American Declaration of Independence July 4,1776

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 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
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 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 INDE-
PENDENT 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.
Source: A Declaration By the Representatives of the United States of America, In General
Congress Assembled (Philadelphia, 1776).