Declaration of Independence Text

Declaration of Independence Text

▪ Primary Source
[1776] 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 shown, 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 migration 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.

      John Hancock

      New Hampshire

      Josiah Bartlett

      Wm. Whipple

      Matthew Thornton

      Massachusetts Bay

      Saml. Adams

      John Adams

      Robt. Treat Paine

      Elbridge Gerry

      Rhode Island

      Step. Hopkins

      William Ellery

      Connecticut

      Roger Sherman

      Sam'el Huntington

      Wm. Williams

      Oliver Wolcott

      New York

      Wm. Floyd

      Phil. Livingston

      Frans. Lewis

      Lewis Morris

      New Jersey

      Richd. Stockton

      Jno. Witherspoon

      Fras. Hopkinson

      John Hart

      Abra. Clark

      Pennsylvania

      Robt. Morris

      Benjamin Rush

      Benja. Franklin

      John Morton

      Geo. Clymer

      Jas. Smith

      Geo. Taylor

      James Wilson

      Geo. Ross

      Delaware

      Caesar Rodney

      Geo. Read

      Tho. M'Kean

      Maryland

      Samuel Chase

      Wm. Paca

      Thos. Stone

      Charles Carroll of Carrollton

      Virginia

      George Wythe

      Richard Henry Lee

      Th. Jefferson

      Benja. Harrison

      Ths. Nelson, Jr.

      Francis Lightfoot Lee

      Carter Braxton

      North Carolina

      Wm. Hooper

      Joseph Hewes

      John Penn

      South Carolina

      Edward Rutledge

      Thos. Heyward, Junr.

      Thomas Lynch, Junr.

      Arthur Middleton

      Georgia

      Button Gwinnett

      Lyman Hall

      Geo. Walton

      Note.—Mr. Ferdinand Jefferson, Keeper of the Rolls in the Department of State, at Washington, says: "The names of the signers are spelt above as in the facsimile of the original, but the punctuation of them is not always the same; neither do the names of the States appear in the facsimile of the original. The names of the signers of each State are grouped together in the facsimile of the original, except the name of Matthew Thornton, which follows that of Oliver Wolcott."—Revised Statutes of the United States, 2nd edition, 1878, p. 6.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Declaration of Independence — 1. the public act by which the Second Continental Congress, on July 4, 1776, declared the Colonies to be free and independent of England. 2. the document embodying it. * * * (July 4, 1776) Document approved by the Continental Congress that… …   Universalium

  • Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire — The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire (Spanish: Acta de Independencia del Imperio Mexicano) is the foundational document of the empire, and therefore, of the Mexican nation. The morning after the Army of the Three Guarantees… …   Wikipedia

  • Declaration of Independence (Israel) — Infobox document document name=Declaration of Independence|location of document= Tel Aviv writer=First Draft: Zvi Berenson Second Draft: Moshe Shertok David Remez Felix Rosenblueth Moshe Shapira Aharon Zisling Third Draft: David Ben Gurion Yehuda …   Wikipedia

  • Declaration of Independence — Die Urkunde der Unabhängigkeitserklärung nach einem Druck aus dem Jahr 1823 In der Unabhängigkeitserklärung der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika (engl.: Declaration of Independence; offiziell: The Unanimous Declaration of The Thirteen United… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Declaration of Independence of Ukraine — Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine Ukrainian:Акт проголошення незалежності України Ratified 24 August 1991 Location …   Wikipedia

  • Declaration of Independence of New Zealand — Die Unabhängigkeitserklärung, Druck der Anglican Mission Press, Paihia (1836) Die Declaration of Independence of New Zealand (Maori He Wakaputanga O Te Rangatiratanga O Nu Tireni), die am 28. Oktober 1835 in …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Moldovan Declaration of Independence — 2001 stamp 2006 stamp …   Wikipedia

  • Israeli Declaration of Independence — Declaration of Independence Location Tel Aviv Authors …   Wikipedia

  • Argentine Declaration of Independence — Declaration of Independence of the United Provinces of South America, in Spanish and Quechua History of …   Wikipedia

  • Declaration of Independence of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus — Eight years after the Turkish Federative State of North Cyprus was proclaimed (in 1975), the UDI of North Cyprus was presented to the Northern Cypriot Parliament in North Nicosia by Turkish Cypriot Leader/Northern Cypriot State President Rauf… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”