|
|
The Declaration of Thomas Jefferson IN CONGRESS, 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, -
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 tyrants 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
harass 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 compleat
the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances
of Cruelty & 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 Brittish 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 connections 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
connection 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 · [The 56
signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:] [Column
1] [Column
2] [Column
3] [Column
4] Pennsylvania: Robert Morris Benjamin Rush Benjamin Franklin John Morton
George Clymer James Smith George Taylor James Wilson George Ross Delaware:
Caesar Rodney George Read Thomas McKean [Column
5] New York: William Floyd Philip Livingston Francis Lewis Lewis Morris New
Jersey: Richard Stockton John Witherspoon Francis Hopkinson John Hart Abraham
Clark [Column
6] New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett William Whipple Massachusetts: Samuel Adams
John Adams Robert Treat Paine Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman Samuel Huntington William Williams
Oliver Wolcott New Hampshire: Matthew Thornton |