=
The
Declaration of
When, i=
n the
course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the
political bonds 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 na=
ture
and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of manki=
nd
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 to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abo=
lish
it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principl=
es
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 shown that mankind are more dis=
posed
to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishi=
ng
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 ha=
s been
the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity whi=
ch
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 peop=
le,
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 f=
rom
the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing t=
hem
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 convulsio=
ns
within.
He has
endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose
obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass oth=
ers
to encourage their migration 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
legislature.
He has
affected to render the military independent of and superior to 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 ac=
ts
of pretended legislation:
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, burned our towns, and destroyed the
lives of our people.
He is a=
t 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
endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indi=
an
savages, whose known rule of warfare is 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 tyra=
nt,
is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor hav=
e we
been wanting in attention 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. 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 the authority of the g=
ood
people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united
colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that th=
ey
are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all politic=
al
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. A=
nd
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.