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 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 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 migrations 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.
