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The Declaration of Independence
Action of Second Continental
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 the 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 the 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 Rules 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 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 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.
GEORGIA, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.
NORTH-CAROLINA, Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
SOUTH-CAROLINA, Edward Rutledge, Thos Heyward, junr., Thomas
Lynch, junr., Arthur Middleton.
MARYLAND, Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll,
of Carrollton.
VIRGINIA, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja.
Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter
Braxton.
PENNSYLVANIA, Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John
Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson,
Geo. Ross.
DELAWARE, Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read.
NEW-YORK, Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frank Lewis, Lewis Morris.
NEW-JERSEY, Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson,
John Hart, Abra. Clark.
NEW-HAMPSHIRE, Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine,
Elbridge Gerry.
RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE, C. Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
CONNECTICUT, Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver
Wolcott.
IN CONGRESS, JANUARY 18, 1777.
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