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 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 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 neighboring 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 & 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 endeavored 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.
The 56 signatures on
the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett Lyman Hall George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina: William Hooper Joseph Hewes John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge Thomas Heyward,
Jr. Thomas Lynch, Jr. Arthur Middleton
Column 3
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
Column 4
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
Column 5
New York: William Floyd Philip Livingston Francis
Lewis Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton John Witherspoon Francis
Hopkinson John Hart Abraham Clark
Column 6
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 WolcottNew Hampshire: Matthew Thornton
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.