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 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 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 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 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 compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny,
already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & 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 Brittish 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.
Georgia
Button
Gwinnett
Lyman
Hall
George
Walton
North
Carolina
William
Hooper
Joseph
Hewes
John
Penn
South
Carolina
Edward
Rutledge
Thomas
Heyward, Jr.
Thomas
Lynch, Jr.
Arthur
Middleton
Massachusetts
John
Hancock
Maryland
Samuel
Chase
William
Paca
Thomas
Stone
Charles
Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia
George
Wythe
Richard
Henry Lee
Thomas
Jefferson
Benjamin
Harrison
Thomas
Nelson, Jr.
Francis
Lightfoot Lee
Carter
Braxton
Pennsylvania
Robert
Morris
Benjamin
Rush
Benjamin
Franklin
John
Morton
George
Clymer
James
Smith
George
Taylor
James
Wilson
George
Ross
Delaware
Caesar
Rodney
George
Read
Thomas
McKean
New
York
William
Floyd
Philip
Livingston
Francis
Lewis
Lewis
Morris
New
Jersey
Richard
Stockton
John
Witherspoon
Francis
Hopkinson
John
Hart
Abraham
Clark
New
Hampshire
Josiah
Bartlett
William
Whipple
Massachusetts
Samuel
Adams
John
Adams
Robert
Treat Paine
Elbridge
Gerry
Rhode
Island
Stephen
Hopkins
William
Ellery
Connecticut
Roger
Sherman
Samuel
Huntington
William
Williams
Oliver
Wolcott
New
Hampshire
Matthew
Thornton