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The Declaration of Independence of The United States of America

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 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 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 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 of 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 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: