When
,
in the
course
Course
of human events, it becomes necessary for
a
one
people to
advance from that subordination in
dissolve the political bands
which
they
have
hitherto remained
connected them with another
, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the
separate and
equal
and independent
station to which the
laws
Laws
of
nature
Nature
and of
nature's god
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
change
separation.
We hold these truths to be
[sacred and undeniable] selfevident
self-evident
, that all men are created equal
and independent;
,
that
from
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that
equal creation they derive in rights inherent and inalienables,
among
which are the preservation of life, and liberty
these are Life, Liberty,
and the pursuit of
happiness; that
Happiness. That
to secure these
ends, governments
rights, Governments
are instituted among
men
Men
, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
; that
. That
whenever any
form
Form
of
government shall become
Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the
right
Right
of the
people
People
to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
government
Government
, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing
it's
its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
safety
Safety
and
happiness. prudence
Happiness. Prudence
, indeed, will dictate that
governments
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
But
when a long train of abuses and usurpations,
begun at a distinguished period, and
pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to
[subject]
reduce them
to arbitrary power
under absolute Despotism
, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such
government
Government
, and to provide new
guards
Guards
for their future security.
--
Such has been the patient sufferance of these
colonies
Colonies
; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to
expunge
alter
their former
systems
Systems
of
government. the
Government. The
history of
his
the
present
majesty
King of Great Britain [George III]
is a history of
unremitting
repeated
injuries and usurpations,
among which no fact stands single or solitary to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest,
all
of which have
having
in direct object the establishment of an absolute
tyranny
T
]
yranny
over these
states. to
States. To
prove this, let
facts
Facts
be submitted to a candid world
, for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.
.
He has refused his
assent
Assent
to
laws
Laws
, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good
:
.
He has forbidden his
governors
Governors
to pass
laws
Laws
of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his
assent
Assent
should be obtained
;
,
and when so suspended, he has
utterly
neglected
utterly
to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other
laws
Laws
for the accommodation of large districts of people
,
unless those people would relinquish the right of
representation [
Representation
in the
legislature],
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
Representative Houses
repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
[he has dissolved]he
He
has refused for a long
space of
time,
after such dissolutions,
to cause others to be elected
,
;
whereby the
legislative
Legislative
powers, incapable of
annihilation
Annihilation
, have returned to the
people
People
at large for their exercise
,
;
the
state
State
remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within
:
.
he
He
has
endeavored
endeavoured
to prevent the population of these
states
States
; for that purpose obstructing the
laws
Laws
for
naturalization
Naturalization
of
foreigners
Foreigners
; refusing to pass others to encourage their
migration
migrations
hither, and raising the conditions of new
appropriations
Appropriations
of
lands:
Lands.
he
He
has
suffered
obstructed
the
administration
Administration
of
justice totally to cease in some of these colonies,
Justice, by
refusing his
assent
Assent
to
laws
Laws
for establishing
judiciary powers:
Judiciary Powers.
he
He
has made
our judges
Judges
dependent on his
will
Will
alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount
and payment
of their salaries.
he
He
has erected a multitude of
new offices by a self-assumed power
New Offices
, and sent hither swarms of
officers
Officers
to
harrass
harass
our people, and eat out their substance.
he
He
has kept among us, in times of peace,
standing armies and ships of war:
Standing Armies, without the consent of our legislatures.
he
He
has affected to render the
military,
Military
independent of and superior to
civil
the Civil
power
:
.
he
He
has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our
constitutions,
constitution
and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his
assent
Assent
to their
Acts of
pretended
acts of legislation, for
Legislation:
For
quartering large bodies of armed troops
among
among
us
;
for
:
For
protecting them
,
by
a
mock
trial,
Trial
from punishment for any
murders [
Murders
which
]
they should commit on the
inhabitants
Inhabitants
of these
states; for
States:
For
cutting off our
trade
Trade
with all parts of the world
;
for
:
For
imposing
taxes
Taxes
on us without our
consent;
for
Consent:
For
depriving us
in many cases
of the benefits of
trial
Trial
by
jury;
for
Jury:
For
transporting us beyond
seas
Seas
to be tried for pretended
offenses;
for
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, and
Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and
altering fundamentally the
forms
Forms
of our
governments;
for
Governments:
For
suspending our own
legislatures
Legislatures
, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever
;
.
he
He
has abdicated
government
Government
here
, withdrawing his governors, and
by
declaring us out of his
alegiance
Protection
and
protection;
waging War against us.
he
He
has plundered our seas, ravaged our
coasts
Coasts
, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people
:
.
he
He
is at this time transporting large
armies
Armies
of foreign
mercenaries
Mercenaries
to
compleat
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
Head
of a civilized nation
:
.
he
He
has
endeavored
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
Savages
, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions
of existence:
.
he has incited treasonable insurrections of our fellow citizens with the allurements of forfeiture and confiscation of our property:
he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incure miserable death in their transportation hither. this piratical warfare, the opprobium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christianking of Great Britain. [determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold,] he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce [determining to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold]: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he had deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.
in
In
every stage of these
oppressions
we
Oppressions We
have
petitioned
Petitioned
for
redress
Redress
in the most humble terms
: our
. Our
repeated
petitions
Petitions
have been answered only by repeated injury.
a prince
A Prince
, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a
tyrant
Tyrant
, is unfit to be the ruler of a
people who mean to be
free
. future ages will scarce believe that the hardiness of one man, adventured within the short compass of twelve years only, on so many acts of tyranny without a mask, over a people fostered and fixed in principles of liberty.
people.
Nor have
we
We
been wanting in
attention
attentions
to our British brethren.
we
We
have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over
these our states. we
us. We
have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here
, no one of which could warrant so strange a pretension: that these were effected at the expence of our own blood and treasure, unassisted by the wealth or the strength of Great Britain: that in constituing indeed our several forms of government, we had adopted one common king, thereby laying a foundation for perpetual league and amity with them: but that submission to their parliament was no part of our constitution, nor ever in idea, if history may be credited: and we
. We have
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity,
as well as to
and we have conjured them by
the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which
were likely to
would inevitably
interrupt our
connections and
correspondence
and connections. they
. They
too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity
, and when occasions have been given them, by the regular course of their laws, of removing from their councils the disturbers of our harmony, they have by their free election re-established them in power. at this very time too they are permitting their chief magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch and foreign mercenaries to invade and deluge us in blood. these facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce forever these unfeeling brethren.
.
We must
endeavor to forget our former love for them
, 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 might have been a free and a great people together; but a communication of grandeur and of freedom it seems is below their dignity. be it so, since they will have it: the road to [glory and] happiness [and to glory] is open to us too; we will climb it apart from them [in a separate state] and acquiesce in the necessity which denounces [pronounces][ our [everlasting Adieu!] eternal separation!
Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore,the
representatives
Representatives
of the United States of America, in General Congress,
assembled
Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions,
do
, in the
name
Name
, and by the authority of the good
people
People
of these
states, reject
Colonies, solemnly publish
and
renounce the allegiance
declare. That these United Colonies are,
and
subjection
of Right ought
to
the kinds of Great Britain
be Free
and
Independent States; that they are Absolved from
all
others whe may herafter claim by, through, or under them; we utterly dissolve
Allegiance to the British Crown,
and
break off
that
all political connection
which may have heretofore subsisted
between
us
them
and the
people or parliament
State
of Great Britain
;
is
and
finally we do assert and declare these colonies
ought
to be
free and independent states,
totally dissolved;
and that as
free
Free
and
independent states
Independent States,
they
shall herafter
have
[
full
] power
Power
to levy
war
War
, conclude
peace
Peace
, contract
alliances
Alliances
, establish
commerce
Commerce
, and to do all other
acts
Acts
and
things
Things
which
independent states
Independent States
may of right do. And for the support of this
declaration
Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,
we mutually pledge to each other our
lives
Lives
, our
fortunes
Fortunes,
and our sacred
honor
Honor
.
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Thomas Jefferson (NOVA NET)
Thomas Jefferson
Philadelphia
Thomas Jefferson wrote Almost the entire first draft.