In Congress, July 4, 1776

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 bonds 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 to 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 mean­time exposed to all the dan­gers of inva­sion from with­out, and con­vul­sions within.

He has endeav­ored to pre­vent the pop­u­la­tion of these states; for that pur­pose obstruct­ing the laws for 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 legislature.

He has affected to ren­der the mil­i­tary inde­pen­dent of and supe­rior to 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 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 offenses:

For abol­ish­ing the free sys­tem of Eng­lish laws in a neigh­bor­ing 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 in 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, burned 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 endeav­ored to bring on the inhab­i­tants of our fron­tiers, the mer­ci­less Indian sav­ages, whose known rule of war­fare, is 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.

New Hamp­shire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whip­ple, Matthew Thornton

Mass­a­chu­setts: John Han­cock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hop­kins, William Ellery

Con­necti­cut: Roger Sher­man, Samuel Hunt­ing­ton, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Liv­ingston, Fran­cis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jer­sey: Richard Stock­ton, John With­er­spoon, Fran­cis Hop­kin­son, John Hart, Abra­ham Clark

Penn­syl­va­nia: Robert Mor­ris, Ben­jamin Rush, Ben­jamin Franklin, John Mor­ton, George Cly­mer, James Smith, George Tay­lor, James Wil­son, George Ross

Delaware: Cae­sar Rod­ney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Mary­land: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Car­roll of Carrollton

Vir­ginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jef­fer­son, Ben­jamin Har­ri­son, Thomas Nel­son, Jr., Fran­cis Light­foot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Car­olina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Car­olina: Edward Rut­ledge, Thomas Hey­ward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Geor­gia: But­ton Gwin­nett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

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