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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 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 right . Government 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 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 lively 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 has 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 usurpations , pursuing in
variably 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 refuse 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 Now 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 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 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 there in 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 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 to wns ,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 & perfidy scarcely paralleled in
the most barbarous ages , and totally un worthy 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 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 . W
e 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 , Assembles , 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 total 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.
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