The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one peopleto dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal stationto which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decentrespect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare thecauses 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.--Thatto secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, derivingtheir just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever anyForm of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right ofthe People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in suchform, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established shouldnot be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experiencehath 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 thesame Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, itis their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and toprovide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patientsufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrainsthem to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the presentKing of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations,all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny overthese States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary forthe 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 districtsof people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representationin the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrantsonly.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable,and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purposeof fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manlyfirmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause othersto be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation,have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remainingin the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, andconvulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for thatpurpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusingto pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditionsof new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assentto Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of theiroffices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officersto harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consentof our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to theCivil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign toour constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent totheir 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 whichthey 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 Boundariesso as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducingthe same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and alteringfundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves investedwith power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protectionand waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyedthe lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries tocompleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun withcircumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the mostbarbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas tobear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friendsand Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured tobring 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 themost humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeatedinjury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which maydefine a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. Wehave warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature toextend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them ofthe circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealedto their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by theties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitablyinterrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf tothe voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiescein the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as wehold 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 worldfor the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authorityof the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, Thatthese United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and IndependentStates; 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 IndependentStates, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances,establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which IndependentStates may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with afirm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledgeto each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. 

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The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:[Column 1]Georgia:  Button Gwinnett  Lyman Hall  George Walton[Column 2]North Carolina:  William Hooper  Joseph Hewes  John PennSouth Carolina:  Edward Rutledge  Thomas Heyward, Jr.  Thomas Lynch, Jr.  Arthur Middleton[Column 3]Massachusetts:  John HancockMaryland:  Samuel Chase  William Paca  Thomas Stone  Charles Carroll of CarrolltonVirginia:  George Wythe  Richard Henry Lee  Thomas Jefferson  Benjamin Harrison  Thomas Nelson, Jr.  Francis Lightfoot Lee  Carter Braxton[Column 4]Pennsylvania:  Robert Morris  Benjamin Rush  Benjamin Franklin  John Morton  George Clymer  James Smith  George Taylor  James Wilson  George RossDelaware:  Caesar Rodney  George Read  Thomas McKean[Column 5]New York:  William Floyd  Philip Livingston  Francis Lewis  Lewis MorrisNew Jersey:  Richard Stockton  John Witherspoon  Francis Hopkinson  John Hart  Abraham Clark[Column 6]New Hampshire:  Josiah Bartlett  William WhippleMassachusetts:  Samuel Adams  John Adams  Robert Treat Paine  Elbridge GerryRhode Island:  Stephen Hopkins  William ElleryConnecticut:  Roger Sherman  Samuel Huntington  William Williams  Oliver WolcottNew Hampshire:  Matthew Thornton

"May I never get too busy in my own affairs that I fail to respond tothe needs of others with kindness and compassion." -Thomas Jefferson