The Declaration of

Independence
& the
Constitution
of the United States
 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Action of Second Continental 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

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a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing HE has refused for a long Time, after such
invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected;
them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of
is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to Annihilation, have returned to the People at large
provide new Guards for their future Security. Such for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean
has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from
and such is now the Necessity which constrains without, and Convulsions within.
them to alter their former Systems of Government. HE has endeavoured to prevent the Population
The History of the present King of Great-Britain of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the
is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to
all having in direct Object the Establishment of an pass others to encourage their Migrations hither,
absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations
Facts be submitted to a candid World. of Lands.
HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most HE has obstructed the Administration of Justice,
wholesome and necessary for the public Good. by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing
HE has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws Judiciary Powers.
of immediate and pressing Importance, unless HE has made Judges dependent on his Will
suspended in their Operation till his Assent should alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the
be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly Amount and Payment of their Salaries.
neglected to attend to them. HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices,
HE has refused to pass other Laws for the and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our
Accommodation of large Districts of People, People, and eat out their Substance.
unless those People would relinquish the Right HE has kept among us, in Times of Peace,
of Representation in the Legislature, a Right Standing Armies, without the consent of our
inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants Legislatures.
only. HE has affected to render the Military
HE has called together Legislative Bodies at independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from HE has combined with others to subject us
the Depository of their public Records, for the sole to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and
Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to
his Measures. their Acts of pretended Legislation:
HE has dissolved Representative Houses FOR quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops
repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his among us:
Invasions on the Rights of the People.
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 FOR protecting them, by a mock Trial, from paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally
Punishment for any Murders which they should unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.
commit on the Inhabitants of these States: HE has constrained our fellow Citizens taken
FOR cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against
World: their Country, to become the Executioners of their
FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their
Consent: Hands.
FOR depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits HE has excited domestic Insurrections
of Trial by Jury: amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the
FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian
pretended Offences: Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an
FOR abolishing the free System of English undistinguished Destruction of all Ages, Sexes and
Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing Conditions.
therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its IN every stage of these Oppressions we have
Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms:
and fit Instrument for introducing the same Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by
absolute Rule into these Colonies: repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus
FOR taking away our Charters, abolishing our marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is
most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.
the Forms of our Governments: NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to
FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and our British Brethren. We have warned them from
declaring themselves invested with Power to Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to
legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever. extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We
HE has abdicated Government here, by have reminded them of the Circumstances of our
declaring us out of his Protection and waging War Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed
against us. to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we
HE has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, have conjured them by the Ties of our common
burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which,
People. would inevitably interrupt our Connections and
HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the
of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must,
Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which
with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we

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hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Signers of the Declaration of Independence
Friends.
Georgia: Benjamin Franklin
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united
Button Gwinnett John Morton
States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, Lyman Hall George Clymer
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for George Walton James Smith
the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, North Carolina: George Taylor
James Wilson
and by Authority of the good People of these William Hooper
Joseph Hewes George Ross
Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these
John Penn Delaware:
United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free Caesar Rodney
South Carolina:
and Independent States; that they are absolved from George Read
Edward Rutledge
all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all Thomas Heyward, Jr. Thomas McKean
political Connection between them and the State of Thomas Lynch, Jr. New York:
Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; Arthur Middleton William Floyd
Philip Livingston
and that as Free and Independent States, they have Massachusetts:
Francis Lewis
full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Samuel Adams
John Adams Lewis Morris
Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Robert Treat Paine New Jersey:
Acts and Things which Independent States may of Elbridge Gerry Richard Stockton
right do. —And for the support of this Declaration, John Hancock John Witherspoon
with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Maryland: Francis Hopkinson
Samuel Chase John Hart
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Abraham Clark
William Paca
Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. Thomas Stone New Hampshire:
Charles Carroll of Carrollton Josiah Bartlett
Signed by ORDER and in BEHALF of the CONGRESS, Matthew Thornton
Virginia:
George Wythe William Whipple
JOHN HANCOCK, President
Richard Henry Lee Rhode Island:
Attest. Thomas Jefferson Stephen Hopkins
CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary Benjamin Harrison William Ellery
Thomas Nelson, Jr. Connecticut:
Francis Lightfoot Lee Roger Sherman
Carter Braxton Samuel Huntington
Pennsylvania: William Williams
Robert Morris Oliver Wolcott
Benjamin Rush

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