Draft
Declaration
of Independence
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 a separate and equal Station under
the Constitution of the United States of America, a decent
Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to this 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 Neglect and Inattention,
pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce
them under absolute Poverty, 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
Upstate counties; and such is now the Necessity which constrains
them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of
the present government of New York State is a History of repeated
Neglect and Inattention, all having in direct Object the
Establishment of an absolute Domination over the Upstate counties
by the Downstate counties. To prove this, let Facts be submitted
to a candid World.
NYS has refused to Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and
necessary for the public Good.