Draft Script-reading and signing of the Declaration
There will be two aspects to the formal part of New London Declarations, the reading of the Declaration and a signing of it after the reading. Below is how the event might work although we're welcome to, aside from the words, to changes. We also may have the reading translated into Spanish and have it signed as well.
So here goes.
The reading and signing of the Declaration
Setting
At this time the location for the reading is yet to be approved. Two sites, the Hygienic Art, Inc. Art Park Sculpture Garden and Outdoor Theater on Bank Street and covered pavilion at the waterfront park near City Pier are the preferred locations, but others might also be appropriate. (the steps of City Hall on State Street)
Stage
Two reading podiums are contemplated with microphones, at extreme left and right. In the center of the stage should include the British Union Jack flag, a contemporary American Flag and the “76” stars and strips flag called the Bennington flag. It is also planed that a panel (4X8, white plywood) or other display be centered on the stage for the signing of the Declaration.
Opening and welcoming remarks
Narrator:
Welcome to the first New London Declarations of July 4, 2005 and thank you all for being here.
Let me explain what’s going to happen.
First this will be a short ceremony. We’re going to read the entire Declaration of Independence and a few members of our community have agreed to help us by reading sections of the document that was passed by Congress in Philadelphia on this day back in 1776.
After the reading we’ve asked 57 people to represent the people who signed or printed the original Declaration to say who they are, the colony or state they came from and to sign the declaration we’ve installed here.
After the reading a signing everyone is welcome to enjoy our beautiful downtown New London community and to express their own individual “independence” in what ever way they wish.
We ask only a few things of you.
First, during the reading and signing, please be quiet so everyone can hear. You can follow along by reading a copy of the Declaration that we’ve printed.
Second, please make a donation of food for the New London Food Bank. If you didn’t bring food, we’ll be happy to receive whatever you can give.
Third and lastly, have a good time. Respect yourselves, your neighbors, our city and our laws. When we leave today, let’s make downtown New London cleaner than when we arrived.
And now, New London Declaration…
Drum Roll for a few moments
The Reading
Narrator:
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
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.
Reader 1:
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.
Reader 2
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.
Reader 3
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.
Reader 4
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
Reader 5
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.
Reader 6
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.
Reader 7
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.
Reader 8
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
Reader 9
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.
Reader 10
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.
Reader 11
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
Reader 12
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
Reader 13
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
Reader 14
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.
Reader 15
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:
Reader 16
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
Reader 17
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:
Reader 18
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
Reader 19
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.
Reader 20
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 & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
Reader 21
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.
Reader 22
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.
Reader 23
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.
Reader 24
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.
Reader 25
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.
The Signing
Narrator
As was the custom, tradition and law of the time, The Declaration was signed by men only, 56 in total, many of whom represented and were members of the upper reaches of American Society.
Fortunately, we have progressed, if all too slowly, to believe in both spirit and law that all men and women-bar none, for any reason-are entitled to the same basic rights that these men sought for themselves and for colonial America.
So today here in New London in the State of Connecticut which is one of fifty states of The United States of America, we sign our Declaration of Independence, drawing from all parts of our community to represent the original signers in Philadelphia in the closing decades of the 18th century.
Light Drum Roll
Narrator Representing the State of Georgia
Signers (each signer is invited to speak briefly about him or her self and what the Declaration means to them. These remarks must be brief. After speaking, each will proceed to the Declaration Display, sign their names and wait on stage for the signing to conclude.) I’m Button Gwinnett and today I declare my independence
Lyman Hall
George Walton
Narrator Representing the State North Carolina
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
Narrator Representing the State South Carolina
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Narrator Representing the State Maryland
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Narrator Representing the State Virginia
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Narrator Representing the State Pennsylvania
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Narrator Representing the State Delaware
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
Narrator Representing the State New York
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
Narrator Representing the State New Jersey
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Narrator Representing the State New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Narrator Representing the State Massachusetts
Samuel Adams
John Adams
John Hancock
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Narrator Representing the State Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Narrator Representing the State Connecticut
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
Narrator Representing the State New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton
Ending the reading and signing
Mary Katherine Goddard
We’ve come to the end of the formal presentation of New London Declarations but before we depart to enjoy the Fourth of July, you should know a little about who I am the part I played in the Declaration of Independence.
My name is Mary Katherine Goddard and I‘m from Baltimore in the state of Maryland. I didn’t sign the Declaration but I made it possible for everyone to read what it says. I’m the printer that these men in Congress hired to print the Declaration of Independence so everyone back then, and we here in New London today, can read it.
If you go to Washington today and take a look at the first signed copies of the Declaration of Independence you will note the inscription, "printed by Mary Katherine Goddard.”
So I too am happy, and somewhat relieved, to join you and these distinguished Fathers of our Country in proclaiming my independence.
Thank you all for attending New London Declarations. Enjoy the day and our collective and individual declarations of independence.
So here goes.
The reading and signing of the Declaration
Setting
At this time the location for the reading is yet to be approved. Two sites, the Hygienic Art, Inc. Art Park Sculpture Garden and Outdoor Theater on Bank Street and covered pavilion at the waterfront park near City Pier are the preferred locations, but others might also be appropriate. (the steps of City Hall on State Street)
Stage
Two reading podiums are contemplated with microphones, at extreme left and right. In the center of the stage should include the British Union Jack flag, a contemporary American Flag and the “76” stars and strips flag called the Bennington flag. It is also planed that a panel (4X8, white plywood) or other display be centered on the stage for the signing of the Declaration.
Opening and welcoming remarks
Narrator:
Welcome to the first New London Declarations of July 4, 2005 and thank you all for being here.
Let me explain what’s going to happen.
First this will be a short ceremony. We’re going to read the entire Declaration of Independence and a few members of our community have agreed to help us by reading sections of the document that was passed by Congress in Philadelphia on this day back in 1776.
After the reading we’ve asked 57 people to represent the people who signed or printed the original Declaration to say who they are, the colony or state they came from and to sign the declaration we’ve installed here.
After the reading a signing everyone is welcome to enjoy our beautiful downtown New London community and to express their own individual “independence” in what ever way they wish.
We ask only a few things of you.
First, during the reading and signing, please be quiet so everyone can hear. You can follow along by reading a copy of the Declaration that we’ve printed.
Second, please make a donation of food for the New London Food Bank. If you didn’t bring food, we’ll be happy to receive whatever you can give.
Third and lastly, have a good time. Respect yourselves, your neighbors, our city and our laws. When we leave today, let’s make downtown New London cleaner than when we arrived.
And now, New London Declaration…
Drum Roll for a few moments
The Reading
Narrator:
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
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.
Reader 1:
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.
Reader 2
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.
Reader 3
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.
Reader 4
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
Reader 5
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.
Reader 6
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.
Reader 7
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.
Reader 8
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
Reader 9
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.
Reader 10
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.
Reader 11
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
Reader 12
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
Reader 13
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
Reader 14
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.
Reader 15
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:
Reader 16
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
Reader 17
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:
Reader 18
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
Reader 19
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.
Reader 20
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 & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
Reader 21
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.
Reader 22
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.
Reader 23
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.
Reader 24
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.
Reader 25
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.
The Signing
Narrator
As was the custom, tradition and law of the time, The Declaration was signed by men only, 56 in total, many of whom represented and were members of the upper reaches of American Society.
Fortunately, we have progressed, if all too slowly, to believe in both spirit and law that all men and women-bar none, for any reason-are entitled to the same basic rights that these men sought for themselves and for colonial America.
So today here in New London in the State of Connecticut which is one of fifty states of The United States of America, we sign our Declaration of Independence, drawing from all parts of our community to represent the original signers in Philadelphia in the closing decades of the 18th century.
Light Drum Roll
Narrator Representing the State of Georgia
Signers (each signer is invited to speak briefly about him or her self and what the Declaration means to them. These remarks must be brief. After speaking, each will proceed to the Declaration Display, sign their names and wait on stage for the signing to conclude.) I’m Button Gwinnett and today I declare my independence
Lyman Hall
George Walton
Narrator Representing the State North Carolina
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
Narrator Representing the State South Carolina
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Narrator Representing the State Maryland
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Narrator Representing the State Virginia
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Narrator Representing the State Pennsylvania
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Narrator Representing the State Delaware
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
Narrator Representing the State New York
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
Narrator Representing the State New Jersey
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Narrator Representing the State New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Narrator Representing the State Massachusetts
Samuel Adams
John Adams
John Hancock
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Narrator Representing the State Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Narrator Representing the State Connecticut
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
Narrator Representing the State New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton
Ending the reading and signing
Mary Katherine Goddard
We’ve come to the end of the formal presentation of New London Declarations but before we depart to enjoy the Fourth of July, you should know a little about who I am the part I played in the Declaration of Independence.
My name is Mary Katherine Goddard and I‘m from Baltimore in the state of Maryland. I didn’t sign the Declaration but I made it possible for everyone to read what it says. I’m the printer that these men in Congress hired to print the Declaration of Independence so everyone back then, and we here in New London today, can read it.
If you go to Washington today and take a look at the first signed copies of the Declaration of Independence you will note the inscription, "printed by Mary Katherine Goddard.”
So I too am happy, and somewhat relieved, to join you and these distinguished Fathers of our Country in proclaiming my independence.
Thank you all for attending New London Declarations. Enjoy the day and our collective and individual declarations of independence.
posted by Peter Roberts at 6:08 AM
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