The United States Constitution. We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,...
Those who support the Constitution, indeed those who wrote it, adhere to rules that rely on a sense of honor and mutual respect. The Declaration of Independence explained to the world why our founders saw fit to secede from the monarchy of the King of England. It wasn't a simple statement. It's an essay, a treatise with the King, to define the causes for secession by the colonists responding to what they considered to be dishonorable treatment. The King responded by calling them traitors.
Our current leadership ignores our laws. Through an acceptance of the ends justify the means, this government has convinced an entire generation of Americans that rights are actually privileges we must earn or purchase through a highly controversial progressive income tax system. Meanwhile, remote control drones are used to assassinate leaders determined by the White House to be terrorists. Our leaders deceive, cheat, and steal from constituents. Force and war are the new diplomacy. Killing is subjectively used to eliminate resistance. The business of peace is supplanted by the business of war. Force has emerged as a preferred method.
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.
What does a decent respect to the opinions of mankind mean? While opinions may or may not be shared, honor compels us to respect the opinions of others in order to gain respect for our own opinions. It is a foundation, a statement of sentiment that implies consistency of future activities, actions, and behaviors. It means one can object or dissent without fear of retribution, albeit the dissent must be peaceful and compliant with the code of honor.
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.
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Government derives power from the governed. What is this power? Is it the ability to lay and collect taxes? Is it to provide welfare, or a national defense? Is it the ability to exercise force on those who cannot or will not protect themselves? Is power the creator of force, and as such is force authorized by such power?
Power is voluntary, it does not corrupt. It is love and joy. Power is peace and self-defense. Power is the ability to improve. The power of the minority counters the weakness of the majority, but only in the absence of unbridled use of force where the majority will undoubtedly destroy the minority.
Our leaders no longer rely on the defined powers of the United States Constitution empowered through the consent of the governed. Those who support this government support force in the absence of power thereby neutralizing the power of those it intends to govern. Our government now depends on those it intends to govern through fear of responsibility. It embodies the government which our founders rightfully opposed through the Declaration of Independence.
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 benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
The Declaration of Independence is an essential document to preface the establishment of a self-governing body in accordance with the code of honor. It along with the Constitution is a product of the exercise of natural rights of association. The colonists did not usurp their government from the King of England, they asserted the government of the King had failed its constituents. They asserted their rights to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government. Indeed it is the secessionists' creed. Is secession legal? No. It is beyond the realm of law. No doubt, governments will be faced with the dilemma of using power or force to influence those choosing to secede, and those who choose secession will be faced with the responsibility of self-governance and self-defense facing off with governments which will use force.
BBC News - Is the US Declaration of Independence illegal?
The Declaration of Independence was not only illegal, but actually treasonable. There is no legal principle then or now to allow a group of citizens to establish their own laws because they want to. What if Texas decided today it wanted to secede from the Union?
Lincoln made the case against secession and he was right. The Declaration of Independence itself, in the absence of any recognised legal basis, had to appeal to "natural law", an undefined concept, and to "self-evident truths", that is to say truths for which no evidence could be provided.
The grievances listed in the Declaration were too trivial to justify secession. The main one - no taxation without representation - was no more than a wish on the part of the colonists, to avoid paying for the expense of protecting them against the French during seven years of arduous war and conflict.
Years after America's war for independence, John Adams in 1785 presented himself to King George as the first United States Minister Plenipotentiary to Britain. John Adams reported on a speech he presented to the King, and an excerpt from the King's response follows:
“I wish you Sir, to believe, and that it may be understood in America, that I have done nothing in the late Contest, but what I thought myself indispensably bound to do, by the Duty which I owed to my People. I will be very frank with you. I was the last to consent to the Separation, but the Separation having been made and having become inevitable, I have always said, as I say now, that I would be the first to meet the Friendship of the United States as an independent Power. . . let the Circumstances of Language; Religion and Blood have their natural and full Effect.”