Declare the Causes: The Argument of the Declaration of Independence
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He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts,
burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of
our people
He is at this time transporting large armies of
foreign mercenaries to complete the works of
death, desolation, and tyranny already begun
with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy
scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages,
and totally unworthy the head of a civilized
nation.
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 insurrection among
us, and 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,
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.
[Part Four: Appeals to British Brethren]
Nor have we been wanting in our 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 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.
The Appeals to Our British Brethren Failed
WE, THEREFORE, the REPRESENTATIVES
of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in
Statement of Independence and its Justification