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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 Tyranny 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 harass 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  complete 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 Connexions 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  Connexion 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 Honour