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The
Declaration of
Independence
of the Thirteen
Colonies
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
[George III] 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
Annihilation, have
returned to the
People at large for
their exercise; the
State remaining in
the meantime 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 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 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
complete 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 the
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. |
