Originally published on: 7/4/2006 10:15:52 AM
On July 4, 1776, the following document was put forth. The signers were committing treason against the standing government. They were not politicians, not diplomats and not heads of state. They were doctors and tradesmen, just people. Yet, they believed in the principles set out in this document enough to be willing to risk their lives by signing it.
Surprisingly few people have read it in its entirety. 2 years ago, I visited Philadelphia and toured the places where this document was written and signed and since then I've taken this day to read through it and reflect on what it stands for.
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 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 Tyranny 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 complete the Works of Death,
Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with Circumstances of Cruelty
and 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 British 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 Connexions 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 Connexion 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 Honour.
John Hancock.
GEORGIA, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.
NORTH-CAROLINA, Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
SOUTH-CAROLINA, Edward Rutledge, Thos Heyward, junr. Thomas Lynch,
junr. Arthur Middleton.
MARYLAND, Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll, of
Carrollton.
VIRGINIA, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja.
Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
PENNSYLVANIA, Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John
Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross.
DELAWARE, Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read.
NEW-YORK, Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frank Lewis, Lewis Morris.
NEW-JERSEY, Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson,
John Hart, Abra. Clark.
NEW-HAMPSHIRE, Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine,
Elbridge Gerry.
RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE, &c. Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
CONNECTICUT, Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver
Wolcott.