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HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
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[1230]
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
IN CONGRESS JULY 4, 1776
THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
W
HEN
in the Course of human events, it becomes nec-
essary 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 re-
quires 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, de-
riving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destruc-
tive 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 pow-
ers 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 dis-
posed 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 Govern-
ment, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies;
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DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
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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 re-
peated 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 imme-
diate 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 accommoda-
tion 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 un-
usual, uncomfortable, and distant from the dispository 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 Natu-
ralization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encour-
age their migrations hither, and raising the conditions
of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by re-
fusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary pow-
ers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for
the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment
of their salaries.
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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 jurisdic-
tion 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 Inhab-
itants 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 pre-
tended 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 valu-
able 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
& perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages,
and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive
on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country,
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DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
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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 fron-
tiers, 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 Peti-
tions 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 cir-
cumstances 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 inevi-
tably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They
too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consan-
guinity. 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 R
EPRESENTATIVES
OF
THE
U
NITED
S
TATES OF
A
MERICA
,
IN
G
ENERAL
C
ONGRESS
, As-
sembled, 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 F
REE AND
I
NDEPENDENT
S
TATES
;
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 F
REE AND
I
NDEPENDENT
S
TATES
,
they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract
Alliances, establish Commerce, and do all other Acts and
Things which I
NDEPENDENT
S
TATES
may of right do. And
for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance
on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge
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DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
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to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred
Honor.
(The foregoing declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed, and
signed by the following members:)
JOHN HANCOCK.
New Hampshire
V
OSIAH
B
ARTLETT
,
W
M
. W
HIPPLE
,
M
ATTHEW
T
HORNTON
.
Massachusetts Bay
S
AML
. A
DAMS
,
J
OHN
A
DAMS
,
R
OBT
. T
REAT
P
AINE
,
E
LBRIDGE
G
ERRY
.
Rhode Island, etc.
S
TEP
. H
OPKINS
,
W
ILLIAM
E
LLERY
.
Connecticut
R
OGER
S
HERMAN
,
S
AM
’
EL
H
UNTINGTON
,
W
M
. W
ILLIAMS
,
O
LIVER
W
OLCOTT
.
New York
W
M
. F
LOYD
,
P
HIL
. L
IVINGSTON
,
F
RANS
. L
EWIS
,
L
EWIS
M
ORRIS
.
New Jersey
R
ICHD
. S
TOCKTON
,
J
NO
. W
ITHERSPOON
,
F
RAS
. H
OPKINSON
,
J
OHN
H
ART
,
A
BRA
C
LARK
.
Pennsylvania
R
OBT
. M
ORRIS
,
B
ENJAMIN
R
USH
,
B
ENJA
. F
RANKLIN
,
J
OHN
M
ORTON
,
G
EO
. C
LYMER
,
J
AS
. S
MITH
,
G
EO
. T
AYLOR
,
J
AMES
W
ILSON
,
G
EO
. R
OSS
.
Delaware
C
AESAR
R
ODNEY
,
G
EO
. R
EAD
,
T
HO
. M’K
EAN
.
Maryland
S
AMUEL
C
HASE
,
W
M
. P
ACA
,
T
HOS
. S
TONE
,
C
HARLES
C
ARROLL OF
C
ARROLLTON
.
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DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
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Virginia
G
EORGE
W
ITHE
,
R
ICHARD
H
ENRY
L
EE
,
T
H
. J
EFFERSON
,
B
ENJA
. H
ARRISON
,
T
HOS
. N
ELSON
, Jr.,
F
RANCIS
L
IGHTFOOT
L
EE
,
C
ARTER
B
RAXTON
.
North Carolina
W
M
. H
OOPER
,
J
OSEPH
H
EWES
,
J
OHN
P
ENN
.
South Carolina
E
DWARD
R
UTLEDGE
,
T
HOS
. H
EYWARD
, J
UNR
.,
T
HOMAS
L
YNCH
, J
UNR
.,
A
RTHUR
M
IDDLETON
.
Georgia
B
UTTON
G
WINNETT
,
L
YMAN
H
ALL
,
G
EO
. W
ALTON
.
Resolved,
That copies of the Declaration be sent to the
several assemblies, conventions, and committees or coun-
cils of safety, and to the several commanding officers of
the Continental Troops: That it be
PROCLAIMED
in each
of the U
NITED
S
TATES
, and at the H
EAD OF THE
A
RMY
.—
[
Jour. Cong., vol. 1, p. 396.
]
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