The Declaration of Independence.txt

The Declaration of Independence: 

IN 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 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 & 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 Brittish 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.