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 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
imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For
depriving us in many cases, of the benefit 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
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 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.

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