On June
7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee proposed a resolution to the Continental Congress
stating that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and
independent States." Four days later Congress appointed a committee to
draft a declaration embodying the intent of the resolution. The committee,
consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman,
and Robert R. Livingston, pressed on Jefferson the task of writing their report.
On June 28 the committee submitted to Congress "A Declaration by the
Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress
Assembled."
The Congress passed Lee's original resolution on July 2, thus
deciding in favor of independence, but took three days to debate and amend the
committee's draft declaration before approving it on July 4. "The Unan
imous Declaration of the 13 United States of America" (the Continental
Congress never officially called it the Declaration of Independence) was
engrossed on parchment, and on August 2 every member present signed it, the
remaining members signing later.
Important note: This image of the Declaration is taken from
the engraving made by printer William J. Stone in 1823 and is the most
frequently reproduced version of the document. The original Declaration, now
exhibited in the Rotunda of the National Archives Building in Washington, DC,
has faded badly--largely because of poor preservation techniques during the 19th
century. Today, this priceless document is maintained under the most exacting
archival conditions possible.
For additional information about the
Declaration of Independence, we recommend:
The article "The
Declaration of Independence: A History," which provides a
detailed account of the Declaration, from its drafting through its
preservation today at the National Archives.
"The
Stylistic Artistry of the Declaration of Independence" by
Stephen Lucas. By closely examining its language, this perceptive article
sheds light on the Declaration as a work of literature and of persuasion.
From Prologue, Spring 1990.
The
Virginia Declaration of Rights strongly influenced Thomas Jefferson in
writing the first part of the Declaration of Independence. It later provided
the foundation for the Bill of Rights.
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 [George III] 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
meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions
within.
He has endeavored 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 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 complete 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 the 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.
