The Unilateral Declaration of Independence (Southern Rhodesia) (November 11, 1965)

The Unilateral Declaration of
Independence (Southern Rhodesia)
(November 11, 1965)

Whereas in the course of human affairs history has shown that
it may become necessary for a people to resolve the political affiliations
which have connected them with another people and
to assume amongst other nations the separate and equal status
to which they are entitled:
And whereas in such event a respect for the opinions of
mankind requires them to declare to other nations the causes
which impel them to assume full responsibility for their own
affairs:
Now therefore, we, the Government of Rhodesia, do hereby
declare:
That it is an indisputable and accepted historic fact that since
1923 the Government of Rhodesia have exercised the powers
of self-government and have been responsible for the progress,
development and welfare of their people;
That the people of Rhodesia having demonstrated their loyalty
to the Crown and to their kith and kin in the United Kingdom
and elsewhere through two world wars, and having prepared
to shed their blood and give of what their substance in
they believed to be the mutual interests of freedom-loving people,
now see all that they have cherished, about to be shattered
on the rocks of expediency;
That the people of Rhodesia have witnessed a process which
is destructive of those very precepts upon which civilization in
a primitive country has been built; they have seen the principles
of Western democracy, responsible government and moral
standards crumble elsewhere; nevertheless they have remained
steadfast;


That the people of Rhodesia fully support the requests of
their Government for sovereign independence but have witnessed
the consistent refusal of the Government of the United
Kingdom to accede to their entreaties;
That the Government of the United Kingdom have thus
demonstrated that they are not prepared to grant sovereign independence
to Rhodesia on terms acceptable to the people of
Rhodesia, thereby persisting in maintaining an unwarrantable
jurisdiction over Rhodesia, obstructing laws and treaties with
other states and the conduct of affairs with other nations and
refusing assent to laws necessary for the public good; all this to
the detriment of the future peace, prosperity and good government
of Rhodesia;
That the Government of Rhodesia have for a long period patiently
and in good faith negotiated with the Government of the
United Kingdom for the removal of the remaining limitations
placed upon them and for the grant of sovereign independence;
That in the belief that procrastination and delay strike at and
injure the very life of the nation, the Government of Rhodesia
consider it essential that Rhodesia should attain, without delay,
sovereign independence, the justice of which is beyond question;
Now therefore, we, the Government of Rhodesia, in humble
submission to Almighty God who controls the destinies of nations,
conscious that the people of Rhodesia have always shown
unswerving loyalty and devotion to Her Majesty the Queen and
earnestly praying that we and the people of Rhodesia will not
be hindered in our determination to continue exercising our
undoubted right to demonstrate the same loyalty and devotion,
and seeking to promote the common good so that the dignity
and freedom of all men may be assured, do, by this Proclamation,
adopt, enact and give to the people of Rhodesia the Constitution
annexed hereto.
God save the Queen.
Given under Our Hand at Salisbury, this eleventh day of November
in The Year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred
and sixty-five.
Source: Independence Documents of the World, ed. Albert P. Blaustein, Jay Sigler,
and Benjamin R. Beede, 2 vols. (New York, 1977), II, 587.

Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel (May 14, 1948)

Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel
(May 14, 1948)

ERETZ ISRAEL* was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here
their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here
they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national
and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal
Book of Books.
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept
faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to
pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it
of their political freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews
strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves
in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in
their masses. Pioneers, ma’pilim† and defenders, they made
deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and
towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own
economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend
itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country’s inhabitants,
and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
* The Land of Israel.
† Immigrants coming to Eretz-Israel in defiance of restrictive legislation.
In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father
of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist
Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people
to national rebirth in its own country.
This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the
2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the
League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction
to the historic connection between the Jewish people and
Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its
National Home.
The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people—
the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe—was another clear
demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its
homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State,
which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every
Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fullyprivileged
member of the comity of nations.
Survivors of the Nazi holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews
from other parts of the world, continued to migrate to Eretz-
Israel, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers, and
never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom
and honest toil in their national homeland.
In the Second World War, the Jewish community of this
country contributed its full share to the struggle of the freedom-
and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi wick-
edness and, by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort,
gained the right to be reckoned among the peoples who
founded the United Nations.
On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General
Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a
Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General Assembly required the
inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary
on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This
recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish
people to establish their State is irrevocable.
This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters
of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign
State.
Accordingly we, members of the People’s Council, representatives
of the Jewish community of Eretz-Israel and of the
Zionist movement, are here assembled on the day of the termination
of the British Mandate over Eretz-Israel and, by virtue of
our natural and historic right and on the strength of the resolution
of the United Nations General Assembly, hereby declare
the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known
as the State of Israel.
WE DECLARE that, with effect from the moment of the
termination of the Mandate, being tonight, the eve of Sabbath,
the 6th Iyar, 5708 (15th May, 1948), until the establishment of
the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with
the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent
Assembly not later than the 1st October 1948, the People’s
Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State, and its
executive organ, the People’s Administration, shall be the Provisional
Government of the Jewish State, to be called “Israel”.
The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and
for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development
of the country for the benefit of all inhabitants; it will be based
on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of
Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political
rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex;
it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education
and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions;
and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of
the United Nations.
The State of Israel is prepared to cooperate with the agencies
and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the
resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November,
1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of
the whole of Eretz-Israel.
We appeal to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people
in the building-up of its State and to receive the State of Israel
into the comity of nations.
We appeal—in the very midst of the onslaught launched
against us now for months—to the Arab inhabitants of the State
of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of
the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation
in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
We extend our hand to all neighbouring states and their
peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal
to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help
with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The
State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for
the advancement of the entire Middle East.
We appeal to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora
to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration
and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle
for the realization of the age-old dream—the redemption of
Israel.
Placing our trust in the Almighty, we affix our signatures to
this proclamation at this session of the Provisional Council of
State, on the soil of the homeland, in the city of Tel-Aviv, on
this Sabbath eve, the 5th day of Iyar, 5708 (14th May, 1948).
Source: Independence Documents of the World, ed. Albert P. Blaustein, Jay Sigler,
and Benjamin R. Beede, 2 vols. (New York, 1977), I, 371.

Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam (September 2, 1945)

Declaration of Independence of the
Democratic Republic of Viet Nam
(September 2, 1945)

All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness.
This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of
Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a
broader sense, this means: All the peoples on earth are equal
from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and
free.
The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on
the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: “All men are born
free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and
have equal rights.”
Those are undeniable truths.
Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the French imperialists,
abusing the standard of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity,
have violated our Fatherland and oppressed our fellow-citizens.
Their have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice.
In the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every
democratic liberty.
They have enforced inhuman laws; they have set up three
distinct political regimes in the North, the Centre and the
South of Viet Nam in order to wreck our national unity and
prevent our people from being united.
They have built more prisons than schools. They have mercilessly
slain our patriots; they have drowned our uprisings in
rivers of blood.
They have fettered public opinion; they have practised obscurantism
against our people.
To weaken our race they have forced us to use opium and alcohol.
In the field of economics, they have fleeced us to the backbone,
impoverished our people and devastated our land.
They have robbed us of our ricefields, our mines, our forests
and our raw materials. They have monopolized the issuing of
bank-notes and the export trade.
They have invented numerous unjustifiable taxes and reduced
our people, especially our peasantry, to a state of extreme
poverty.
They have hampered the prospering of our national bourgeoisie;
they have mercilessly exploited our workers.
In the autumn of 1940 when the Japanese fascists violated
Indo-China’s territory to establish new bases in their fight
against the Allies, the French imperialists went down on their
bended knees and handed over our country to them.
Thus, from that date, our people were subjected to the double
yoke of the French and the Japanese. Their sufferings and
miseries increased. The result was that from the end of last
year to the beginning of this year, from Quang Tri province to
the North of Viet Nam, more than two millions of our fellowcitizens
died from starvation. On the 9th of March, the French
troops were disarmed by the Japanese. The French colonialists
either fled or surrendered, showing that not only were they incapable
of “protecting” us, but that, in the span of five years,
they had twice sold our country to the Japanese.
On several occasions before the 9th of March, the Viet Minh
League urged the French to ally themselves with it against the
Japanese. Instead of agreeing to this proposal, the French colonialists
so intensified their terrorist activities against the Viet
Minh members that before fleeing they massacred a great number
of our political prisoners at Yen Bay and Cao Bang.
Notwithstanding all this, our fellow-citizens have always
manifested towards the French a tolerant and humane attitude.
Even after the Japanese putsch of March 1945, the Viet Minh
League helped many Frenchmen to cross the frontier, rescued
some of them from Japanese jails and protected French lives
and property.
From the autumn of 1940, our country had in fact ceased to
be a French colony and had become a Japanese possession.
After the Japanese had surrendered to the Allies, our whole
people rose to regain our national sovereignty and to found the
Democratic Republic of Viet Nam.
The truth is that we have wrested our independence from
the Japanese and not from the French.
The French have fled, the Japanese have capitulated, Emperor
Bao Dai has abdicated. Our people have broken the
chains which for nearly a century have fettered them and have
won independence for the Fatherland. Our people at the same
time have overthrown the monarchic regime that has reigned
supreme for dozens of centuries. In its place has been established
the present Democratic Republic.
For these reasons we, members of the Provisional Government,
representing the whole Vietnamese people, declare that
from now on we break off all relations of a colonial character
with France; we repeal all the international obligation that
France has so far subscribed to on behalf of Viet Nam and we
abolish all the special rights the French have unlawfully acquired
in our Fatherland.
The whole Vietnamese people, animated by a common purpose,
are determined to fight to the bitter end against any
attempt by the French colonialists to reconquer their country.
We are convinced that the Allied nations which at Teheran
and San Francisco have acknowledged the principles of self-determination
and equality of nations, will not refuse to acknowledge
the independence of Viet Nam.
A people who have courageously opposed French domination
for more than eighty years, a people who have fought side
by side with the Allies against the fascists during these last
years, such a people must be free and independent.
For these reasons, we, members of the Provisional Government
of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam, solemnly declare
to the world that Viet Nam has the right to be a free and
independent country—and in fact it is so already. The entire
Vietnamese people are determined to mobilize all their physical
and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in
order to safeguard their independence and liberty.
Source: Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works, 4 vols. (Hanoi, 1960–1962), III, 17–21.

Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand
(October 28, 1835)

1. We, the hereditary chiefs and heads of the tribes of the
Northern parts of New Zealand, being assembled at Waitangi
in the Bay of Islands on this 28th day of October, 1835, declare
the Independence of our Country, which is hereby constituted
and declared to be an Independent State, under the designation
of The United Tribes of New Zealand.
2. All sovereign power and authority within the territories
of the United Tribes of New Zealand is hereby declared to reside
entirely and exclusively in the hereditary chiefs and heads
of tribes in their collective capacity, who also declare that they
will not permit any legislative authority separate from themselves
in their collective capacity to exist, nor any function of
government to be exercised within the said territories, unless
by persons appointed by them, and acting under the authority
of laws regularly enacted by them in Congress assembled.
3. The hereditary chiefs and heads of tribes agree to meet in
Congress at Waitangi in the autumn of each year, for the purpose
of framing laws for the dispensation of justice, the preservation
of peace and good order, and the regulation of trade; and
they cordially invite the Southern tribes to lay aside their pri-
vate animosities and to consult the safety and welfare of our
common country, by joining the Confederation of the United
Tribes.
4. They also agree to send a copy of this Declaration to His
Majesty the King of England, to thank him for his acknowledgement
of their flag; and in return for the friendship and
protection they have shown, and are prepared to show, to such
of his subjects as have settled in their country, or resorted to its
shores for the purposes of trade, they entreat that he will continue
to be the parent of their infant State, and that he will become
its Protector from all attempts upon its independence.
Agreed to unanimously on this 28th day of October, 1835,
in the presence of His Britannic Majesty’s Resident.
Source: Fac-Similes of the Declaration of Independence and the Treaty of Waitangi
(Wellington, NZ, 1877), 4.

The Venezuelan Declaration of Independence
(July 5, 1811)

In the Name of the All-powerful God,
We, the Representatives of the united Provinces of Caracas,
Cumana, Varinas, Margarita, Barcelona, Merida, and Truxillo,
forming the American Confederation of Venezuela, in the
South Continent, in Congress assembled, considering the full
and absolute possession of our Rights, which we recovered
justly and legally from the 19th of April, 1810, in consequence
of the occurrences in Bayona, and the occupation of the Spanish
Throne by conquest, and the succession of a new Dynasty, constituted
without our consent: are desirous, before we make use
of those Rights, of which we have been deprived by force for
more than three ages, but now restored to us by the political
order of human events, to make known to the world the reasons
which have emanated from these same occurrences, and
which authorise us in the free use we are now about to make of
our own Sovereignty.
We do not wish, nevertheless, to begin by alledging the
rights inherent in every conquered country, to recover its state
of property and independence; we generously forget the long
series of ills, injuries, and privations, which the sad right of
conquest has indistinctly caused, to all the descendants of the
Discoverers, Conquerors, and Settlers of these Countries,
plunged into a worse state by the very same cause that ought to
have favoured them; and drawing a veil over the 300 years of
Spanish dominion in America, we will now only present the authentic
and well-known facts, which ought to have wrested
from one world, the right over the other, by the inversion, disorder,
and conquest, that have already dissolved the Spanish
Nation.
This disorder has increased the ills of America, by rendering
void its claims and remonstrances, enabling the Governors of
Spain to insult and oppress us this part of the Nation, thus leaving
it without the succour and guarantee of the Laws.
It is contrary to order, impossible to the Government of
Spain, and fatal to the welfare of America, that the latter, possessed
of a range of country infinitely more extensive, and a
population incomparably more numerous, should depend and
be subject to a Peninsular Corner of the European Continent.
The Cessions and Abdications made at Bayona, the Revolutions
of the Escurial and Aranjuez, and the Orders of the Royal
Substitute, the Duke of Berg, sent to America, suffice to give
virtue to the rights, which till then the Americans had sacrificed
to the unity and integrity of the Spanish Nation.
Venezuela was the first to acknowledge, and generously to
preserve, this integrity; not to abandon the cause of its brothers,
as long as the same retained the least hope of salvation.
America was called into a new existence, since she could,
and ought, to take upon herself the charge of her own fate and
preservation; as Spain might acknowledge, or not, the rights of
a King, who had preferred his own existence to the dignity of
the Nation over which he governed.
All the Bourbons concurred to the invalid stipulations of
Bayona, abandoning the country of Spain, against the will of the
People;—they violated, disdained, and trampled on the sacred
duty they had contracted with the Spaniards of both Worlds,
when with their blood and treasure they had placed them on
the Throne, in despite of the House of Austria. By such a conduct,
they were left disqualified and incapable of governing a
Free People, whom they have delivered up like a flock of
Slaves.
The intrusive Governments that arrogated to themselves the
National Representation, took advantage of the dispositions
which the good faith, distance, oppression, and ignorance, created
in the Americans, against the new Dynasty that had entered
Spain by means of force; and, contrary to their own
principles, they sustained amongst us the illusion in favour of
Ferdinand, in order to devour and harass us with impunity: at
most, they promised to us liberty, equality, and fraternity, conveyed
in pompous discourses and studied phrases, for the purpose
of covering the snare laid by a cunning, useless, and degrading
Representation.
As soon as they were dissolved, and had substituted and de-
stroyed amongst themselves the various forms of the Government
of Spain; and as soon as the imperious law of necessity
had dictated to Venezuela the urgency of preserving itself, in
order to guard and maintain the rights of her King, and to offer
an asylum to her European brethren against the ills that threatened
them; their former conduct was divulged: they varied
their principles, and gave their appellations of insurrection,
perfidy, and ingratitude, to the same acts that had served as
models for the Governments of Spain; because then was closed
to them the gate to the monopoly of administration, which they
meant to perpetuate, under the name of an imaginary King.
Notwithstanding our protests, our moderation, generosity,
and the inviolability of our principles, contrary to the wishes of
our brethren in Europe, we were declared in a state of rebellion;
we were blockaded; war was declared against us; agents
were sent amongst us, to excite us one against the other, endeavouring
to take away our credit with the other Nations of
Europe, by imploring their assistance to oppress us.
Without taking the least notice of our reasons, without presenting
them to the impartial judgment of the world, and without
any other judges than our own enemies, we are condemned
to a mournful incommunication with our brethren; and, to
add contempt to calumny, empowered agents are named for us
against our own express will, that in their Cortes they may arbitrarily
dispose of our interests, under the influence and force
of our enemies.
In order to crush and suppress the effects of our Representation,
when they were obliged to grant it to us, we were submitted
to a paltry and diminutive scale; and the form of election
was subjected to the passive voice of the Municipal Bodies, degraded
by the despotism of the Governors: which amounted to
an insult to our plain dealing and good faith, more than a consideration
of our incontestable political importance.
Always deaf to the cries of justice on our part, the Governments
of Spain have endeavoured to discredit all our efforts, by
declaring us criminal, and stamping with infamy, and rewarding
with the scaffold and confiscation, every attempt, which at different
periods some Americans have made, for the felicity of
their country: as was that which lately our own security dictated
to us, that we might not be driven into a state of disorder
which we foresaw, and hurried to that horrid fate which we are
about to remove for ever from before us. By means of such
atrocious policy, they have succeeded in making our brethren
insensible to our misfortunes; in arming them against us; in
erasing from their bosoms the sweet impressions of friendship,
of consanguinity; and converting into enemies a part of our
own great family.
At a time that we, faithful to our promises, were sacrificing
our security and civil dignity, not to abandon the rights which
we have generously preserved to Ferdinand of Bourbon, we
have seen that, to the relations of force which bound him to the
Emperor of the French, he has added the ties of blood and
friendship; in consequence of which, even the Governments of
Spain have already declared their resolution only to acknowledge
him conditionally.
In this mournful alternative we have remained three years,
in a state of political indecision and ambiguity, so fatal and dangerous,
that this alone would suffice to authorise the resolution,
which the faith of our promises and the bonds of fraternity had
caused us to defer, till necessity has obliged us to go beyond
what we at first proposed, impelled by the hostile and unnatural
conduct of the Governments of Spain, which have disburdened
us of our conditional oath, by which circumstance, we
are called to the august representation we now exercise.
But we, who glory in grounding our proceedings on better
principles, and not wishing to establish our felicity on the
misfortunes of our fellow-beings, do consider and declare as
friends, companions of our fate, and participators of our felicity
those who, united to us by the ties of blood, language, and religion,
have suffered the same evils in the anterior order of
things, provided they acknowledge our absolute independence of
the same, and of any other foreign power whatever; and that
they aid us to sustain it with their lives, fortune, and sentiments;
declaring and acknowledging them (as well as to every
other nation,) in war enemies, and in peace friends, brothers,
and co-patriots.
In consequence of all these solid, public, and incontestible
reasons of policy, which so powerfully urge the necessity of recovering
our natural dignity, restored to us by the order of
events; and in compliance with the imprescriptible rights enjoyed
by nations, to destroy every pact, agreement, or association,
which does not answer the purposes for which governments
were established; we believe that we cannot, nor ought
not, to preserve the bonds which hitherto kept us united to the
Government of Spain: and that, like all the other nations of the
world, we are free, and authorised not to depend on any other
authority than our own, and to take amongst the powers of the
earth the place of equality which the Supreme Being and Nature
assign to us, and to which we are called by the succession
of human events, and urged by our own good and utility.
Notwithstanding we are aware of the difficulties that attend,
and the obligations imposed upon us, by the rank we are about
to take in the political order of the world; as well as the powerful
influence of forms and habitudes, to which unfortunately
we have been accustomed: we at the same time know, that the
shameful submission to them, when we can throw them off,
would be still more ignominious for us, and more fatal to our
posterity, than our long and painful slavery; and that it now becomes
an indispensable duty to provide for our preservation,
security, and felicity, by essentially varying all the forms of our
former constitution.
In consequence whereof, considering, by the reasons thus
alledged, that we have satisfied the respect which we owe to the
opinions of the human race, and the dignity of other nations, in
the number of whom we are about to enter, and on whose
communication and friendship we rely: We, the Representatives
of the United Provinces of Venezuela, calling on the SUPREME
BEING to witness the justice of our proceedings and
the rectitude of our intentions, do implore his divine and celestial
help; and ratifying, at the moment in which we are born to
the dignity to which his Providence restores to us, the desire
we have of living and dying free, and of believing and defending
the holy Catholic and Apostolic Religion of Jesus Christ. We,
therefore, in the name and by the will and authority which we
hold from the virtuous People of Venezuela, DO declare solemnly
to the world, that its united Provinces are, and ought to
be, from this day, by act and right, Free, Sovereign and Independent
States; and that they are absolved from every submission
and dependence on the Throne of Spain, or on those who
do, or may call themselves, its Agents and Representatives; and
that a free and independent State, thus constituted, has full
power to take that form of Government which may be conformable
to the general will of the People, to declare war,
make peace, form alliances, regulate treaties of commerce, limits,
and navigation; and to do and transact every act, in like manner
as other free and independent States. And that this, our solemn
Declaration, may be held valid, firm, and durable, we
hereby pledge our lives, fortunes, and the sacred tie of our national
honour. Done in the Federal Palace of Caracas; signed by
our own hands, sealed with the great Provisional Seal of the
Confederation, and countersigned by the Secretary to the Congress,
on the 5th day of July, 1811, the first of our Independence.
Source: Interesting Official Documents Relating to The United Provinces of Venezuela
(London, 1812), 3–19.

The Haitian Declaration of Independence
(January 1, 1804)

The General in Chief to the People of Hayti,
Citizens,
It is not enough to have expelled from your country the barbarians
who have for ages stained it with blood—it is not enough
to have curbed the factions which, succeeding each other by
turns, sported with a phantom of liberty which France exposed
to their eyes. It is become necessary, by a last act of national authority,
to ensure for ever the empire of liberty in the country
which has given us birth. It is necessary to deprive an inhuman
government, which has hitherto held our minds in a state of the
most humiliating torpitude, of every hope of being enabled
again to enslave us. Finally, it is necessary to live independent,
or die. Independence or Death! Let these sacred words serve to
rally us—let them be signals of battle, and of our re-union.
Citizens—Countrymen—I have assembled on this solemn
day, those courageous chiefs, who, on the eve of receiving the
last breath of expiring liberty, have lavished their blood to preserve
it. These generals, who have conducted your struggles
against tyranny, have not yet done. The French name still dark-
ens our plains: every thing recalls the remembrance of the
cruelties of that barbarous people. Our laws, our customs,
our cities, every thing bears the characteristic of the French,—
Hearken to what I say!—the French still have a footing in our
island! and you believe yourselves free and independent of that
republic, which has fought all nations, it is true, but never conquered
those who would be free! What! victims for fourteen
years by credulity and forbearance! conquered not by French
armies, but by the canting eloquence of the proclamations of
their agents! When shall we be wearied with breathing the
same air with them? What have we in common with that
bloody-minded people? Their cruelties compared to our moderation—
their colour to ours—the extension of seas which
separate us—our avenging climate—all plainly tell us they are
not our brethren; that they never will become such; and, if they
find an asylum among us, they will still be the instigators of our
troubles and of our divisions. Citizens, men, women, young
and old, cast round your eyes on every part of this island; seek
there your wives, your husbands, your brothers, your sisters—
what did I say? seek your children—your children at the breast,
what is become of them? I shudder to tell it—the prey of vultures.
Instead of these interesting victims, the affrighted eye sees
only their assassins—tigers still covered with their blood, and
whose terrifying presence reproaches you for your insensibility,
and your guilty tardiness to avenge them—what do you wait
for, to appease their manes? Remember that you have wished
your remains to be laid by the side of your fathers—When you
have driven out tyranny—will you descend into their tombs,
without having avenged them? No: their bones would repulse
yours. And ye, invaluable men, intrepid Generals, who insensible
to private sufferings, have given new life to liberty, by lavishing
your blood; know, that you have done nothing if you do
not give to the nations a terrible, though just example, of the
vengeance that ought to be exercised by a people proud of having
recovered its liberty, and zealous of maintaining it. Let us
intimidate those, who might dare to attempt depriving us of it
again: let us begin with the French; let them shudder at approaching
our shores, if not on account of the cruelties they
have committed, at least at the terrible resolution we are going
to make—To devote to death whatsoever native of France
should soil with his sacrilegious footstep, this territory of liberty.
We have dared to be free—let us continue free by ourselves,
and for ourselves; let us imitate the growing child; his own
strength breaks his leading-strings, which become useless and
troublesome to him in his walk. What are the people who have
fought us? what people would reap the fruits of our labours?
and what dishonourable absurdity, to conquer to be slaves!
Slaves—leave to the French nation this odious epithet; they
have conquered to be no longer free—let us walk in other
footsteps; let us imitate other nations, who, carrying their solicitude
into futurity, and dreading to leave posterity an example
of cowardice, have preferred to be exterminated, rather
than be erased from the list of free people. Let us, at the same
time, take care, lest a spirit of proselytism should destroy the
work—let our neighbours breathe in peace—let them live
peaceably under the shield of those laws which they have
framed for themselves; let us beware of becoming revolutionary
fire-brands—of creating ourselves the legislators of the Antilles—
of considering as a glory the disturbing the tranquility
of the neighboring islands; they have not been, like the one we
inhabit, drenched with the innocent blood of the inhabitants—
they have no vengeance to exercise against the authority that
protects them; happy, never to have experienced the pestilence
that has destroyed us, they must wish well to our posterity.
Peace with our neighbours, but accursed be the French
name—eternal hatred to France: such are our principles.
Natives of Hayti—my happy destiny reserves me to be one
day the centinel who is to guard the idol we now sacrifice to. I
have grown old fighting for you, sometimes almost alone; and if
I have been happy enough to deliver to you the sacred charge
confided to me, recollect it is for you, at present, to preserve
it. In fighting for your liberty, I have laboured for my own happiness:
before it shall be consolidated by laws which shall ensure
individual liberty, your chiefs whom I have assembled
here, and myself, owe you this last proof of our devotedness.
Generals, and other chiefs, unite with me for the happiness
of our country: the day is arrived—the day which will ever
perpetuate our glory and our independence.
If there exist among you a lukewarm heart, let him retire,
and shudder to pronounce the oath which is to unite us. Let us
swear to the whole world, to posterity, to ourselves, to renounce
France for ever, and to die, rather than live under its
dominion—to fight till the last breath for the independence of
our country.
And ye, people, too long unfortunate, witness the oath
we now pronounce: recollect that it is upon your constancy
and courage I depended when I first entered the career of
liberty to fight despotism and tyranny, against which you have
been struggling these last fourteen years; remember that I
have sacrificed every thing to fly to your defence—parents,
children, fortune, and am now only rich, in your liberty—
that my name has become a horror to all friends of
slavery, or despots; and tyrants only pronounce it, cursing the
day that gave me birth; if ever you refuse or receive with
murmuring the laws, which the protecting angel that watches
over your destinies, shall dictate to me for your happiness,
you will merit the fate of an ungrateful people. But away
from me this frightful idea: You will be the guardians of
the liberty you cherish, the support of the Chief who commands
you.
Swear then to live free and independent, and to prefer death
to every thing that would lead to replace you under the yoke;
swear then to pursue for everlasting, the traitors, and enemies
of your independence.

j. j. dessalines.
Head-quarters, Gonaïves,
1st Jan. 1804, 1st Year of Independence.

Source: Marcus Rainsford, An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti: Comprehending
a View of the Principal Transactions in the Revolution of Saint-Domingo;
with its Ancient and Modern State (London, 1805), 442–446.

[Jeremy Bentham,] Short Review of the Declaration (1776) & Manifesto of the Province of Flanders

[Jeremy Bentham,]
Short Review of the Declaration (1776)

In examining this singular Declaration, I have hitherto confined
myself to what are given as facts, and alleged against his Majesty
and his Parliament, in support of the charge of tyranny and
usurpation. Of the preamble I have taken little or no notice.
The truth is, little or none does it deserve. The opinions of the
modern Americans on Government, like those of their good
ancestors on witchcraft, would be too ridiculous to deserve any
notice, if like them too, contemptible and extravagant as they
be, they had not led to the most serious evils.
In this preamble however it is, that they attempt to establish
a theory of Government; a theory, as absurd and visionary, as the
system of conduct in defence of which it is established, is nefarious.
Here it is, that maxims are advanced in justification
of their enterprises against the British Government. To these
maxims, adduced for this purpose, it would be sufficient to say,
that they are repugnant to the British Constitution. But beyond this
they are subversive of every actual or imaginable kind of Government.
They are about “to assume,” as they tell us, “among the powers of
the earth, that equal and separate station to which”—they have
lately discovered—“the laws of Nature, and of Nature’s God entitle
them.” What difference these acute legislators suppose between
the laws of Nature, and of Nature’s God, is more than I can take
upon me to determine, or even to guess. If to what they now
demand they were entitled by any law of God, they had only to
produce that law, all controversy was at an end. Instead of this,
what do they produce? What they call self-evident truths. “All
men,” they tell us, “are created equal.” This surely is a new discovery;
now, for the first time, we learn, that a child, at the
moment of his birth, has the same quantity of natural power as
the parent, the same quantity of political power as the magistrate.
The rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”—by
which, if they mean any thing, they must mean the right to enjoy
life, to enjoy liberty, and to pursue happiness—they “hold to be
unalienable.” This they “hold to be among truths self-evident.” At
the same time, to secure these rights, they are content that
Governments should be instituted. They perceive not, or will
not seem to perceive, that nothing which can be called Government
ever was, or ever could be, in any instance, exercised, but
at the expense of one or other of those rights.—That, consequently,
in as many instance as Government is ever exercised,
some one or other of these rights, pretended to be unalienable,
is actually alienated.
That men who are engaged in the design of subverting a lawful
Government, should endeavour by a cloud of words, to
throw a veil over their design; that they should endeavour to
beat down the criteria between tyranny and lawful government,
is not at all surprising. But rather surprising it must certainly
appear, that they should advance maxims so incompatible
with their own present conduct. If the right of enjoying life be
unalienable, whence came their invasion of his Majesty’s province
of Canada? Whence the unprovoked destruction of so
many lives of the inhabitants of that province? If the right of enjoying
liberty be unalienable, whence came so many of his Majesty’s
peaceable subjects among them, without any offence,
without so much as a pretended offence, merely for being suspected
not to wish well to their enormities, to be held by them
in durance? If the right of pursuing happiness be unalienable,
how is that so many others of their fellow-citizens are by
the same injustice and violence made miserable, their fortunes
ruined, their persons banished and driven from their friends
and families? Or would they have it believed, that there is in
their selves some superior sanctity, some peculiar privilege, by
which those things are lawful to them, which are unlawful to all
the world besides? Or is it, that among acts of coercion, acts by
which life or liberty are taken away, and the pursuit of happiness
restrained, those only are unlawful, which their delinquency
has brought upon them, and which are exercised by
regular, long established, accustomed governments?
In these tenets, they have outdone the utmost extravangance
of all former fanatics. The German Anabaptists indeed went so
far as to speak of the right of enjoying life as a right unalienable.
To take away life, even in the Magistrate, they held to be unlawful.
But they went no farther, it was reserved for an American
Congress, to add to the number of unalienable rights, that of
enjoying liberty, and pursuing happiness;—that is,—if they
mean anything,—pursuing it wherever a man thinks he can see
it, and by whatever means he thinks he can attain it:—That is,
that all penal laws—those made by their selves among others—
which affect life or liberty, are contrary to the law of God, and
the unalienable rights of mankind:—That is, that thieves are
not to be restrained from theft, murderers from murder, rebels
from rebellion.
Here then they have put the axe to the root of all Government;
and yet, in the same breath, they talk of “Governments,”
of Governments “long established.” To these last, they attribute
some kind of respect; they vouchsafe even to go so far as to admit,
that “Governments, long established, should not be changed for
light or transient reasons.”
Yet they are about to change a Government, a Government
whose establishment is coeval with their own existence as a
Community. What causes do they assign? Circumstances which
have always subsisted, which must continue to subsist, wherever
Government has subsisted, or can subsist.
For what, according to their own shewing, what was their
original, their only original grievance? That they were actually
taxed more than they could bear? No; but that they were liable
to be so taxed. What is the amount of all the subsequent grievances
they allege? That they were actually oppressed by Government?
That Government had actually misused its power?
No; but that it was possible they might be oppressed; possible that
Government might misuse its powers. Is there any where, can
there be imagined any where, that Government, where subjects
are not liable to be taxed more than they can bear? where is it
not possible that subjects may be oppressed, not possible that
Government may misuse its powers?
This, I say, is the amount, the whole sum and substance of all
their grievances. For in taking a general review of the charges
brought against his Majesty, and his Parliament, we may observe
that there is a studied confusion in the arrangement of
them. It may therefore be worth while to reduce them to the
several distinct heads, under which I should have classed them
at the first, had not the order of the Answer been necessarily
prescribed by the order—or rather the disorder—of the Declaration.
The first head consists of Acts of Government, charged as so
many acts of incroachment, so many usurpations upon the present
King and his Parliaments exclusively, which had been constantly
exercised by his Predecessors and their Parliaments.
In all the articles comprised in this head, is there a single
power alleged to have been exercised during the present reign,
which had not been constantly exercised by preceding Kings,
and preceding Parliaments? Read only the commission and in-
struction for the Council of Trade, drawn up in the 9th of King
William III, addressed to Mr. Locke, and others. See there what
powers were exercised by the King and Parliament over the
Colonies. Certainly the Commissioners were directed to inquire
into, and make their reports concerning those matters
only, in which the King and Parliament had a power of controlling
the Colonies. Now the Commissioners are instructed to
inquire—into the condition of the Plantations, “as well with regard
to the administration of Government and Justice, as in relation
to the commerce thereof;”—into the means of making “them
most beneficial and useful to England; into the staples and manufactures,
which may be encouraged there;”—“into the means of diverting
them from such trades.” Farther, they are instructed “to examine
into, and weigh the Acts of the Assemblies of the Plantations;”—“to
set down the usefulness or mischief to the Crown, to the Kingdom, or to
the Plantations their selves.”—And farther still, they are instructed
“to require an account of all the monies given for public uses by the Assemblies
of the Plantations, and how the same are, or have been expended,
or laid out.” Is there now a single Act of the present reign
which does not fall under one or other of these instructions.
The powers then, of which the several articles now before us
complain, are supported by usage; were conceived to be supported
then, just after the Revolution, at the same time these
instructions were given; and were they to be supported only
upon this foot of usage, still that usage being coeval with the
Colonies, their tacit consent and approbation, through all the
successive periods in which that usage has prevailed, would be
implied;—even then the legality of those powers would stand
upon the same foot as most of the prerogatives of the Crown,
most of the rights of the people;—even then the exercise of
those powers could in no wise be deemed usurpations or encroachments.
But the truth is, to the exercise of these powers, the Colonies
have not only tacitly, but expressly, consented; as expressly
as any subject of Great Britain ever consented to the Acts of the
British Parliament. Consult the Journals of either House of Parliament;
consult the proceedings of their own Assemblies; and
innumerable will be the occasions, on which the legality of
these powers will be found to be expressly recognised by Acts
of the Colonial Assemblies. For in preceding reigns, the petitions
from these Assemblies were couched in a language, very
different from that which they have assumed under the present
reign. In praying for the non-exercise of these powers, in particular
instances, they acknowledged their legality; the right in
general was recognised; the exercise of it, in particular instances,
was prayed to be suspended on the sole ground of inexpedience.
The less reason can the Americans have to complain against
the exercise of these powers, as it was under the constant exercise
of the self-same powers, that they have grown up with
a vigour and rapidity unexampled: That within a period, in
which other communities have scarcely had time to take root,
they have shot forth exuberant branches. So flourishing is their
agriculture, that—we are told—“besides feeding plentifully
their own growing multitudes, their annual exports have exceeded
a million:” So flourishing is their trade, that—we are
told—“it has increased far beyond the speculations of the most
sanguine imagination.” So powerful are they in arms, that we
see them defy the united force of that nation, which, but a little
century ago, called them into being; which, but a few years
ago, in their defence, encountered and subdued almost the
united force of Europe.
If the exercise of powers, thus established by usage, thus recognised
by express declarations, thus sanctified by their beneficial
effects, can justify rebellion, there is not that subject in
the world, but who has, ever has had, and ever must have, reason
sufficient to rebel: There never was, never can be, established,
any government upon earth.
The second head consists of Acts, whose professed object
was either the maintenance, or the amendment of their Constitution.
These Acts were passed with the view either of freeing
from impediments the course of their commercial transactions,
or of facilitating the administration of justice, or of poising
more equally the different powers in their Constitution; or of
preventing the establishment of Courts, inconsistent with the
spirit of the Constitution.
To state the object of these Acts, is to justify them. Acts of
tyranny they cannot be: Acts of usurpation they are not; because
no new power is assumed. By former Parliaments, in former
reigns, officers of customs had been sent to America: Courts of
Admiralty had been established there. The increase of trade and
population induced the Parliaments, under the present reign,
for the convenience of the Colonists, and to obviate their own objections
of delays arising from appeals to England, to establish a
Board of Customs, and an Admiralty Court of Appeal. Strange
indeed is it to hear the establishment of this Board, and these
Courts, alleged as proofs of usurpation; and in the same paper, in
the same breath, to hear it urged as a head of complaint, that
his Majesty refused his assent to a much greater exertion of
power:—to an exertion of power, which might be dangerous;
the establishment of new Courts of Judicature. What in one instance
he might have done, to have done in another, cannot be
unconstitutional. In former reigns, charters have been altered;
in the present reign, the constitution of one charter, having
been found inconsistent with the ends of good order and government,
was amended.
The third head consists of temporary Acts, passed pro re natâ,
the object of each of which was to remedy some temporary
evil, and the duration of which was restrained to the duration
of the evil itself.
Neither in these Acts was any new power assumed; in some
instances only, the objects upon which that power was exer-
cised, were new. Nothing was done but what former Kings
and former Parliaments have shewn their selves ready to do,
had the same circumstances subsisted. The same circumstances
never did subsist before, because, till the present reign, the
Colonies never dared to call in question the supreme authority
of Parliament.
No charge, classed under this head, can be called a grievance.
Then only is the subject aggrieved, when, paying due obedience
to the established Laws of his country, he is not protected in his
established rights. From the moment he withholds obedience, he
forfeits his right to protection. Nor can the means, employed to
bring him back to obedience, however severe, be called grievances;
especially if those means be to cease the very moment
that the end is obtained.
The last head consists of Acts of self-defence, exercised in
consequence of resistance already shewn, but represented in the
Declaration as Acts of oppression, tending to provoke resistance.
Has his Majesty cut off their trade with all parts of the
world? They first attempted to cut off the trade of Great Britain.
Has his Majesty ordered their vessels to be seized? They
first burnt the vessels of the King. Has his Majesty sent troops
to chastise them? They first took up arms against the authority
of the King. Has his Majesty engaged the Indians against them?
They first engaged Indians against the troops of the King. Has
his Majesty commanded their captives to serve on board his
fleet? He has only saved them from the gallows.
By some, these acts have been improperly called “Acts of punishment.”
And we are then asked, with an air of insult, “What!
will you punish without a trial, without a hearing?” And no
doubt punishment, whether ordinary or extraordinary; whether
by indictment, impeachment, or bill of attainder, should be preceded
by judicial examination. But, the acts comprised under
this head are not acts of punishment; they are, as we have called
them, acts of self-defence. And these are not, cannot be, preceded
by any judicial examination. An example or two will
serve to place the difference between acts of punishment and
acts of self-defence in a stronger light, than any definition we
can give. It has happened, that bodies of manufacturers have
risen, and armed, in order to compel their masters to increase
their wages: It has happened, that bodies of peasants have risen,
and armed, in order to compel the farmer to sell at a lower
price. It has happened, that the civil magistrate, unable to reduce
the insurgents to their duty, has called the military to his
aid. But did ever any man imagine, that the military were sent
to punish the insurgents? It has happened, that the insurgents
have resisted the military, as they had resisted the civil magistrate:
It has happened, that, in consequence of this resistance,
some of the insurgents have been killed:—But did ever any
man imagine that those who were then killed, were therefore
punished? No more can they be said to be punished, than could
the incendiary, who should be buried beneath the ruins of the
house, which he had feloniously set on fire. Take an example
yet nearer to the present case. When the Duke of Cumberland
led the armies of the king, foreign and domestic, against the Rebels
in Scotland, did any man conceive that he was sent to punish
the Rebels?—Clearly not.—He was sent to protect dutiful
and loyal subjects, who remained in the peace of the King,
against the outrages of Rebels, who had broken the peace of the
King.—Does any man speak of those who fell at the battle of
Culloden, as of men that were punished? Would that man have
been thought in his senses, who should have urged, that the armies
of the King should not have ben sent against the Rebels in
Scotland, till those very Rebels had been judicially heard, and
judicially convicted? Does not every man feel the fact, the only
fact, necessary to be known, in order to justify these acts of
self-defence, is simply this:—Are men in arms against the authority
of the King?—Who does not feel, that to authenticate
this fact, demands no judicial inquiry? If when his Royal Highness
had led the army under his command into Scotland, there
had been no body of men in arms; if, terrified at his approach,
they had either laid down their arms and submitted, or had dispersed
and retired quietly, each to his own home, what would
have been the consequence? The civil magistrate would have
searched for and seized upon those who had been in arms;
would have brought them to a court of justice: That court
would have proceeded to examine, and to condemn or to acquit,
as evidence was, or was not, given of the guilt of the re-
184 Short Review of the Declaration (1776)
spective culprits. The Rebels did not submit, they did not lay
down their arms, they did not disperse; they resisted the Duke:
a battle ensued: some of the Rebels fled, others were slain, others
taken. It is upon those only of the last class, who were
brought before and condemned by Courts of Justice, that punishment
was inflicted. By what kind of logic then are these acts
ranked in the class of grievances?
These are the Acts—these exertions of constitutional, and
hitherto, undisputed powers, for which, in this audacious paper,
a patriot King is traduced—as “a Prince, whose character is
marked by every Act which may define a tyrant;” as “unfit to be
the ruler of a free people.” These are the Acts, these exertions
of constitutional, and, hitherto, undisputed powers, by which
the Members of the Congress declare their selves and their
constituents to be “absolved from all allegiance to the British
Crown;” pronounce “all political connection between Great
Britain and America to be totally dissolved.” With that hypocrisy
which pervades the whole of the Declaration, they pretend
indeed, that this event is not of their seeking; that it is forced
upon them; that they only “acquiesce in the necessity which denounces
their separation from us:” which compels them hereafter
to hold us, as they “hold the rest of mankind; enemies in war; in
peace, friends.”
How this Declaration may strike others, I know not. To me,
I own, it appears that it cannot fail—to use the words of a great
Orator—“of doing us Knight’s service.” The mouth of faction,
we may reasonably presume, will be closed; the eyes of those
who saw not, or would not see, that the Americans were long
since aspiring at independence, will be opened; the nation will
unite as one man, and teach this rebellious people, that it is one
thing for them to say, the connection, which bound them to us,
is dissolved, another to dissolve it; that to accomplish their independence
is not quite so easy as to declare it: that there is no peace with
them, but with the peace of the King: no war with them, but that war,
which offended justice wages against criminals.—We too, I hope,
shall acquiesce in the necessity of submitting to whatever burdens,
of making whatever efforts may be necessary, to bring this ungrateful
and rebellious people back to that allegiance they have
long had it in contemplation to renounce, and have now at last
so daringly renounced.
Source: [John Lind and Jeremy Bentham,] An Answer to the Declaration of the
American Congress (London, 1776), 119–132.

Manifesto of the Province of Flanders [extracts]
(January 4, 1790)

Greetings from the Estates of Flanders to those who will read
or hear these words.
Since it has pleased Divine Providence to restore our natural
rights of liberty and independence by severing the bonds that
once fastened us to a Prince and a House whose domination
was ever harmful to the interests of Flanders, we feel obliged
to recount for present and future generations the events which
inspired and accomplished this happy Revolution.
Flanders enjoyed natural and uninterrupted prosperity due
to a fertile soil, a fortunate location, and the innate industriousness
of its people so long as its sovereigns ruled while residing
in the country. The old Counts of Flanders and later the
Princes of the House of Burgundy were born and raised among
their subjects and thus held the same principles in common.
They were guided by the national interest and they molded
their conduct to the spirit of the People. They respected those
traditional rights, privileges, freedoms and exemptions that are
no different, in their essentials, to the natural rights of man and
citizen.
They understood the inviolable character of the bond between
them and the Nation as established by oath during the
solemn act of inauguration. If there were disagreements between
the Sovereign and his subjects, the fact of his immediate
presence made it possible to reach a swift compromise and to
avert dangerous repercussions. With the support of a mild and
just government, Flanders attained the heights of greatness
with little apparent effort. The towns of Ghent and Bruges
were unsurpassed in their splendor and riches. The whole of
Flanders gave the impression of a single and unified City. The
Court of its Count, Philip of Burgundy, was assuredly the most
brilliant in Europe.
That same Prince founded the Order of the Golden Fleece
in the town of Bruges, which remains famous throughout Europe
today. Flanders and Belgium became the center of the arts
and sciences in years that Austria, which now affects to educate
us, was still plunged in barbarism.
This prosperity continued to increase until the marriage of
the Archduke Maximilian with the Princess Marie of Burgundy,
when Flanders passed to the House of Austria.
That marriage marked the apogee of Flemish greatness and
the beginning of its decline. When Flanders became one among
many states ruled by the House of Austria, it became a state of
secondary importance that could even seem foreign to its own
sovereigns, through its remoteness from the primary Austrian
lands, where the Princes made their abode. . . .
. . . it is incontestable that the Emperor has broken all of his
agreements with us. By violating the social and inaugural pact,
he freed the Nation to sever its bond of obedience. Moreover,
he has remained deaf to the humble and renewed appeals of a
Nation that sought redress for its grievances until the final hour.
In waging war upon us, the Emperor obliged us to meet force
with force and to claim all those rights granted by the Law of
Nations to victorious parties. If it is true that the Emperor, in
conquering us, could have claimed the right to treat us as a
conquered People, as the Minister suggests in his Manifesto of
20 November [1789], the Law of Nations and the natural law of
reciprocity permits that we who have been favored by success
should defy his claim to our obedience and enter a state of
complete liberty and independence.
In consequence, in accordance with our preceding resolutions
and declarations, before the Supreme Judge of the World
who knows the justice of our cause, we solemnly publish and
declare in the name of the People that this Province is and of
right ought to be a Free and Independent State; that it has been
absolved from all allegiance to the Emperor Joseph II, Count of
Flanders, and to the House of Austria. We further declare that
the individual members of all orders civil and military are ab-
solved and disengaged from any obedience and fidelity to the
said Emperor.We further declare that all officials, justices, vassals
and vavasours, of whatever quality or rank, are liberated
from all agreements and freed of all obligations pledged or
owed to the Emperor in his capacity as the Count of Flanders.
We forbid all officers, justices, employees and others to employ
or make use of the titles or arms of the former Count of
Flanders. We command them to use the seal and the arms of
this Province until they receive further instructions. All official
acts, dispatches and letters of any kind shall be deemed null if
passed, signed or sealed otherwise.
In order to implement these instructions, we order that the
seals and arms of the Emperor Joseph II, former Count of Flanders,
be remitted immediately into the hands of the Estates.
In addition, we declare and command that no coin be struck
hereafter with the arms of the former Count. Until further arrangements
are made, the money in use in this province will remain
legal tender.
We declare the Jurisdiction of the Great Council over this
country and the inhabitants of this Province to be hereafter
null.
We demand that the present declaration be printed, publicized,
and posted in the Province of Flanders in the usual places
and wherever there is need, so that no person can claim ignorance
of its contents.
We order members of the Council of Flanders, which the
present document erects as Sovereign Council of Justice, to observe
punctually and cause to be observed the entire content
of these instructions. Signed and sealed in our Assembly, 4 January
1790.
Source: J. F. Rohaert, Manifeste de la Province de Flandre (Ghent, 1790), 3–5,
22–24 (translated).

American Declaration of Independence July 4,1776

In Congress, July 4, 1776.
A Declaration By the Representatives of the United
States of America, in General Congress Assembled

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 and 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 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 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 INDE-
PENDENT 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.
Source: A Declaration By the Representatives of the United States of America, In General
Congress Assembled (Philadelphia, 1776).

Thomas Jefferson’s “Original Rough Draft” of the Declaration of Independence

Thomas Jefferson’s “Original Rough Draft”
of the Declaration of Independence
A Declaration of the Representatives of the
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress assembled.
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a
people to advance from that subordination in which they have
hitherto remained, & to assume among the powers of the earth
the equal & independant station to which the laws of nature &
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 change.
We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men
are created equal & independant, that from that equal creation
they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the
preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that
to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;
that whenever any form of government shall become destructive
of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to
abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation
on such principles & organising it’s powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.
prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established
should not be changed for light & 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 & usurpations, begun at a
distinguished period, & pursuing invariably the same object,
evinces a design to subject them to arbitrary power, it is their
right, it is their duty, to throw off such government & to provide
new guards for their future security. such has been the patient
sufferance of these colonies; & such is now the necessity
which constrains them to expunge their former systems of government.
the history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting
injuries and usurpations, among which no one fact
stands single or solitary to contradict the uniform tenor of the
rest, all of which have in direct object the establishment of an
absolute tyranny over these states. to prove this, let facts be
submitted to a candid world, for the truth of which we pledge
a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.
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 &
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his
assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has neglected
utterly to attend to them.
he has refused to pass other laws for the accomodation of
large districts of people unless those people would relinquish
the right of representation, a right inestimable to them, & formidable
to tyrants alone:
he has dissolved Representative houses repeatedly & continually,
for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the
rights of the people:
he has refused for a long space of time 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, & convulsions within:
he 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 migrations
hither; & raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands:
he has suffered the administration of justice totally to cease
in some of these colonies, refusing his assent to laws for establishing
judiciary powers:
he has made our judges dependant on his will alone, for the
tenure of their offices, and amount of their salaries:
he has erected a multitude of new offices by a self-assumed
power, & sent hither swarms of officers to harrass our people &
eat out their substance:
he has kept among us in times of peace standing armies &
ships of war:
he has affected to render the military, independant of & superior
to the civil power:
he has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction
foreign to our constitutions and unacknoleged by our laws; giving
his assent to their pretended acts of legislation, for quartering
large bodies of armed troops among us;
for protecting them by a mock-trial from punishment for
any murders 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 of the benefits of trial by jury;
for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:
for taking away our charters, & altering fundamentally the
forms of our governments;
for suspending our own legislatures & declaring themselves
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever:
he has abdicated government here, withdrawing his governors,
& declaring us out of his allegiance & protection:
he has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our
towns & destroyed the lives of our people:
he is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries
to compleat the works of death, desolation & tyranny, already
begun with circumstances of cruelty & perfidy unworthy
the head of a civilized nation:
he has endeavored 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, & conditions
of existence:
he has incited treasonable insurrections in our fellow-subjects,
with the allurements of forfeiture & confiscation of our
property:
he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating
it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant
people who never offended him, captivating & carrying
them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable
death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the
opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN
king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market
where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his
negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or
to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage
of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now
exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to
purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering
the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying
off former crimes committed against the liberties of one
people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against
the lives of another.
in every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress
in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have
been answered 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 people who mean to be free. future ages will
scarce believe that the hardiness of one man, adventured within
the short compass of 12 years only, on so many acts of tyranny
without a mask, over a people fostered & fixed in principles of
liberty.
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 a jurisdiction over these our states.
we have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration
& settlement here, no one of which could warrant so strange a
pretension: that these were effected at the expence of our own
blood & treasure, unassisted by the wealth or the strength of
Great Britain: that in constituting indeed our several forms of
government, we had adopted one common king, thereby laying
a foundation for perpetual league & amity with them: but that
submission to their parliament was no part of our constitution,
nor ever in idea, if history may be credited: and we appealed to
their native justice & magnanimity, as well as to the ties of our
common kindred to disavow these usurpations which were
likely to interrupt our correspondence & connection. they too
have been deaf to the voice of justice & of consanguinity, &
when occasions have been given them, by the regular course of
their laws, of removing from their councils the disturbers of
our harmony, they have by their free election re-established
them in power. at this very time too they are permitting their
chief magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common
blood, but Scotch & foreign mercenaries to invade & deluge us
in blood. these facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection,
and manly spirit bids us to renounce for ever these unfeeling
brethren. we must endeavor to forget our former love for
them, and to hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies
in war, in peace friends. we might have been a free & a
great people together; but a communication of grandeur & of
freedom it seems is below their dignity. be it so, since they will
have it: the road to glory & happiness is open to us too; we will
climb it in a separate state, and acquiesce in the necessity which
pronounces our everlasting Adieu!
We therefore the representatives of the United States of
America in General Congress assembled do, in the name & by
authority of the good people of these states, reject and re-
nounce all allegiance & subjection to the kings of Great Britain
& all others who may hereafter claim by, through, or under
them; we utterly dissolve & break off all political connection
which may have heretofore subsisted between us & the people
or parliament of Great Britain; and finally we do assert and declare
these colonies to be free and independant states, and that
as free & independant states they shall hereafter have power to
levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce,
& to do all other acts and things which independant
states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration
we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, & our
sacred honour
Source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, gen. eds. Julian P. Boyd et al., 31 vols. to
date (Princeton, 1950– ), I, 423–427.