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 as well as in bases garrisoning the globe at great cost in blood and treasure:
For imposing Taxes on us to fund illegal wars and massive transfers to private bankers without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us and others in our name beyond Seas to be detained without charge and tortured for pretended offences:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Form of our Government:
For effectively suspending our own Legislature, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He has transported large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, 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 to become the executioners of their fellow human beings, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
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, silence, and the mockery of a Congress and a Justice Department terrified of asserting Power. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be free and unindicted for his Criminal Trespasses.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our attorneys general. We have warned them from time to time of treaty requirements to enforce the Laws of the land. We have reminded them of the circumstances of the crimes committed and openly confessed to. We have appealed to their native justice and decency, and we have conjured them to disavow these usurpations.
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in Lawlessness, in Duty and Justice Friends.
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