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|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    |
|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 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 rule 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 & 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       |
|Brittish 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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