Declaration of Independence \Declaration of Independence\, n.
(Amer. Hist.)
The document promugated, July 4, 1776, by the leaders of the
thirteen British Colonies in America that they have formed an
independent country. See note below.
[PJC]
Note: The Declaration of Independence of The 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 of
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 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 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 of 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 attention 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 the 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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