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

.