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.
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