WHEN, IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS, it becomes necessary for one People to
re-examine the political bonds which have connected them to their
government, and to re-assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate
and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature entitle them, a decent
Respect to the Opinions of Humanity requires that they should determine
whether or not there are sufficient and irreconcilable causes which shall
impel them to a Separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women 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 People,
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 Our People; and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to alter their former System of Government.
The history of the present FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of
an absolute Tyranny over our People. To prove this, let Facts be submitted
to a candid world.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent
hither swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their
substance. Our People are forced to pay the highest taxes in our history,
plus countless fees, fines, tickets, citations, and penalties wherever they
travel and whatever they do.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has passed laws censoring free speech and
restricting religious freedom, in direct violation of Article I of the Bill
of Rights.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has made sobriety the State Religion and now jails
over a half a million People a year for the "crime" of using unapproved
substances to alter their consciousness.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has openly defied popular, citizen-led initiatives
on drug policy reform, refusing to allow any change in their Law. In
complete disregard for democracy, they have used public money to campaign
against these initiatives and now, having lost, threaten physicians and
patients who violate their Law, leaving Our People no choice but to engage
in Civil Disobedience.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has declared war against its own Citizens, if they
so much as possess certain unapproved plants, bringing to bear the fearful
might of its military and over one hundred different federal agencies
empowered to use deadly force against our People.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has suspended our Constitutional right to be secure
in our persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches
and seizures, allowing police to search and seize whatever they wish, so
long as they are acting on "Good Faith" that a crime has taken place.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has authorized police to seize private property,
without due cause or compensation or even filing charges, directly
violating Article IV of the Bill of Rights.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has charged, taxed, convicted and jailed Citizens
who have already served sentences for identical state crimes, in direct
violation of Article V which forbids such "Double Jeopardy."
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by
refusing to inform Juries of their right to vote their conscience, or to
allow Juries to exercise their Constitutional right to judge not only the
accused, but to judge the soundness of the Law itself.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has made Judges dependent on its Will alone,
ordering Judges to make their decisions based upon "Mandatory Minimum
Sentences," thereby violating the separation of powers between the
Judicial, Executive and Legislative branches, which is so fundamental to
our form of democracy.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has emptied our Treasury, creating so vast a debt,
that forty percent of the personal taxes collected by the government must
be paid just on the interest.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing
Armies of Secret Police, Narcs, Undercover Agents, and Paid Informants, to
spy upon and to coerce our People into obeying drug laws which are based
upon puritanical beliefs that defy common sense.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has affected to render the Military independent of
and superior to the Civil power of local communities who are regularly
subjected to aerial assaults by heavily armed drug agents. Our People are
powerless to stop or in anyway protect themselves from repeated violations
of their human rights and private property. Military raids now occur
throughout our land against anyone who dares to grow Hemp, even though our
Founding Fathers, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, both grew and
praised this remarkable plant.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has made a mockery of the election process, staging
contrived political conventions which have already been bought and paid for
by special interests, under the burden of a corrupt system that offers
little choice on election day.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT no longer serves the will of the People and has
become a cancer, unable to stop growing and unable to stop spending,
stealing from the future with massive debts that will take generations to
repay.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has combined with others to subject us to a
jurisdiction which is in direct violation of our Constitution and in direct
violation of our Bill of Rights; giving the false appearance of public
Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For protecting Agents of the DEA, FBI, CIA, and BATF by mock Trials from
punishment for Murders which they committed on the Inhabitants of these
States:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent and empowered a terrorist
organization, the IRS, to obtain our compliance though coercion:
For squandering our public funds on exotic weapons and foreign wars, often
to keep dictators in power and defense contractors employed, while our
Children go hungry, our Schools are neglected and our Cities decay.
For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For imprisoning millions of otherwise law-abiding Citizens for the
pretended offenses of commerce in psychoactive plants:
For abolishing the free System of Tort Laws, establishing therein an
Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Powers far beyond the scope granted
to it by the Constitution, and in direct violation of Articles IX and X of
the Bill of Rights:
For taking away our independence as sovereign Citizens, abolishing our most
valuable Laws and altering fundamentally our Form of Government, demanding
Blind Obedience to the failed policies of the Past:
For suspending our own right to govern our bodies and our consciousness,
and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all
cases whatsoever.
For spraying poisons on our Hemp crops with the evil intention of doing
great harm to our People who wish to use this natural herb for their
medical relief or personal enjoyment.
For trafficking in Cocaine and Armaments as instruments of foreign policy,
violating not only our Constitution, but the very trust which our People
have placed their FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
For creating a climate of fear, intimidation and misery in order to obscure
the failure of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT to address to real problems of
poverty, violent crime, racism, pollution, and AIDS which now threaten the
health and safety of our Citizens.
For Fouling the air, Poisoning the soil, Clear-cutting our forests, and
Contaminating our water, all for the economic gain of a Privileged Few.
For knowingly releasing Radioactive and Toxic Wastes upon our People,
resulting in an epidemic of cancer, birth defects and causing untold Pain
and Suffering.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has abdicated Government here by declaring us out of
Its Protection and waging War against us.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has plundered our private property, invaded and
seized our homes on the slightest of evidence, and destroyed the lives of
our People, broken apart loving families, all in the name of a "War on
Drugs."
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is at this time militarizing the "War on Drugs," 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 a civilized nation.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has constrained our fellow Citizens to become the
informants and executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to
incriminate themselves through the widespread use of urine testing.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the
most humble terms. Our repeated Petitions to reduce or eliminate the cruel
and unusual punishments for the use of drugs, to practice our own religious
beliefs, including the sacred use of sacramental plants, and our right to
use whatever medicines we wish have been answered only by repeated injury
and acts of violence upon our People. A government, 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 Federal Officials.
We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their congress to
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.
We have reminded them of their oath of office, "To uphold and defend the
Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity to end this war on
our own People and to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably
bring about our downfall as a democratic society.
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. All
efforts to obtain justice for those persecuted for hemp crimes has been met
with determined resistance to change. Even democratically passed
initiatives have not altered their blind opposition to change. We must,
therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and
hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, Friends in
Peace.
We, therefore, the Sovereign Citizens of the Free and Independent States of
America, assembled on-line and able to enjoy Free Speech for the first time
in 200 years, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude
of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the authority of the good People
of these State, solemnly publish and declare.
That these united States are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent
States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT, and that all political connection between them and the FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT 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.
The signers of this Declaration of Independence, committed to restoring our
democratic freedoms and deprived of any weapon except the Truth, can only
represent themselves as patriotic citizens committed to resisting all laws
which violate the Constitution and bringing to justice, all agents of the
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, who use their office to commit crimes against our
People.
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.
Steve Kubby
Chris Conrad
Gatewood Galbraith
Todd A. Griffith
Mike Beck
D. Paul Stanford
Ashley H. Clements
Ty Matthews
Jamie Matthews
Janice Dubiel
James E. Pell
Zip Garcia
Susan Patten
Ed Saukkooja
Laney Kehel
Bob Melamede Ph.D.
Bryan Reed
James William Burr
Bryan Reed
Bob Hormell