The Declaration of Independence, presented to the Continental Congress on June 28, 1776, approved on July 2 and declared on July 4, is the document in which the 13 American colonies formally declared their independence from Great Britain and set forth ideas about which the United States government would be based on.
It is reproduced in its entirety below (courtesy of the National Archives):
“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 a people to dissolve the political gangs that have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the In same place to which the Laws of Nature and the God of Nature entitle them, a dignified respect for the opinions of humanity requires that they declare the causes that drive them to separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that their Creator has endowed them with certain inalienable rights, which include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive for these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government. , laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such a way that it seems more likely that they affect your Security and Happiness.
Prudence, in fact, will dictate that long-established governments should not be changed for light and transitory causes; and, consequently, all experience has shown that humanity is more willing to suffer, while evils are endurable, than to straighten up by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long series of abuses and usurpations, invariably pursuing the same Object, shows a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to get rid of that Government and provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient patience of these colonies; and such is now the need that forces them to alter their old systems of government.
The history of the current King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all with the direct objective of establishing an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let the facts be sent to a sincere world.
He has rejected his assent to the laws, the healthiest and necessary for the public good.
ORIGINAL STATEMENT BY THOMAS JEFFERSON OF INDEPENDENCE DRAFT: SEE THE PHOTOS
It has prohibited its governors from passing laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless they are suspended from operation until their consent is obtained; and when suspended, he has completely neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people renounce the right of Representation in the Legislature, an invaluable right for them and formidable only for tyrants.
It has convened legislative bodies in unusual, uncomfortable and distant places from the deposit of their public records, with the sole purpose of fatigued them to comply with its measures.
He has repeatedly dissolved the Representative Houses for opposing with firm manhood their invasions of the rights of the people.
He has long refused, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be chosen; by which the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people in general for their exercise; the remaining State, meanwhile, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and internal convulsions.
It has made efforts to avoid the population of these States; for this purpose obstruct the Laws for the naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations here, and raising the conditions for new land grabs.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by rejecting his assent to the laws for establishing judicial powers.
It has made the judges depend only on their will, for the exercise of their offices and the amount and payment of their wages.
It has erected a multitude of new offices and has sent swarms of officers to harass our people and eat their substance.
It has kept standing armies among us in peacetime without the consent of our legislatures.
It has affected so that the military is independent and superior to the civil power.
It has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction that is outside our constitution and not recognized by our laws; giving its assent to its acts of intended legislation:
To barrack large corps of armed troops between us:
To protect them, through a mock trial, from punishment for any murder they should commit against the inhabitants of these states:
To cut 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 a jury trial:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for simulated crimes
To abolish the Free System of English Laws in a neighboring province, establish an arbitrary government in it, and expand its limits to immediately make it an example and a suitable instrument to introduce the same absolute rule in these colonies:
NAPOLITAN JUDGE ANDREW: OUR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND THE DECISION TO REVOLVE AGAINST GREAT BRITAIN
For removing our letters, abolishing our most valuable laws and fundamentally altering the forms of our governments:
For suspending our own legislatures and declaring ourselves empowered to legislate for us in all cases.
He has abdicated the government here, declaring us outside his protection and waging war against us.
It has plundered our seas, devastated our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
At this moment he is transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy hardly parallel in the most barbaric times, and totally unworthy of the head of a civilized nation.
He has forced our fellow citizens held captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become executioners of their friends and brothers, or to fall from their hands.
He has excited the domestic insurrections among us and has endeavored to bring the inhabitants of our borders, the ruthless wild Indians, whose well-known rule of war, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
At each stage of these Oppressions, we have requested redress in the humblest of terms: our repeated requests have been answered only for repeated injuries. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act that can define a Tyrant, is not fit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been expecting attention from our British brothers. We have warned you from time to time of your legislature’s attempts to extend unwarranted jurisdiction over us. We have reminded you of the circumstances of our migration and settlement here. We appeal to their native justice and magnanimity, and conjure them up with the ties of our relatives to reject these usurpations, which would inevitably disrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity.
We must, therefore, accept the need, which denounces our separation, and retain them, as we retain the rest of humanity, enemies in war, friends of peace.
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We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in the General Congress, gathered, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, in the name and by authority of the good people of these colonies. , publishes and solemnly declares that these united colonies are, and by law, must be free and independent States; that they are Absolved of all Loyalty to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is and must be totally dissolved; and that, as Free and Independent States, they have the total Power to impose the War, conclude the Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce and do all the other Acts and Things that the Independent States can do by right. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm dependence on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually commit our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. “
