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 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.