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 the
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 when 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 Rights 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 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 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
of 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.
