Dec­la­ra­tion sent to City of Collinsville, Illi­nois, Illi­nois Sec­re­tary of State, Mis­souri Sec­re­tary of State, and United States State Depart­ment via Cer­ti­fied U.S. Mail on Jan. 2, 2008. Reg­is­tra­tion Num­bers: 70070220000112930039, 70070220000112930053, 70070220000112930046 and 70070220000112930022, respectively.

Cer­ti­fied Mail Receipts. Dec­la­ra­tion Receipts. Recorder Receipt.  Postage FeesRe­ceipt.

High-Res Scan of Recorded Orig­i­nal here:

Dec­la­ra­tion Page 1 Dec­la­ra­tion Page 2 Dec­la­ra­tion Page 3 Dec­la­ra­tion Page 4 Dec­la­ra­tion Page 5 Dec­la­ra­tion Page 6 Dec­la­ra­tion Page 7 Dec­la­ra­tion Page 8 Dec­la­ra­tion Page 9

(Prior to mak­ing this Dec­la­ra­tion, I stud­ied the cir­cum­stances giv­ing rise to much of the tur­moil, strife, and suf­fer­ing in our world and this coun­try in par­tic­u­lar. After only forty-something years on this planet even I can see a marked change in soci­ety and gov­ern­ment. Does gov­ern­ment dic­tate to soci­ety, or is soci­ety antecedent to gov­ern­ment? Is it that gov­ern­ment is society’s response to its prob­lems, or are the prob­lems in soci­ety a result of gov­ern­ment? I under­stand and agree with the con­cept of gov­ern­ment. Gov­ern­ment admits to man’s imper­fec­tions. If every­one were a rea­son­able, ratio­nal, and con­sci­en­tious indi­vid­ual then gov­ern­ment would not be needed. If a soci­ety is com­prised of indi­vid­u­als, then who is there to pro­tect them­selves against if not irra­tional, unrea­son­able indi­vid­u­als? Gov­ern­ment is that mutual pro­tec­tion against unrea­son­able, irra­tional indi­vid­u­als. How­ever, once power is estab­lished in an insti­tu­tion or body of men, that power is never relin­quished unless done so through force of peo­ple reclaim­ing that power. I see more-and-more pow­er­less peo­ple and more-and-more pow­er­ful insti­tu­tions. I see peo­ple aban­don­ing their respon­si­bil­i­ties in favor of adopt­ing gov­ern­ment as their source for rea­son. This in itself is not nec­es­sar­ily bad, for those sub­mit­ting to such an exis­tence do so at their own peril and the­o­ret­i­cally the dam­age is lim­ited to those liv­ing under maligned author­ity, but the can­cer has metas­ta­sized and now infects other soci­eties through con­scrip­tion, force, and per­va­sive igno­rance. What recourse does a free man have when he is either to sub­mit to what his con­science iden­ti­fies as injus­tice and injury, or to reclaim his place in this world as his own sov­er­eign, behold­ing to no arti­fi­cial con­struct or expe­di­ent act­ing as, or call­ing itself, a just gov­ern­ment? Rather than wan­der the maze of deceit, obfus­ca­tion, and threats; and when seek­ing aid from appar­ently respon­sive ser­vants am met only with fur­ther injury through lies and dis­sem­blance; I am tak­ing myself back to my nat­ural state, fully informed and pos­sess­ing rea­son and knowl­edge, choos­ing anew where my alle­giance will lie and to whom I will sub­mit. I believe that those in gov­ern­ment will either  not under­stand my ratio­nale or rea­son, since many of them believe that power begins with them, when it is each indi­vid­ual, respon­si­ble, and sov­er­eign man and woman that breathes life into their office through their con­sent. My con­sent, if required to be given, is not con­sent, but homage. If con­sent is given, it can be retracted. Through this Dec­la­ra­tion, I cor­rect my pre­vi­ous mis­takes in giv­ing alle­giance, assis­tance, or energy to, and thereby being bound to sup­port through my labor and prop­erty, a gov­ern­ment that does not com­port with the basic con­cepts of what gov­ern­ment was intended to be; viz., an expe­di­ent in pro­vid­ing for the mutual pro­tec­tion of the life, lib­erty, and prop­erty of those who consent.)

In the course of a life­time, when one dis­cov­ers and sub­mits to a truth that evinces at the con­flu­ence of all which is phys­i­cal, spir­i­tual, and rea­son­able in a nat­ural world; and there find that which had pre­vi­ously been accepted as truth to be a yoke of igno­rance and fear; and those who fit­ted the yoke, secured its place, and assigned its encum­brances, to be inter­lop­ers between would-be-beasts and sov­er­eign beings. Thus, but one recourse presents itself in rem­e­dy­ing the igno­rance born from hav­ing accepted insti­tu­tion­al­ized sanc­ti­mony that per­func­to­rily acknowl­edges a Cre­ator, yet com­pels servi­tude and obe­di­ence to earthly author­ity, with but one choice, that is, to claim a right­ful place in this world which the Supreme Cre­ator has pro­vided for all, as equals amongst all, rulers above none, sov­er­eigns amongst sov­er­eigns, and bound only by the moral duty to live the term of a life as peace­ably and pros­per­ously as pos­si­ble at what­ever cost deemed just and at no expense to any other.

(After years of study and edu­ca­tion in pub­lic and pri­vate schools, I came to rec­og­nize incon­sis­ten­cies between what I was taught, and what peo­ple believe, and what facts, his­tory, and research revealed. Peo­ple duti­fully pay homage to their God, Sav­ior, Cre­ator… yet, the evi­dence is irrefutable that peo­ple live first by what laws man may pass, even when in con­tra­dic­tion to what their con­science or reli­gion dic­tates. When tak­ing the oppor­tu­nity to query those who can sup­pos­edly rec­on­cile the dis­par­i­ties, I was often met with dis­missal or con­tempt for broach­ing the sub­ject. Many of the evil and vio­lence in the world today, and for eons past, has been under­taken with the per­mis­sion, and often impe­tus, of gov­ern­ment. I per­ceive a world where the dark­ness of serv­ing earthly author­ity is again man­i­fest­ing. I have to make a deci­sion to con­tinue to align myself with the law of man or the law of my Creator.)

I have met with such a truth, as I have come to know it, under­stand it, embrace it, and now choose to be ruled by it for the rest of My days.

(Hav­ing not been intro­duced with any author­ity or knowl­edge to the con­trary, I believe that act­ing upon any rea­son other than my own is immoral and irre­spon­si­ble. If I am ulti­mately account­able for my actions in this life, I have a duty to seek the truth, and bind myself to that truth; liv­ing my life accord­ingly. I will not allow myself to be gov­erned, pos­si­bly to my detri­ment, by the will of another. If I am to pay the price, then it is by my under­stand­ing that I will act.)

I, com­monly known and here­after referred to as, Mark McCoy, given the birth name of Mark McCoy by My nat­ural par­ents, hereby make known to all mem­bers of Mankind, lovers of Lib­erty, chil­dren of Peace and the world; as well as tyrants, oppres­sors, usurpers, rulers, and pre­sumed author­ity, the fol­low­ing Pub­lic Dec­la­ra­tion — Be it known that I, Mark McCoy, am in full con­trol of My phys­i­cal and men­tal fac­ul­ties. Be it known that I, Mark McCoy, make the fol­low­ing Dec­la­ra­tion vol­un­tar­ily, freely, and absent any out­side influ­ence, coer­cion, or duress. Be it known that I, Mark McCoy, accept full respon­si­bil­ity for My life and the actions taken in the exer­cise thereof. Be it known that I, Mark McCoy, am healthy, fit, of no phys­i­cal or men­tal inca­pac­ity what­so­ever, and am fully aware, edu­cated, informed, and knowl­edge­able. Be it known that I, Mark McCoy, stand before My Cre­ator; thank­ful for all of the power and free­dom I pos­sess as a con­se­quence of My birth; and in doing so avow to sub­mit to NO earthly author­ity, be it polit­i­cal, soci­etal, or oth­er­wise unnat­ural, and will with every fiber of My being resist to the death any attempt of con­scrip­tion, recruit­ment, account­abil­ity, alle­giance, oblig­a­tion, sub­mis­sion, com­pli­ance, or sub­or­di­na­tion by any man, woman, per­son, or entity. Be it known that I, Mark McCoy, desire peace, tol­er­ance, free­dom, lib­erty, and account­abil­ity for Myself and all mankind and that I will stand fast against any power, will, or force that may result in my trans­gress­ing from those prin­ci­ples. Be it known that I, Mark McCoy, believe and affirm that I am ulti­mately respon­si­ble for My actions in this life, sub­ject to the Supreme Arbiter of the Uni­verse, and as such will not allow oth­ers to guide or com­mand Me to act in ways incon­sis­tent with My Con­science for which I will per­son­ally be held to account. Be it known that I, Mark McCoy, will sub­mit only to the pains of pun­ish­ment for trans­gress­ing upon the like rights, prop­erty, and lib­erty of free-born, nat­ural beings. All other edicts, laws, reg­u­la­tions, or meth­ods of con­trol are dis­avowed and incon­se­quen­tial in the exer­cise of My life. Be it known that I, Mark McCoy, hereby set forth the fol­low­ing state­ments in Declar­ing My Sov­er­eignty, claim­ing My Expa­tri­a­tion, and Dis­solv­ing all pre­vi­ous National and Polit­i­cal Allegiance:

(At any time there can be a num­ber of per­sonas that we adopt for par­tic­u­lar cir­cum­stances. Since I am refer­ring to my nat­ural, flesh-and-blood per­son, and not some cor­po­rate, com­mer­cial, legal, or con­ve­nient per­sona, it is impor­tant to iden­tify myself and my capac­ity in mak­ing this Dec­la­ra­tion. I attempt to avoid facades, con­structs, and legal arti­fices in iden­ti­fy­ing myself in con­tra­dic­tion to other ref­er­ences made to the name “Mark McCoy”. In my sim­plest terms, I am a free man liv­ing in a nat­ural world and account­able only to that which cre­ated me. This state­ment cre­ates the base which upon all the fol­low­ing state­ments are given con­text and meaning.)

I am a natural-born, inde­pen­dent, free-man who, at the time of My birth, entered this world under the care of My nat­ural par­ents and in full pos­ses­sion of all the rights, fac­ul­ties, free­doms, and power I would ever pos­sess for the term of My nat­ural life.

(This state­ment is pretty self-explanatory, but speaks to my arrival in this world, unen­cum­bered by any­thing and pos­sess­ing every­thing I can ever claim as myself. I have relin­quished none of my power, nor can it be taken. If I am born free, then how can I be sub­ju­gated if not through my own will?)

I aver only to a nat­ural world, and dis­avow con­structs, arti­fices, and enti­ties cre­ated by the mind and hand of man when such may deem to bind or sub­ject Me to any power exer­cised thereunder.

(Many of the pit­falls, pre­sump­tions, traps, and adhe­sions under which many suf­fer do not exist in nature, but are often the fruit of mis­chie­vous minds of men who per­pet­u­ate igno­rance, fos­ter fear, and reap the fruits of the mar­riage of both. If I am to sub­mit myself to arti­fi­cial con­structs then it will be vol­un­tar­ily, but never sub­mit to any author­ity that attempts to sub­ju­gate or bind me irrevocably.)

I under­stand, believe, and have come to know that there is NO power on this earth supe­rior to the per­sonal power endowed to Me by My Cre­ator. There may be supe­rior force designed to com­pel My obe­di­ence and com­pli­ance, but such force, when exer­cised by unjust power, is noth­ing more than naked aggres­sion, tyranny, and evil.

(I believe that NO other has any supe­rior earthly power over another. No man can sub­ject another man to his will with­out the con­sent of the other. Oth­ers may exer­cise power over another, but if it is against the con­sent of another the power is unjust. This state­ment affirms the supremacy of the individual.)

I reserve My nat­ural right to exer­cise any and all means of self-defense with any and all weapons or devices at My dis­posal against any and all aggres­sors that may result in harm or death to Myself or oth­ers who may assail Me.

(This state­ment affirms the right of all peo­ple to defend them­selves in any man­ner if assailed. There is noth­ing in nature that com­mands any­one to sub­mit to bod­ily harm if act­ing peace­ably and unpro­voked. This state­ment seems obvi­ous, but the con­cept is often lost when author­ity is exer­cised over peo­ple in vio­lent ways; and where resis­tance is por­trayed as irra­tional or unreasonable.)

I reserve My right to pos­sess any­thing I may call “prop­erty”, that I have acquired by My own just, peace­ful efforts, and which may con­sist of any plant, ani­mal, min­eral, com­po­si­tion, machine, device, drug, weapon, or prod­uct. I may pos­sess such for My own pur­poses, defined by My own inten­tions, and that which does not pose an imme­di­ate threat or harm to the life or prop­erty of another. Any attempt to deprive Me of My “prop­erty” will be met with defense thereof to what­ever extent nec­es­sary to pre­serve such.

(This state­ment affirms the right of peo­ple to peace­ably acquire and pos­sess what­ever they desire, absent an imme­di­ate and demon­stra­ble threat to the life or lib­erty of another. What we may own or acquire through peace­ful indus­try is not within the domain of gov­ern­ment to approve or deny. This includes drugs, weapons…. etc. The mere pres­ence of par­tic­u­lar items in this world is not in itself a threat. The pos­ses­sion of such items is not in itself a threat. It is the intent of those who pos­sess such items, and the ini­ti­a­tion of actions based upon that intent that poses a threat to life and lib­erty. There­fore, I do not aver to gov­ern­ment depriv­ing me of own­er­ship, or restrict­ing my desire to own, what­ever prop­erty I peace­fully desire to possess.)

I unequiv­o­cally declare that I am the Supreme earthly author­ity over My phys­i­cal per­son; spir­i­tu­ally bound to My Cre­ator, and sub­ject only to the just adju­di­ca­tion by My Cre­ator for all My earthly trans­gres­sions. I am a Sov­er­eign power unto Myself, pos­ing no threat what­so­ever to the just exer­cise of the like Sov­er­eignty of other autonomous, self-determinate People.

(This state­ment acknowl­edges my com­mit­ment to my Cre­ator and my inten­tions towards peace.)

I admit to hav­ing sub­mit­ted to the demands and will of oth­ers who exer­cised influ­ence and author­ity over Me, at times to My detri­ment, with­out My full informed con­sent; but rather out of intim­i­da­tion, fear, and ignorance.

(This state­ment acknowl­edges that I have acted in ways incon­sis­tent with my con­science in the past, as well as accept­ing respon­si­bil­ity for neglect­ing my duty to my Cre­ator to aban­don fear and bat­tle ignorance.)

I do not acknowl­edge any author­ity, power, or juris­dic­tion as a con­se­quence of My phys­i­cal pres­ence, wher­ever such may be claimed; nor sub­mit to any of the afore­men­tioned as a con­se­quence of My actions in enjoy­ing or exer­cis­ing any of My nat­ural rights in a peace­able manner.

(In the admin­is­tra­tion of law, juris­dic­tion is the nexus. In today’s world, in this coun­try, there are numer­ous juris­dic­tions that attach at any given moment. Con­gress claims juris­dic­tion in mat­ters of com­merce; health, safety, wel­fare, treaties….. Claims of juris­dic­tion are not always accu­rate or applic­a­ble. They are often pre­sumed, depend­ing on the activ­ity engaged in. Here, I am assert­ing my right to enjoy my nat­ural rights wher­ever I may be, and in refu­ta­tion of what­ever juris­dic­tion may be claimed if I have not actu­ally sub­mit­ted to that jurisdiction.)

I do not seek the con­sent, acknowl­edge­ment, approval, per­mis­sion, or recog­ni­tion of any­body or any­thing in My dis­play of honor or obe­di­ence to My Cre­ator; the man­ner in which I wor­ship; or the actions I may take in the exer­cise of any and all gifts, bless­ings, free­dom, or rights I believe are bestowed by Him. I believe it is My right and duty to defend, with force if nec­es­sary, any intru­sion or inter­fer­ence with My rela­tion­ship with My Creator.

(Owing first, alle­giance to my Cre­ator, the man­ner in which I honor or wor­ship him is beyond the purview of gov­ern­ment. This includes adher­ing to my con­science in dic­tat­ing my actions and behavior.)

I have not adopted or accepted any def­i­n­i­tion of rights, lib­erty, free­doms, or iden­tity pro­mul­gated by any earthly power. I have not attempted to enu­mer­ate any of My rights, as endowed by My Cre­ator, for such a list would be too exhaus­tive to under­take and pos­si­bly con­strued by oth­ers to be a defin­i­tive list of My rights, which are inde­scrib­able, bound­less, and beyond the com­pre­hen­sion of arti­fi­cial constructs.

(When the Con­sti­tu­tion of the united States of Amer­ica was being rat­i­fied, some states demanded a Bill of Rights; know­ing full-well the propen­sity for gov­ern­ment to med­dle mali­ciously with power. Alexan­der Hamil­ton was against a Bill of Rights, refer­ring to such peremp­tory dec­la­ra­tions as mere parch­ment bar­ri­ers. The anti-federalists nev­er­the­less demanded such a Bill before they would rat­ify the Con­sti­tu­tion. Since that time, espe­cially the pas­sage of the 14th Amend­ment, gov­ern­ment has resorted to look­ing to the Con­sti­tu­tion and Bill of Rights as the source for our rights. This is where Civil Rights and Con­sti­tu­tional Rights are gleaned. Gov­ern­ment has long-forgotten the con­cept of nat­ural rights that belong to all men by way of their birth and Cre­ator. In effort to cir­cum­vent such deceit­ful and disin­gen­u­ous ratio­nale, I make this state­ment to claim all of my nat­ural rights and dis­avow or reject pre­scribed or enu­mer­ated rights.)

It is My belief and under­stand­ing that the man-made arti­fice known as “gov­ern­ment”, once served a pur­pose in effect­ing a con­sent­ing People’s desire for the mutual pro­tec­tion of life, lib­erty, and prop­erty. It is My belief that gov­ern­ment is an anachro­nis­tic relic of a time where cir­cum­stances induced peo­ple to trade Nat­ural Rights for priv­i­leges and ben­e­fits derived from the Civil Power. It is My belief that a pat­tern exists where gov­ern­ment no longer oper­ates under the intended desire of con­sent­ing Peo­ple for the mutual pro­tec­tion of life, lib­erty, and prop­erty, but has devi­ated to a course of abuse, vio­lence, theft, deceit, fraud, and coer­cion; oper­at­ing to the detri­ment of those who choose to not con­sent, and to the ben­e­fit of those who seek out gov­ern­ment as a proxy for effect­ing the pur­suit and fur­ther­ance of var­i­ous self-interests.

(The widely-held belief that gov­ern­ment is for pro­tect­ing life, lib­erty, and prop­erty has given way to gov­ern­ment com­man­deer­ing rights and redis­trib­ut­ing them in by way of priv­i­leges and ben­e­fits; of which alle­giance and sub­ju­ga­tion is required. Gov­ern­ment, as it oper­ates today, is not the form or func­tion of gov­ern­ment that serves the inter­ests of con­sent­ing peo­ple form­ing such for their mutual ben­e­fit. Many of the rea­sons for gov­ern­ment are out­dated, since peo­ple have much more per­sonal power to pro­vide for their own health, safety, or wel­fare in today’s world. The threats that once stalked the vul­ner­a­ble of the past have been replaced with con­sol­i­dated power in gov­ern­ment serv­ing the elite and priv­i­leged, and not the liberty-minded, respon­si­ble peo­ple who are self-determining.)

I believe the ONLY legit­i­mate func­tion of gov­ern­ment, of any kind, to be for the mutual ben­e­fit of those explic­itly form­ing such gov­ern­ment and sub­mit­ting to its juris­dic­tion for the sole pur­pose of pro­tect­ing life, lib­erty, and prop­erty. Any other action under­taken in the name of ANY gov­ern­ment that is incon­sis­tent with the afore­said con­cepts is unjust, unlaw­ful, repug­nant, and non-binding upon any Sov­er­eign man or woman.

(I go on to reit­er­ate the only legit­i­mate func­tion of gov­ern­ment is the pro­tec­tion of life, lib­erty, and prop­erty; and any other func­tion is ille­git­i­mate to sov­er­eign people.)

I believe that gov­ern­ment is NOT sov­er­eign; that sov­er­eignty begins with the Cre­ator; is bestowed to those he cre­ates; and can­not be sur­ren­dered, waived, trans­ferred, or assigned to any unnat­ural entity that may then pos­sess sov­er­eignty supe­rior or equal to that which cre­ated it. There­fore, it is NOT pos­si­ble for gov­ern­ment to claim the sta­tus of a sov­er­eign as com­pared to that of the Peo­ple who choose to cre­ate such government.

(Gov­ern­ment uses the argu­ment that it is sov­er­eign, and deserv­ing of our alle­giance and obe­di­ence. This ratio­nale used to be pro­moted by mon­archs where they equated them­selves with being God’s stew­ards on earth, but the founders of Amer­ica posited a doc­trine of pop­u­lar sov­er­eignty where sov­er­eignty resided with the peo­ple, and they bestowed a lim­ited amount of their sov­er­eignty to a rep­re­sen­ta­tive gov­ern­ment. It was never intended that that sov­er­eignty could ever be more than the peo­ple pos­sess in their pri­vate, nat­ural capac­ity, and there­fore sub­ject them to the will and power of gov­ern­ment. There is no way that gov­ern­ment can ever pos­sess more sov­er­eignty than the peo­ple who cre­ate such government.)

I rec­og­nize and under­stand that gov­ern­ment has orga­nized and mobi­lized a force com­prised of indi­vid­u­als who are armed, trained, and pre­sum­ably empow­ered with “author­ity” to enforce laws, edicts, procla­ma­tions, rules, ordi­nances, and reg­u­la­tions in the name of “pub­lic safety”, “national secu­rity”, “com­mon good”, “police power”, and other con­trivances used to pla­cate peo­ple into accept­ing an armed, stand­ing pres­ence designed to com­pel obe­di­ence and com­pli­ance. I rec­og­nize and under­stand that those indi­vid­u­als com­pris­ing this force are morally bound, oblig­ated, and rea­son­able in adher­ing to the laws of nature and respect­ing the sov­er­eignty of oth­ers. They are assumed to be rea­son­able and respon­si­ble for their indi­vid­ual actions. I there­fore assume that any action taken upon them, against My life, lib­erty, or prop­erty, is pur­pose­ful, inten­tional, and delib­er­ate. I will deem any action taken by them, against My life, lib­erty, or prop­erty, to be an act of war. I will defend with force to what­ever degree and with any means at My dis­posal, and to what­ever con­se­quence pos­si­ble, My life, lib­erty, and prop­erty against any and all actors exer­cis­ing such force.

(I believe that Amer­ica is essen­tially a police state. We have among us a stand­ing army of men and women who are armed and shown to be vio­lent. Con­ven­tional wis­dom tells us repeat­edly that police are, by way of merely belong­ing to that insti­tu­tion, noble, hon­or­able, altru­is­tic, and iconic. More and more we hear of sit­u­a­tions where peo­ple are tasered, shot, beaten, or oth­er­wise assaulted for fail­ing to sub­mit to such author­ity. Police are peo­ple act­ing in a role. It is this revered insti­tu­tion that pro­vides refuge for men and women who have lit­tle com­punc­tion in exer­cis­ing undue force over oth­ers. I am aware of the pres­ence and use of this insti­tu­tion when gov­ern­ment attempts to reign in those who speak ill of its author­ity. I refuse to sub­mit to any arbi­trary author­ity and will resist any force exer­cised against me. I reserve my nat­ural right to defend myself against all aggres­sors, regard­less of how they may be dressed or dec­o­rated. Police are men and women who are ulti­mately per­son­ally respon­si­ble for their actions whether serv­ing in an offi­cial or pri­vate capac­ity. I do not rec­og­nize that insti­tu­tion as being the arbiter of what is just when exer­cised against me.)

I do not believe that I am a U.S. cit­i­zen, a cit­i­zen of the United States, a statu­tory res­i­dent, a statu­tory per­son, a tax­payer, or any other crea­ture, fic­tion, sub­ject, or def­i­n­i­tion found in statutes, codes, ordi­nances, or any­where else that does not rec­og­nize a nat­ural, free-born man. This state­ment shall serve as My Dec­la­ra­tion of Expa­tri­a­tion from the cor­po­rate gov­ern­ment of the United States. I fur­ther­more seek no ben­e­fit, exer­cise no priv­i­lege, pledge no alle­giance, lend no sup­port, swear not to defend, nor oth­er­wise sub­mit Myself to any author­ity or juris­dic­tion of the cor­po­rate gov­ern­ment of the United States.

(This is prob­a­bly the most con­tro­ver­sial state­ment in the entire Dec­la­ra­tion. Again, there is lit­tle har­mony between the lan­guage of law, and the lan­guage of peo­ple. After read­ing vol­umes of law, court cases, trea­tises, and his­tory, it is fool­ish to apply the lan­guage of com­mon men to the law. The terms I iden­tify in this state­ment are spe­cific, specifically-defined, and often mis­ap­plied or mis­un­der­stood. I do not accept the stated terms as apply­ing to me. Such terms apply to peo­ple, as well as incor­po­real con­structs, and are not a result of nature or birth, but of adopt­ing or accept­ing those terms as apply­ing to them by way of their seek­ing a spe­cial sta­tus, exer­cis­ing pre­scribed priv­i­leges; or accept­ing cer­tain ben­e­fits, not avail­able to free-born nat­ural peo­ple. In order to receive these priv­i­leges and ben­e­fits, reserved for those claim­ing to be one of the afore­men­tioned legal terms, alle­giance and servi­tude to the fed­eral gov­ern­ment is required. The sta­tus’ are vol­un­tary, and do not attach by way of birth. The sta­tus’, how­ever, are sub­or­di­nate to and less than the sta­tus of being a free-born, inde­pen­dent man. This state­ment is where I remove any pre­sump­tion by the fed­eral gov­ern­ment to bind or sub­ject me to the dimin­ished cit­i­zen­ship sta­tus in exchange for my alle­giance. This state­ment serves to expa­tri­ate me from the legal entity; the cor­po­rate struc­ture; the extra-constitutional, United States gov­ern­ment. How­ever, this is not to say that I renounce my Cit­i­zen­ship as an Amer­i­can. Amer­ica is my coun­try of birth. The United States, as dif­fer­en­ti­ated from the united States of Amer­ica, is the cor­po­rate, legal fic­tion located in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. and iden­ti­fied in the Con­sti­tu­tion of the United States of Amer­ica. Antecedent even to my Cit­i­zen­ship as an Amer­i­can is my Cit­i­zen­ship by birth (ius soli) in Mis­souri. I reject the cit­i­zen­ship con­ferred upon second-class, fed­eral cit­i­zens by way of the Four­teenth Amend­ment to the United States Con­sti­tu­tion. Such cit­i­zen­ship is not ius soli, since I was not born in the United States, but in Mis­souri (my state) and Amer­ica (my Coun­try). It all depends on how the name “United States” is being applied. Under Com­mon Law, as in the Con­sti­tu­tion, ordi­nary mean­ing is applied to the words because that doc­u­ment can­not rede­fine words already defined by the com­mon use of the lan­guage of that day. When the Con­sti­tu­tion was writ­ten there was United States Cit­i­zen­ship, mean­ing national Cit­i­zen­ship. Fol­low­ing the Four­teenth Amend­ment there became United States cit­i­zen­ship, which was cre­ated for the freed blacks. The words iden­ti­fied above have dif­fer­ent mean­ings than are used in com­mon speech because they are found re-defined in the United States Statutes at Large and United States Code. I retain what is mine by my birthright, and reject the fab­ri­cated, diluted, and pre­scrip­tive rights and sub­or­di­nated cit­i­zen­ship of the Four­teenth Amendment.)

I am not the holder of, in pos­ses­sion of, claim no prop­erty right to, nor accept as Mine any Social Secu­rity Num­ber, Tax­payer Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion Num­ber, Dri­vers License Num­ber, or other iden­ti­fy­ing num­ber used in admin­is­ter­ing priv­i­leges and ben­e­fits by gov­ern­ment. Any prior ref­er­ence to such num­bers was in error and ascribed to igno­rance, and all such num­bers, being the prop­erty of those agen­cies issu­ing such, are here­after sur­ren­dered and rescinded.

(When a cit­i­zen of the United States, or a sub­ject thereof, wishes to exer­cise a priv­i­lege or seek a ben­e­fit, they must first pos­sess a license or num­ber asso­ci­ated with the priv­i­lege or ben­e­fit. Since I only pos­sess rights, unalien­able and absolute, I am not required to pos­sess a num­ber or seek per­mis­sion to exer­cise such. Since the per­mis­sion belongs to gov­ern­ment, as does the priv­i­lege or ben­e­fit, I wish to pos­sess no such num­ber since I exer­cise noth­ing requir­ing per­mis­sion by free-born, inde­pen­dent men.)

My name is not acknowl­edged by me to be MARK MCCOY. I am not the holder of, in pos­ses­sion of, claim no prop­erty right to, nor accept as Mine, any gov­ern­ment issued or com­mer­cial doc­u­ment bear­ing a name “MARK MCCOY”. I do not acknowl­edge nor accept any­thing to rep­re­sent My name if I have not affixed My sig­na­ture as rep­re­sent­ing My name. I can­not be required, nor com­pelled, to affix My sig­na­ture to any­thing against My will, under direc­tion or demand of another, under threat, duress, or coer­cion. I do not claim to have a name, but I choose to use a name. My name is My way of hav­ing oth­ers refer to My per­son. Any gov­ern­ment issued, or com­mer­cial doc­u­ment, bear­ing a name MARK MCCOY, does not reflect My name, since the name MARK MCCOY was affixed to such doc­u­ments by the issu­ing entity and are there­fore not Mine, but instead the prop­erty of the issu­ing entity. Any doc­u­ments pre­vi­ously pro­mul­gated by gov­ern­ment or com­mer­cial enti­ties was done so under fraud, deceit, or coer­cion and are not bind­ing upon Me. I will honor what­ever con­trac­tual agree­ments I have made pur­suant to My vol­un­tar­ily affix­ing My sig­na­ture to such doc­u­ments, pro­vided a sub­stan­ti­a­tion for any law­ful claim can with­stand objec­tions based on fraud, duress, or coercion.

(When­ever gov­ern­ment asks for a “name”, issues doc­u­ments bear­ing a “name”, it is for the pur­pose of gov­ern­ment iden­ti­fy­ing an admin­is­tra­tive or com­mer­cial entity. If I pos­sess and dis­play those doc­u­ments then I am accept­ing the duty or respon­si­bil­ity assigned to that legal fic­tion to which the doc­u­ment is issued. Along with every priv­i­lege or ben­e­fit comes a duty to pay for the exer­cise thereof, but I do not ask for such a ben­e­fit or to act as an admin­is­tra­tive or com­mer­cial entity that is behold­ing to the gov­ern­ment. What­ever I vol­un­tar­ily affix my name to I will accept respon­si­bil­ity for per­form­ing to what­ever agreed upon oblig­a­tion. I will not accept the trap­pings of gov­ern­ment sub­jects that bind them to oblig­a­tions and duties reserved for legal enti­ties or those who have made appli­ca­tion to gov­ern­ment for priv­i­leges and ben­e­fits, and not free-born, inde­pen­dent men. I will abide by my word, ful­fill my con­tracts, and live up to agree­ments that I pur­pose­fully affix my own sig­na­ture to.)

I claim as Mine, and Mine alone, ALL of the prod­ucts of my indus­try; aris­ing from my labor and effort in My nat­ural capac­ity, and thereby do NOT accept or acknowl­edge ANY oblig­a­tion or duty, either morally or law­fully, to remit ANY tax or fee for what­ever prop­erty, com­pen­sa­tion, wage, or value I receive in the mar­ket­place, through pri­vate con­tracts, for the efforts or prod­ucts result­ing in the appli­ca­tion of My phys­i­cal or men­tal labor.

(I am the owner of my body, as well as the fruits of what­ever energy I expend in exer­cis­ing my indus­try for my own ben­e­fit. I am not oblig­ated to remit any of my prop­erty to any­one. If a claim can be made for some, then a claim can be made for all, since there is noth­ing that lim­its the power used to take what is right­fully mine. Any­thing to the con­trary amounts to theft and servitude.)

I am not bound by ANY hold­ing of ANY court where I was not a will­ing party to a case giv­ing rise to such hold­ing. NO court, or body of men, can define My rights; define MY under­stand­ing of what is rea­son­able; define My under­stand­ing of pri­vacy; or oth­er­wise make any deter­mi­na­tion, define stan­dards, or bind Me to any other opin­ion not of My own.

(Courts are capri­cious with defin­ing that is “rea­son­able”, “com­pelling”, or other words used in lim­it­ing or dimin­ish­ing our rights. Other courts are bound by the doc­trine of stare deci­sis in apply­ing the hold­ing of supe­rior courts to cases before them. How­ever, it is not the purview of the courts to deter­mine to what degree I am to suf­fer gov­ern­men­tal intru­sions into my rights. Even though a rule of law or a well set­tled rea­son­ing orig­i­nates in one court, the appli­ca­tion of those rules or rea­son­ing do not affect me unless it is applied to a mat­ter in con­tro­versy where I am a party to that pro­ceed­ing. When a court decides what a “rea­son­able expec­ta­tion of pri­vacy” means in one case, it has done so based upon the cir­cum­stances and facts of that case. It may pre­sume that def­i­n­i­tion to apply to oth­ers, but only inso­far as the exact cir­cum­stances and facts are involved. There­fore, I pre­emp­tively rebut and reject any def­i­n­i­tion of what applies to me until I find myself in that juris­dic­tion, and vol­un­tar­ily sub­mit­ting to the author­ity. I refuse to accept the pre­sump­tions extended to oth­ers by cases where have not had an oppor­tu­nity to present the facts as they apply specif­i­cally to me.)

I do not aver to the the­ory of sub­mit­ting to the “will of the major­ity”, “the bet­ter­ment of soci­ety”, “the greater good”, or other con­trived plat­i­tudes used to invoke emo­tion and cir­cum­vent logic in manip­u­lat­ing the will of the major­ity to com­pel and con­trol the will of the indi­vid­ual. It is My belief that soci­ety can­not exist, absent fully autonomous, inde­pen­dent, and sov­er­eign indi­vid­u­als who may choose to become a mem­ber of soci­ety through choice rather than being con­scripted through coer­cion or fraud.

(Gov­ern­ment often resorts to pleas of neces­sity; often cit­ing the needs of soci­ety or the greater good, in pro­mot­ing leg­is­la­tion that infringes upon the rights of indi­vid­u­als. Even though I choose to act respon­si­bly, I do not rec­og­nize the rights of soci­ety, since soci­ety can­not pos­sess rights, col­lec­tively. Only indi­vid­u­als can pos­sess rights, and as a soci­ety, can exer­cise those rights being ever cog­nizant of other mem­bers of that soci­ety so as not to infringe upon the like-rights of the mem­bers of that soci­ety. A col­lec­tive body com­prised of indi­vid­u­als pos­sesses no greater rights than the indi­vid­ual mem­bers of that body. In other words, that which is unjust can­not be made just because more peo­ple than not deem such to be just. This type of ratio­nale is in essence a moral plea for col­lec­tivism, which is anti­thet­i­cal to indi­vid­ual lib­erty. I believe in treat­ing indi­vid­u­als as free equals, but I can­not be bound to the will of one man against my will; even if that man sum­mons a num­ber of oth­ers to exert their col­lec­tive influ­ence over me.)

I hereby renounce, reject, dis­avow, rescind, and refute any and all prior express or implied alle­giance to the United States, the United States of Amer­ica, the State of Illi­nois, the State of Mis­souri (as well as any other deriva­tions of a “State of….”, any polit­i­cal body, orga­ni­za­tion, asso­ci­a­tion, or orga­nized soci­ety that I have not pur­pose­fully, explic­itly, and inten­tion­ally joined. I reject any and all cit­i­zen­ship of any and all juris­dic­tions found within the polit­i­cal bound­aries under the con­trol of, or defined as, the United States, the United States of Amer­ica, and any polit­i­cal body, sub­di­vi­sion or entity thereof.

(Gov­ern­ment thrives upon, and requires, our con­sent. Con­sent derives from alle­giance. How­ever, oper­at­ing on the fact that I am not a sub­ject or cit­i­zen to the for­eign fed­eral gov­ern­ment, I do not extend my alle­giance to that for­eign gov­ern­ment. I am also con­fronted with the polit­i­cal sub­di­vi­sions of the fed­eral gov­ern­ment known as States. The com­mon­wealths, states, republics, polit­i­cal bod­ies com­prised of the sov­er­eign peo­ple, still exist, but have been sus­pended in favor of what are essen­tially fed­eral munic­i­pal­i­ties called States. What is also known as Illi­nois, Mis­souri…. etc., are now State of ….. I rec­og­nize the gov­ern­ments owing their orig­i­na­tion to the organic doc­u­ments cre­at­ing such, but I do not sub­mit to the cor­po­rate, fed­eral munic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions presently pro­mul­gat­ing statutes, codes, and pol­icy for United Stated cit­i­zens. As I explained above, I do not lend my alle­giance to the cor­po­rate United States, or any of the fed­eral munic­i­pal­i­ties called “States”, which are exten­sions and out­crop­pings of fed­eral areas (See Title 4 of the United States Code for the def­i­n­i­tion of a State). I rec­og­nize the state of Mis­souri, state of Illi­nois, united States of Amer­ica, united States….etc., but do not lend myself to legal con­structs not orig­i­nat­ing from the organic laws of the Peo­ple in cre­at­ing their polit­i­cal states or of the Con­sti­tu­tion of the united States of America.)

I reject any and all pre­vi­ous appli­ca­tions and issuances of any and all licenses or per­mits for actions exer­cised by Me of a per­sonal, non-commercial nature. I hereby refuse to par­take or engage in any scheme, pro­gram, plan, or man­date requir­ing My coerced par­tic­i­pa­tion, in vio­la­tion of My free-will. Any claim, con­scrip­tion, adhe­sion, or duty under any pre­vi­ous license or per­mit is null and void.

(Licenses are defined as per­mis­sion to do that which would oth­er­wise be ille­gal. Natural-born, free, sov­er­eign peo­ple do not need per­mis­sion to exer­cise their rights. Rights, by def­i­n­i­tion, can­not be con­verted to priv­i­leges requir­ing licen­sure. When one oper­ates under author­ity of a license that activ­ity is deemed to be the exclu­sive domain of the state, oth­er­wise known as the peo­ple, and there­fore per­mis­sion is needed by the peo­ple to do what is not oth­er­wise within the nat­ural lib­er­ties of sov­er­eign peo­ple. Gov­ern­ment can­not also require or demand some­one to pro­cure a license, since a license requires the indi­vid­ual to iden­tify the activ­ity to not be within their nat­ural lib­er­ties; to make appli­ca­tion to the state for the exer­cise of what is a pub­lic priv­i­lege; and to affix their sig­na­ture, thereby per­fect­ing the con­struc­tion of a duty or oblig­a­tion to abide by and per­form within the pre­scribed lim­its of what that priv­i­lege affords. Since I do noth­ing out­side of my nat­ural lib­erty, nor encum­ber the peo­ple with any bur­den by my actions, I require no license or per­mis­sion to act in an unnat­ural, com­mer­cial, or enter­pris­ing nature.)

I believe, as evi­denced by the actions of any and all gov­ern­ment that exists within the bound­aries known as the United States or any of the sev­eral States com­pris­ing the United States, that such gov­ern­ment is anti­thet­i­cal to the con­cepts of life, lib­erty, and prop­erty for sov­er­eign indi­vid­u­als. I believe such gov­ern­ment is with­out law­ful author­ity to act on behalf of any­one or any­thing against My per­son. I believe that such gov­ern­ment has been shown to be vio­lent, oppres­sive, deceit­ful, thiev­ing, bru­tal, impe­ri­al­is­tic, mur­der­ous, harm­ful, neg­li­gent, and con­trary to My life, lib­erty and prop­erty. I believe that such gov­ern­ment is not of My doing; and I refuse to par­tic­i­pate or assist, in any man­ner what­so­ever, in lend­ing My energy, per­mis­sion, power, prop­erty, or con­sent to such a cre­ation. I believe that such gov­ern­ment, as well as those who act under its author­ity against My life, lib­erty, and prop­erty, to be My enemy. I believe a state of war now, and for some time, exists between Myself and “gov­ern­ment”. I cau­tion and admon­ish such gov­ern­ment, as well as actors oper­at­ing under the pre­sumed author­ity of such, to cease, desist, and forego any and all involve­ment with Myself, absent an explicit arrange­ment, agree­ment, con­tract, duty, or rela­tion­ship made with My fully-informed con­sent. I make this attempt at peace­ful over­ture, as a rea­son­able, con­sci­en­tious, peace­ful, ratio­nal, and sen­tient being. Any refusal to accept, or act under, this peace­ful over­ture will be deemed an act of war, aggres­sion, tyranny, and vio­lence towards Myself. I will defend, with like-force, to what­ever end, and with what­ever means, My life, lib­erty, prop­erty, should I choose.

(This state­ment con­sti­tutes my com­mit­ment to civil dis­obe­di­ence. Gov­ern­ment that is not act­ing to pro­tect life, lib­erty, and prop­erty of free, inde­pen­dent, sov­er­eign indi­vid­u­als is not a legit­i­mate gov­ern­ment. The actions of gov­ern­ment, as it exists today, vio­lates life, lib­erty, and prop­erty. If gov­ern­ment exists through the con­sent of the gov­erned, then the gov­erned can be con­sid­ered to be will­ing par­tic­i­pants to atroc­i­ties against lib­erty. I refuse to par­tic­i­pate in either my own destruc­tion, or the destruc­tion of lib­erty, by lend­ing my energy in what­ever form to an unre­spon­sive and out of con­trol gov­ern­ment. If I am to be com­pelled, against my will, to par­tic­i­pate in that which con­flicts with my con­science then I have no recourse but to resist to my fullest capac­ity. If a just and respon­sive gov­ern­ment is going to claim a right to com­pel my par­tic­i­pa­tion in what I believe to be tyranny, then that gov­ern­ment loses its legit­i­macy and thereby is reduced to despo­tism, which demands the resis­tance of all freedom-loving individuals.)

I believe that I have made every rea­son­able attempt humanly pos­si­ble to make known My thoughts, beliefs, and actions; assert My posi­tion and iden­tify Myself to all as a rea­son­able, ratio­nal, con­sci­en­tious, respon­si­ble, peace­ful, and under­stand­ing Man. I have peti­tioned the gov­ern­ment. I have sought the coun­sel of those who are deemed to be “learned” and with author­ity. I have stud­ied and edu­cated Myself in the ways of moral­ity, phi­los­o­phy, law, and soci­ety. I have availed Myself to the estab­lished sys­tem in good-faith, adher­ing to estab­lished rules, and sought jus­tice. I have been met with only threats, lies, vio­lence, deceit, silence and injury. I can do no more, absent a peace­ful Dec­la­ra­tion, before being forced to resort to armed revolt.

(After review­ing all that I have been taught, learned, known, and believe, I have sought peace­ful redress in rec­on­cil­ing the dis­parate and con­flict­ing infor­ma­tion that assaults my rea­son. With every fiber of my being and every spark of my rea­son, in adher­ing to what I desire to be a peace­ful exis­tence, I have but one last peace­ful recourse in realign­ing the rela­tion­ship that may exist between myself and a gov­ern­ment I choose to lend my alle­giance and con­sent to in pro­tect­ing my life, lib­erty, and prop­erty. Since I see no such gov­ern­ment for me to seek refuge against poten­tial ne’er-do-wells, I will resort to my nat­ural state and assume respon­si­bil­ity for my pro­tec­tion and my actions towards oth­ers. As with any free indi­vid­ual, when all else fails, in defense of lib­erty, armed revolt is a just means of self-preservation.)

Be it know that I, Mark McCoy, desire peace, respect life, and am will­ing to defend AT ALL COSTS that which is Mine. I am first a child of My Cre­ator, sec­ond an earthly sen­tient being, third a man, fourth a mem­ber of My cho­sen soci­ety, and last a mem­ber of a polit­i­cal body. I will avail Myself to pro­tect and defend all just, right­eous, and moral indi­vid­u­als who seek My aid in pre­serv­ing their like life, lib­erty, and prop­erty. I abhor igno­rance, intol­er­ance, vio­lence, tyranny, oppres­sion, apa­thy, aggres­sion, and evil in what­ever form, or acted upon in what­ever name or author­ity. My time on this earth is tem­po­rary and sub­ject to the terms set forth by My Cre­ator. I have but one duty, and that is to live in accor­dance with the con­science I am blessed with. As a result of such exer­cise, mankind and soci­ety will incur no bur­den on My behalf, suf­fer no injury, and be none dimin­ished. All of My actions are vol­un­tar­ily, pur­pose­ful, and wholly My respon­si­bil­ity. I claim no respon­si­bil­ity for the feel­ings, thoughts, or acts of oth­ers who make them­selves sub­ject to what­ever exter­nal influ­ence may be per­ceived by My autonomous actions. I believe I have a duty, as a con­di­tion of the boun­ti­ful gifts which My Cre­ator has bestowed upon Me, to avail Myself to oth­ers who find com­fort, value, and knowl­edge in My gifts and who seek to share in that bounty which I enjoy. I will give char­i­ta­bly, gen­er­ously, and gra­ciously, as dic­tated by My will and capac­ity alone, and in what­ever man­ner I deem fit for My benefit.

(Here I make my inten­tions known that I am a peace­ful man, behold­ing to my Cre­ator, and com­mit­ted to jus­tice and lib­erty. I take full respon­si­bil­ity for my actions and swear to act respon­si­bly, ratio­nally, and pur­pose­fully. I aver to being hold­ing only to my con­science, and in doing so I will not act in man­ners incon­sis­tent with the lib­erty or another. I will live my life on my terms, and in doing so will ben­e­fit other freedom-loving individuals.)

There­fore, to a can­did world be known that I, Mark McCoy, hav­ing exhausted all rea­son­able means at My dis­posal to claim and assert My nat­ural rights to self-determination, auton­omy, sov­er­eignty, and free­dom; and as a last resort, make the afore­said state­ment as My Pub­lic Dec­la­ra­tion of Sov­er­eignty, Expa­tri­a­tion, and Dis­so­lu­tion of all Pre­vi­ous National and Polit­i­cal Alle­giance; and will with all the power pos­sessed by Me through My Cre­ator, swear that I will act and live accord­ing to the dic­tates of My con­science, in a rea­son­able, respon­si­ble, peace­able, and ratio­nal man­ner; will do inten­tional harm to any no other or their prop­erty; and be account­able only to My Cre­ator for My earthly trans­gres­sions, sub­mit­ting Myself to just atone­ment and com­pen­sa­tion for any inten­tional acts against, or breaches of duty to, the life, lib­erty, or prop­erty of another.

(This state­ment sum­ma­rizes all men­tioned before, and con­firms that I, in my nat­ural state, with­out a need or alle­giance to any supe­rior author­ity, will live my life in a man­ner that hon­ors my Cre­ator, obeys my con­science, and harms no one.)

So help Me God!

Mark McCoy

Decem­ber 26, 2007