Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

A DECLARATION, by the Reprefentatives of the United States of America, in Congress affembled, July 4, 1776.

W

neceffary for one people to diffolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to affume among the powers of the earth, the feparate and equal ftation to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent refpect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the caufes which impel them to the feparation.

We hold thefe truths to be felf 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 purfuit of happinefs. That, to fecure these rights, governments are inftituted among men, deriving their juft powers from the confent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes deftructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to inftitute new government, laying its foundation on fuch principles, and organizing its powers in fuch form, as to them fhall feem moft likely to effect their fafety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established fhould not be changed for light and tranfient causes; and accordingly all experience hath fhewn, that mankind are more difpofed to fuffer, while evils are fufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and ufurpations, pursuing invariably the fame object, evinces a defign to reduce them under abfolute defpotifm, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off fuch government, and to provide new guards for their future fecurity. Such has been the patient fufferance of these colonies; and fuch is now the neceffity which constrains them to alter their former fyftems of government. The hiftory of the prefent King of Great Britain is a hiftory of repeated injuries and ufurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an abfolute tyranny over

thefe States. To prove this, let facts be fubmitted to a candid world.

He has refused his affent to laws, the most wholesome and neceffary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pafs laws of immediate and preffing importance, unlefs fufpended in their operation, till his affent fhould be obtained and, when fo fufpended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

:

He has refufed to pafs other laws, for the accommodation of large diftricts of people, unlefs thofe people would relinquifh the right of reprefentation in the Legislature-a right ineftimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies, at places unufual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depofitory of their public records, for the fole purpose of fatiguing them into compli ance with his measures.

He has diffolved Reprefentative Houfes repeatedly, for oppofing, with manly firmnefs, his invafions on the rights of the people.

He has refufed, for a long time after fuch diffolutions, to caufe others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large, for their exercife; the ftate remaining, in the mean time, expofed to all the danger of invafion from without, and convulfions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these ftates; for that purpose obftructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refufing to pafs others, to encourage their migration hither, and raifing the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obftructed the administration of justice, by refufing his affent to laws, for eftablishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their falaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and fent hither fwarms of officers, to harrafs our people, and eat out their fubftance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the confent of our Legislatures.

He has affected to render the military independent of, and perior to, the civil power.

He has combined with others, to fubject us to a jurifdiction, foreign to our Conftitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his affent to their acts of pretended legiflation:

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 thefe ftates:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world :— For impofing taxes on us without our confent :

For depriving us, in many cafes, of the benefits of trial by jury:

[ocr errors]

For tranfporting us beyond feas, to be tried for pretended offences :-

For abolishing the free fyftem of English laws in a neighbouring province, eftablishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries fo as to render it at once an example and fit inftrument, for introducing the fame abfo

lute rule into thefe colonies :

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valua ble laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our govern

ments:

For fufpending our own Legislatures, and declaring themfelves invefted with power, to legiflate for us in all cafes whatfoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us.

He has plundered our feas, ravaged our coafts, burnt our towns, and deftroyed the lives of our people..

He is, at this time, tranfporting large armies of foreign mercenaries, to complete the works of death, defolation, and tyranny, already begun, with circumftances of cruelty and perfidy, fcarcely paralleled in the moft barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken captive on the high feas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themfelves by their hands..

He has excited domeftic infurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian favages, whofe known rule of warfare is an undiftinguished deftruction of all ages, fexes, and conditions.

In every ftage of thefe oppreffions, we have petitioned for redress, in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whofe 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 attention to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts made by their Legislature, to extend an unwarrantable jurifdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumftances of our emigration and fettlement here. We have appealed to their native juftice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow thefe ufurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correfpondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of confanguinity. We muft, therefore, acquiefce in the neceffity, which denounces our feparation, and hold them, as we hold the reft of mankind—enemies in war;-in peace, friends.

We, therefore, the Reprefentatives of the United States of America, in General Congrefs affembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world, for the rectitude of our intentions, Do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of thefe colonies, folemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and, of right, ought to be free, and independent ftates;-that they are abfolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion, between them and the ftate of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally diffolved; and that, as free and independent ftates, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, eftablish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent ftates may of right do. And for the fupport 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 facred honour. Signed by order and in behalf of the Congrefs,

Attefted.

JOHN HANCOCK, President.

CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.

New-Hampshire.

Jofiah Bartlett,

William Whipple, Matthew Thornton.

« AnteriorContinuar »