The Declaration of Independence in Congress July 4, 1776

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T^he Declaration
of Independence

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The Declaration
of Independe7jce

In Congress
July4J776

New York

Duffield & Company

1907

THE I^EW YORK 1
jpnBLIC LIBRARY I

Copyright. 1907, by
DUFFIELD & COMPANY

■KubllifhfKi AugiiSt..l907.

The Declaration
of Independence

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The Unanimous Declaration

of the Thirteen United

States of America

When, in the course of hu-
man events, it becomes neces-
sary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which have
connected them with one an-
other, 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 opin-
ions of mankind requires that
they should declare the causes
which impel them to the sep-
aration.

We hold these truths to be
self-evident: that all men are
created equal; that they are
endowed, by their Creator,
with certain inalienable rights ;
that among these are life, lib-
erty, and the pursuit of hap-
piness. That to secure these
rights, governments are in-
stituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the con-
sent of the governed; that
whenever any form of govern-
ment becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the right of the
people to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute a new gov-
ernment, laying its foundation
on such principles, and or-

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ganizing its powers in such
form as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their safe-
ty and happiness. Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that gov-
ernments long established
should not be changed for
lieht and transient causes;
and accordingly, all experience
hath shown 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 usurpa-
tions, pursuing invariably the
same object, evinces a design
to reduce them under absolute

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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 col-
onies ; and such is now the ne-
cessity 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 es-
tablishment of an absolute
tyranny over these States. To
prove this, let facts be submit-
ted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to

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laws the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his gov-
ernors to pass laws of immedi-
ate and pressing importance,
unless suspended in their oper-
ation till his assent should be
obtained; and when so sus-
pended, he has utterly neglect-
ed to attend to them.

He has refused to pass
other laws for the accommoda-
tion of large districts of peo-
ple, unless those people would
relinquish the right of repre-
sentation in the legislature — a
right inestimable to them, and
formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together

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legislative bodies at places un-
usual, uncomfortable, and dis-
tant from the repository of
their public records, for the
sole purpose of fatiguing them
into compliance with his meas-
ures.

He has dissolved represen-
tative houses repeatedly, for
opposing, with manly firm-
ness, 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 pow-
ers, incapable of annihilation,
have returned to the people at
large, for their exercise, the

State remaining, in the mean-
time, exposed to all the dan-
gers of invasion from without,
and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to pre-
vent the population of these
States; for that purpose ob-
structing the laws for natural-
ization of foreigners ; refusing
to pass others to encourage
their migration hither, and
raising the conditions of new
appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the ad-
ministration of justice, by re-
fusing his assent to laws for
establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges depen-
dent on his will alone, for the

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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 juris-
diction foreign to our Consti-

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tution, 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 inhabi-
tants 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

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seas to be tried for pretended
offences :

For abolishing the free sys-
tem of EngHsh laws in a
neighboring province, estab-
Hshing therein an arbitrary
government, and enlarging its
boundaries, so as to render it
at once an example and fit in-
strument for introducing the
same absolute rule into these
colonies :

For taking av^ay our char-
yi ters, abolishing our most valu-
able laws, and altering, funda-
mentally, the forms of our
government :

For suspending our own

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^Sro legislatures, and declaring (W

themselves invested with
power to legislate for us in all
cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated govern-
ment 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 transport-
ing 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 fel-
low-citizens, taken captive on
the high seas, to bear arms
against their country, to be-
come the executioners of their
friends and brethren, or to fall
themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic in-
surrections among us, and has
endeavored 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 con-
ditions.

In every stage of these op-

pressions we have petitioned

for redress in the most humble

terms; our repeated petitions

have been answered only by I

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 at-
tempts by their legislature to
extend an unwarrantable
jurisdiction over us. We have
reminded them of the circum-
stances of our emigration and
settlement here. We have ap-

pealed to their native justice
and magnanimity, and we
have conjured them by the ties
of our common kindred to dis-
avow these usurpations, which
would inevitably interrupt our
connections and correspond-
ence. They, too, have been
deaf to the voice of justice and
consanguinity. We must,
therefore, acquiesce in the ne-
cessity which denounces our
separation, and hold them, as
we hold the rest of mankind,
enemies in war, in peace
friends.

We, therefore, the repre-
sentatives of the United States
of America, in General Con-

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gress 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, sol-
emnly publish and declare that

j^ these United Colonies are, and
of right ought to be, free and
independent States; that they
are absolved from all alle-
giance to the British crown,

ml and that all political connec-
tion between them and the
State of Great Britain is, and
ought to be, totally dissolved;
and that, as free and indepen-
dent States, they have full
power to levy war, conclude

peace, contract alliance, estab-
lish commerce, and to do all
other acts and things which in-
dependent States may of right
do. And for the support of
this declaration, with a firm
reliance on the protection of
Divine Providence, we mu-
tually pledge to each other our
lives, our fortunes, and our
sacred honor.

Signed by order and in be-
half of the Congress.

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JOHN HANCOCK, ^y^/^
President.

Attested, W

Charles Thompson
Secretary.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

JOSIAH BaRTLETT

William Whipple
Matthew Thornton

MASSACHUSETTS BAY

Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry

RHODE ISLAND, &C

Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery

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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

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PENNSYLVANIA

Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross

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DELAWARE

Casar Rodney
George Read
Thomas M'Kean

MARYLAND

Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll

of Carrollton

VIRGINIA.

George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

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NORTH CAROLINA

William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn

SOUTH CAROLINA

Edward Rutledge
Thomas Haywood, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

GEORGIA
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall w'^'-

George Walton ^Mwt-\

^^^ CENTn^L CI??CULATION,

C -.-DReN'S ROOM

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