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. 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.
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.
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. Note: The following text is a transcription of the Stone Engraving of the parchment Declaration of Independence (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.) The spelling and punctuation reflects the original. Since being reinstated, ‘March of the Volunteers’ has been given official national anthem status, and adopted by Hong Kong and Macau upon their transfer to China in 19, respectively.Declaration of Independence: A Transcription The ‘March of the Volunteers’ lyricist Tian Han was imprisoned by Mao. The break between the song’s first use in 1949, and the 1982 re-introduction was due to Mao Zedong’s rule of the country and the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, during which time the song was banned and replaced with ‘The East Is Red’ as the de facto anthem, with the old tune also being used with alternate lyrics. It therefore serves the current regime’s communist values, having been heard and officially recognised in its current form since 1982. The song was used as the theme music for the film Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm, which tells the story of China’s fight against Japanese invaders in northeast China in the 1930s, and encapsulates messages of determination and sacrifice for national liberation, as well as China’s emphasis on values such as courage, resolution and unity in the face of foreign aggression. What is the history of the Chinese national anthem?