Declaration of Dissolution

When in the natural course of events, it is sometimes necessary to dissolve the political bands which from time to time the people have found prudent to connect themselves with, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Order entitle them, and that under the laws of common courtesy that they should declare the causes which impel them to the dissolution.   There are certain truths which need no explanation, that all are created equal, and have been endowed with certain unalienable Rights, which are, to name a few, Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. In order to secure these rights, the people institute Governments that derive their power from the consent of the governed. For this reason, 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 a 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, however, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and all experience has shown that men are more disposed to suffer, while evils are still sufferable, than to right the wrongs 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. This is the story of the patient suffering of the free peoples of Talle; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to altar former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Talle is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these people. We submit the proof of this to all the world.   He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.   He has refused council from Representative Houses repeatedly, to the point of forbidding such gatherings to take place.   He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by denying any exercise of the Judiciary powers in all but himself.   He has created Offices with which to harass his subjects into submission, and eat out their substance.   He has kept among the people, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of the people.   He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.   He has subjected his citizens to the Quartering of large bodies of armed troops.   He has protected his Soldiers, by mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on his people.   He has imposed Taxes on his people without their Consent.   He has deprived his people of their most solemn right to a Trial by Jury.   He has burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of his people.   He 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.   With each new Oppression, we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms, but our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. One whose character is thus marked by every act that defines a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.   We, therefore, as the true representatives of the Free People of Talle, in Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Lord of Order for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of this Land, solemnly publish and declare, that these People are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the Crown, and that all political connection between them and the present King of Talle, is and ought to be totally dissolved. Having thus exercised the right of the people to abolish a Despotic Government, be it known unto all nations that the purported King of Talle is no longer the representative of the people and that the people have taken upon themselves their own representation through their brethren, in Congress Assembled. 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.