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 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 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 thesame 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 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 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 divine Providence, we mutually
pledge to each other our lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
JOHN HANCOCK, President Attest. CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.
