When my daughters were in a Key of Liberty class and received the challenge to memorize the Declaration of Independence I decided to put it to music. I divided the Declaration into eight parts and put each part to music. However, I did not make a song for the grievances of the king, but they are listed in one of the posts. I hope this will be helpful to you and your children as you study and learn about this inspired document that is such an important part of our nation's history.
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. Thomas Jefferson
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.
Thomas Jefferson
Pronunciation Guide:
There are two ways that the word "unalienable" is pronounced. The majority of Americans pronounce it as "un-alien-able." However, in their Key of Liberty class, my daughters learned to pronounce it as "un-a-LEEN-able," which they learned was the way it was pronounced at the time the Declaration of Independence was written, and was also the more correct word by definition. So that was the pronunciation I used when writing this song. I won't go into the difference here. You can certainly do your own research. But I have included vocal recordings with both pronunciations, so you can choose whichever pronunciation you are more comfortable with. However the sheet music follows the "un-a-LEEN-able" pronunciation.
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. Thomas Jefferson
I have not created a song for this part of the Declaration of Independence. Nevertheless, here is the list of 27 grievances against the King, as stated in the Declaration.
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 for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others
to encourage their migrations 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
harrass 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 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. Thomas Jefferson
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British 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. 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. Thomas Jefferson
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. Thomas Jefferson
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. Thomas Jefferson
