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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 of 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 attention 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 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.We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom. . .

symbolizing an end as well as a beginning. . .signifying renewal

as well as change for I have sworn before you and Almighty God

the same solemn oath our forbears prescribed nearly a century

and three-quarters ago.

The world is very different now, for man holds in his mortal hands

the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.

And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forbears fought

are still at issue around the globe. . .the belief that the rights of man

come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution.

Let the word go forth from this time and place. . .to friend and foe alike. . .

that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans. . .

born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace,

proud of our ancient heritage. . .and unwilling to witness or permit the slow

undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed,

and to which we are committed today. . .at home and around the world.

Let every nation know. . .whether it wishes us well or ill. . .

that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship,

support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and

the success of liberty. This much we pledge. . .and more.

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share:

we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United. . .there is

little we cannot do in a host of co-operative ventures.

Divided. . .there is little we can do. . .for we dare not meet