The Declaration of
Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
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 [George III] 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 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 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 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 rule into these Colonies:
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.
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 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 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.
The signers of the Declaration represented
the new states as follows:
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samual 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