The Declaration of Independence of The United States of America

The Declaration of Independence of The United States of America<br />n<br />n<br />n IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776<br />n<br />n<br />nThe unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America<br />n<br />nWhen in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to<br />ndissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and<br />nto assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station<br />nto which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent<br />nrespect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the<br />ncauses which impel them to the separation.<br />n<br />nWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,<br />nthat they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,<br />nthat among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to<br />nsecure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their<br />njust powers from the consent of the governed,–That whenever any Form of<br />nGovernment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the<br />nPeople to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying<br />nits foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form,<br />nas to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.<br />nPrudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should<br />nnot be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all<br />nexperience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while<br />nevils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to<br />nwhich they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and<br />nusurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to<br />nreduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,<br />nto throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future<br />nsecurity.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such<br />nis now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems<br />nof Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a<br />nhistory of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object<br />nthe establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this,<br />nlet Facts be submitted to a candid world.<br />n<br />n He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary<br />n for the public good.<br />n<br />n He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and<br />n pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his<br />n Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly<br />n neglected to attend to them.<br />n<br />n He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large<br />n districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right<br />n of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them<br />n and formidable to tyrants only.<br />n<br />n He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,<br />n uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public<br />n Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with<br />n his measures.<br />n<br />n He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with<br />n manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.<br />n<br />n He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause<br />n others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of<br />n Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their<br />n exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the<br />n dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.<br />n<br />n He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for<br />n that purpose obstructing the Laws of Naturalization of Foreigners;<br />n refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and<br />n raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.<br />n<br />n He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his<br />n Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.<br />n<br />n He has made judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of<br />n their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.<br />n<br />n He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of<br />n Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance.<br />n<br />n He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the<br />n Consent of our legislatures.<br />n<br />n He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior<br />n to the Civil Power.<br />n<br />n He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign<br />n to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his<br />n Assent to their Acts of pretended legislation:<br />n<br />n For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:<br />n<br />n For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any<br />n Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:<br />n<br />n For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:<br />n<br />n For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:<br />n<br />n For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:<br />n<br />n For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:<br />n<br />n For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring<br />n Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and<br />n enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and<br />n fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these<br />n Colonies:<br />n<br />n For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and<br />n altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:<br />n<br />n For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves<br />n invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.<br />n<br />n He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his<br />n Protection and waging War against us.<br />n<br />n He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and<br />n destroyed the lives of our people.<br />n<br />n He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries<br />n to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already<br />n begun with circumstances of Cruelty &amp; perfidy scarcely paralleled in<br />n the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a<br />n civilized nation.<br />n<br />n He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high<br />n Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners<br />n of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.<br />n<br />n He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has<br />n endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the<br />n merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an<br />n undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.<br />n<br />nIn every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the<br />nmost humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by<br />nrepeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act<br />nwhich may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.<br />n<br />nNor have We been wanting in attention to our Brittish brethren. We have<br />nwarned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend<br />nan unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the<br />ncircumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to<br />ntheir native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the<br />nties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would<br />ninevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have<br />nbeen deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must,<br />ntherefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and<br />nhold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace<br />nFriends.<br />n<br />nWe, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in<br />nGeneral Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world<br />nfor the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority<br />nof the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That<br />nthese United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent<br />nStates; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown,<br />nand that all political connection between them and the State of Great<br />nBritain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and<br />nIndependent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace,<br />ncontract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and<br />nThings which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of<br />nthis Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine<br />nProvidence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and<br />nour sacred Honor.