History WIll Be Kind

'History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."
Sir Winston Churchill

And write it he did. Churchill was a prolific writer, penning the biography of his ancestor, the Lord of Marlborough; a history of World War One when it was still The World War in the 1920s; and many other books, columns, essays, and treatises.

But his greatest works came later, after the World War Two. He wrote The Second World War during the years after his end-of-war defeat, and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples after his second stint as Prime Minister.

The Second World War won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1953. It remains one of the definitive records of the war.

Dead Anchovies Leave a Stink

Dead Anchovies Leave Putrid Stink in Ore.
The Associated Press Tuesday, July 26, 2005; 8:37 PM
SEASIDE, Ore. -- Millions of dead anchovies have washed up on the banks of the Neawanna River on the northern Oregon Coast, biologists said, giving off a putrid stink of salt water, seaweed and sewage.

Biologists say such mass deaths are perfectly normal, and probably caused in this case by an increased food supply, allowing a greater number of anchovies to be born.
"That's the way nature works," said North Coast Land Conservancy Director Neal Maine. "You get too many, then they take all the oxygen out of the water." In the 1960s, Maine said, so many anchovies died in the river that the bodies were knee-deep.

Seaside Mayor Don Larson said the city is waiting for the tide to remove the bodies. Public health official Lynn McConnell said there are no known health problems from the anchovies, but advises the public to stay away from the fish if possible and wash hands after touching them.

© 2005 The Associated Press

Simply weird. Say goodbye to the tourists for a while.

Electrifying

More weird Canadian news, from the Seattle Times: "Squirrel fires regular occurrence in Canadian border town."

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - Page updated at 08:43 AM
Squirrel fires regular occurrence in Canadian border town
The Associated Press

OSOYOOS, British Columbia — Once again, a squirrel clambering onto a power line has been blamed for a brush fire in this border town north of Oroville, Wash.

Firefighters were summoned Monday after a squirrel scrambled up a Fortis Inc. utility pole, got zapped and landed in flames on some dry brush outside a fruit packing business, Fire Chief Ross Driver said. By the time a pumper truck and a bush truck arrived, nearby residents had doused the flames.

"This identical incident has happened on the same pole one or two times a year for the past several years," Driver said.

Each time, firefighters find a dead, burned squirrel at the base of the utility pole, he said. Driver said he didn't know what Fortis could do to prevent future squirrel-caused fires.

Simply shocking.

Why would squirrels be attempting to sabotage our electrical infrastructure? Are there secret Al Qaeda suicide squirrel training camps in the border country of Washington and British Columbia?

It's a conspiracy, I tell ya...

Hat tip: Dust My Broom.

Pioneer Day

Happy 24th of July!

Today Utahns celebrate the arrival of the Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley.

(Actually, we celebrate tomorrow, since the 24th fell on a Sunday this year.)

The date of July 24th, 1847 is significant in our state and cultural histories, as the first group of permanent settlers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. When the pioneers arrived, not even American Indians lived in the valley, having forsaken it for the lusher and greener valley surrounding Utah Lake to the south.

For the Mormons, at long last this was trail's end. Years of struggle and sorrow had brought them here. After trying to found and grow their church for seventeen years, they had been driven from their homes in Ohio and Missouri, and again from Nauvoo, Illinois. They had endured despite the loss of their leader, the Prophet Joseph Smith, murdered in the jail at Carthage, Illinois in 1844, and the deprivations which culminated in the final expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo in the winter of 1846. Somehow, their faith held on as they followed the new prophet Brigham Young away from the frontier of the United States and into the wilds of the American West.

Here, in the tops of the mountains, they would make their home.

Steve Greenwood, www.saltlakephotos.com

Never Give In

"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.''

Winston Churchill, 29 October 1941 to the boys at Churchill's old public [private] school, Harrow.

Well, He's Persistent, I'll Give Him That

U.S. authorities unearth smuggling tunnel under B.C. border

U.S. government agents have shut down a drug-smuggling tunnel built under the Canadian border between Langley, B.C., and Lynden, Wash., a government source said Wednesday.

Authorities had been monitoring construction of the tunnel for eight months and sealed it Wednesday, shortly after it opened, making three to five arrests in the process, said the source, a government employee who had been briefed by local law-enforcement officials.

The exact length of the tunnel was not known. It ran from a building on the Canadian side to a house on the U.S. side, 90 metres from the border, the source said.

Heh.

And the feds just watched, let him dig all that way, and then moved in the day he finished.

Love it.

A Second Cold War?

First, China's top general starts talking about nuking the U.S. if we attempted to intervene an prevent a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Of course the talk by the general could be a Chinese effort to limit a war over Taiwan to Taiwan itself, by warning of greivous consequences if the U.S. struck at mainland Chinese bases which would be staging the invasion. Not sure if that would work.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is reporting its annual assessment on China. China is building up its forces, with plans to modernize its conventional forces with Russian weapons and revitalizing its nuclear forces by adding mobile ballistic missiles and sub-launched ballistic missiles to its arsenal.

In other words, China is building both its nuclear force and making its large regular forces larger.

Why?

Mark Steyn Is My Hero

He says what no one else will say.

"The mainstreaming of ‘well-known cranks’ like Moore is one reason the Dems have become such reliable losers every other November. Reacting to Karl Rove’s recent assault on American liberals as unreliable on national security and war, big-time Democrats huffed indignantly that this was an outrage given their support over the Afghan campaign. OK, but even taking that at face value it was three and a half years ago: what have you done since? Bitched about Abu Ghraib and Gitmo and whined that Jacques Chirac doesn’t want to be friends any more. These days, heavyweight Dems lumber on to the Senate floor to do Noam Chomsky impressions: the other day it was Dick Durbin of Illinois comparing the US military at Guantanamo with Nazis and the Khmer Rouge."

Women

Can't live without 'em... but can't seem to get a second date with one.

I leave a trail of ruin wherever I go; too bad all the damage is unintentional.

Well that's how it is; in one day, out the next.

Play it, Sam.

Waxing Cold

Matthew 24:12: "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."

From Vancouver, B.C.:

A 19-year-old Coquitlam man was savagely beaten by a group of teenaged girls Friday night, making it the ninth swarming by teenagers in Vancouver in the last month.

Wesley Tommy Jack was drinking in Strathcona Park with about 12 other people -- one friend whom he had met through work, and the rest friends of his friend. Between 2:30 and 3 a.m., a group of three or more girls, between the ages of 16 and 18, attacked him.

"I just remember some girl started to punch me," said Jack, who did not know any of the girls. "I told her I wasn't going to hit her back. I remember I got hit hard by a few people and blacked out. When I woke up, I had nothing left." Jack was punched and kicked repeatedly.

He says the other youths witnessed the attack but did not do anything to help.
When he regained consciousness at around 4 a.m., Jack went to his mother's house in Vancouver, where she called an ambulance for him.

In a news release issued last Thursday, Vancouver police said they were "concerned about the alarming increase in swarming incidents in recent months."

Nine incidents? Sounds like a real problem.

I was really surprised by one thing - the victim, Mr. Jack, wouldn't let himself hit a girl. Perhaps chivalry is not completely dad after all; but unfortunately such faith to a noble ideal was poorly rewarded.

The War of The Unknown Warriors

July, 1940. The last surviving powers of Europe prepare for their final duel. For Britain, victory means survival; defeat, enslavement. Despite Hitler's overtures, few expect to be treated well under Nazi occupation. And there would be no nation left in Europe to challenge his tyranny.

"This has been a great week for the Royal Air Force, and for the Fighter Command. They have shot down more than five to one of the German aircraft which have tried to molest our convoys in the Channel, or have ventured to cross the British coast line. These are, of course, only the preliminary encounters to the great air battles which lie ahead. But I know of no reason why we should be discontented with the results so far achieved; although, of course, we hope to improve upon them as the fighting becomes more widespread and comes more inland. Around all lies the power of the Royal Navy. With over a thousand armed ships under the White Ensign, patrolling the seas, the Navy, which is capable of transferring its force very readily to the protection of any part of the British Empire which may be threatened, is capable also of keeping open communication with the New World, from whom, as the struggle deepens, increasing aid will come. Is it not remarkable that after ten months of unlimited U-boat and air attack upon our commerce, our food reserves are higher than they have ever been, and we have a substantially larger tonnage under our own flag, apart from great numbers of foreign ships in our control, than we had at the beginning of the war? Why do I dwell on all this? Not, surely, to induce any slackening of effort or vigilance. On the contrary. These must be redoubled, and we must prepare not only for the summer, but for the winter; not only for 1941, but for 1942; when the war will, I trust, take a different form from the defensive, in which it has hitherto been bound. I dwell on these elements in our strength, on these resources which we have mobilized and control-I dwell on them because it is right to show that the good cause can command the means of survival; and that while we toil through the dark valley we can see the sunlight on the uplands beyond.

"I stand at the head of a Government representing all Parties in the State-all creeds, all classes, every recognizable section of opinion. We are ranged beneath the Crown of our ancient monarchy. We are supported by a free Parliament and a free Press; but there is one bond which unites us all and sustains us in the public regard-namely (as is increasingly becoming known), that we are prepared to proceed to all extremities, to endure them and to enforce them; that is our bond of union in His Majesty's Government tonight. Thus only, in times like these, can nations preserve their freedom; and thus only can they uphold the cause entrusted to their care.

"But all depends now upon the whole life-strength of the British race in every part of the world and of all our associated peoples and of all our well-wishers in every land, doing their utmost night and day, giving all, daring all, enduring all-to the utmost-to the end. This is no war of chieftains or of princes, of dynasties or national ambition; it is a war of peoples and of causes. There are vast numbers, not only in this Island but in every land, who will render faithful service in this war, but whose names will never be known, whose deeds will never be recorded. This is a War of the Unknown Warriors; but let all strive without failing in faith or in duty, and the dark curse of Hitler will be lifted from our age. "

Prime Minister Churchill, July 14, 1940, BBC Broadcast, London

The Folk Song Army SIngs

Arnold Kling writing at Tech Central Station: "The Folk Song Army Sings."

Read it all.

Why Originalism?

Ed Whelan, writing in NRO:

The term "originalism" identifies the traditional, common-sense principle that the meaning of various provisions of the Constitution (and of other laws) is to be determined in accordance with the meaning they bore at the time they were promulgated. The status of originalism as the only legitimate method (or class of methods) of constitutional interpretation inheres in the very nature of the Constitution as law. As Chief Justice Marshall explained in his landmark 1803 opinion in Marbury v. Madison, the Constitution is "committed to writing" so that its "limits may not be mistaken or forgotten." To disregard its limits is to "reduce[] to nothing what we have deemed the greatest improvement on political institutions — a written constitution."

It is significant that the term "originalism" appears to be of relatively recent vintage. The reason for this is not that there is anything novel about originalism. Precisely the opposite. Until recent years, originalism had been so unchallenged as constitutional orthodoxy that there was no reason to develop a term that would distinguish it from any rival. As Justice Scalia has put it, "in the past, nonoriginalist opinions have almost always had the decency to lie, or at least to dissemble, about what they were doing." But the rise of the "living Constitution" — the Orwellian euphemism that liberal activists have used to pretend that the Constitution has somehow "grown" to entrench forever their own policy preferences — made necessary a label for what everyone had previously recognized as elementary.

That is the key - stopping the shifting baselines of political discussion. If the Consitution needs to be changed, amend it - there's an amendment process built-in. Don't just read what you want into the Constitution.

VDH on Iraq

So, think Saddam was a nice guy? That we had no problems with him until Bush picked a fight with him?

Wrong. Victor Davis Hanson explains.

Studying the Kennewick Man

Research on the Kennewick Man continues.

Two college students stumbled across the skeleton on the banks of the Columbia River in 1996, and the remains quickly became the focus of controversy.

The federal government and several Native American tribes insisted the bones be reburied under a law meant to stop desecration of Indian graves. Eight scientists, including Owsley, sued and won the right to study what is one of the oldest, most-complete sets of human remains ever discovered in North America.

"This is a very important skeleton," he said. "You can count on one hand the number of skeletons this old." The skull's dimensions are very different from existing and historic Native American populations, suggesting the Northwest might have been colonized at different times by people from different parts of Asia, anthropologists say.

This has been a very interesting case to follow, as it reveals a very dramatic clash between science, religion, and government, with each side taking every opportunity to stick their foot in their mouths and offend the others.

A coalition of Northwest tribes argued that they had custody, as the skeleton appeared to predate historical times he must have been one of their ancestors, and therefore deserved full burial rights and honors - without delay. Scientists weren't so sure - the body showed physical differences from members of any of the Northwest Indian tribes, and they wanted to know why. And government workers wanted to please.

The result was a spectacular train-wreck of ethics. Seeking to make the Indian tribes happy, the US Army Corps of Engineers (which had jurisdiction since it owned the land where the skeleton was found) made preparations to hand over the remains to the tribes and destroyed the site where the remains were found (along with any forensic/archeological evidence that may still have been buried there). The scientists sued. Suit and counter-suit were filed; allegations of racism and political correctness raged; and debates over seperation of church and state ensued. After eight years of legal arguments, the courts finally forced a resolution, and gave the scientists the right to study.

There really were no good guys in this ugly mess. Somehow, there has to be a way to learn about our ancient past - information all of us have an interest in, regardless of race - and do so with appropriate respect. How, then, is the balance struck? There appears to be no plan or compromise to guide the process should a future discovery of another skeleton occur.

You Do Your Worst - and We Will do Our Best

From the Churchill Centre:

In reproducing Churchill's mighty tribute to the rescuers of London, we have done something we have never done to one of his speeches: edited it slightly to eliminate contemporary references. In this evergreen form it serves as commentary on a day that will live in infamy, 11 September 2001. [And again on July 7, 2004. - Tyler] The original can be found in Churchill¹s The Unrelenting Struggle (English edition 187; American edition 182) or in the Complete Speeches VI:6448.

The impressive and inspiring spectacle we have witnessed displays the vigour and efficiency of the civil defence forces. They have grown up in the stress of emergency. They have been shaped and tempered by the fire of the enemy, and we saw them all, in their many grades and classe - the wardens, the rescue and first-aid parties, the casualty services, the decontamination squads, the fire services, the report and control centre staffs, the highways and public utility services, the messengers, the police. No one could but feel how great a people, how great a nation we have the honour to belong to. How complex, sensitive, and resilient is the society we have evolved over the centuries, and how capable of withstanding the most unexpected strain.

I must, however, admit that when the storm broke in September, I was for several weeks very anxious about the result. Sometimes the gas failed; sometimes the electricity. There were grievous complaints about the shelters and about conditions in them. Water was cut off, railways were cut or broken, large districts were destroyed, thousands were killed, and many more thousands were wounded. But there was one thing about which there was never any doubt. The courage, the unconquerable grit and stamina of our people, showed itself from the very outset. Without that all would have failed. Upon that rock, all stood unshakable. All the public services were carried on, and all the intricate arrangements, far-reaching details, involving the daily lives of so many millions, were carried out, improvised, elaborated, and perfected in the very teeth of the cruel and devastating storm.

We have to ask ourselves this question: Will the bombing attacks come back again? We have proceeded on the assumption that they will. Many new arrangements are being contrived as a result of the hard experience through which we have passed and the many mistakes which no doubt we have made - for success is the result of making many mistakes and learning from experience. If the lull is to end, if the storm is to renew itself, we will be ready, will will not flinch, we can take it again.

We ask no favours of the enemy. We seek from them no compunction. On the contrary, if tonight our people were asked to cast their vote whether a convention should be entered into to stop the bombing of cities, the overwhelming majority would cry, "No, we will mete out to them the measure, and more than the measure, that they have meted out to us." The people with one voice would say: "You have committed every crime under the sun. Where you have been the least resisted there you have been the most brutal. It was you who began the indiscriminate bombing. We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will. You do your worst - and we will do our best." Perhaps it may be our turn soon; perhaps it may be our turn now.

We live in a terrible epoch of the human story, but we believe there is a broad and sure justice running through its theme. It is time that the enemy should be made to suffer in their own homelands something of the torment they have let loose upon their neighbours and upon the world. We believe it to be in our power to keep this process going, on a steadily rising tide, month after month, year after year, until they are either extirpated by us or, better still, torn to pieces by their own people.

It is for this reason that I must ask you to be prepared for vehement counter-action by the enemy. Our methods of dealing with them have steadily improved. They no longer relish their trips to our shores. I do not know why they do not come, but it is certainly not because they have begun to love us more. It may be because they are saving up, but even if that be so, the very fact that they have to save up should give us confidence by revealing the truth of our steady advance from an almost unarmed position to superiority. But all engaged in our defence forces must prepare themselves for further heavy assaults. Your organization, your vigilance, your devotion to duty, your zeal for the cause must be raised to the highest intensity.

We do not expect to hit without being hit back, and we intend with every week that passes to hit harder. Prepare yourselves, then, my friends and comrades, for this renewal of your exertions. We shall never turn from our purpose, however sombre the road, however grievous the cost, because we know that out of this time of trial and tribulation will be born a new freedom and glory for all mankind.

Winston S. Churchill, July 14, 1941

Terror In London

In case you have not already heard, there have been a series of bombings in London. As of now, there have been four seperate bombings, three on London Underground subway trains and one on a double-decker bus. Casualties are heavy; at least 40 killed and 300 injured reported so far, and I expect that to rise.




A previously unheard-of group, The Secret Organization of Al-Qaeda in Europe, is claiming responsibility.

I recommend following the BBC or Washington Post on this; they seem to be on top of it so far.

My initial reactions:
No warning - no intelligence "chatter" beforehand. That's significant - I'm just not sure how yet.

If these guys are really a European-based group, what can the Europeans do about it?

Find those responsible, and destroy them without mercy. They target civilians. They operate outside the rules of war - and therefore are ineligible for any rights under those rules.

Updating at The Wasatch Front.

A New Resource

Knowledge is a weapon. At the very least, it can give you some dominion over your fear.

MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Database

This is a website that details terrorist incidents throughout the world and establishes a publically accessible database on known terror groups.

It may not make you feel any better, but you know more than you did. I have added this to the permalinks on the right.

Thrill of Fire

There's something about a fireworks show that thrills you.

The booming launch of a shell, a thooomph! that puts you on the edge of your seat, waiting.

Then the wait. You know, in general, what to expect - but what will it look like?

BOOM! The shell bursts, an eruption of light. Fast-burning fireflies fly, glow, and then fade - setting the stage for the next one.

It's the best part of the Fourth.

A Declaration For The Ages

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Action of Second Continental Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America

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 the 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 the 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 Rules 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 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.

John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Our Lives, Our Fortunes, and Our Sacred Honor

"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."

They honored their pledge.

A Hit-or-Miss System

"There are many cases where the United Nations have failed. Hungary is in my mind. Justice cannot be a hit-or-miss system.We cannot be content with an arrangement where our system of international laws applies only to those who are willing to keep them."

Winston Churchill, speech to the American Bar Association, 1957