The Declaration of Independence, One Paragraph at a Time. Part 1: A Decent Respect

> 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.

Everyone is familiar with the famous rights passage, but this passage is the first thing actually written on the paper. There is quite a lot assumed in what Jefferson is asserting at the outset of the document. For starters, what is a "political band", and is it dissolvable? Also, note that he is already speaking in the language of separation: "one people" and "another people", as if they weren't English citizens, but some sort of natural ally that has chosen to break the alliance. ...