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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 con-
nected 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 cer-
tain 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 founda-
tion 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 Govern-
ments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown,
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 inju-
ries and usurpations, all having in direct object the estab-
lishment 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 relin-
quish 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 unusu-
al, 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 op-
posing 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 con-
vulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these
States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws of Naturaliza-
tion of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their
migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropria-
tions of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refus-
ing 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 hith-
er 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 jurisdic-
tion foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our
laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legisla-
tion:
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 neigh-
bouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary govern-
ment, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once
an example and fit instrument for introducing the same abso-
lute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valu-
able Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Govern-
ments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring them-
selves 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 na-
tive 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 con-
sanguinity. 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 inten-
tions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of
these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these Unit-
ed Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent
States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the Brit-
ish Crown, and that all political connection between them and
the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dis-
solved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have
full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, es-
tablish 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
JOSIAH BARTLETT,
WM. WHIPPLE,
MATTHEW THORNTON.
Massachusetts-Bay
SAML. ADAMS,
JOHN ADAMS,
ROBT. TREAT PAINE,
ELBRIDGE GERRY.
Rhode Island
STEP. HOPKINS,
WILLIAM ELLERY.
Connecticut
ROGER SHERMAN,
SAM'EL HUNTINGTON,
WM. WILLIAMS,
OLIVER WOLCOTT.
Georgia
BUTTON GWINNETT,
LYMAN HALL,
GEO. WALTON.
Maryland
SAMUEL CHASE,
WM. PACA,
THOS. STONE,
CHARLES CARROLL
OF CARROLLTON.
Virginia
GEORGE WYTHE,
RICHARD HENRY LEE,
TH. JEFFERSON,
BENJA. HARRISON,
THS. NELSON, JR.,
FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE,
CARTER BRAXTON.
New York
WM. FLOYD,
PHIL. LIVINGSTON,
FRANS. LEWIS,
LEWIS MORRIS.
Pennsylvania
ROBT. MORRIS,
BENJAMIN RUSH,
BENJA. FRANKLIN,
JOHN MORTON,
GEO. CLYMER,
JAS. SMITH,
GEO. TAYLOR,
JAMES WILSON,
GEO. ROSS.
Delaware
CAESAR RODNEY,
GEO. READ,
THO. M'KEAN.
North Carolina
WM. HOOPER,
JOSEPH HEWES,
JOHN PENN.
South Carolina
EDWARD RUTLEDGE,
THOS. HEYWARD, JUNR.,
THOMAS LYNCH, JUNR.,
ARTHUR MIDDLETON.
New Jersey
RICHD. STOCKTON,
JNO. WITHERSPOON,
FRAS. HOPKINSON,
JOHN HART,
ABRA. CLARK.