Better Than Trump Could Do?
Please check my interpretation and translation of the Declaration of Independence. Please recommend improvements.
The Declaration of Independence
With the War for Independence over a year old and hope for a peaceful resolution nonexistent, the Continental Congress appointed a Committee of Five—including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin—to draft a document “declar[ing] the causes which impel [the American colonies] to the separation.” Thirty-three-year-old Jefferson composed the initial draft, completing it in seventeen days. The committee submitted its draft to Congress on June 28, 1776, and on July 2, Congress voted for independence. Two days later, after numerous edits, Congress approved the Declaration of Independence by unanimous vote. 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 have some bad news for you. Based on things that have happened between us, we’re no longer feeling good about this relationship; we’re breaking up with you. Out of respect for you, our families and others involved, we’re going to explain what caused this break up.
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 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.
When it comes to freedom and rights, we’re the same; we’re equals. We all have rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The deal that we had worked out for you to protect us was based on our consent, but you’ve become destructive towards us. You haven’t been protecting us. So we’re going to abolish the agreement and create our own government, in a form that seems most likely to bring about our safety and happiness. We’re not doing this for trivial reasons. Whereas most people would suffer under evil than to right themselves by breaking up, we’re not going to put up with this anymore. You’ve been abusive; you’ve been a despot, so it is our right and our duty, to fire you. We’ve been patient; we’ve tried to persuade you to change your ways, but the time has come for this relationship to end. Your history towards us is a history of injuries and forcing yourself upon us. You’ve been a tyrant. To prove this, here are the facts regarding your behavior toward us.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
You haven’t agreed to the most basic laws for our 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.
You’ve haven’t passed laws that we need. You’ve been giving us the runaround.
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.
You refuse to pass laws unless we relinquish our political representation in legislature.
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.
You’ve been playing games by calling legislative meetings at unusual times and places.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
You’re shouting down our representatives if we dissent.
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.
You’ve cancelled legislative meetings, gotten other people elected, and left us vulnerable to invasion in the mean time.
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.
You’ve attempted to control our population by obstructing our migration and by not approving new lands for us to immigrate to.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
You’ve obstructed justice by refusing to establish courts and judges.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
You’ve tried controlling our judges, making them dependent on you, refusing to pay them unless they did as you please.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
You’ve hired a bunch of bureaucrats to harass us and take our stuff.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
You’ve stationed your soldiers here without our consent.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
You’re making the military independent of and superior to us.
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:
You’re working with others to subject us to laws that are foreign to us.
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
You’re forcing us to house your soldiers.
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
You’re shielding your soldiers from justice when they commit crimes against us.
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
You’re preventing us from buying and selling stuff with people in other countries.
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
You’ve been stealing our stuff.
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
You’ve been depriving us of a trial by jury of our peers.
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
You’ve been kidnapping us and transporting us overseas to be tried for crimes we didn’t commit.
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:
You’ve gotten rid of the laws that had been working well for us and forced your one-size-fits-all rules upon us that we don’t like.
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
You’ve gotten rid of the governance that we had and replaced it with governance that we don’t like.
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
You’ve gotten rid of our legislatures and replaced them with your own.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
You’ve gotten rid of our local government that was protecting us and haven’t been protecting us since.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
You’ve been pillaging, ravaging, burning and destroying our property.
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.
You’re acting like a barbarian, hiring a bunch of men to come kill and control us.
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.
You’ve been kidnapping people and forcing them to fight against us.
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.
You’re teaming up with the Indians to fight against us.
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.
We’ve repeatedly written to you about your horrible behavior toward us, but your only acknowledgement has been more abuse. You’re a tyrant unfit to rule a free people like us.
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’ve warned your legislators to stop trying to control us. This is our land and our property. We’ve tried our best to talk your legislators out of further encroachments on our territory, but it hasn’t worked. We’re done with this relationship. It’s time to cut ties, and for us to view you as enemies if at war and friends if at peace.
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.
We’re on our own now. We’re declare ourselves free of you.
Georgia - Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
North Carolina - William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina - Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
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
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
New York - William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey - Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
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
How is my translation? I didn’t use any secondary sources. I gave it my best shot in the little time I had. I read through it in this one sitting and this is the first time I’ve read through each paragraph somewhat carefully. I can probably do better, but this seems good enough for now.
Do you think Donal Trump could outdo my translation, given 1-2 hours?
Suggestions for improvement?
Apologize for any typos, but I need to get some exercise.