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's 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, Th. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Ths. 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, Tho. M'Kean
NEW
YORK— Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frans. 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— Step. Hopkins, William
Ellery
CONNECTICUT— Roger Sherman,
Sam'el Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott
~About The Declaration~
Drafting of the Declaration of Independence 1776
~Chester~ National
Anthem of the American Revolution
In 1770, William Billings, a Bostonian, published The New England Psalm Singer, the first collection of sacred music composed entirely by an American. Because of his ardent support of the pursuit of liberty, and his close ties with both Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, he added "revolutionary" lyrics to some of his hymns in order to further the cause. One of his hymns, Chester, thereby became the National Anthem of the American Revolution, marking the beginning of a new musical movement toward the military song. Essentially a hymn-tune, it had martial rhythm and patriotic words that made it a favorite with the Revolutionary War soldiers in all the colonies. The fifers played the tune when they marched and the soldiers sang it at night while gathered about their campfires.
Neddy's Nook On The Net ~
1776 The Unanimous Declaration, was posted to the web by Edna
Barney. The graphics designs are copyrighted and registered at Mary's Little Lamb. The Magic
Follower is from Simply. © Copyright 2002-2006 by Edna Barney, All Rights
Reserved.
The Unanimous Declaration of the 13 United
States
~~ A Neddy
Creation ~~
