Bill Text: NJ AR131 | 2020-2021 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Urges all New Jersey residents to read declaration of Independence at 12 noon on July 4 every year and begin planning to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2026.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-02-25 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly State and Local Government Committee [AR131 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2020-AR131-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman DIANNE C. GOVE
District 9 (Atlantic, Burlington and Ocean)
Assemblyman BRIAN E. RUMPF
District 9 (Atlantic, Burlington and Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Urges all New Jersey residents to read Declaration of Independence at 12 noon on July 4 every year and begin planning to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2026.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Assembly Resolution urging all residents of New Jersey to read the United States Declaration of Independence at 12 noon on every July 4th, and to begin planning for the 250th anniversary of its ratification on July 4, 2026.
Whereas, The United States Declaration of Independence from Great Britain was adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House, in Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776; and
Whereas, The purpose of the Declaration was to announce formally that the 13 American colonies were at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain and would henceforth regard themselves as 13 independent, sovereign states, no longer subject to British rule; and
Whereas, The Declaration passed Congress with no opposition after it was drafted by a committee of five representatives that included John Adams, a leader in the push for independence, and Thomas Jefferson, who did most of the original drafting of the document; and
Whereas, Adams wrote to his wife Abagail after the Declaration's signing that he believed that independence day "will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more"; and
Whereas, After ratifying the text on July 4th, Congress issued the Declaration in several forms, with copies sent to each of the colonies, to King George III of England, and General George Washington, and an official, engrossed copy was ordered by Congress that was eventually placed on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. in February, 1924; and
Whereas, It is notable that the Declaration justified the independence of the United States by listing the colonial grievances against King George III and asserting certain natural and legal rights, including the right of revolution; and
Whereas, Perhaps the most memorable phrase in the Declaration, the one that was especially significant to President Lincoln during the American Civil War was the one which stated: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"; and
Whereas, President Lincoln considered the Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy, calling it "a rebuke and stumbling block to tyranny and oppression," and he argued that it is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted; and
Whereas, The Declaration inspired many other similar documents in other countries, including the Declaration of Flanders issued during the Brabant Revolution in what is modern-day Belgium, and other independence movements in Europe, Latin America, Africa and New Zealand; and
Whereas, Given the importance of the Declaration to this State, to this country, and to many other nations, it is fitting and proper for this House to urge residents of this State to pause at 12 noon on July 4th of every year, during the normal course of their day, during appropriate celebratory activities, or during private or public commemorations, to read the Declaration either privately or publicly and to begin planning to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its ratification on July 4th, 2026; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. This Assembly Resolution urges all residents of New Jersey to read the United States Declaration of Independence at 12 noon on July 4 of every year and to begin planning for the 250th anniversary of its ratification on July 4, 2026.
2. Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Clerk of the General Assembly to each person elected to public office in this State and to each media outlet operating in this State.
STATEMENT
This Assembly Resolution urges all residents of New Jersey to read the United States Declaration of Independence at 12 noon on July 4 of each year and to begin planning for the 250th anniversary of its ratification on July 4, 2026.
The Declaration, as ratified on July 4, 1776, reads as follows:
"The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 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 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 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.
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.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions 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. 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 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 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. 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."
