IN CONGRESS,JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomesnecessary for one people
to dissolve the political bands which haveconnected them with another
and to assume among the powers of theearth, the separate and equal
station to which the Laws of Nature andof Nature's God entitle them, a
decent respect to the opinions ofmankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel themto the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that allmen are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator withcertain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and thepursuit of Happiness.
— That to secure these rights,Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers fromthe consent of the governed,
— That whenever any Form ofGovernment becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the Right of thePeople to alter or to abolish it, and
to institute new Government,laying its foundation on such principles
and organizing its powers insuch form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their Safety andHappiness. Prudence, indeed, will
dictate that Governments longestablished should not be changed for
light and transient causes; andaccordingly all experience hath shewn
that mankind are more disposed tosuffer, while evils are sufferable
than to right themselves byabolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a longtrain of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Objectevinces a design to reduce them under
absolute Despotism, it is theirright, it is their duty, to throw off
such Government, and to providenew Guards for their future security.
— Such has been thepatient sufferance of these Colonies; and
such is now the necessitywhich constrains them to alter their former
Systems of Government. Thehistory of the present King of Great Britain
is a history of repeatedinjuries and usurpations, all having in direct
object the establishmentof an absolute Tyranny over these States. To
prove this, let Facts besubmitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the mostwholesome and necessary for
the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws ofimmediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operationtill his Assent should
be obtained; and when so suspended, he hasutterly neglected to attend
to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for theaccommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people wouldrelinquish the right of
Representation in the Legislature, a rightinestimable to them and
formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at placesunusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their PublicRecords,
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance withhis measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly,for opposing with
manly firmness his invasions on the rights of thepeople.
He has refused for a long time, after suchdissolutions, to cause others
to be elected, whereby the LegislativePowers, incapable of
Annihilation, have returned to the People at largefor their exercise;
the State remaining in the mean time exposed to allthe dangers of
invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population ofthese States; for that
purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalizationof Foreigners; refusing
to pass others to encourage their migrationshither, and raising the
conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice byrefusing his Assent
to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone forthe tenure of their
offices, and the amount and payment of theirsalaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and senthither swarms of
Officers to harass our people and eat out theirsubstance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, StandingArmies without the
Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independentof and superior to
the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to ajurisdiction foreign to
our constitution, and unacknowledged by ourlaws; giving his Assent to
their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops amongus:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial frompunishment for any Murders
which they should commit on the Inhabitantsof these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of theworld:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit ofTrial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried forpretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in aneighbouring
Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government,and enlarging
its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example andfit instrument
for introducing the same absolute rule into theseColonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our mostvaluable Laws and
altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaringthemselves invested
with power to legislate for us in all caseswhatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring usout 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 offoreign Mercenaries to
compleat the works of death, desolation, andtyranny, already begun with
circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidyscarcely paralleled in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthythe Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens takenCaptive on the high Seas to
bear Arms against their Country, to becomethe executioners of their
friends and Brethren, or to fall themselvesby their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us,and has endeavoured to
bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, themerciless Indian Savages
whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all
ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We havePetitioned for Redress in
the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitionshave been answered only by
repeated injury. A Prince, whose characteris thus marked by every act
which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to bethe ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to ourBritish brethren. We have
warned them from time to time of attempts bytheir legislature to extend
an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. Wehave reminded them of the
circumstances of our emigration andsettlement here. We have appealed to
their native justice andmagnanimity, and we have conjured them by the
ties of our commonkindred to disavow these usurpations, which would
inevitably interruptour connections and correspondence. They too have
been deaf to thevoice of justice and of consanguinity. We must,
therefore, acquiesce inthe necessity, which denounces our Separation,
and hold them, as wehold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace
Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the unitedStates of America, in
General Congress, Assembled, appealing to theSupreme Judge of the world
for the rectitude of our intentions, do, inthe Name, and by Authority
of the good People of these Colonies,solemnly publish and declare, That
these united Colonies are, and ofRight ought to be Free and Independent
States, that they are Absolvedfrom all Allegiance to the British Crown,
and that all politicalconnection between them and the State of Great
Britain, is and ought tobe totally dissolved; and that as Free and
Independent States, theyhave full Power to levy War, conclude Peace,
contract Alliances,establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and
Things whichIndependent States may of right do. And for the support
ofthis Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of
DivineProvidence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our
Fortunes,and our sacred Honor.
-
JohnHancock