[Dean's World] Dean: IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.

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Posted by Dean:
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1152013958.shtml


   THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN 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 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 Tyranny
   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 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
   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 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 Connexions 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 Connexion 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 Honour. John Hancock. GEORGIA,
   Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton. NORTH-CAROLINA, Wm. Hooper,
   Joseph Hewes, John Penn. SOUTH-CAROLINA, Edward Rutledge, Thos
   Heyward, junr. Thomas Lynch, junr. Arthur Middleton. MARYLAND, Samuel
   Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
   VIRGINIA, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja.
   Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
   PENNSYLVANIA, Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John
   Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross.
   DELAWARE, Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read. NEW-YORK, Wm. Floyd, Phil.
   Livingston, Frank Lewis, Lewis Morris. NEW-JERSEY, Richd. Stockton,
   Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark.
   NEW-HAMPSHIRE, Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
   MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine,
   Elbridge Gerry. RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE, &c. Step. Hopkins,
   William Ellery. CONNECTICUT, Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm.
   Williams, Oliver Wolcott. IN CONGRESS, JANUARY 18, 1777. ORDERED, THAT
   an authenticated Copy of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCY, with the
   Names of the MEMBERS of CONGRESS, subscribing the same, be sent to
   each of the UNITED STATES, and that they be desired to have the same
   put on RECORD. By Order of CONGRESS, JOHN HANCOCK, President.
   BALTIMORE, in MARYLAND: Printed by MARY KATHARINE GODDARD.