The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

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The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies

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 [George III] 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 harass 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 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 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

divine

Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our

 

sacred Honor.

The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:

New Hampshire:

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:

John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham

Clark

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

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

North Carolina:

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton