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O! thus be it ever,
when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our
trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
-- Francis Scott Key,
"The Star-Spangled Banner" 4th verse
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.
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...
-- The
Declaration of Independence (see full
text)
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