History That Doesn't Suck - The Declaration of Independence at 250

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America, as read by Professor Greg Jackson and fellow citizens: Lindsey Cormack co-host of Government That Doesn’t Suck, Ben Sawyer and Bob Crawford of The Road to Now, Colleen Shogan of In Pursuit, Lindsay Graham host of History Daily. Watch Prof. Jackson's PBS special here: The Unlikely Union: A Storytelling Symphony of America or visit htdspodcast.com/pbs.

250 years ago, leaders from 13 separate colonies gathered in Philadelphia and made a terrifying and bold decision. They announced their collective separation from the British Empire. They did so with a stated willingness to risk their lives, their fortunes, and their honor. They didn't agree on everything. Not every delegate signed, and New York's delegates abstained out of a deference to the mix of feelings in the empire colony turning state.

nonetheless, they made a transcendent statement on unalienable rights and took this bold, unified step into the dark. In that spirit of unity, I collaborated with several of my history podcast colleagues to record a reading of the Declaration of Independence. Whether you've read the entire text before or not, I encourage you to listen and absorb the power of its words and ideas right now. July 4th, of course, is the date that commemorates the adoption of the Declaration itself, But we are releasing this recording today, July 2nd, the date John Adams would regard as America's Independence Day, because it was, in fact, the date of the Continental Congress's actual vote for independence. If you'd like to go deeper over the holiday weekend, I invite you to watch my PBS special, The Unlegged Union, a storytelling symphony of America, which covers the first century of our nation's founding.

It's recording with the full orchestra of my touring live show. You can stream it for free throughout the rest of the summer on the PBS app or at PBS. www.org. Simply search for the title, The Unlakely Union, and click the link in the episode description, or visit our website at htdspodcast.com. And now, I'm pleased to share the Declaration of Independence, as read by familiar voices, including Lindsay Cormack, my co-host on the new show Government That Doesn't Suck, Ben Sawyer and Bob Crawford of The Road to Now podcast, Colleen Shogun of In Pursuit Podcast, and my dear friend, Lindsay, not the Senator Graham, host of History Daily, American Storytellers, and American Scandal.

In Congress, July 4, 1776, the unanimous declaration of the 13th 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 affect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate the government's long established should not be changed for light and transient causes. And accordingly, all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing

the form 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 to pass. 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 meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states for that purpose obstructing the laws for the 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 her harass 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 offenses.

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring 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 complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and 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 endeavored 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 immigration 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 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 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 have right due. 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. Happy birthday, America. You are an inspiring, infuriating, incredible and improving place. May you and the world live up to your ideals. H-TBS is supported by fans at H-TBSpodcast.com

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