Introduction
Kenneth C. Davis Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The lyrics "Thank you! And now in conclusion, another old standard, Blue Lou" from Kenneth C. Davis's song Introduction are a common phrase heard at the end of performances or speeches. It signifies that the performer is about to end their presentation and is thanking the audience for their attention before introducing one last piece, in this case, the jazz song "Blue Lou". The use of the word "standard" refers to a widely recognized and well-known piece of music, often played at jazz shows and dance halls.
Additionally, the use of "Blue Lou" as the final song also has significance in the jazz world. The song was written by jazz musician Edgar Sampson in 1929 and became a popular standard in the swing era. It was covered by numerous jazz artists, including Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington, and remains a staple in the genre. The choice to end the performance with such a classic song also shows a nod to the history and tradition of jazz music.
Line by Line Meaning
Thank you!
Expressing gratitude.
And now in conclusion,
Now that everything has been said or done, this is the final act.
Another old standard,
A song that has stood the test of time and is well-known or popular among many.
Blue Lou.
The particular song being referred to in this instance.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@bladeworxgg2875
The wording of the Declaration of Independence set the framework for the eventual conclusion of the practice of slavery in the US. It does not exclude those who lived a life of slavery or indentured servitude. Rather, it states explicitly 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."
Frederick Douglass, a man who escaped the bonds of slavery and subsequently propelled himself to a life of success and influence noted that the founders were correct in the implementation of The Declaration of Independence. A pathway was alluded to and left open, to resolve the contentious issue at the time. They did this, in exchange for Unity. They had acknowledged this was of paramount necessity in the face of the greatest military force they had known. They understood after years of tyrannical oppression, unjust and undue suffering what would happen to them if they were to fail to assert their sovereignty. Armed with the fortitude of spirit that stands as a testament to the beliefs upon which this Nation was founded, that they would die on their feet before they lived on their knees. They were faced with the elucidation of the heroic challenge of David versus Goliath.
The ethics of the formulation of the Declaration of Independence are easy for us to discuss in the comfort of modernity. However, had our founding fathers chosen to die upon the hill of slavery we may very well have remained under the rule of the Crown. They decided to include, a litany of injustices inflicted upon them. They even had the wherewithal to mention the Native inhabitants of this land. Noting in one such complaint, "He has incited domestic insurrections 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." It takes no great effort to say today that this is a crude and shallow representation. Yet, we do not have the authority of authenticity to consider their contemporary circumstances. The Native Americans and the Colonists shared in a shallowness of understanding of each other's culture and civilization. They did not have access to the expedient means of education and communication that we have today. Still they understood that they were seeking to claim their sovereignty upon the grounds of a Native peoples. Trapped between the territories of the Native Americans and the tyranny of the King; they had evaded religious persecution but found themselves still shackled to the whims of the Crown. The world is unfair in nature and people suffer the fortune of their existence. We understand that the fear of the unknown is inherent in creatures of logic. Thus we habitually erect walls and dig psychological moats to fortify ourselves against these fears. It is not uncommon to cast aspersions and maintain distance from the unknown. We quickly assign motive and allow bias to drive our thoughts, for fear is simple and understanding is an arduous task.
The beauty of the Declaration of Independence is in the acknowledgement and distinction between the laws of nature and natural law. The essence of this was expounded upon decades later by Abraham Lincoln.
"Nowhere in the world is presented a government of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest and poorest amongst us are held out the highest privileges and positions. The present moment finds me at the White House, yet there is as good a chance for your children as there was for my father's."
--August 31, 1864 Speech to 148th Ohio Regiment
In this speech we can begin to interpret the ideals of the United States of America as outlined in Lincoln's mind. A more clarion and recognizable example was this quote from his famous Gettysburg Address,
"That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”
The final piece I would like to share is Lincoln's Fragment on the Constitution and the Union.
"All this is not the result of accident. It has a philosophical cause. Without the Constitution and the Union, we could not have attained the result; but even these, are not the primary cause of our great prosperity. There is something back of these, entwining itself more closely about the human heart. That something, is the principle of “Liberty to all” — the principle that clears the path for all — gives hope to all — and, by consequence, enterprise, and industry to all.
The expression of that principle, in our Declaration of Independence, was most happy, and fortunate. Without this, as well as with it, we could have declared our independence of Great Britain; but without it, we could not, I think, have secured our free government, and consequent prosperity. No oppressed, people will fight, and endure, as our fathers did, without the promise of something better, than a mere change of masters.
The assertion of that principle, at that time, was the word, “fitly spoken” which has proved an “apple of gold” to us. The Union, and the Constitution, are the picture of silver, subsequently framed around it. The picture was made, not to conceal, or destroy the apple; but to adorn, and preserve it. The picture was made for the apple — not the apple for the picture.
So let us act, that neither picture, or apple shall ever be blurred, or bruised or broken.
That we may so act, we must study, and understand the points of danger."
@CT_Taylor
Actually, they did not want it in the beginning mentioned(because they needed the support of ALL the Colonies to fight the British.) Once the war was won, we created the Articles of Confederation. A very loose and bad government system. When time came around again to create the Constitution, the 3/5ths compromise was required in order for the South to ratify(and become of) the new government. Which was very crucial that they did. Many of the founders did not want slavery, but it was the only way to get the South on board.
Along comes the civil war.
The civil wars main reason for fighting in the first place is obviously slavery. The person above was not 100% correct in how he said it. The states were choosing to succeed because there was heavy debate, and largely winning, in Congress to end slavery. And the national pressures were urging just for that. Slaves were escaping to the north, people were helping them escape, etc... Also under the Articles of Confederation, there was the Missouri Compromise(this was under the constitution) and the Northwest Ordinance(which stayed in effect under the constitution). The NWO prohibited slavery(many people still brought slaves and called them indentured servants.) and the Missouri Compromise established a line which was 36-30 on a globe which made slavery illegal above it and legal(if the state public elections, if it were becoming a new state, or state legislatures approved of it). This further divided America into North and South, because only southern states could have slavery and only northern states couldn't. Later the Compromise was declared unconstitutional by the supreme court. So this all spun up the issue of state AND slavery rights. Since the fed. govt was trying to tell the states how to run and that they could not have slavery(which was vital to the feudal economy there).
So once the war starts, the southern states succeeded because of government over reach, pressuring them to end slavery, and taxation.(there was a tax, I forget which one it was, that got South Carolina to succeed in the 1830's I believe. Andrew Jackson got POed by them doing that. Lol.) So yeah. To say the CW was ONLY about slavery is not correct, but saying it had hardly anything to do with slavery is also a lie.
And when it comes down to it, the South favored the flawed Articles of Confederation-type government(states have the power) rather than the Constitution type government.(the federal has the power)
@EccentricGentelman
As a British citizen I'd like to point out a problem with this video.
The British flag shown at 0:29 is accurate for the time. The red cross is from the English flag, the diagonal white cross and the blue comes from the Scottish flag. When the two kingdoms were joined to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the two flags were combined to represent the union.
At 2:35 however, despite that fact it's still set in 1776, the British flag is shown as it is today. With the diagonal red cross that came from the Northern Irish flag when they joined the UK in 1801.
I've seen this happen a few times in American media, it's misinforming about history and it's not really that hard to get right. If Pirates of the Caribbean can get it right for their film you can do it for a short documentary.
You don't see the BBC making documentaries showing the revolutionary flag with 50 stars do you?
@dummydummy1493
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 & 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 Brittish 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.
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 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 Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
God dammit, I accidentally commented the Declaration of Independence again.
@JaysonCarmona
To think that the Founding Fathers did not understand the immoral nature of slavery is to not have done the research and studied what the Founders actually said about slavery.
The Founding Fathers did not solve the slave question then because they needed the southern states to ratify the declaration of independence. Not adding that bit about slavery was a compromise. Also, the King of England was responsible for keeping the slave trade going. There were laws in Virginia that made freeing slaves illegal and thus Washington was not able to free his slaves until after his death. The law changed before Jefferson died and he was only able to free some of his slaves.
Washington, Jefferson and many of the other Founding Fathers wanted slavery to be abolished.
Here is the text from Jefferson's original draft (I find it crafty that the text is not shown in the video):
He [King George III] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere. . . . Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce.
- The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Adrienne Koch and William Peden, eds. (New York: Random House, 1944), p. 25.
George Washington wrote in a letter to Robert Morris:
I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it [slavery].
- Letter to Robert Morris, April 12, 1786, in George Washington: A Collection, ed. W.B. Allen (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1988), p. 319.
I would most ardently wish to become a member of it [the anti-slavery society] and . . . I can safely promise them that neither my tongue, nor my pen, nor purse shall be wanting to promote the abolition of what to me appears so inconsistent with humanity and Christianity. . . . May the great and the equal Father of the human race, who has expressly declared His abhorrence of oppression, and that He is no respecter of persons, succeed a design so laudably calculated to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.
- William Livingston, The Papers of William Livingston, Carl E. Prince, editor (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1988), Vol. V, p. 255, to the New York Manumission Society on June 26, 1786. In "The Founding Fathers and Slavery" by David Barton, unpublished paper, p. 5
Jefferson on slavery and its consequences:
The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. . . . And with what execration should the statesman be loaded, who permitting one half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other. . . . And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever
- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (Trenton: Wilson & Blackwell, 1803), Query XVIII, pp. 221-222
@JaysonCarmona
Jefferson still freed 5 slaves upon his death. He might have freed more, but he could not because they were collateral for his debts, 130 slaves (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manumission#United_States) were sold to pay his debts. Manumission laws also had certain limitations on what types of slaves could be manumitted. It seems he would have freed more if he hadn't been in a rough financial situation. We have to judge people according to their own times, not according to what is obviously is right.
This whole idea of "the right side of history" is hogwash. The Founders had similar ideas of Judeo-Christian ethics and morality.
Jefferson was on a committee of three that proposed that slavery should not be allowed to spread into the new western territories:
"That after the year 1800 of the Christian era, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted to have been personally guilty."
Journals of the Continental Congress, Volume XXVI, pp. 118-119, Monday, March 1, 1784.
In 1805, Jefferson bemoaned that slavery would not be abolished in his lifetime:
"I have long since given up the expectation of any early provision for the extinguishment of slavery among us. [While] there are many virtuous men who would make any sacrifices to affect it, many equally virtuous persuade themselves either that the thing is not wrong or that it cannot be remedied."
Jefferson, Works (1905), Vol. X, p. 126, to William A. Burwell on January 28, 1805.
Before he died he said this about slavery:
"On the question of the lawfulness of slavery, that is of the right of one man to appropriate to himself the faculties of another without his consent, I certainly retain my early opinions."
Jefferson, Writings (1904), Vol. XVI, pp. 162-163, to the Hon. Edward Everett on April 8, 1826.
The man was human and imperfect, but he was not far ahead of his tome.
@johnc1014
Das Jackal Firstly, no, they didn't "most likely [mean] the word creator as in a deity."
There is no question that they meant the word to mean a deity. They specifically meant Yahweh, the God of the Bible.
You don't get to reinterpret a term to mean anything other than what the founders intended it to mean.
Secondly, you are flat out wrong regarding the attribution of the term to their parents.
We are not endowed by our parents with any rights. We belong to our creator.
While you are technically correct that your parents can grant you certain rights, this is only within the context of God-given rights.
First, and foremost, I belong to my heavenly Father.
Secondly, I belong to my Earthly parents.
They can certainly grant me liberties or place restrictions upon me as I am under their authority. However, their authority comes from God. It is secondary to his authority.
@mykhyn
Myk Hyn hat sich die Declaration mal etwas genauer angesehen @sUjU
und sich gewundert, warum Striche zum Unterstreichen von Worten
vorhanden sind aber keine Worte unterstrichen werden. Daraufhin hat Myk
die Declaration gespiegelt und so auf das Original gelegt, dass die aus
dem Original stammenden Doppelpunkten wieder aufeinander liegen.
@ States of America#
# : #
Nun werden die Striche der gespiegelten Declaration zu Unterstreichungen auf dem Original und der gefundene Wortlaut lautet:
He depository with manly Office of depriving ring and tyranny of devine.
Er verwahrt mit männlichem Amt den Ring und Tyrannei der Göttlichkeit.
@gabeross515
Text Of The Declaration Of Independence
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 has shown, 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 meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and 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, 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 harass 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 offenses;
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring 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 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 insurrections amongst 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.
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 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 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 Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
@ShawnRavenfire
All this is shown in the movie 1776. A lot of it is really accurate.
One thing the movie left out, though, because they were afraid that no one would believe it was true, was that John Adams predicted that if slavery existed in the new nation, it would result in a civil war a hundred years in the future. (Smart guy.)
@guavajui3871
Shawn Ravenfire nah
@pearlescent1557
@DesertRat45 huge bruh moment
@jlupus8804
And Adams was the only President from America’s founding who didn’t own slaves! Nice!
@Badalov97
@pearlescent huge huge bruh moment
@bladeworxgg2875
The wording of the Declaration of Independence set the framework for the eventual conclusion of the practice of slavery in the US. It does not exclude those who lived a life of slavery or indentured servitude. Rather, it states explicitly 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."
Frederick Douglass, a man who escaped the bonds of slavery and subsequently propelled himself to a life of success and influence noted that the founders were correct in the implementation of The Declaration of Independence. A pathway was alluded to and left open, to resolve the contentious issue at the time. They did this, in exchange for Unity. They had acknowledged this was of paramount necessity in the face of the greatest military force they had known. They understood after years of tyrannical oppression, unjust and undue suffering what would happen to them if they were to fail to assert their sovereignty. Armed with the fortitude of spirit that stands as a testament to the beliefs upon which this Nation was founded, that they would die on their feet before they lived on their knees. They were faced with the elucidation of the heroic challenge of David versus Goliath.
The ethics of the formulation of the Declaration of Independence are easy for us to discuss in the comfort of modernity. However, had our founding fathers chosen to die upon the hill of slavery we may very well have remained under the rule of the Crown. They decided to include, a litany of injustices inflicted upon them. They even had the wherewithal to mention the Native inhabitants of this land. Noting in one such complaint, "He has incited domestic insurrections 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." It takes no great effort to say today that this is a crude and shallow representation. Yet, we do not have the authority of authenticity to consider their contemporary circumstances. The Native Americans and the Colonists shared in a shallowness of understanding of each other's culture and civilization. They did not have access to the expedient means of education and communication that we have today. Still they understood that they were seeking to claim their sovereignty upon the grounds of a Native peoples. Trapped between the territories of the Native Americans and the tyranny of the King; they had evaded religious persecution but found themselves still shackled to the whims of the Crown. The world is unfair in nature and people suffer the fortune of their existence. We understand that the fear of the unknown is inherent in creatures of logic. Thus we habitually erect walls and dig psychological moats to fortify ourselves against these fears. It is not uncommon to cast aspersions and maintain distance from the unknown. We quickly assign motive and allow bias to drive our thoughts, for fear is simple and understanding is an arduous task.
The beauty of the Declaration of Independence is in the acknowledgement and distinction between the laws of nature and natural law. The essence of this was expounded upon decades later by Abraham Lincoln.
"Nowhere in the world is presented a government of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest and poorest amongst us are held out the highest privileges and positions. The present moment finds me at the White House, yet there is as good a chance for your children as there was for my father's."
--August 31, 1864 Speech to 148th Ohio Regiment
In this speech we can begin to interpret the ideals of the United States of America as outlined in Lincoln's mind. A more clarion and recognizable example was this quote from his famous Gettysburg Address,
"That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”
The final piece I would like to share is Lincoln's Fragment on the Constitution and the Union.
"All this is not the result of accident. It has a philosophical cause. Without the Constitution and the Union, we could not have attained the result; but even these, are not the primary cause of our great prosperity. There is something back of these, entwining itself more closely about the human heart. That something, is the principle of “Liberty to all” — the principle that clears the path for all — gives hope to all — and, by consequence, enterprise, and industry to all.
The expression of that principle, in our Declaration of Independence, was most happy, and fortunate. Without this, as well as with it, we could have declared our independence of Great Britain; but without it, we could not, I think, have secured our free government, and consequent prosperity. No oppressed, people will fight, and endure, as our fathers did, without the promise of something better, than a mere change of masters.
The assertion of that principle, at that time, was the word, “fitly spoken” which has proved an “apple of gold” to us. The Union, and the Constitution, are the picture of silver, subsequently framed around it. The picture was made, not to conceal, or destroy the apple; but to adorn, and preserve it. The picture was made for the apple — not the apple for the picture.
So let us act, that neither picture, or apple shall ever be blurred, or bruised or broken.
That we may so act, we must study, and understand the points of danger."
@themarissasofia
Kenneth, you explained this topic in a way that allowed me to easily understand such a broad topic! Karrot Animation, I thought this animated video was very well put together! Wonderful job to you both. 👏🏼 Happy Fourth of July! 🇺🇸
@Canoopy
Rizzer Tax
@beemer9108
Goosebumps. Jefferson was just a great writer, I love it.
@juliannichols3610
I might use this short, lively, concise video for my friends studying for US Citizenship Test. Better than straight memorizing of 128 questions!!