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 harrass 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
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
Legislature, 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 and 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 Brittish 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.
