When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for nations 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 creation entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that governments are inherently corrupt. That they are endowed by the Conspiracy with certain alien technologies, that among these are immortality, God-like powers, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these technologies, our nation will be instituted among men and women, deriving it's just powers from the consent of the people. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new nation, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to most likely effect their safety and happiness. We no longer believe that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are 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 any form of 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 our nations, and such is now the necessity which compels us. The history of the present Empire 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 Empire has refused it's assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
The Empire has forbidden it's governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till their assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, it has utterly neglected to attend to them.
The Empire 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.
The Empire 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.
The Empire has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
The Empire 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 meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
The Empire has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
The Empire has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
The Empire has made judges dependent on it's will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
The Empire has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
The Empire has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
The Empire has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
The Empire 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 mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
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 offenses:
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring 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 in these colonies:
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.
The Empire has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
The Empire has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
The Empire is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
The Empire 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.
The Empire has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Islamic savages, whose known rule of warfare, is 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 attention to our 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 Amun, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the 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 Old Empire, and that all political connection between them and the Shadow Goverment, 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.
This declaration is the property of The Nation of Amun. It belongs to all the Amanamanian people. It is available here. Any citizen of the Nations of Amun may edit it. Changes will be approved by popular vote on the first day of each epoch.
