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Political Eloquence

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Services for Real Estate Pros with The Real Estate Investment Institute 1retiredsage

At a time when hate has usurped logic. When collected 30 second sound bytes have replaced speeches. At a time when leaders and would be leaders speak in incomplete sentences, so that no matter what you though you heard they didn't say it. At a time when "Honor" is a demand not an earned accolade, At a time when the surest way to become a nearly instance multi millionaire is not hard work, real estate, or ingenuity, but rather to run for political office. At a time like this it's hard to believe that Thomas Jefferson could write and 56 politicians could agree on our Declaration of Independence! These people didn't sell books, that no one would ever read for millions, but rather they "mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

The following document is 232 years old, it's unique in history. To encourage you to read it I added five words, 28 little letters, can you find them? When you do, please just comment that "I found them." Please don't tell others.

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

American

              

The Declaration of Independence 

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

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.

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.

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.
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.
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.
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 harrass 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:
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:
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.
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.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish 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.

 Georgia:

Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

North Carolina:

William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton


Massachusetts:

John Hancock
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

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

New York:

William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Nevada

William J Archambault Jr

New Hampshire:


Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple

Massachusetts:

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 Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton 

Posted by

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

wja@reii.org      Cell 832-259-7078,      Houston 832-582-8415,       Las vegas 702-516-1569

     http://www.reii.org  Back Cover One House At A Time http:www//reii.orghttp://www.flippingforfunandprofit.info/ http://www.billarchambault.com   

From my past: GRI 1975, FLI 1974, Catalyst from a client 1974 an agent that makes things happen, REII, The Real Estate Investment Institute 1995.

http://www.reii.org

©William J Archambault Jr   ©The Real Estate Investment Institute   ©REII

Comments (11)

inactive AR account
Dayton, OH

I found it. And a big ME TOO!

It's such a amazing document- one cohesive thought/declaration that changed the very course of world history forever. I get goose-bumps...

Thanks for reprinting.

Jul 02, 2008 01:53 AM
William J. Archambault, Jr.
The Real Estate Investment Institute - Houston, TX

Teri,

You're welcome!

It's a pleasure to read and understand.

So many have forgotten.

Bill

Jul 02, 2008 02:06 AM
Mike Frazier
Carousel Realty of Dyer County - Dyersburg, TN
Northwest Tennessee Realtor

William,

Very appropriate for the coming holiday and maybe we need to keep this in mind all the time and certainly our lawmakers need to remember what our country is founded on.

Congratulations this post is now featured in Silent Majority Group of Active Rain.

 


 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

Jul 02, 2008 02:48 AM
Jason Sardi
Auto & Home & Life Insurance throughout North Carolina - Charlotte, NC
Your Agent for Life

Bill - I'm bookmarking this one, for all the obvious reasons.  Thank you!

Jul 02, 2008 04:07 AM
Ted Baker
Carmody and Associates LLC - Winter Haven, FL
MidFloridaMediation.com

applauseBill

Well put !

And yes I see the addition for which you will be remembered. (but not until after 1864)

Have a safe holiday

Jul 02, 2008 05:06 AM
Jon Michael
DeGeorge Realty LLC - Long Branch, NJ

Great post, and this is something that should be out there for Everyone to read, not just our little group...everyone should re-read this most important document

Jul 02, 2008 06:32 AM
William J. Archambault, Jr.
The Real Estate Investment Institute - Houston, TX

Thanks, Mike

I don't know what happen here with all those blank spaces.

Bill

Jul 02, 2008 02:45 PM
William J. Archambault, Jr.
The Real Estate Investment Institute - Houston, TX

Jason,

Bookmarked, I'd be flattered if it were my Eloquence, not Jefferson's.

Before you say it NO! I Didn't know him.

Bill

Jul 02, 2008 02:49 PM
William J. Archambault, Jr.
The Real Estate Investment Institute - Houston, TX

Ted,

Thank you.

And I'm not that old either.

Bill

Jul 02, 2008 02:51 PM
Hugh Krone
Weichert Referral Associates - Hamburg, NJ
Realtor, Sussex County NJ

William , Nice post as usual, but I thought you might really have been there

Jul 02, 2008 02:58 PM
William J. Archambault, Jr.
The Real Estate Investment Institute - Houston, TX

Thanks Hugh.

I blame this whole age thing on Jason Sardi! My daughter hasn't helped she's been know to say that I was born in the first half of the last century, it's true but only by 20 months!

On the other hand 4 decades in lending and real estate has let me meet and learn from some truely great people.

Bill

 

Jul 02, 2008 04:46 PM