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 the 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 the 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 Rules 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 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.
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, Step. Hopkins, William
Ellery.
Connecticut, Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm.
Williams, Oliver Wolcott.
IN CONGRESS,
January 18, 1777. |