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, C. Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
CONNECTICUT, Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm. Williams,
Oliver Wolcott.
IN CONGRESS, JANUARY 18, 1777. |
