ONE "THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 335
tJ3> has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high
seas, . o 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 then-
Legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. TVe
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
the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish
and declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be,
FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES ; that they are absolved from all
allegiance to the 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 Provi-
dence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and
our sacred honour. American Declaration of Independence
The Fool and the Wise Man
A FOOL can ask more questions than a wise man can answer, but
a wise man cannot ask more questions than he will find a fool
ready to answer. Archbishop