The unanimous Declaration of the thirten united States of America. world among ing in the mean Lime of the Where in the Course of hermon. events it becomes necessary for on people to dipolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to for that purpox Astrac apume the flowers of the earth, the separate and equal jiation to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they fhould declare the causes which impe them to the jeparation. We noid these truths to be self-evident, that all men are curated equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalimable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and tire pursuit of Happines — That to fecure these lights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their put flowers from the cement of the governed. – Inuit whenever my Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to atter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall sam most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, ended, will dictate that Governments tony established jhould not be changed for light and transsint causes; and accordingly all reperience hath fhewn, that mankind. au mou disposed to suffer, while evils are juffercole, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which tiny an accustomed. But when along train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object design to reduce them under absolute l'espotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such Government, and to provide Such has • Guards for their future jecurity. been the patunt fufferana of these Colonies; and fuch 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 upupations, all having in dired Ayed the oftwlishment of an absolute Tyranny over these Stats. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a conte He has refused his Assent to laws, the most wholesome and necesary for the public good. He has fervidden his Governors to pass Lows of immediate and preping importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Alfsent shound be célsined; and when se suspended, he has allerly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to paps the Lows for the accommodation of lange distriads of people, untip those people would relinqush the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to kpants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual uncomfortable and distant from the depository of their flucblic Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them in compliance with his measures.. He has disolved Reprefative Hieuses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmnes his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for along time after such dipolitions, to cause others to be elected; whnoby the Legistative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the Prople at large for their vaccine, the State remain exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within He has endeavowed to prevent the population of these states, ling the Law for Naturalization of Foreignus; refusing to pass others to mecurage their migrations wither and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. Administration of Justice, by refusing his Appont to Laurs for establishing Judiciary flowers It was made Judges dependent on his. With alone, for the tenure of their and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent nither jwarms of Gficus to hangs People and cat out thur Substance He has kept us, in times of peace, Standing Dimus without the Consent of our legislatures .. He has apject! to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. with this to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by laws; giving his Afsent to their Acts of pretended Segustation. For Quarkring large bodies of armed treefs among For protiding them, by amork Trust jom punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of those Stites: our Trade with all parts of the world. For imposing 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 fire System of English Laws in a nughbouring Province, establishing thesein. Arbihary government, and inlarging its Bounding exampú and fit inftrument for introducing the same absolute inte into these Colonies : — For taking away our l'harters, abolishing our most valuable Saws and athing fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: Per suspending Legislatures and declaring themselves invoiled with prown to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever HE nas abdicated Government here by deansing us out of this Protection and waging War against. He has plundered our seas. ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and deskoyed the Lives of our people. He is at this time hansporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelly & perfidy fearly parati:led in the most carbonous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens takene Captive on the high seas to bear Arms against thur County, to become the arratives of their piends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by thur Hands. He has cited domestic infurrecions amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the in habitants of our frontiers, the mercile's Indian Savages, whose known sule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, jeans and conditions. In pory stage of theme Oppressions We have Petitioned I for Redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated Pititions have been. d by reported injury. A Rince, whose character is this marked by every at which may define a Tyrant, unfit tobe the ruler of a pee people. Not have the ban wanting in attentions to our Brittish Brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by then legislatine to ratind an unwarrant able jurisdiction Ik have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and jettlement here. We have appealed to this native justice and magnanimity, and we have corgined there by the ties of our Cour common kindred to disavow these ufurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence "They too have been deaf to the voice of justin 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.. so as to under it at one an our own сит He has dishucked ine offices, and the amount He has comeined For cutting of We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, asembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our in. tentions, &c, in the Name, and by authority of the good People of these Colonies, folemnly publish and declare, That there United Colonies are, and of Right ought tobe Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British brown, and that all political connection betivon them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally digested, and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to buy 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 I for the support of this Declaration, with assim rehance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, con Italones The Between September 5, 1774, when the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, and December 15, 1791, when the Bill of Rights became part of the Constitution of the United States, the course of American history was set for centuries to come. Thirteen small and separate Colonies in many cases having little in common besides their fealty to Great Britain declared themselves independent states, secured recognition from foreign powers and made an alliance with France, defeated Great Britain on the field of battle, and negotiated a treaty of peace with favorable territorial provisions. Experimenting and innovating as they went, the new States established a completely original non-colonial policy for territorial acquisitions. When a confederation their earliest form of government-appeared inadequate, they changed their political structure, in peaceful revolution, to a federal union under man's first written national constitution with specific guarantees of individual freedom in the Bill of Rights. The Americans who travelled this remarkable route were wise in the ways of politics after their long experience of virtual self-government within the British Empire and could boast a high level of literacy for the period in which they lived. The canny lawyers and businessmen they chose to lead the American Revolution were careful to leave a written record of most of the steps in the formation of the American Union. "...these united colonies...ought to be free..." The Grievances Most American colonial subjects of the King of England were reasonably content with the position of the American Colonies in the British Empire before the end of the French and Indian War in 1763. Nearly all of the Colonies enjoyed nearautonomy under a governor appointed by the Crown, and they elected assemblies which made most local laws; the Navigation Acts which confined much colonial trade to British ports and British ships were not onerous and assured American merchants of a steady market. The advantages of belonging to the British Empire outweighed the disadvantages until the British Parliament decided to tax the colonists to pay for their recent defense against the French and Indians and for their future administration. Several taxes, including the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts, were levied, then repealed when Americans protested that only their own legislatures could tax them. Finally, however, the granting of a monopoly of the colonial tea market to the British East India Company brought matters to a head. When Bostonians staged the Boston Tea Party, staining the waters of their harbor with East India tea, Parliament retaliated with a series of laws called the Coercive Acts in England, but promptly labeled the "Intolerable Acts" in America. Among other things, the Acts closed the port of Boston and severely limited popular government in Massachusetts, striking at what Americans considered their right to make their own laws. Fearing that the same treatment awaited any other colony which displeased Parliament, all the Colonies except Georgia sent delegates to Philadelphia to formulate a united stand on British colonial policy. The First Continental Congress Few of the delegates to the First Continental Congress were considering independence from Great Britain as they took their seats in Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia on the 5th of September 1774. Even though Massachusetts had sent such radical leaders as Samuel Adams and his cousin John Adams, the credentials of the Massachusetts delegates declared that the Congress was to "consult upon the present state of the Colonies, . . . and determine upon wise and proper measures, to be by them recommended to all the Colonies, for the recovery of their just rights & liberties, civil and religious, and the restoration of union and harmony between Great Britain and the Colonies... Virtually the first order of business was a unanimous resolution on September 6 to appoint a committee "to state the rights of the Colonies... and 7 |