The
signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia
The
main purpose of America's Declaration of Independence
was to explain to foreign nations why the colonies
had chosen to separate themselves from Great Britain.
The Revolutionary War
had already begun, and several major battles had
already taken place. The American colonies had already
cut most major ties to England, and had established
their own congress, currency, army, and post office.
On June 7, 1776, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia,
Richard Henry Lee voiced a resolution that the United
States ought to be completely free of England's
influence, and that all political ties between the
two countries should be dissolved. Congress agreed
and began plans to publish a formal declaration
of independence and appointed a committee of five
members to draft the declaration.
Thomas
Jefferson was chosen to draft the letter - which
he did in a single day. Four other members, Roger
Sherman, Robert Livingston, Benjamin
Franklin and John
Adams were part of the committee to help Jefferson.
In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson explained
that a body of people have a right to change governments
if that government becomes oppressive (unfair and
controlling). He further explained that governments
fail when they no longer have the consent of the
governed. Since Parliament clearly lacked the consent
of the American colonists to govern them, it was
no longer legitimate.
The
Declaration was presented to the Continental Congress
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
It was approved with a few minor changes. Of the
56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, John
Hancock, of Massachusetts
was the first.
The
Declaration of Independence - July 4, 1776
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 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 the 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 the 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 Rules 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 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 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 Providence, we mutually pledge to each
other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
