{"id":24,"date":"2009-07-06T12:07:08","date_gmt":"2009-07-06T12:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?p=24"},"modified":"2009-09-13T13:43:29","modified_gmt":"2009-09-13T17:43:29","slug":"the-declaration-of-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?p=24","title":{"rendered":"The Declaration of Independence"},"content":{"rendered":"

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776<\/a>
\nThe unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America<\/strong><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

W<\/span><\/em><\/strong>hen \t\tin the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to \t\tdissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and \t\tto assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station \t\tto which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent \t\trespect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the \t\tcauses which impel them to the separation.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are \t\tcreated equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain \t\tunalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit \t\tof Happiness. \u2014 That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted \t\tamong Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, \t\t\u2014 That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these \t\tends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to \t\tinstitute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and \t\torganizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to \t\teffect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that \t\tGovernments long established should not be changed for light and \t\ttransient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind \t\tare more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right \t\tthemselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But \t\twhen a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the \t\tsame Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it \t\tis their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to \t\tprovide new Guards for their future security. \u2014 Such has been the \t\tpatient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity \t\twhich constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The \t\thistory of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated \t\tinjuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment \t\tof an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be \t\tsubmitted to a candid world.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and \t\tnecessary for the public good.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate \t\tand pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his \t\tAssent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly \t\tneglected to attend to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation \t\tof large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the \t\tright of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them \t\tand formidable to tyrants only.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has called together legislative bodies at places \t\tunusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public \t\tRecords, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his \t\tmeasures.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for \t\topposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, \t\tto cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable \t\tof Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their \t\texercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the \t\tdangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these \t\tStates; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of \t\tForeigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations \t\thither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by \t\trefusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the \t\ttenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent \t\thither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their \t\tsubstance.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies \t\twithout the Consent of our legislatures.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has affected to render the Military independent of and \t\tsuperior to the Civil Power.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has combined with others to subject us to a \t\tjurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our \t\tlaws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:<\/span><\/p>\n

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:<\/span><\/p>\n

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for \t\tany Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:<\/span><\/p>\n

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:<\/span><\/p>\n

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:<\/span><\/p>\n

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial \t\tby Jury:<\/span><\/p>\n

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended \t\toffences:<\/span><\/p>\n

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a \t\tneighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and \t\tenlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit \t\tinstrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies<\/span><\/p>\n

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most \t\tvaluable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:<\/span><\/p>\n

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring \t\tthemselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases \t\twhatsoever.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of \t\this Protection and waging War against us.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our \t\ttowns, and destroyed the lives of our people.<\/span><\/p>\n

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign \t\tMercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, \t\talready begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely \t\tparalleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of \t\ta civilized nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on \t\tthe high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the \t\texecutioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by \t\ttheir Hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has \t\tendeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless \t\tIndian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished \t\tdestruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned \t\tfor Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been \t\tanswered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus \t\tmarked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler \t\tof a free people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British \t\tbrethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their \t\tlegislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have \t\treminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement \t\there. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we \t\thave conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these \t\tusurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and \t\tcorrespondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of \t\tconsanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which \t\tdenounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, \t\tEnemies in War, in Peace Friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States \t\tof America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme \t\tJudge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, \t\tand by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish \t\tand declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be \t\tFree and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance \t\tto the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and \t\tthe State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and \t\tthat as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, \t\tconclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all \t\tother Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. \u2014 And \t\tfor the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the \t\tprotection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our \t\tLives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014 John Hancock<\/span><\/p>\n

New Hampshire:
\nJosiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton<\/span><\/p>\n

Massachusetts:
\nJohn Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge \t\tGerry<\/span><\/p>\n

Rhode Island:
\nStephen Hopkins, William Ellery<\/span><\/p>\n

Connecticut:
\nRoger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott<\/span><\/p>\n

New York:
\nWilliam Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris<\/span><\/p>\n

New Jersey:
\nRichard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, \t\tAbraham Clark<\/span><\/p>\n

Pennsylvania:
\nRobert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George \t\tClymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ros<\/span><\/p>\n

Delaware:
\nCaesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean<\/span><\/p>\n

Maryland:
\nSamuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton<\/span><\/p>\n

Virginia:
\nGeorge Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, \t\tThomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton<\/span><\/p>\n

North Carolina:
\nWilliam Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn<\/span><\/p>\n

South Carolina:
\nEdward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur \t\tMiddleton<\/span><\/p>\n

Georgia:
\nButton Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[5,29],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-politics","tag-history","tag-usa"],"views":959,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15390,"url":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?p=15390","url_meta":{"origin":24,"position":0},"title":"IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America","author":"Angry Webmaster","date":"July 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"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,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"declaration","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/angry.net\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/declaration.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4158,"url":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?p=4158","url_meta":{"origin":24,"position":1},"title":"The Declaration of Independence","author":"Angry Webmaster","date":"July 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"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,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"declaration","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/angry.net\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/declaration.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":40744,"url":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?p=40744","url_meta":{"origin":24,"position":2},"title":"In Congress, July 4, 2023","author":"Angry Webmaster","date":"July 4, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A New Declaration of Independence, July 4th 2023 The unanimous Declaration of the fifty 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.pinimg.com\/564x\/56\/f4\/04\/56f404f50ea6f9d5432ab8ed31a0f03b.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26527,"url":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?p=26527","url_meta":{"origin":24,"position":3},"title":"The Declaration of Independence","author":"Angry Webmaster","date":"July 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The original version of this posting was done July 4, 2010. I've removed the original comments I made and am re-posting the the Declaration of Independence without comments. My original posting is available. ~The Angry yet patriotic Webmaster~ (Adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776) The Unanimous Declaration of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"declaration","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/angry.net\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/declaration.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1846,"url":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?p=1846","url_meta":{"origin":24,"position":4},"title":"The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America","author":"Angry Webmaster","date":"July 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?cat=5"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45295,"url":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?p=45295","url_meta":{"origin":24,"position":5},"title":"Happy 249th Birthday America!","author":"Angry Webmaster","date":"July 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Good day all. Today is the 249th anniversary of the original BREXIT, the American Declaration of Independence. On this date in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed and the American Revolution began. Last year, things weren\u2019t looking to good for the United States. We were in the early stages\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.pinimg.com\/736x\/56\/f4\/04\/56f404f50ea6f9d5432ab8ed31a0f03b.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":738,"href":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions\/738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angry.net\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}