The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
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 [George III] (THE KING..IE. DSS, CPS)
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
. (OUR PRESS, MEDIA, THE MASSES)

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 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 (CPS) 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 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 (THE FAMILIES/CHILDREN) 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 (OUR RIGHTS) 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, (OF FAMILES ABUSED BY THE SYSTEM)

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.