Happy Fourth Of July!

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 distance 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 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 offenses: 

 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 attentions 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  

JOSIAH BARTLETT      MATTHEW THORNTON   WM. WHIPPLE  

SAML. ADAMS      ROBT. TREAT PAINE 

JOHN ADAMS      ELBRIDGE GERRY          STEP. HOPKINS 

WILLIAM ELLERY      ROGER SHERMAN      WM. WILLIAMS 

SAM’EL HUNTINGTON      OLIVER WOLCOTT      WM. FLOYD 

FRANS. LEWIS      PHIL. LIVINGSTON      LEWIS MORRIS

RICHD. STOCKTON      JOHN HART      JNO. WITHERSPOON 

ABRA. CLARK    FRAS. HOPKINSON    ROBT. MORRIS 

JAS. SMITH      BENJAMIN RUSH      GEO. TAYLOR 

BENJA. FRANKLIN     JAMES WILSON      JOHN MORTON 

GEO. ROSS     GEO. CLYMER      CAESAR RODNEY 

THO. M’KEAN    GEO. READ      SAMUEL CHASE 

CHARLES CARROLL    WM. PACA      THOS. STONE 

GEORGE WYTHE      THOS. NELSON, jr.    

RICHARD HENRY LEE    FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT  LEE   

TH. JEFFERSON   BENJA. HARRISON  CARTER BRAXTON 

WM. HOOPER      JOHN PENN    JOSEPH HEWES  

THOS. HEYWARD Junr.     THOMAS LYNCH Junr.      

ARTHUR MIDDLETON      EDWARD RUTLEDGE    

BUTTON GWINNETT    GEO. WALTON 

LYMAN HALL