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Declarationof Independence.

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Declarationof Independence.

The Declaration of Independence of the

Thirteen Colonies

In Congress July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united Statesof America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes neces-sary for one people to dissolve the political bands which haveconnected them with another, and to assume among the pow-ers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which theLaws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decentrespect to the opinions of mankind requires that they shoulddeclare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men arecreated equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with

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certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Lib-erty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure theserights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving theirjust powers from the consent of the governed, —That when-ever any Form of Government becomes destructive of theseends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, andto institute new Government, laying its foundation on suchprinciples and organizing its powers in such form, as to themshall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long estab-lished should not be changed for light and transient causes;and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind aremore disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than toright themselves by abolishing the forms to which they areaccustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpa-tions, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design toreduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it istheir duty, to throw off such Government, and to providenew Guards for their future security. —Such has been thepatient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the ne-cessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems ofGovernment. The history of the present King of Great Brit-ain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpa-tions, all having in direct object the establishment of an abso-lute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts besubmitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesomeand necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immedi-ate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their opera-tion till his Assent should be obtained; and when so sus-pended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodationof large districts of people, unless those people would relin-quish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a rightinestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their publicRecords, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compli-ance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, foropposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights ofthe people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, tocause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers,incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large

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for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time ex-posed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and con-vulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of theseStates; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturaliza-tion of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage theirmigrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appro-priations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by re-fusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for thetenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of theirsalaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hitherswarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out theirsubstance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armieswithout the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent ofand superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdic-tion foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by ourlaws; 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 punishmentfor any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabit-ants 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 byJury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretendedoffences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in aneighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary gov-ernment, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it atonce an example and fit instrument for introducing the same

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absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valu-able Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Gov-ernments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring them-selves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases what-soever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us outof his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt ourtowns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreignMercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation andtyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty andperfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, andtotally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive onthe high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to becomethe executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall them-selves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, andhas endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers,the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, isan undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and condi-tions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitionedfor Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Peti-tions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Princewhose character is thus marked by every act which may de-fine a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Britishbrethren. We have warned them from time to time of at-tempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable juris-diction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstancesof our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed totheir native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjuredthem by the ties of our common kindred to disavow theseusurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connec-tions and correspondence. They too have been deaf to thevoice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, ac-quiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, andhold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War,in Peace Friends.

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We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States ofAmerica, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to theSupreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our inten-tions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the goodPeople of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, Thatthese United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free andIndependent States; that they are Absolved from all Alle-giance to the British Crown, and that all political connectionbetween them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought tobe totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States,they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contractAlliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts andThings which Independent States may of right do. And forthe support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on theprotection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to eachother our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The signers of the Declaration represented the new statesas follows:

New Hampshire:Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew ThorntonMassachusetts:John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat

Paine, Elbridge GerryRhode Island:Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams,

Oliver Wolcott

New York:William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis

MorrisNew Jersey:Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson,

John Hart, Abraham ClarkPennsylvania:Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John

Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, JamesWilson, George Ross

Delaware:Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKeanMaryland:Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles

Carroll of CarrolltonVirginia:George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson,

Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis LightfootLee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John PennSouth Carolina:

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Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch,Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

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