Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence

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 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

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

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 & 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 Brittish brethren. We have warned them

from time

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

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 Wolcott

New Hampshire:

Matthew Thornton

HOME - TIPS - NAFTA - FOCUS - DECLARATION - MOTTO - CONSTITUTION - AMENDMENTS - eStore - CONTACT - H ERITAGE - VIDEO-ENERGY

Campaign For America
Defending America's Principles of Independence and Liberty
Through The Vote Of Every Citizen