The Declaration of Independence
Action of Second Continental 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 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 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 pre-tended 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 of 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.
* * *
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samuel 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
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