That which follows is the complete text of the
Declaration of Independence of the American colonies from the English Crown.
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
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 abolish it, and to institute a
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 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 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 in 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
Powers 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 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 among 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 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 the 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
the divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our
Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress,
John Hancock, President.
