THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
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,
-- 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.
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. 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.
The history 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.
He has
refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good.
He has
forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate
and pressing importance, unless suspended
in their operation
till his Assent should be obtained;
and when so suspended, he
has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has
refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of
large districts of people, unless those
people would relinquish
the right of Representation in the Legislature,
a right
inestimable to them and formidable to
tyrants only.
He has
called together legislative bodies at places
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant
from the depository of
their public Records, for the
sole purpose of fatiguing them
into compliance with his measures.
He
has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for
opposing with manly firmness his
invasions on the rights of the
people.
He
has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions,
to cause others to be elected;
whereby the Legislative powers,
incapable of Annihilation, have
returned to the People at large
for their exercise; the State
remaining in the mean time
exposed to all the dangers of
invasion from without, and
convulsions within.
He
has endeavoured to prevent the population of these
States; for that purpose obstructing
the Laws for
Naturalization of Foreigners;
refusing to pass others to
encourage their migrations hither,
and raising the conditions
of new Appropriations of Lands.
He
has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by
refusing his Assent to Laws for
establishing Judiciary powers.
He
has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the
tenure of their offices, and the
amount and payment of their
salaries.
He
has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither
swarms of Officers to harass our
People, and eat out their
substance.
He
has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies
without the Consent of our legislatures.
He
has affected to render the Military independent of and
superior to the Civil power.
He
has combined with others to subject us to a
jurisdiction foreign to our constitution,
and unacknowledged by
by our laws; giving his Assent to their
Acts of pretended
Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting
them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for
any Murders which they should commit
on the Inhabitants of
these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing
the free System of English Laws in a
neighbouring Province, establishing
therein an Arbitrary
government, and enlarging its Boundaries
so as to render it at
once an example and fit instrument for
introducing the same
absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking
away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable
Laws and altering fundamentally the
Forms of our Governments:
For suspending
our own Legislatures, and declaring
themselves invested with power to legislate
for us in all cases
whatsoever.
He has
abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of
his Protection and waging War against
us.
He has
plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our
towns, and destroyed the Lives of our
people.
He is at
this time transporting large armies of foreign
mercenaries to compleat the works of
death, desolation, and
tyranny, already begun with circumstances
of Cruelty & Perfidy
scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous
ages, and totally
unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He
has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on
the high Seas to bear Arms against
their Country, to become the
executioners of their friends
and Brethren, or to fall
themselves by their Hands.
He
has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has
endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants
of our frontiers, the
merciless Indian Savages, whose
known rule of warfare, is an
undistinguished destruction of
all ages, sexes and conditions.
In
every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for
Redress in the most humble terms:
Our repeated Petitions have
been answered only by repeated
injury. A Prince, whose
character is thus marked by every
act which may define a
Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler
of a free people.
Nor have
We been wanting in attention to our British
brethren. We have warned them
from time to time of attempts by
their legislature to extend an unwarrantable
jurisdiction over
us. We have reminded them of the
circumstances of our
emigration and settlement here.
We have appealed to their
native justice and magnanimity, and
we have conjured them by
the ties of our common kindred to disavow
these usurpations,
which would inevitably interrupt our
connections and
correspondence. They too have been deaf
to the voice of justice
and of consanguinity. 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.
We, therefore,
the Representatives of the United States of
America, in General Congress, Assembled,
appealing to the
Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude
of our intentions,
do, in the Name, and by Authority of
the good People of these
Colonies, solemnly publish and declare,
That these United
Colonies are, and of Right ought to
be Free and Independent
States; that they are Absolved from
all Allegiance to the
British Crown, and that all political
connection between them
and the State of Great Britain,
is and ought to be totally
dissolved; and that as Free and
Independent States, they have
full Power to levy War, conclude
Peace, contract Alliances,
establish Commerce, and to do
all other Acts and Things which
Independent States may of right
do. -- And for the support of
this Declaration, with a firm
reliance on the Protection of
Divine Providence, we mutually
pledge to each other our Lives,
our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
-- John Hancock
NEW HAMPSHIRE
PENNSYLVANIA
VIRGINIA
Josiah Bartlett
Robt. Morris
George Wythe
Wm. Whipple
Benjamin Rush
Richard Henry Lee
Matthew Thornton
Benj. Franklin
Th. Jefferson
John Morton
Benj. Harrison
RHODE ISLAND
Geo. Clymer
Ths. Nelson, Jr.
Step. Hopkins
Jas. Smith
Francis Lightfoot Lee
William Ellery
Geo. Taylor
Carter Braxton
James Wilson
CONNECTICUT
Geo. Ross
NORTH CAROLINA
Roger Sherman
Wm. Hooper
Sam'el Huntington
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY Joseph Hewes
Wm. Williams
Saml. Adams
John Penn
Oliver Wolcott
John Adams
Robt. Treat Paine
SOUTH CAROLINA
NEW YORK
Elbridge Gerry
Edward Rutledge
Wm. Floyd
Thos. Heyward, Junr.
Phil. Livingston
DELAWARE
Thomas Lynch, Junr.
Frans. Lewis
Caesar Rodney
Arthur Middleton
Lewis Morris
Geo. Read
Tho. M'Kean
GEORGIA
NEW JERSEY
Button Gwinnett
Richd. Stockton
MARYLAND
Lyman Hall
Jno. Witherspoon
Samuel Chase
Geo. Walton
Fras. Hopkinson
Wm. Paca
John Hart
Thos. Stone
Abra. Clark
Charles Carroll
of Carrollton