The agreed Declaration of thePeople of Washington State to disregard and nullify the orders of the governor of the state,
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 if necessary 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 shewn, 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 Counties of this state; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present Governor, dictator of the former great state of Washington is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these counties of Washington State. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused to allow the people to determine laws and has appointed judges who call the citizens stupid and unknowing of what the voted for and passed by vote.
He has forbidden the people to determine for them selves to continue in business, ordering immediate and pressing closures and suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected the state of the finances of the people, businesses and counties.
He has refused to allow freedom of choice on people being able to gather for church, school, business or travel.
He has traveled and partied with other states representatives after ordering his state citizens to shutter their businesses and stay home, cancel thanksgiving and not gather with family.
He has basically dissolved state Legislative representatives power through their strict code of ethics to even be allowed to meet with the people who they represent or speak to them on any matter concerning the orders he has pressed on the citizens repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused, 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 failing and voter interfearance from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of this State; for that purpose obstructing the Laws voted in by the people to be passed, refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands by threatening businesses with pulling their license to do business, sell alcohol, Tobacco or canibus.
He has appointed czars to state offices with to much power over life and Liberty of the people
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 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 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 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 destroyed the lives of our people.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens bear Witness against their Neighbors and county, to become the police of their friends and Brethren, 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. A Governor whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the said governor of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Leftist, socialist leaning brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts to extend jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our 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 FREE CITIZENS OF WASHINGTON STATE, in General THE PEOPLE, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these COUNTIES OF WASHINGTON STATE, solemnly publish and declare, That these United COUNTIES are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent COUNTIES; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the STATE OF WASHINGTON, and that all political connection between them and the State of OF WASHINGTON, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as A Free and Independent STATE, they have full Power to GOVERN OURSELVES, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which A Independent State 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.
SIGNED by COUNTY THE PEOPLE OF FREE AND OPEN Washington
NOW TO BE CALLED THE STATE OF Liberty.
