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 for the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the
cause 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 foundations upon 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 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 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 shall be
obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to
them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accomodation 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
alone.
He has called togethe rlegislative bodies at plaes unusual, uncomfortable,
and distant from the depository of the 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 endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that
purpose obstructng the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing
to pass others to encourage their migration 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 their 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 time 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 the Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free system of English Laws in a neighboring 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 agains 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 of 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 Petititioned 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 atentions 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, Assebled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world
for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by Authority
of the good Poeple 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 disolved; 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--Geo. Taylor--Button Gwinnett--James Wilson--Lyman Hall--Geo.
Ross--Geo. Walton--Caesar Rodney--Wm. Hooper--Geo. Read--Joseph Hewes--Tho.
M. Kean--John Penn--Wm. Floyd--Edward Rutledge--Phil. Livingston--Thos.
Heyward, Jr.--Fras. Lewis--Thomas Lynch, Jr.--Lewis Morris--Arthur Middleton--Richd.
Stockton--Samuel Chase--Jno. Witherspoon--Thos. Stone--John Hart--Charles
Carroll of Carrollton--Abra. Clak--Josiah Bartlett--George Wythe--Wm. Whipple--Richard
Henry Lee--Saml. Adams--Th. Jefferson--John Adams--Benj. Harrison--Robt.
Treat Paine--Thos. Nelson, Jr.--Elbridge Gerry--Francis Lightfoot Lee--Step.
Hopkins--Carter Braxton--William Ellery--Robt. Morris--Roger Sherman--Benjain
Rush--Sam. Huntington--Benj. Franklin--Wm.Williams--John Morton--Oliver
Wolcott--Geo. Clymer--Matthew Thornton--Jas. Smith
