          THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE--1776 1

                 IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776                               We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
                                                                      all men are created equal, that they are en-
 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united                     dowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
                          States of America                           Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
                                                                      the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these
   WHEN in the Course of human events, it be-                         rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
comes necessary for one people to dissolve the                        deriving their just powers from the consent of
political bands which have connected them with                        the governed,--That whenever any Form of Gov-
another, and to assume among the powers of the                        ernment becomes destructive of these ends, it is
earth, the separate and equal station to which                        the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle                        and to institute new Government, laying its
them, a decent respect to the opinions of man-                        foundation on such principles and organizing its
kind requires that they should declare the                            powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
causes which impel them to the separation.                            likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Pru-
                                                                      dence, indeed, will dictate that Governments
   1 The delegates of the United Colonies of New Hampshire; Mas-      long established should not be changed for light
sachusetts Bay; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations; Con-         and transient causes; and accordingly all experi-
necticut; New York; New Jersey; Pennsylvania; New Castle,             ence hath shewn, that mankind are more dis-
Kent, and Sussex, in Delaware; Maryland; Virginia; North Caro-        posed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than
lina, and South Carolina, In Congress assembled at Philadelphia,      to right themselves by abolishing the forms to
Resolved on the 10th of May, 1776, to recommend to the respec-        which they are accustomed. But when a long
tive assemblies and conventions of the United Colonies, where no      train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invari-
government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs had been     ably the same Object evinces a design to reduce
established, to adopt such a government as should, in the opin-       them under absolute Despotism, it is their right,
ion of the representatives of the people, best conduce to the hap-    it is their duty, to throw off such Government,
piness and safety of their constituents in particular, and of         and to provide new Guards for their future secu-
America in general. A preamble to this resolution, agreed to on       rity.--Such has been the patient sufferance of
the 15th of May, stated the intention to be totally to suppress       these Colonies; and such is now the necessity
the exercise of every kind of authority under the British crown.      which constrains them to alter their former
On the 7th of June, certain resolutions respecting independency       Systems of Government. The history of the
were moved and seconded. On the 10th of June it was resolved,         present King of Great Britain is a history of re-
that a committee should be appointed to prepare a declaration         peated injuries and usurpations, all having in di-
to the following effect: ``That the United Colonies are, and of       rect object the establishment of an absolute
right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are ab-     Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let
solved from all allegiance to the British crown; and that all po-     Facts be submitted to a candid world.
litical connection between them and the State of Great Britain
is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.'' On the preceding day it        He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most
was determined that the committee for preparing the declara-          wholesome and necessary for the public good.
tion should consist of five, and they were chosen accordingly, in
the following order: Mr. Jefferson, Mr. J. Adams, Mr. Franklin,          He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of
Mr. Sherman, Mr. R. R. Livingston. On the 11th of June a resolu-      immediate and pressing importance, unless sus-
tion was passed to appoint a committee to prepare and digest          pended in their operation till his Assent should
the form of a confederation to be entered into between the colo-      be obtained; and when so suspended, he has ut-
nies, and another committee to prepare a plan of treaties to be       terly neglected to attend to them.
proposed to foreign powers. On the 12th of June, it was resolved,
that a committee of Congress should be appointed by the name             He has refused to pass other Laws for the ac-
of a board of war and ordnance, to consist of five members. On        commodation of large districts of people, unless
the 25th of June, a declaration of the deputies of Pennsylvania,      those people would relinquish the right of Rep-
met in provincial conference, expressing their willingness to         resentation in the Legislature, a right inestima-
concur in a vote declaring the United Colonies free and inde-         ble to them and formidable to tyrants only.
pendent States, was laid before Congress and read. On the 28th
of June, the committee appointed to prepare a declaration of             He has called together legislative bodies at
independence brought in a draught, which was read, and ordered        places unusual, uncomfortable, and distance
to lie on the table. On the 1st of July, a resolution of the conven-
tion of Maryland, passed the 28th of June, authorizing the depu-      ed on the 4th of July, but, approving of it, they thus signified
ties of that colony to concur in declaring the United Colonies        their approbation.
free and independent States, was laid before Congress and read.
On the same day Congress resolved itself into a committee of the         NOTE.--The proof of this document, as published above, was
whole, to take into consideration the resolution respecting inde-     read by Mr. Ferdinand Jefferson, the Keeper of the Rolls at the
pendency. On the 2d of July, a resolution declaring the colonies      Department of State, at Washington, who compared it with the
free and independent States, was adopted. A declaration to that       fac-simile of the original in his custody. He says: ``In the fac-
effect was, on the same and the following days, taken into fur-       simile, as in the original, the whole instrument runs on without
ther consideration. Finally, on the 4th of July, the Declaration      a break, but dashes are mostly inserted. I have, in this copy, fol-
of Independence was agreed to, engrossed on paper, signed by          lowed the arrangement of paragraphs adopted in the publication
John Hancock as president, and directed to be sent to the sev-        of the Declaration in the newspaper of John Dunlap, and as
eral assemblies, conventions, and committees, or councils of          printed by him for the Congress, which printed copy is inserted
safety, and to the several commanding officers of the continen-       in the original Journal of the old Congress. The same paragraphs
tal troops, and to be proclaimed in each of the United States,        are also made by the author, in the original draught preserved
and at the head of the Army. It was also ordered to be entered        in the Department of State.''
upon the Journals of Congress, and on the 2d of August, a copy
engrossed on parchment was signed by all but one of the fifty-
six signers whose names are appended to it. That one was Mat-
thew Thornton, of New Hampshire, who on taking his seat in No-
vember asked and obtained the privilege of signing it. Several
who signed it on the 2d of August were absent when it was adopt-

Page XLV

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THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE--1776                                                  Page XLVI

from the depository of their public Records, for    with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarce-
the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compli-     ly paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and to-
ance with his measures.                             tally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

   He has dissolved Representative Houses re-          He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken
peatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his      Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against
invasions on the rights of the people.              their Country, to become the executioners of
                                                    their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves
   He has refused for a long time, after such dis-  by their Hands.
solutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby
the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihila-         He has excited domestic insurrections
tion, have returned to the People at large for      amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the
their exercise; the State remaining in the mean     inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless In-
time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from    dian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an
without, and convulsions within.                    undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes
                                                    and conditions.
   He has endeavoured to prevent the population
of these States; for that purpose obstructing the      In every stage of these Oppressions We have
Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing     Petitioned for Redress in the most humble
to pass others to encourage their migrations        terms: Our repeated Petitions have been an-
hither, and raising the conditions of new Appro-    swered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose
priations of Lands.                                 character is thus marked by every act which
                                                    may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of
   He has obstructed the Administration of Jus-     a free people.
tice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for estab-
lishing Judiciary powers.                              Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our
                                                    Brittish brethren. We have warned them from
   He has made Judges dependent on his Will         time to time of attempts by their legislature to
alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the     extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.
amount and payment of their salaries.               We have reminded them of the circumstances of
                                                    our emigration and settlement here. We have
   He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and   appealed to their native justice and magnanim-
sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our peo-   ity, and we have conjured them by the ties of
ple, and eat out their substance.                   our common kindred to disavow these usurpa-
                                                    tions, which, would inevitably interrupt our
   He has kept among us, in times of peace,         connections and correspondence. They too have
Standing Armies without the Consent of our leg-     been deaf to the voice of justice and of con-
islatures.                                          sanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the
                                                    necessity, which denounces our Separation, and
   He has affected to render the Military inde-     hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, En-
pendent of and superior to the Civil power.         emies in War, in Peace Friends.

   He has combined with others to subject us to        WE, THEREFORE, the Representatives of the
a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and     UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress,
unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent       Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of
to their acts of pretended Legislation:             the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do,
                                                    in the Name, and by Authority of the good Peo-
   For quartering large bodies of armed troops      ple of these Colonies, solemnly publish and de-
among us:                                           clare, That these United Colonies are, and of
                                                    Right ought to be FREE AND INDEPENDENT
   For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from       STATES; that they are Absolved from all Alle-
punishment for any Murders which they should        giance to the British Crown, and that all politi-
commit on the Inhabitants of these States:          cal connection between them and the State of
                                                    Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dis-
   For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the  solved; and that as Free and Independent States,
world:                                              they have full Power to levy War, conclude
                                                    Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce,
   For imposing Taxes on us without our Con-        and to do all other Acts and Things which Inde-
sent:                                               pendent States may of right do. And for the sup-
                                                    port of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on
   For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits  the protection of divine Providence, we mutu-
of Trial by Jury:                                   ally pledge to each other our Lives, our For-
                                                    tunes and our sacred Honor.
   For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried
for pretended offenses:                                                                                       JOHN HANCOCK.

   For abolishing the free System of English                        New Hampshire
Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing
therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging      JOSIAH BARTLETT,  MATTHEW THORNTON.
its Boundaries so as to render it at once an ex-    WM. WHIPPLE,
ample and fit instrument for introducing the
same absolute rule into these Colonies:                             Massachusetts Bay

   For taking away our Charters, abolishing our     SAML. ADAMS,      ROBT. TREAT PAINE,
most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally      JOHN ADAMS,       ELBRIDGE GERRY.
the Forms of our Governments:
                                                                      Rhode Island
   For suspending our own Legislatures, and de-
claring themselves invested with power to legis-    STEP. HOPKINS,    WILLIAM ELLERY.
late for us in all cases whatsoever.

   He has abdicated Government here, by declar-
ing 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

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Page XLVII          THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE--1776

                   Connecticut                            Virginia

ROGER SHERMAN,      WM. WILLIAMS,       GEORGE WYTHE,       THOS. NELSON, jr.,
SAM'EL HUNTINGTON,  OLIVER WOLCOTT.     RICHARD HENRY LEE,  FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT
                                        TH. JEFFERSON,
                   New York             BENJA. HARRISON,       LEE,
                                                            CARTER BRAXTON.

WM. FLOYD,          FRANS. LEWIS,                      North Carolina
PHIL. LIVINGSTON,   LEWIS MORRIS.                                   JOHN PENN.

                   New Jersey           WM. HOOPER,
                                        JOSEPH HEWES,
RICHD. STOCKTON,    JOHN HART,
JNO. WITHERSPOON,   ABRA. CLARK.
FRAS. HOPKINSON,
                                                       South Carolina

                   Pennsylvania         THOS. HEYWARD,      THOMAS LYNCH, Junr.,
                                           Junr.,           ARTHUR MIDDLETON.
ROBT. MORRIS,       JAS. SMITH,
BENJAMIN RUSH,      GEO. TAYLOR,        EDWARD RUTLEDGE,
BENJA. FRANKLIN,    JAMES WILSON,
JOHN MORTON,        GEO. ROSS.                              Georgia
GEO. CLYMER,

                   Delaware             BUTTON GWINNETT,    GEO. WALTON.
                                        LYMAN HALL,

CAESAR RODNEY,      THO. M'KEAN.
GEO. READ,
                                           NOTE.--Mr. Ferdinand Jefferson, Keeper of the Rolls in the De-
                   Maryland             partment of State, at Washington, says: ``The names of the sign-
                                        ers are spelt above as in the fac-simile of the original, but the
SAMUEL CHASE,       CHARLES CARROLL OF  punctuation of them is not always the same; neither do the
WM. PACA,              Carrollton.      names of the States appear in the fac-simile of the original. The
THOS. STONE,                            names of the signers of each State are grouped together in the
                                        fac-simile of the original, except the name of Matthew Thorn-
                                        ton, which follows that of Oliver Wolcott.''

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