Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Thursday, July 4, 2024

The Declaration Of Independence

 The Declaration is an odd document. The first two paragraphs are about a stirring as an example of political rhetoric as one can find. The bulk of the document, however, is an indictment of George III that is prosaic, to the point of boredom. It begins thusly:

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.

I guess I'm an originalist now.

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