Action of Second Continental Congress, July 4, 1776 The unanimous
Declaration of the thirteen United States of America.
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 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.
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