Declaratia de Independenta a USA

[altmariusistoric]

Declarația de independență a Statelor Unite ale Americii

De la Wikipedia, enciclopedia liberă

U.S. Declaration of Independence

Declaraţia de independenţă a Statelor Unite ale Americii (în engleză, conform originalului, [The] Declaration of Independence) este un document prin care cele treisprezece colonii (în engleză, [the] Thirteen Colonies) ale Marii Britanii din America de Nord s-au declarat independente de Regatul Unit al Marii Britanii explicând totodată clar motivul pentru care au făcut-o.

Documentul a fost ratificat de Congresul Continental în ziua de 4 iulie 1776. Originalul semnat olograf de delegaţii Congress-ului se găseşte expus permanent în clădirea Arhivelor Naţionale (National Archives) din capitala Statelor Unite, Washington, D.C..

Istorie

Istoria conflictului Marea Britanie - Cele treisprezece colonii americane

Thomas Jefferson este autorul primei schiţe a Declaraţiei de independenţă, făcând apoi corecţiile şi schimbările cerute cu ajutorul lui Benjamin Franklin, John Adams şi mai apoi cu întregul Congres Continental.

De-a lungul decadelor 1750 şi 1760, relaţiile dintre Regatul Marii Britanii şi cele treisprezece din coloniile sale în America de Nord au devenit din ce în ce mai tensionate, până când, în ziua de 19 aprilie 1775, precedând cu peste un an Declaraţia de independenţă, războiul a izbucnit cu adevărat prin confruntarea militară cunoscută sub numele de Bătăliile de la Lexington şi Concord (conform, Battles of Lexington and Concord).

Aceste bătalii, care au fost de fapt conflicte armate multiple la diferite scale, s-au desfăşurat în aceeaşi zi, de 19 aprilie, în apropiere de Boston, cuprinzând o suprafaţă delimitată de localităţile Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (Arlington) şi Cambridge, toate din acelaşi comitat, Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay. Aceste confruntări militare, ale căror efective participante de ambele părţi au putut fi doar estimate, au produs următoarele victime exact numărate: 73 de morţi, 26 de dispăruţi şi 174 de răniţi de partea britanică, respectiv 50 de morţi, 5 dispăruţi şi 39 de răniţi de partea americană. Simultan, aceste bătălii multiple sunt considerate de către toţi istoricii ca fiind începerea efectivă a Războiului Revoluţionar American (1775 - 1783).

Deşi iniţial fusese prea puţină dorinţă de independenţă de partea americană şi mult mai mult o puternică convingere că "jugul colonial" va fi "îmbunătăţit," dacă americanii vor arăta că sunt gata să lupte pe viaţă şi pe moarte, totuşi în doar câteva luni, se va manifesta o creşterea exponenţială a dorinţei de a scăpa pentru întotdeauna de "tutela" Marii Britanii şi, în acelaşi timp, o puternică manifestare a sentimentului de patriotism naţional.

Cel puţin două documente pot fi menţionate aici de a fi contribuit decisiv la transformarea unor colonii de agricultori, meşteşugari şi comercianţi, care au avut prea puţine legături puternice între ele, într-o viitoare naţiune, având o clară conştiinţă colectivă şi o dorinţă intensă de a fi independentă.

Primul este actul britanic puternic restrictiv, perceput de colonişti ca un act de opresiune, cunoscut sub numele de Intolerable Acts şi care aproape a sugrumat auto-guvernarea coloniilor americane ale Angliei. Cel de-al doilea este minunatul pamflet a lui Thomas Paine, intitulat Common Sense, publicat în ziua de 10 ianuarie 1776, care a avut un puternic rol de galvanizare a minţilor, sufletelor şi mândriei coloniştilor, dându-le tuturora impulsul esenţial de a trece de la cântărirea pragmatică a şanselor şi a avantajelor şi/sau dezavantajelor la radicala atitudine exprimată hiper-sintetic de Patrick Henry, "Give me Liberty or give me Death", "Daţi-mi Libertate(a) sau daţi-mi Moarte(a)".

Cei 56 de semnatari ai Declaraţiei de Independenţă a Statelor Unite ale Americii

Următorii sunt cei 56 de semnatari ai Declaraţiei de Independenţă, pe care toţi au semnat-o în calitatea lor de delegaţi ai Congresului Continental din partea celor treisprezece colonii originare, care au devenit cele 13 state originare ale Statelor Unite ale Americii. Este demn de remarcat că toţi erau oameni educaţi şi avuţi (printre ei se găseau 24 de jurişti şi avocaţi, 11 erau comercianţi, iar 9 erau fermieri şi deţinători de plantaţii), absolut toţi fiind cetăţeni britanici. Când au afirmat solemn că "jurau cu viaţa, averea şi onoarea lor", aceşti oameni erau pe deplin conştienţi că riscau arestarea, confiscarea totală a averii şi executarea prin spânzurătoare, care era în acele timpuri pedeapsa comună pentru orice act ce era considerat trădare de către coroana britanică.

Prima semnătură, cea mai mare şi cea care a devenit de-a lungul timpului cea mai cunoscută a fost a lui John Hancock, preşedintele Congresului Continental. Doi viitori preşedinţi ai Statelor Unite au semnat Declaraţia, John Adams, al doilea preşedinte şi Thomas Jefferson, al treilea preşedinte. Cel mai în vârstă semnatar a fost Benjamin Franklin, la 70 de ani, în timp ce Edward Rutledge, la 26 de ani, a fost cel mai tânăr.

• Delaware (3) • Thomas McKean • George Read • Caesar Rodney

• Pennsylvania (9) • George Clymer • Benjamin Franklin • Robert Morris • John Morton • Benjamin Rush • George Ross • George Taylor • James Smith • James Wilson

• Massachusetts (5) • John Adams • Samuel Adams • John Hancock • Robert Treat Paine • Elbridge Gerry

• New Hampshire (3) • Josiah Bartlett • Matthew Thornton • William Whipple

• Rhode Island (2) • William Ellery • Stephen Hopkins

• New York (4) • William Floyd • Francis Lewis • Philip Livingston • Lewis Morris

• Georgia (3) • Button Gwinnett • Lyman Hall • George Walton

• Virginia (7) • Carter Braxton • Benjamin Harrison V • Thomas Jefferson • Richard Henry Lee • Francis Lightfoot Lee • Thomas Nelson, Jr. • George Wythe

• North Carolina (3) • Joseph Hewes • William Hooper • John Penn

• South Carolina (4) • Thomas Heyward, Jr. • Thomas Lynch, Jr. • Arthur Middleton • Edward Rutledge

• New Jersey (5) • Abraham Clark • John Hart • Francis Hopkinson • Richard Stockton • John Witherspoon

• Connecticut (4) • Samuel Huntington • Roger Sherman • William Williams • Oliver Wolcott

• Maryland (4) • Charles Carroll • Samuel Chase • William Paca • Thomas Stone

Lista statelor (mai exact a numelor coloniilor britanice din America de Nord care s-au declarat independente) este cea din documentul original (de la stânga la dreapta şi apoi de sus în jos), dar în prezenta listă semnatarii au fost aranjaţi alfabetic în cadrul fiecărui stat.

Legături externe (toate în limba engleză)

Web site official

• Declaration of Independence la Arhivele Naţionale ale SUA (the US National Archives)

Text

• The Declaration of Independence la Proiectul Gutenberg

Informaţii suplimentare

• "The Stylistic Artistry of the Declaration of Independence" "Stilistica artistică a Declaraţiei de Independenţă" de Stephen E. Lucas - o examinare exhausivă a documentului.
• Independence Hall Association: The Declaration of Independence cu imagini, prezentarea lui Jefferson, biografiile semnatarilor, informaţii suplimentare extensive.
• Library of Congress: Declaraţia de Independenţă şi surse suplimentare
• PBS/NOVA: Conservarea şi istoria "Declaraţiei"
• ERIC Digest: "Teaching the Declaration of Independence" "Predarea Declaraţiei de Independenţă"
• National Geographic News: "U.S. Independence Celebrated on the Wrong Day?" (July 2, 2004) "Este Declaraţia de Independenţă celebrată într-o zi greşită?"
• "Declaration of Independence" din cartea Thrilling Incidents in American History
• Colonial Hall: A line by line historical analysis of the grievances - O analiză rând cu rând a documentului.

Hărţi, fotografii şi alte forme de mass media

• National Archives: High-resolution images of the Declaration
• "Drafting of the Declaration of Independence. The Committee: Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Livingston, and Sherman." 1776. Copy of engraving after Alonzo Chappel. (large version)
• "The Declaration of Independence" by John Trumbull. (large version)
• Zoomable and draggable preview of the declaration
• "Declaration of Independence Performance": A video hosted by Morgan Freeman with a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence by actors Mel Gibson, Michael Douglas, Kevin Spacey, Whoopi Goldberg, Edward Norton, Benicio Del Toro, Renée Zellweger, Winona Ryder, Graham Greene (actor), Ming-Na, and Kathy Bates.
• Free audiobook of The Declaration of Independence from LibriVox

The Signers

• The Price They Paid Sorting Fact from Fiction.
• Signers of the Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence of The United States of America

IN 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 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 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 of Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 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 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 of 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 attention 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 the 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.

	Button Gwinnett
	Lyman Hall
	George Walton

	William Hooper
	Joseph Hewes
	John Penn

	Edward Rutledge
	Thomas Heyward, Jr.
	Thomas Lunch, Jr.
	Arthur Middleton

	John Hancock

	Samuel Chase
	William Paca
	Thomas Stone
	Charles Carroll of Carrollton

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

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

	Caesar Rodney
	George Read
	Thomas McKean

	William Floyd
	Philip Livingston
	Francis Lewis
	Lewis Morris

	Richard Stockton
	John Witherspoon
	Francis Hopkinson
	John Hart
	Abraham Clark

	Josiah Bartlett
	William Whipple

	Samuel Adams
	John Adams
	Robert Treat Paine
	Elbridge Gerry

	Stephen Hopkins
	William Ellery

	Roger Sherman
	Samuel Huntington
	William Williams
	Oliver Wolcott

	Matthew Thornton

[Nicoleta Cimpoae]