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 Tyranny 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
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 Connexions 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 Connexion 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 Honour.
John Hancock.
GEORGIA, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.
NORTH-CAROLINA, Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
SOUTH-CAROLINA, Edward Rutledge, Thos Heyward, junr. Thomas Lynch, junr.
Arthur Middleton.
MARYLAND, Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll, of
Carrollton.
VIRGINIA, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja.
Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
PENNSYLVANIA, Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton,
Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross.
DELAWARE, Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read.
NEW-YORK, Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frank Lewis, Lewis Morris.
NEW-JERSEY, Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart,
Abra. Clark.
NEW-HAMPSHIRE, Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge
Gerry.
RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE, &c. Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
CONNECTICUT, Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver
Wolcott.
Click on the door to find out what happened to these men.
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