Action of Second Continental 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 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 the 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 the 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 the same absolute
Rules 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 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.
IN CONGRESS, JANUARY 18, 1777.
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John Hancock.
GEORGIA,
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.
NORTH-CAROLINA,
Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
SOUTH-CAROLINA,
Edward Rutledge, Thos Heyward, junr., Thomas Lynch, junr., Arthur Middleton.
MARYLAND,
Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
VIRGINIA,
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
PENNSYLVANIA,
Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross.
DELAWARE,
Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read.
NEW-YORK,
Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frank Lewis, Lewis Morris.
NEW-JERSEY,
Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark.
NEW-HAMPSHIRE,
Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY,
Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.
RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE, C.
Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
CONNECTICUT,
Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott.