The
Declaration of Independence was drafted by Thomas Jefferson
between June 11 and June 28, 1776. His eloquent and powerful
words stand as the greatest expression of our freedom and liberty.
If you find the 18th century English
of the Declaration of Independence a bit confusing and difficult
to understand clearly, we suggest you read H.L.
Mencken's translation.
The
Declaration of Independence
IN
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
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 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 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 Providence, we mutually pledge to
each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The
original Declaration of Independence is badly faded as a result
of it's public display and exposure to the harmful effects of
sunlight during the 19th century. The illustration below has
been enhanced for better visibility, but in reality it has faded
almost beyond recognition. In 1921 the Declaration of Independence
was placed in the Library of Congress, and in 1952 it was transferred
to its present home in the National
Archives where it is
preserved under state-of-the-art archival conditions.
