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Declaration of Independence
I
N CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen
united States of America
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 Cre-
ator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —
That to secure these
rights,
Govern-
ments are instituted
among Men, deriv-
ing their just pow-
ers from the consent
of the governed,
— That whenever
any Form of Gov-
ernment 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 pow-
ers in such form,
as to them shall
seem most likely to
effect their Safety
and Happiness. Pru-
dence, indeed, will
dictate that Govern-
ments long estab-
lished 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 usur-
pations, 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 secu-
rity. — Such has
been the patient
sufferance of these
Colonies; and such is now the necessity which con-
strains them to alter their former Systems of Govern-
ment. The history of the present King of Great Brit-
ain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all
having in direct object the establishment of an abso-
lute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts
be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most whole-
some and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws
of immediate and pressing importance, unless sus-
pended 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 accom-
modation of large districts of people, unless those
people would relinquish the right of Representation
in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and for-
midable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depos-
itory of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of
fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeat-
edly, for opposing with manly fi rmness his invasions
on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such disso-
lutions, 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.
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone
for the tenure of their offi ces, and the amount and
payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offi ces, and
sent hither swarms of Offi cers 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 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 unac-
knowledged 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 punish-
ment 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 benefi t of
Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pre-
tended 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 fi t instru-
ment 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 declar-
ing 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 for-
eign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death,
desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circum-
stances of Cruelty & Perfi dy scarcely paralleled in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head
of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Cap-
tive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Coun-
try, 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 destruc-
tion of all ages, sexes and conditions.
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In every stage of these Oppressions We have Peti-
tioned 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 defi ne a Tyrant, is
unfi t 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 emigra-
tion and settlement here. We have appealed to their
native justice and magnanimity, and we have con-
jured 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 jus-
tice and of consan-
guinity. 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, appeal-
ing 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, sol-
emnly publish and
declare, That these
united Colonies are,
and of Right ought
to be Free and Inde-
pendent States, that
they are Absolved
from all Alle-
giance 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 Inde-
pendent 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. —
National Archives
And for the support
of this Declara-
tion, with a fi rm reliance on the protection of Divine
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew
Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams,
Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William
Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis,
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis
Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Frank-
lin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith,
George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone,
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jef-
ferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr.,
Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas
Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
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