The Declaration of Independence
of the United States of America (1776)
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 in the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and
to institute a 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 the 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 mean time 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 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 Legislature.
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 Legislaton:
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
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 in 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 Powers 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 among 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 the divine
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and
our sacred Honor.
Signed by ORDER and
in BEHALF OF THE CONGRESS
JOHN HANCOCK,
PRESIDENT.
ATTEST.
CHARLES THOMSON,
SECRETARY.
PHILADELPHIA:
PRINTED BY JOHN DUNLAP.
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