Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

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
eual station to which the laws of nature and of nature!s "od entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions
of man#ind reuires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation$
We hold these truths to be self%evident&
'hat all men are created eual( that they are endowed by their )reator 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 *ust 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 organi+ing its powers in such form,
as to them shall seem most li#ely to effect their safety and happiness$ ,rudence, indeed, will dictate that
governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes( and accordingly all
e-perience hath shown that man#ind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed$ .ut when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same ob*ect, 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$ /uch has been the patient sufferance of these colonies( and such is now the necessity
which constrains them to alter their former systems of government$ 'he history of the present 0ing of "reat
.ritain is a history of repeated in*uries and usurpations, all having in direct ob*ect the establishment of an
absolute tyranny over these states$ 'o prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world$
1e has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good$
1e 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$
1e has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people
would relinuish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them, and formidable to
tyrants only$
1e 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$
1e has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the
rights of the people$
1e 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 e-ercise( the state
remaining, in the mean time, e-posed to all the dangers of invasions from without and convulsions within$
1e has endeavored to prevent the population of these states( for that purpose obstructing the laws for
naturali+ation of foreigners( refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the
conditions of new appropriations of lands$
1e has obstructed the administration of *ustice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing *udiciary
powers$
1e has made *udges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and
payment of their salaries$
1e has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat
out their substance$
1e has #ept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures$
1e has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power$
1e has combined with others to sub*ect us to a *urisdiction foreign to our )onstitution and unac#nowledged
by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation&
2or uartering large bodies of armed troops among us(
2or protecting them, by a moc# trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the
inhabitants of these states(
2or cutting off our trade with all parts of the world(
2or imposing ta-es on us without our consent(
2or depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by *ury(
2or transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses(
2or abolishing the free system of 3nglish laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary
government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an e-ample and fit instrument for
introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies(
2or ta#ing away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of
our governments(
2or suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all
cases whatsoever$
1e has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us$
1e has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people$
1e is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the wor#s 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 civili+ed nation$
1e has constrained our fellow%citi+ens, ta#en captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to
become the e-ecutioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands$
1e has e-cited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our
frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose #nown rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all
ages, se-es, 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 in*ury$ 4 prince, whose character is thus mar#ed by every
act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people$
5or have we been wanting in our attentions to our .ritish brethren$ We have warned them, from time to
time, of attempts by their legislature to e-tend an unwarrantable *urisdiction over us$ We have reminded
them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here$ We have appealed to their native *ustice
and magnanimity( and we have con*ured them, by the ties of our common #indred, to disavow these
usurpations which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence$ 'hey too, have been
deaf to the voice of *ustice and of consanguinity$ We must, therefore, acuiesce in the necessity which
denounces our separation, and hold them as we hold the rest of man#ind, enemies in war, in peace friends$
We, therefore, the representatives of the 6nited /tates of 4merica, in "eneral )ongress assembled,
appealing to the /upreme 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 solemnly publish and declare, 'hat these 6nited )olonies
are, and of right ought to be, 2733 45D I5D3,35D35' /'4'3/( that they are absolved from all
allegiance to the .ritish crown and that all political connection between them and the state of "reat .ritain
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 do all other acts and things which
independent states may of right do$ 4nd for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of Divine ,rovidence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred
honor$
8/igned by9 J:15 145):)0 8,resident9
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5:'3$%<r$ 2erdinand Jefferson, 0eeper of the 7olls in the Department of /tate, at Washington, says& @ 'he
names of the signers are spelt above as in the facsimile of the original, but the punctuation of them is not
always the same( neither do the names of the /tates appear in the facsimile of the original$ 'he names of
the signers of each /tate are grouped together in the facsimile of the original, e-cept the name of <atthew
'hornton, which follows that of :liver Wolcott$@%7evised /tatutes of the 6nited /tates, Ad edition, 1B7B, p$
6$
/ource&
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