When in the Course of human events, it becomesnecessary for one people to dissolve the politicalbands which have connected them with another, andto assume among the powers of the earth, the separateand equal station to which the Laws of Nature andof Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect tothe opinions of mankind requires that they shoulddeclare the causes which impel them to theseparation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that allmen are created equal, that they are endowed by theirCreator with certain unalienable Rights, that amongthese are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit ofHappiness. That to secure these rights, Governmentsare instituted among Men, deriving their just powersfrom the consent of the governed. That whenever anyForm of Government becomes destructive of these ends,it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolishit, and to institute new Government, laying itsfoundation on such principles and organizing itspowers in such form, as to them shall seem mostlikely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governmentslong established should not be changed for light andtransient causes; and accordingly all experiencehath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer,while evils are sufferable, than to right themselvesby abolishing the forms to which they areaccustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations,pursuing invariably the same object evinces a designto reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is theirright, 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 theseColonies; and such is now the necessity whichconstrains them to alter their former Systems ofGovernment. The history of the present King of GreatBritain [George III] is a history of repeatedinjuries and usurpations, all having in directobject the establishment of an absolute Tyranny overthese States. To prove this, let Facts be submittedto a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesomeand necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws ofimmediate and pressing importance, unless suspendedin their operation till his Assent should beobtained, and when so suspended, he has utterlyneglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for theaccommodation of large districts of people, unlessthose people would relinquish the right ofRepresentation in the Legislature, a rightinestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.He has called together legislative bodies at placesunusual, uncomfortable, and distant from thedepository of their public Records, for the solepurpose of fatiguing them into compliance with hismeasures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly,for opposing with manly firmness his invasions onthe rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after suchdissolutions, to cause others to be elected; wherebythe Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation,have returned to the People at large for theirexercise; the State remaining in the meantimeexposed to all the dangers of invasion from without,and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population ofthese States; for that purpose obstructing the Lawsfor Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to passothers to encourage their migrations hither, andraising the conditions of new Appropriations ofLands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, byrefusing his Assent to Laws for establishingJudiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, forthe tenure of their offices, and the amount andpayment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and senthither swarms of Officers to harass our people, andeat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, StandingArmies, without the consent of our legislatures.He has affected to render the Military independentof and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to ajurisdiction foreign to our constitution andunacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent totheir Acts of pretended Legislation:

For protecting them by a mock Trial frompunishment for any Murders which they shouldcommit 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 ofTrial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried forpretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in aneighbouring Province, establishing therein anArbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundariesso as to render it at once an example and fitinstrument for introducing the same absolute ruleinto these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our mostvaluable Laws and altering fundamentally theForms of our Governments:?

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaringthemselves invested with power to legislate for usin all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here by declaring us outof his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burntour towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.He is at this time transporting large Armies offoreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death,desolation and tyranny, already begun withcircumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcelyparalleled in the most barbarous ages, and totallyunworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captiveon the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country,to become the executioners of their friends andBrethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us,and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants ofour frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whoseknown rule of warfare is an undistinguisheddestruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We havePetitioned for Redress in the most humble terms. Ourrepeated Petitions have been answered only byrepeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thusmarked by every act which may define a Tyrant, isunfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Britishbrethren.

We have warned them from time to time ofattempts by their legislature to extend anunwarrantable jurisdiction over us.

We have reminded them of the circumstances of ouremigration and settlement here.

We have appealed to their native justice andmagnanimity, and we have conjured them by theties of our common kindred to disavow theseusurpations, which would inevitably interrupt ourconnections and correspondence.

They too have been deaf to the voice of justice andof consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce inthe necessity, which denounces our Separation, andhold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemiesin War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the UnitedStates of America, in General Congress, Assembled,appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for therectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, andby the authority of the good People of these Colonies,solemnly publish and declare.

That these United Colonies are, and of Right oughtto be Free and Independent States; that they areAbsolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown,and that all political connection between them andthe State of Great Britain is and ought to be totallydissolved;

and that as Free and Independent States, they havefull Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contractAlliances, establish Commerce,

and to do all other Acts and Things which IndependentStates may of right do.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm relianceon the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledgeto each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.