DECLARATION OF IN DEPEND

ENCE, the document which proclaimed the independence of British rule of the 13 American colonies. Already several of the provinces, as regards their administrative system were independent of the mother country. Ma achusetts, and South Carolina had established commonwealths. John Adams was largely responsible for the pa age of resolutions by Congre May 10-15, tem for independent governments. The declaration for entire independence of the states grew out of this action. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee moved the resolution in Congre 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, di olved.’ On June 10 a committee was appointed with Jefferson as chairman, and including Benjamin Franklin, Livings ton, and others to prepare a declaration to the effect of the said first resolution (John Adams’). Jefferson drafted the declaration and Adams and Franklin supplied amendments to Jefferson’s harsh attack on the British people and on George III., for the slave trade. lLee’s resolution was pa ed July 2, and the Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776. All the colonies endorsed the declaration, but New York, whose delegates were not then empowered to vote on the question, but gave their support on July 9. On August 2, the 53 delegates present signed the Declaration. Three absentees signed later. The document was engro ed on parchment and copies were sent ‘to the A emblies, Committees, or Councils of Safety, and to the Commanders of the Continental troops, and to be proclaimed in each of the United States and at the head of the army.’ The original document was long on exhibition in Washington, but owing to the damaging effects of light on the writing it was withdrawn in 1894 and a facsimile substituted. The original manuscript is now deposited in the Library of Congre , Washington, D.C. Following the test of the Declaration of Independence: When, in the Course of human events, it becomes nece ary for one people to di olve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to a ume 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 Happine . ‘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 Happine . Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, 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 nece ity 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 absclute Tyranny over these States. To prove ie i Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his A ent to Laws, the most wholesome and nece ary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pa Laws of immediate and pre ing importance, unle suspended in their operation till his A ent should be obtained; and when so suspended, ho has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pa other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unle 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 di olved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmne his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such di olutions, 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 meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored ‘to prevent the pcpulation of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pa others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his A ent 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 hara our people, and eat out of their substance. He has kept among us, in times of Freee Standing Armies, without the onsent of our legislature. 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 A ent 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 oif 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 offenses: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring 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 circum-. stances 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 endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the mercile Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppre ions We have Petitioned for Redre in the most humble terms. Our repeated Petitions have been answered 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 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 haye 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 nece ity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Hnemies in War, in Peace Friends. We Therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congre , A embled, 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 di olved; 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 Honor.