like English gentlemen of liberties like himself or the gentry back home, but like a buncha damn hick colonials who could just be ordered around and made to produce just like they made their slaves and servants produce.

  39. 39.

    Jager

    @Miss Bianca:

    They lost, lost, lost, lost some more and then somehow won. I have an ancestor from Stonington Ct who was up to his ass in it. His brother split and moved to Toronto. The two sides of the family didn’t speak again until 1890 or so.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Miss Bianca:

    Oh for sure, every sentence was treasonous. But there is something so fuck-you-in-your-face about “we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” that gives me goosebumps every time I hear it or read it. I understand the slave-owning hypocrisy that underlies and defines the context of the Declaration; but it is an aspirational document, and — call me naïve — I love its inspiring language. Those were brave souls, the men who declared independence.

  42. 42.

    kattails

    Adam, thank you for the set of posts, I came in late and am reading backwards. It is sobering but not depressing, although there are way too many parallels with current events. It’s a reminder that my safe, peaceful life has been able to play out because enough people before me took the long view. Finishing up the set will make fine bedtime reading.

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