The Declaration of Independence
("The unanimous Declaration
of the thirteen united States of America")
1When 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.
2We
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:
3He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. [Meaning here that laws created by the various colonial legislative bodies have not been honored by the King]
4He has forbidden his Governors [in the colonies] 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.
5He 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.
6He 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.
7He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
8He 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.
9He 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.
10He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
11He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
12He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
13He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
14He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
15He 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 [That is, the King has caused the English Parliament, and loyal agents in the colonies, to pass laws that he wants passed, despite the objections of the colonists]:
16For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
17For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
18For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
19For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
20For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
21For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
22For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province [Canada?], 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:
23For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
24For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
25He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
26He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
27He 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.
28He 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.
29He 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.
30In
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.
31Nor
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 [formally
announces] our
Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in
Peace Friends.
32We, 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.**
The signers, representing their various colonies:
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, 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 York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
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
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William
Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George
Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson,
Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William
Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas
Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett,
Lyman Hall, George Walton
**The outcome of this declaration and revolt was by no means certain--there was no army and no money to raise one. The signers were all well-to-do, educated men who could have enjoyed a reasonably prosperous life under continued British rule. Some were quite rich. When they signed this document, they knew that if the colonies were not successful in their revolt, each one of them would be hung as a traitor, all his property taken, and his surviving family members left in poverty and disgrace. They apparently believed in the rightness of their cause.
This declaration isn't just an official notice of what the 13 British colonies decided to do (revolt from England and form a separate, independent government).
It is also an argument justifying its political break from the mother country. Its intended audience was not just the King of England, but educated men everywhere. Thomas Jefferson, its primary author, and his fellow colonists, knew they were writing for the whole world.
In the next two centuries, the ideas clearly expressed in this influential document became the justification for the claims to independence and self-rule of many colonies around the world.
The Declaration of Independence is considered a beautiful piece of English prose, parts of which, until recently, many American school children would memorize.
- Literal Level: Paraphrase the first sentence: put its meaning into plain, modern English.
- Literal and Interpretive: Outline the argument with a statement of its main conclusion(s), followed by a summary of the reasons for each conclusion.
- Literal and Interpretive: Explain how the argument is both descriptive and prescriptive.
Interpetive/Critical
Questions for discussion:
- 1-2 The argument appeals to God as an authority to support its reasons. Besides an appeal to the "Creator" who "endows" men with "certain unalienable rights," on what other basis do the writers justify their break?
- Without the appeal to God, would the argument still stand? (That is, where do "rights" come from? What is the purpose of government? Who governs? How is all that justly--or rightly--decided?) (Critical Level)
- If you were the King of England (who was also head of the Church of England), and you chose to answer this argument with a rebuttal, rather than with force, what would your argument be? That is, why do the colonies not have the right to break from the mother country? And why are the reasons given in the Declaration insufficient or misleading? (Critical Level)
- What, if any, of the grounds for revolution outlined in this document exist today in the United States? Can you formulate an argument for the overthrow or dissolution of the the U.S. government using this document as a precedent?