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The 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, 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 shown, 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
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remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from
without, and convulsions within.--He has endeavored to prevent the
population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for
Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their
migration 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 disolved; and
that as Free and
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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.
John Hancock Benj. Harrison Lewis Morris
Button Gwinnett Thos. Nelson, Jr. Richd. Stockton
Lyman Hall Francis Lightfoot Lee Jno. Witherspoon
Geo. Walton Carter Braxton Fras. Hopkinson
Wm. Hooper Robt. Morris John Hart
Joseph Hewes Benjamin Rush Abra. Clark
John Penn Benj. Franklin Josiah Bartlett
Edward Rutledge John Morton Wm. Whipple
Thos. Heyward, Jr. Geo. Clymer Saml. Adams
Thomas Lynch, Jr. Jas. Smith John Adams
Arthur Middleton Geo. Taylor Robt. Treat Paine
Samuel Chase James Wilson Elbridge Gerry
Wm. Paca Geo. Ross Step. Hopkins
Thos. Stone Caesar Rodney William Ellery
Charles Carroll of Geo. Read Roger Sherman
Carrollton Tho. M: Kean Sam. Huntington
George Wythe Wm. Floyd Wm. Williams
Richard Henry Lee Phil. Livingston Oliver Wolcott
Th. Jefferson Frans. Lewis Matthew Thornton
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