Impact Without Limits

S5 E3: The Declaration of Independence: The Words That Launched a Nation Pt. 2

• Dale and Brian Karmie / Adkins Media Co.

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Dale and Brian continue their journey through the Declaration of Independence, looking closely at the grievances that drove the American colonies to the breaking point. As they walk through the charges against King George III, they reflect on the years of injustice, unanswered petitions, and growing oppression that ultimately forced a bold declaration to the world: these colonies would be free.

More than a history lesson, this episode is a reminder of the courage and sacrifice behind America’s founding. The men who signed the Declaration risked everything—pledging their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor—so that future generations could live in freedom. Dale and Brian invite listeners to rediscover this remarkable document and reflect on the responsibility we share to remember, protect, and pass on the principles it proclaims.


Episode Highlights: 

  • Why the Declaration of Independence still matters.
  • Introducing the grievances.
  • Key abuses of power.
  • The colonists declare separation.
  • The closing pledge.


Links Mentioned in Episode/Find More on ForeverLawn:

This show has been produced by Adkins Media Co.


SPEAKER_03

56 members of the Continental Congress signed this document. Go look up the history or or what happened to these men after they put this on the line because they sacrificed so much, not for their own personal gain, but for the gain of their families, generations to come, and all of us. We are all beneficiaries of what they did. And again, I'm just so thankful we were born in this nation at the time we were standing on the shoulders of giants. So why would two guys make comfortable jobs, move across the country, and start a business in an industry they don't know, a place they don't know? Could it be successful?

SPEAKER_01

We're Dale and Brian Carme. Join us as we share our story and inspire you to become people of impact. Welcome to the Impact Without Limits Podcast.

SPEAKER_03

Welcome back to the Impact Without Limits Podcast. This is Brian Carmy here. Dale! Hey everybody! And we are walking over we're in the series of America 250, celebrating the birth of a nation. And we are talking uh last episode about the Declaration of Independence. And it's just so rich. There's so much. I mean, we we said if we were smarter, more learned men, we'd spend months just going through this document. But we just want to hit highlights, and then we want to encourage you to dig into it deeper, to learn it for yourself, to look at what the events were that led up to this, and then the events after this that formed the nation that we're so fortunate.

SPEAKER_02

Before we dive into this, I do want to call attention to my shirt. I didn't on the last episode. I'm wearing my 1776 to 2026 semi-quincentennial shirt. It's beautiful. I love it. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So uh I love America, guys. And I am wearing my baby blue nothing on it shirt with blue pants. Look, you say America. America.

SPEAKER_02

You do my pants, American socks. We love it. So um picking back up, I I want to read this um last sentence that uh in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence that leads to what I call the airing of grievances. It isn't an airing of grievances, it is the causes. It's the causes. These are the things that are causing, that are forcing the separation of these states. But it they say the history um 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. So I want to go look, I and we said this at the in the episode um yesterday. This isn't just a statement among them as a group. This isn't even just a statement to the king of Great Britain. This is a statement to the world. They're putting this out there on notice to everybody, and um they want to, with beyond a shadow of a doubt, list out the facts that have led to this. Because if you remember from the last episode, they had said you don't attempt to change governments lightly. This isn't a whim. There has to be a long train of abuses of power, there has to be a long uh standing suffering of a people and repeated denials of the the wishes and demands of the people. And so now they are laying out the case almost like uh like you were uh an attorney in a courtroom in a courtroom saying, this is it. Here's why we're doing this. We are not, we we don't again have the time or really ability to dive into all of these. We just want to call out a couple of these facts that um that I think are are kind of speak for themselves about what was behind it, but would encourage you to go back and read this. Um, but the first one to me is, and and and I read this as time, he refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. Now, I looked up ascent to laws because ascent is capitalized and laws is capitalized. So that was like a saying that meant something. And what that is, is an ascent to laws was an appeal from a people to the king, to the ruler, saying, here are laws we need to to improve our law, to govern ourselves, to to uh help what is happening. And they're not talking about just some crazy laws that they want that are that are uh outlandish. They are the most wholesome and necessary, the basic things needed for goodness for the public good. And the king rejected them, refused to listen, would just nope, don't want to hear it. You're you're you're stuck the way you are.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and they they go on to say he's forbidding the governors from passing these laws. They have governors that are are representing them in these territories, these colonies, but the king isn't allowing those laws to be put into place. Um, he's refused to pass laws, and and they're saying we have we now have large groups, large districts of people. But unless those people give up their right, unless they relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable, inestimable to them. Yeah, that's a tough is a rough word, and formidable to tyrants only. So basically, this is the the no representation, right? Yeah, and in order for them to have laws passed, he's saying, okay, but we're gonna make all those laws here in England and you're just gonna live under them. No representation.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and the other thing that was in that that previous line you said is um he forbid the governors to pass laws until he approved them, until his assent is obtained. And uh when so suspended, when he suspended the governor's rights from doing that, he then utter utterly neglected his uh time to attend to him. He gave them no attention. He said, Nope, I governors, you can't do anything until I approve it. And I'm not gonna do anything. And he didn't do anything about it. He's just like, it's almost like uh I don't know, filibuster or whatever in the in the Congress where they just waste time because they don't want to make a decision on something. He's just like, I'm not gonna decide. You can't do anything until I rule. And oh, by the way, I'm not gonna rule. You're you're just gonna have to sit where you're at. Um he he dissolved the the representative houses repeatedly for opposing with uh manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. So the people are being uh the rights of the people are being infringed, the House of Representatives would would speak up for the people, and then he would just dissolve the House of Representatives.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and I I mean we could go I I mean this he they just go through item by item how he has taken away rights and not given them the ability to govern themselves or given them proper attention as it's needed. And it goes into judges and that essentially he's just putting people in place to carry out his will and not represent the will of the people.

SPEAKER_02

We we should have counted, but it's a it's a list of probably about 20 to 25 facts, truths. He's done this, he's done this, he's done this, he's done this. These are the reasons we are forced to make this declaration. And you know, one of the one of the um this actually leads to several um facts or this, but the quartering large bodies of armed troops among us, so the king sending the troops and the quartering of troops in the towns um of the the people of the United States.

SPEAKER_03

Um that is kind of a foreign thought to us, yeah, right. But like when you read, and and we'll get into the the constitution in the future, but when you get into the constitution, one of the things there's no quartering of troops, and you say, Well, what is that? Well, here you have an army from Britain that's sent across the seas, and at one point they they even say, you know, he's uh he is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny. So he's talking, but the the point is they're sending these armies over, and then they're forcing these people to give them home and food.

SPEAKER_02

They they could come in and usurp your land. They could take your home, they could take your land, they could stay there, they could either live in the home with you, or if they so deemed, they could put you out of the home and they could claim it. Um, and then they say here um in of the quartering of troops, uh, it says uh one of the the claims is for protecting those troops by a mock trial. That's if you don't know, that's a fake trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of the states. So the troops could even, uh, as these people were claiming, kill inhabitants of the states and really not stand uh an honest, fair trial, um, holding them accountable for what they did.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Then the the next three are pretty big, imposing taxes or cutting off our trade with the rest of the world, imposing taxes without our consent, and depriving in many cases the benefits of a trial by jury. So, I mean, they again they repeatedly seeked redress and were met with just with more tyrannical laws.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, they they say uh I mean it's just again, guys, this was not a nation founded lightly. This was not a declaration made just because we thought it would be fun to change. This was driven by repeated aggressions, repeated um violations of basic rights of a group of people. Uh they have um plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, destroyed the lives of our people. Um he abdicated government here by clearing us out of his protection, so refused to protect them, and then waged war against them. Uh it again, take the time to read these these uh lists of abuses, these facts that go between the um Great Britain and the colonies.

SPEAKER_03

So after they enlist out all of these and they they say, here are the reasons we're compelled to do this. And again, they say in every stage of oppressions, petition for redress in the most humble terms are repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. And then Dale, you you were commenting on the prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

SPEAKER_02

So I don't know if they're speaking here directly to King George and uh kind of slighting him, calling him a prince, or if they're referring to maybe some of the people that are ruling under the direction of King George here, but either way, they're calling out the tyranny uh they're living under and that that they're unfit to be a ruler of a free people.

SPEAKER_03

And then they take it a step further and say, we didn't just petition to the king, we petitioned to our English brothers, other people that are representing us in the government, and they were rebuffed by them as well.

SPEAKER_02

Right. So the king refused to listen, hear, react. So then they appeal to the British brethren who turn a deaf ear as well. And he says the line, they have they too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity, which is of the same lineage. Uh, 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. So uh what what are they setting up here? They're they're like this is it. We're throwing down King George, tyrant, the British people refuse to recognize the oppression we're living under, to hear our voices, to to understand what we're doing and and that would denounce the separation we've claimed. So, guess what, guys? Any of you that feel that way, the rest of mankind, if you're against us, you are enemies in war. But then they followed up and they say, in peace, friends. So if we want to end this peacefully, if you want to just let us have our separation, have our free state, we don't want war. Right? But if you don't agree, war war we have, because this is this is that important to us.

SPEAKER_03

So the closing paragraph, again, I mean it if you if you could only read the I mean, I understand that this is old English and it's not easy to read. It's a it's a very um, it's a different prose than we use today. But read the first two paragraphs and the last paragraph. That last paragraph starts, we therefore, the representatives of the United States of America in General Congress, assembled appealing to the supreme judge of the world.

SPEAKER_02

There we go. For the rectitude of our again, this is a claim to the deity, to the creator, to the God of the universe.

SPEAKER_03

And they they say we solemnly publish and declare these United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states absolved from the British Crown.

SPEAKER_02

And here's the line, guys, and for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, again, the reference to the divine, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. Think about this. We're making this pledge under the the the belief, the firm reliance that that we're right, right? Like you said in the last episode, this wasn't something that just happened. This is something, these were men of faith. This was something they took to God in prayer, they talked over, they discussed, and they believed this was the direction that divine providence that God would have them go. And believing that with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, what are they doing? They are pledging to each other, right? Not to anybody else, to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Why are they saying that? Because by making this declaration, what happens if they lose? They lose they likely lose their lives. At the very least, they lose their sacred honor, right? Because they're they're viewed as um traitors, insurrected, as insurrectionists as going against the king and his rule. They likely lose their fortunes because they are committing what monies and treasures they have to um uh develop, provide, and sustain this fight, this battle against Great Britain, but they are pledging their lives, guys. They are putting their lives on the line. They would be hanged for treason um if they they lose this. So they are pledging to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. And that just that hits me. And you know, I think about this, Brian, when we had um Kenny Thomas on a few episodes ago, and he was talking about soldiers and why they fight, right? What they fight for. And it was kind of interesting when he first said it. Not that I didn't believe it, but it caught me a little bit off guard. He said, They're they're they're not fighting for the country, they're not fighting for the ideals. When when you're in battle, what are you fighting for? You're fighting for the man next to you. You're fighting for the man next to you. And you look at this last line, they didn't pledge to all I mean the states, they didn't pledge to the ideals, they pledged to each other. Now that pledge was rooted on the faith in God, the belief what they were doing was right, on the ideals they want, on standing up to the um the atrocities uh being uh injected on them or forced on them by King George and the Brits. But uh all that all that was underlying, but their pledge was to each other. We're pledging to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

SPEAKER_03

And truthfully, a lot of them lose lives, fortune, and honor.

SPEAKER_02

I think they they all lost their fortune.

SPEAKER_03

Fifty-six members of the Continental Congress signed this document. John Hancock, the one that signs it the biggest, and he was president of the Continental Congress at the time. Um, but man, if if and we don't have time to get into it, but if you get a chance, go look up the history or or what happened to these men after they they put this on the line because they sacrificed so much, not for their own personal gain, but for the gain of their families, generations to come, and all of us. We are all beneficiaries of what they did. And again, I'm just so uh thankful that we were born in this nation at the time we were standing on the shoulders of giants, right? We've been given so much. And are there obstacles, are there challenges in in our world today? Yes. Are it are there are there issues with our current government and our nation? Yes. Is it still the greatest place on planet earth? Absolutely. Absolutely. And we are so fortunate, and we can't take that for granted. And it's easy to complain, and it's easy to be frustrated, and it's easy to think, man, it's not as good as it used to be, or I wish it was different, or the future, what be thankful for what we've been given. Be thankful for what divine providence has allowed this nation to be a light to the world, and then protect that and pass that on. And man, what a what what a humble honor.

SPEAKER_02

I'm gonna I'm gonna throw a little curveball in here and uh I I'm gonna say there is this popular phrase, and I I don't want to say popular because I don't think most people believe this, but at least in the media you hear this about um we're we're you know, we're living on stolen land. Look, America was either settled, purchased, or conquered. There is a collection of those things, and that is no different than any land in the entire history of this world, except the very beginning when God placed Adam and Eve in the garden. The history of the world is uh land is either settled, acquired, or conquered. Most of America was settled and acquired. A small bit of it was conquered. But before we declared our collection of states to be the United States, this land was being settled by the British, by the Spanish, by uh you know the French, a whole group of peoples and countries and what have you. Um we were just the ones that pulled together and again through acquisition that we Louisiana purchased the you know, half of our country almost was acquired that way. Um we aren't living on stolen land.

SPEAKER_03

No, and and as you look at even you you talked about it in in a previous episode, the idea that it was a place that others could come. All we said is in order to be a part of this country, you need to live by these values, these ideals, and assimilate into this culture. And if you do that, you're welcome, right? And and that is again so different and so unique. And um again, I'm just so thankful for it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and and look, what what do we what do we have? We have a nation that um has brought uh incredible innovations to the world that has uh brought peace in so many different situations to the world, that has um you know been a a leader in the the development of ideas and technology. We we have uh a nation that has carried the message of Christ. Further to more nations and more people than I think any nation in the history of the world. We have a nation that has been transformative to the world in which we live for the good. Are there bad things that have happened? Absolutely. That's true with any life, with any country, with anything. There are always bad things that happen, but the good, the impact that has come out of this country and this nation is incredible. And you know, our podcast here, Impact Without Limits, right? That's what we do. And I think America is a nation that has exhibited impact without limits. And um we want to see this continue. And to continue in the right way, we need to look back to the founding of this country, the uh ideals and beliefs it was founded on. First and foremost is the belief in a creator, the belief in a God, and that this country was providentially born out of providence. And uh we need to understand, learn, and share this with others so we can continue to be a nation of impact.

SPEAKER_03

So with that, that wraps up our review of the declaration. Again, read it for yourself, spend time digesting it, and then come back and we'll dive into the Constitution.

SPEAKER_02

And I wish I felt like we were doing it justice. We're truly aren't, but we're scratching the surface and we're pointing people in the right direction. So um looking forward to the next episode, and I hope you have a great week, and again, God bless the USA.

SPEAKER_00

This is the thread economy reminding you that faith looks up, hope looks ahead, and love looks all around to see whom it can help. Good day.