DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
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 [1] 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 [2].--That to secure these
rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed
[3],--That
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to
abolish it [4], 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
[5]; 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.
[6]
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.
[7]
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. [8]He has dissolved
Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly
firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
[9]
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.
[10]
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the
tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of
their salaries. [10]
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent
hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat
out their substance. [10]
He has kept among us, in
times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of
our legislatures. [11]
He has affected to render
the Military independent of and superior to the Civil
power. [12]
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[13]:
For transporting us
beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
[14]
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:
[15]
For taking away our
Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering
fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
[16]
For suspending our own
Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with
power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
[17]
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. [18]
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 [19] 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,[20] 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, [19] we mutually pledge
to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred
Honor.