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
