Painting by Trumbull depicting the signing of The Declaration of Independence.
In 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 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 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 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.
The declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents ever written in the history of humankind. For sure a Higher Power provided the inspirational words to be remembered always throughout the ages.
Click this Link to find out some fascinating facts about the Declaration of Independence.
Click this Link to learn more about the signers of the Declaration.
God Bless America the Beautiful!
God Bless all nations of the world!
