The Declaration of Independence

                       IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

                             A DECLARATION

                     By the REPRESENTATIVES of the

                       UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                     In GENERAL CONGRESS assembled

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 out 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

compleat 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 Conncetion 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.

SIGNERS

Adams, John                     MA      Lawyer

Adams, Samuel                   MA      Political leader

Bartlett, Josiah                NH      Physician, Judge

Braxton, Carter                 VA      Farmer

Carroll, Charles of Carrollton  MD      Lawyer

Chase, Samuel                   MD      Judge

Clark, Abraham                  NJ      Surveyor

Clymer, George                  PA      Merchant

Ellery, William                 RI      Lawyer

Floyd, William                  NY      Soldier

Franklin, Benjamin              PA      Printer, Publisher

Gerry, Elbridge                 MA      Merchant

Gwinnett, Button                GA      Merchant

Hall, Lyman                     GA      Physician

Hancock, John                   MA      Merchant

Harrison, Benjamin              VA      Farmer

Hart, John                      NJ      Farmer

Hewes, Joseph                   NC      Merchant

Heyward, Thomas Jr.             SC      Lawyer, Farmer

Hooper, William                 NC      Lawyer

Hopkins, Stephen                RI      Judge, Educator

Hopkinson, Francis              NJ      Judge, Author

Huntington, Samuel              CT      Judge

Jefferson, Thomas               VA      Lawyer

Lee, Francis Lightfoot          VA      Farmer

Lee, Richard Henry              VA      Farmer

Lewis, Francis                  NY      Merchant

Livingston, Philip              NY      Merchant

Lynch, Thomas Jr.               SC      Farmer

McKean, Thomas                  DE      Lawyer

Middleton, Arthur               SC      Farmer

Morris, Lewis                   NY      Farmer

Morris, Robert                  PA      Merchant

Morton, John                    PA      Judge

Nelson, Thomas Jr.              VA      Farmer

Paca, William                   MD      Judge

Paine, Robert Treat             MA      Judge

Penn, John                      NC      Lawyer

Read, George                    DE      Judge

Rodney, Caesar                  DE      Judge

Ross, George                    PA      Judge

Rush, Benjamin                  PA      Physician

Rutledge, Edward                SC      Lawyer

Sherman, Roger                  CT      Lawyer

Smith, James                    PA      Lawyer

Stockton, Richard               NJ      Lawyer

Stone, Thomas                   MD      Lawyer

Taylor, George                  PA      Ironmaster

Thornton, Matthew               NH      Physician

Walter, George                  GA      Judge

Whipple, William                NH      Merchant, Judge

Williams, William               CT      Merchant

Wilson, James                   PA      Judge

Witherspoon, John               NJ      Educator

Wolcott, Oliver                 CT      Judge

Wythe, George                   VA      Lawyer