American Documents
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 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.
