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 Principals, 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 the 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 endeavored to
prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the
Laws and 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 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 complete 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 Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or
to fall themselves by their Hands.
HE has excited domestic
Insurrection 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 unwarrantable
Jurisdiction over us.
We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and
Settlements 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
Connnections 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 the 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 the 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 to do. And for the
support of this Declaration, with firm Reliance on the Protection of
divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our
Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Be patient downloading. It's worth it.
