declaration.txt

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 Tyranny 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 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 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 Connexions 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 Connexion
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 Honour.