 |
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 meantime 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: 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
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, 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 For correspondence: P.O. Box 1310 • Herndon, VA 20172-1310 df@declarationfoundation.com © 2008, Declaration Foundation • ® All rights reserved. |
