Thomas Jefferson's personal account
of the Declaration of Independence
January 6, 1821
Thomas Jefferson Statue Williamsburg
Thomas Jefferson wrote this personal account of the events surrounding
the Declaration of Independence in 1821. He wrote it as part of his
autobiography in order to make some points clear in the story and for
future generations to understand the events surrounding this most
significant moment of the Revolutionary War.
Read the Declaration of Independence here
For a list of interesting Thomas Jefferson facts click here.
Thomas Jefferson's personal account
of the Declaration of Independence -
January 6, 1821
Nothing of particular excitement occurring for a considerable time our countrymen
seemed to fall into a state of insensibility to our situation. The duty on tea not
yet repealed & the
Declaratory act of a right in the British parl to bind us by
their laws in all cases whatsoever, still suspended over us. But a court of inquiry
held in R. Island in 1762, with a power to send persons to England to be tried for
offences committed here was considered at our session of the spring of 1773. as
demanding attention. Not thinking our old & leading members up to the point of
forwardness & zeal which the times required, Mr. Henry, R. H. Lee, Francis L.
Lee, Mr. Carr & myself agreed to meet in the evening in a private room of the
Raleigh to consult on the state of things. There may have been a member or two
more whom I do not recollect. We were all sensible that the most urgent of all
measures was that of coming to an understanding with all the other colonies to
consider the British claims as a common cause to all, & to produce an unity of
action: and for this purpose that a commee of correspondce in each colony would
be the best instrument for intercommunication: and that their first measure would
probably be to propose a meeting of deputies from every colony at some central
place, who should be charged with the direction of the measures which should be
taken by all. We therefore drew up the resolutions which may be seen in Wirt pa 87.
The consulting members proposed to me to move them, but I urged that it should be
done by Mr. Carr, my friend & brother in law, then a new member to whom I wished
an opportunity should be given of making known to the house his great worth &
talents. It was so agreed; he moved them, they were agreed to nem. con. and a
commee of correspondence appointed of whom Peyton Randolph, the Speaker, was
chairman. The Govr. (then Ld. Dunmore) dissolved us, but the commee met the
next day, prepared a circular letter to the Speakers of the other colonies,
inclosing to each a copy of the resolns and left it in charge with their
chairman to forward them by expresses.
The origination of these commees
of correspondence between the colonies has been since claimed for Massachusetts,
and Marshall II. 151, has given into this error, altho' the very note of his
appendix to which he refers, shows that their establmt was confined to their
own towns. This matter will be seen clearly stated in a letter of Samuel Adams
Wells to me of Apr. 2., 1819, and my answer of May 12. I was corrected by the
letter of Mr. Wells in the information I had given Mr. Wirt, as stated in his
note, pa. 87, that the messengers of Massach. & Virga crossed each other on
the way bearing similar propositions, for Mr. Wells shows that Mass. did not
adopt the measure but on the receipt of our proposn delivered at their next
session. Their message therefore which passed ours, must have related to
something else, for I well remember P. Randolph's informing me of the
crossing of our messengers.
The next event which excited our
sympathies for Massachusets was the Boston port bill, by which that port
was to be shut up on the 1st of June, 1774. This arrived while we were in
session in the spring of that year. The lead in the house on these subjects
being no longer left to the old members, Mr. Henry, R. H. Lee, Fr. L. Lee,
3. or 4. other members, whom I do not recollect, and myself, agreeing that
we must boldly take an unequivocal stand in the line with Massachusetts,
determined to meet and consult on the proper measures in the council chamber,
for the benefit of the library in that room. We were under conviction of the
necessity of arousing our people from the lethargy into which they had fallen
as to passing events; and thought that the appointment of a day of general
fasting & prayer would be most likely to call up & alarm their attention.
No example of such a solemnity had existed since the days of our distresses
in the war of 55. since which a new generation had grown up. With the help
therefore of Rushworth, whom we rummaged over for the revolutionary precedents
& forms of the Puritans of that day, preserved by him, we cooked up a resolution,
somewhat modernizing their phrases, for appointing the 1st day of June, on which
the Port bill was to commence, for a day of fasting, humiliation & prayer, to
implore heaven to avert from us the evils of civil war, to inspire us with
firmness in support of our rights, and to turn the hearts of the King &
parliament to moderation & justice. To give greater emphasis to our
proposition, we agreed to wait the next morning on Mr. Nicholas, whose
grave & religious character was more in unison with the tone of our
resolution and to solicit him to move it. We accordingly went to him in the
morning. He moved it the same day; the 1st of June was proposed and it passed
without opposition. The Governor dissolved us as usual. We retired to the Apollo
as before, agreed to an association, and instructed the commee of correspdce to
propose to the corresponding commees of the other colonies to appoint deputies
to meet in Congress at such place, annually, as should be convenient to direct,
from time to time, the measures required by the general interest: and we declared
that an attack on any one colony should be considered as an attack on the whole.
This was in May. We further recommended to the several counties to elect deputies
to meet at Wmsbg the 1st of Aug ensuing, to consider the state of the colony, &
particularly to appoint delegates to a general Congress, should that measure be
acceded to by the commees of correspdce generally. It was acceded to, Philadelphia
was appointed for the place, and the 5th of Sep. for the time of meeting. We
returned home, and in our several counties invited the clergy to meet assemblies
of the people on the 1st of June, to perform the ceremonies of the day, & to
address to them discourses suited to the occasion. The people met generally,
with anxiety & alarm in their countenances, and the effect of the day thro'
the whole colony was like a shock of electricity, arousing every man & placing
him erect & solidly on his centre. They chose universally delegates for the
convention. Being elected one for my own county I prepared a draught of
instructions to be given to the delegates whom we should send to the Congress,
and which I meant to propose at our meeting. In this I took the ground which,
from the beginning I had thought the only one orthodox or tenable, which was
that the relation between Gr. Br. and these colonies was exactly the same as
that of England & Scotland after the accession of James & until the Union, and
the same as her present relations with Hanover, having the same Executive chief
but no other necessary political connection; and that our emigration from England
to this country gave her no more rights over us, than the emigrations of the Danes
and Saxons gave to the present authorities of the mother country over England. In
this doctrine however I had never been able to get any one to agree with me but
Mr. Wythe. He concurred in it from the first dawn of the question What was the
political relation between us & England? Our other patriots Randolph, the Lees,
Nicholas, Pendleton stopped at the half-way house of John Dickinson who admitted
that England had a right to regulate our commerce, and to lay duties on it for
the purposes of regulation, but not of raising revenue. But for this ground
there was no foundation in compact, in any acknowledged principles of
colonization, nor in reason: expatriation being a natural right, and acted on
as such, by all nations, in all ages. I set out for Wmsbg some days before
that appointed for our meeting, but was taken ill of a dysentery on the road,
& unable to proceed. I sent on therefore to Wmsbg two copies of my draught,
the one under cover to Peyton Randolph, who I knew would be in the chair of
the convention, the other to Patrick Henry. Whether Mr. Henry disapproved
the ground taken, or was too lazy to read it (for he was the laziest man in
reading I ever knew) I never learned: but he communicated it to nobody. Peyton
Randolph informed the convention he had received such a paper from a member
prevented by sickness from offering it in his place, and he laid it on the
table for perusal. It was read generally by the members, approved by many,
but thought too bold for the present state of things; but they printed it in
pamphlet form under the title of
"A Summary view of the rights of British
America." It found its way to England, was taken up by the opposition,
interpolated a little by Mr. Burke so as to make it answer opposition purposes,
and in that form ran rapidly thro' several editions. This information I had
from Parson Hurt, who happened at the time to be in London, whether he had
gone to receive clerical orders. And I was informed afterwards by Peyton Randolph
that it had procured me the honor of having my name inserted in a long list of
proscriptions enrolled in a bill of attainder commenced in one of the houses of
parliament, but suppressed in embryo by the hasty step of events which warned
them to be a little cautious. Montague, agent of the H. of Burgesses in England
made extracts from the bill, copied the names, and sent them to Peyton Randolph.
The names I think were about 20 which he repeated to me, but I recollect those
only of Hancock, the two Adamses, Peyton Randolph himself, Patrick Henry, &
myself. The convention met on the 1st of Aug, renewed their association,
appointed delegates to the Congress, gave them instructions very temperately &
properly expressed, both as to style & matter; and they repaired to Philadelphia
at the time appointed. The splendid proceedings of that Congress at their 1st
session belong to general history, are known to every one, and need not therefore
be noted here. They terminated their session on the 26th of Octob, to meet again
on the 10th May ensuing. The convention at their ensuing session of Mar, '75,
approved of the proceedings of Congress, thanked their delegates and reappointed
the same persons to represent the colony at the meeting to be held in May: and
foreseeing the probability that Peyton Randolph their president and Speaker also
of the H. of B. might be called off, they added me, in that event to the delegation.
Mr. Randolph was according to expectation obliged to leave the chair of Congress
to attend the Gen. Assembly summoned by Ld. Dunmore to meet on the 1st day of June
1775. Ld. North's conciliatory propositions, as they were called, had been received
by the Governor and furnished the subject for which this assembly was convened. Mr.
Randolph accordingly attended, and the tenor of these propositions being generally
known, as having been addressed to all the governors, he was anxious that the answer
of our assembly, likely to be the first, should harmonize with what he knew to be
the sentiments and wishes of the body he had recently left. He feared that Mr.
Nicholas, whose mind was not yet up to the mark of the times, would undertake the
answer, & therefore pressed me to prepare an answer. I did so, and with his aid
carried it through the house with long and doubtful scruples from Mr. Nicholas
and James Mercer, and a dash of cold water on it here & there, enfeebling it somewhat,
but finally with unanimity or a vote approaching it. This being passed, I repaired
immediately to Philadelphia, and conveyed to Congress the first notice they had of
it. It was entirely approved there. I took my seat with them on the 21st of June.
On the 24th, a commee which had been appointed to prepare a declaration of the
causes of taking up arms, brought in their report (drawn I believe by J. Rutledge)
which not being liked they recommitted it on the 26th, and added Mr. Dickinson and
myself to the committee. On the rising of the house, the commee having not yet met,
I happened to find myself near Govr W. Livingston, and proposed to him to draw the
paper. He excused himself and proposed that I should draw it. On my pressing him
with urgency, "we are as yet but new acquaintances, sir, said he, why are you so
earnest for my doing it?" "Because, said I, I have been informed that you drew
the Address to the people of Gr. Britain, a production certainly of the finest
pen in America." "On that, says he, perhaps sir you may not have been correctly
informed." I had received the information in Virginia from Colo Harrison on his
return from that Congress. Lee, Livingston & Jay had been the commee for that
draught. The first, prepared by Lee, had been disapproved & recommitted. The
second was drawn by Jay, but being presented by Govr Livingston, had led Colo.
Harrison into the error. The next morning, walking in the hall of Congress, many
members being assembled but the house not yet formed, I observed Mr. Jay, speaking
to R. H. Lee, and leading him by the button of his coat, to me. "I understand, sir,"
said he to me, "that this gentleman informed you that Govr Livingston drew the
Address to the people of Gr Britain." I assured him at once that I had not
received that information from Mr. Lee & that not a word had ever passed on the
subject between Mr. Lee & myself; and after some explanations the subject was
dropt. These gentlemen had had some sparrings in debate before, and continued ever
very hostile to each other.
I prepared a draught of the Declaration
committed to us. It was too strong for Mr. Dickinson. He still retained the hope
of reconciliation with the mother country, and was unwilling it should be lessened
by offensive statements. He was so honest a man, & so able a one that he was greatly
indulged even by those who could not feel his scruples. We therefore requested him
to take the paper, and put it into a form he could approve. He did so, preparing
an entire new statement, and preserving of the former only the last 4. paragraphs
& half of the preceding one. We approved & reported it to Congress, who accepted
it. Congress gave a signal proof of their indulgence to Mr. Dickinson, and of
their great desire not to go too fast for any respectable part of our body, in
permitting him to draw their second petition to the King according to his own
ideas, and passing it with scarcely any amendment. The disgust against this
humility was general; and Mr. Dickinson's delight at its passage was the only
circumstance which reconciled them to it. The vote being passed, altho' further
observn on it was out of order, he could not refrain from rising and expressing
his satisfaction and concluded by saying "there is but one word, Mr. President,
in the paper which I disapprove, & that is the word Congress," on which Ben Harrison
rose and said "there is but on word in the paper, Mr. President, of which I approve,
and that is the word Congress."
On the 22d of July Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams,
R. H. Lee, & myself, were appointed a commee to consider and report on Ld. North's
conciliatory resolution. The answer of the Virginia assembly on that subject
having been approved I was requested by the commee to prepare this report,
which will account for the similarity of feature in the two instruments.
On the 15th of May, 1776, the convention of Virginia instructed their delegates
in Congress to propose to that body to declare the colonies independent of G.
Britain, and appointed a commee to prepare a declaration of rights and plan of
government.
In Congress, Friday June 7. 1776. The delegates from Virginia moved in obedience
to instructions from their constituents that the Congress should declare that
these United colonies are & of right ought to be free & independent states, that
they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political
connection between them & the state of Great Britain is & ought to be, totally
dissolved; that measures should be immediately taken for procuring the assistance
of foreign powers, and a Confederation be formed to bind the colonies more closely
together.
The house being obliged to attend at that time to some other business, the
proposition was referred to the next day, when the members were ordered to attend
punctually at ten o'clock.
Saturday June 8. They proceeded to take it into
consideration and referred it to a committee of the whole, into which they immediately
resolved themselves, and passed that day & Monday the 10th in debating on the subject.
It was argued by Wilson, Robert R. Livingston, E. Rutledge, Dickinson and others
That tho' they were friends to the measures themselves, and saw the impossibility
that we should ever again be united with Gr. Britain, yet they were against adopting
them at this time:
That the conduct we had formerly observed was wise & proper now, of deferring to take
any capital step till the voice of the people drove us into it:
That they were
our power, & without them our declarations could not be carried into effect;
That the people of the middle colonies (Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylva, the Jerseys &
N. York) were not yet ripe for bidding adieu to British connection, but that they
were fast ripening & in a short time would join in the general voice of America:
That the resolution entered into by this house on the 15th of May for suppressing the
exercise of all powers derived from the crown, had shown, by the ferment into which it
had thrown these middle colonies, that they had not yet accommodated their minds to a
separation from the mother country:
That some of them had expressly forbidden
their delegates to consent to such a declaration, and others had given no instructions,
& consequently no powers to give such consent:
That if the delegates of any
particular colony had no power to declare such colony independant, certain they were
the others could not declare it for them; the colonies being as yet perfectly independant
of each other:
That the assembly of Pennsylvania was now sitting above stairs, their convention would
sit within a few days, the convention of New York was now sitting, & those of the
Jerseys & Delaware counties would meet on the Monday following, & it was probable
these bodies would take up the question of Independance & would declare to their
delegates the voice of their state:
That if such a declaration should now be
agreed to, these delegates must retire & possibly their colonies might secede from the Union:
That such a secession would weaken us more than could be compensated by any foreign alliance:
That in the event of such a division, foreign powers would either refuse to join themselves
to our fortunes, or, having us so much in their power as that desperate declaration would
place us, they would insist on terms proportionably more hard and prejudicial:
That we had little reason to expect an alliance with those to whom alone as yet we
had cast our eyes:
That France & Spain had reason to be jealous of that rising
power which would one day certainly strip them of all their American possessions:
That it was more likely they should form a connection with the British court,
who, if they should find themselves unable otherwise to extricate themselves
from their difficulties, would agree to a partition of our territories, restoring
Canada to France, & the Floridas to Spain, to accomplish for themselves a recovery
of these colonies:
That it would not be long before we should receive certain information of the disposition
of the French court, from the agent whom we had sent to Paris for that purpose:
That if this disposition should be favorable, by waiting the event of the present campaign,
which we all hoped would be successful, we should have reason to expect an alliance on better
terms:
That this would in fact work no delay of any effectual aid from such ally, as, from the
advance of the season & distance of our situation, it was impossible we could receive
any assistance during this campaign:
That it was prudent to fix among ourselves the terms on which we should form alliance,
before we declared we would form one at all events:
And that if these were agreed on, & our Declaration of Independance ready by the time
our Ambassador should be prepared to sail, it would be as well as to go into that
Declaration at this day.
On the other side it was urged by J. Adams, Lee, Wythe, and others.
That no gentleman had argued against the policy or the right of separation from Britain,
nor had supposed it possible we should ever renew our connection; that they had only
opposed its being now declared:
That the question was not whether, by a declaration of independance, we should make
ourselves what we are not; but whether we should declare a fact which already exists:
That as to the people or parliament of England, we had always been independent of
them, their restraints on our trade deriving efficacy from our acquiescence only, &
not from any rights they possessed of imposing them, & that so far our connection had
been federal only & was now dissolved by the commencement of hostilities:
That as to the King, we had been bound to him by allegiance, but that this bond was
now dissolved by his assent to the late act of parliament, by which he declares us
out of his protection, and by his levying war on us, a fact which had long ago proved
us out of his protection; it being a certain position in law that allegiance & protection
are reciprocal, the one ceasing when the other is withdrawn:
That James the IId. never declared the people of England out of his protection yet his
actions proved it & the parliament declared it:
No delegates then can be denied, or ever want, a power of declaring an existing truth:
That the delegates from the Delaware counties having declared their constituents ready
to join, there are only two colonies Pennsylvania & Maryland whose delegates are absolutely
tied up, and that these had by their instructions only reserved a right of confirming or
rejecting the measure:
That the instructions from Pennsylvania might be accounted
for from the times in which they were drawn, near a twelvemonth ago, since which the face
of affairs has totally changed:
That within that time it had become apparent that
Britain was determined to accept nothing less than a carte-blanche, and that the King's
answer to the Lord Mayor Aldermen & common council of London, which had come to hand four
days ago, must have satisfied every one of this point:
That the people wait for us to lead the way:
That they are in favour of the
measure, tho' the instructions given by some of their representatives are not:
That the voice of the representatives is not always consonant with the voice of the
people, and that this is remarkably the case in these middle colonies:
That the effect of the resolution of the 15th of May has proved this, which,
raising the murmurs of some in the colonies of Pennsylvania & Maryland, called
forth the opposing voice of the freer part of the people, & proved them to be
the majority, even in these colonies:
That the backwardness of these two colonies might be ascribed partly to the influence
of proprietary power & connections, & partly to their having not yet been attacked by
the enemy:
That these causes were not likely to be soon removed, as there seemed no probability
that the enemy would make either of these the seat of this summer's war:
That it would be vain to wait either weeks or months for perfect unanimity, since it
was impossible that all men should ever become of one sentiment on any question:
That the conduct of some colonies from the beginning of this contest, had given
reason to suspect it was their settled policy to keep in the rear of the confederacy,
that their particular prospect might be better, even in the worst event:
That therefore it was necessary for those colonies who had thrown themselves forward
& hazarded all from the beginning, to come forward now also, and put all again to
their own hazard:
That the history of the Dutch revolution, of whom three states only confederated at
first proved that a secession of some colonies would not be so dangerous as some
apprehended:
That a declaration of Independence alone could render it consistent with European
delicacy for European powers to treat with us, or even to receive an Ambassador from
us:
That till this they would not receive our vessels into their ports, nor acknowledge
the adjudications of our courts of admiralty to be legitimate, in cases of capture
of British vessels:
That though France & Spain may be jealous of our rising power, they must think
it will be much more formidable with the addition of Great Britain; and will
therefore see it their interest to prevent a coalition; but should they refuse,
we shall be but where we are; whereas without trying we shall never know whether
they will aid us or not:
That the present campaign may be unsuccessful, &
therefore we had better propose an alliance while our affairs wear a hopeful aspect:
That to await the event of this campaign will certainly work delay, because during
this summer France may assist us effectually by cutting off those supplies of
provisions from England & Ireland on which the enemy's armies here are to depend;
or by setting in motion the great power they have collected in the West Indies, &
calling our enemy to the defence of the possessions they have there:
That it would be idle to lose time in settling the terms of alliance, till we
had first determined we would enter into alliance:
That it is necessary to lose no time in opening a trade for our people, who will
want clothes, and will want money too for the paiment of taxes:
And that the only misfortune is that we did not enter into alliance with France
six months sooner, as besides opening their ports for the vent of our last year's
produce, they might have marched an army into Germany and prevented the petty
princes there from selling their unhappy subjects to subdue us.
It appearing in the course of these debates that the colonies of N. York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina were not yet matured for falling
from the parent stem, but that they were fast advancing to that state, it was thought
most prudent to wait a while for them, and to postpone the final decision to July 1.
but that this might occasion as little delay as possible a committee was appointed
to prepare a declaration of independence. The commee were J. Adams, Dr. Franklin,
Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston & myself. Committees were also appointed at the
same time to prepare a plan of confederation for the colonies, and to state the terms
proper to be proposed for foreign alliance. The committee for drawing the declaration
of Independence desired me to do it. It was accordingly done, and being approved by
them, I reported it to the house on Friday the 28th of June when it was read and
ordered to lie on the table. On Monday, the 1st of July the house resolved itself
into a commee of the whole & resumed the consideration of the original motion made
by the delegates of Virginia, which being again debated through the day, was carried
in the affirmative by the votes of N. Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, N. Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, N. Carolina, & Georgia. S. Carolina and
Pennsylvania voted against it. Delaware having but two members present, they were
divided. The delegates for New York declared they were for it themselves & were
assured their constituents were for it, but that their instructions having been
drawn near a twelvemonth before, when reconciliation was still the general object,
they were enjoined by them to do nothing which should impede that object. They
therefore thought themselves not justifiable in voting on either side, and asked
leave to withdraw from the question, which was given them. The commee rose &
reported their resolution to the house. Mr. Edward Rutledge of S. Carolina then
requested the determination might be put off to the next day, as he believed his
colleagues, tho' they disapproved of the resolution, would then join in it for the
sake of unanimity. The ultimate question whether the house would agree to the resolution
of the committee was accordingly postponed to the next day, when it was again moved and
S. Carolina concurred in voting for it. In the meantime a third member had come post
from the Delaware counties and turned the vote of that colony in favour of the
resolution. Members of a different sentiment attending that morning from
Pennsylvania also, their vote was changed, so that the whole 12 colonies who
were authorized to vote at all, gave their voices for it; and within a few days,
the convention of N. York approved of it and thus supplied the void occasioned
by the withdrawing of her delegates from the vote.
Congress proceeded the
same day to consider the declaration of Independance which had been reported &
lain on the table the Friday preceding, and on Monday referred to a commee of
the whole. The pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping
terms with, still haunted the minds of many. For this reason those passages
which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck out, lest they
should give them offence. The clause too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants
of Africa, was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had
never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who on the contrary
still wished to continue it. Our northern brethren also I believe felt a little
tender under those censures; for tho' their people have very few slaves themselves
yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others. The debates having
taken up the greater parts of the 2d 3d & 4th days of July were, in the evening of
the last, closed the declaration was reported by the commee, agreed to by the house
and signed by every member present except Mr. Dickinson. As the sentiments of men
are known not only by what they receive, but what they reject also, I will state
the form of the declaration as originally reported. The parts struck out by
Congress shall be distinguished by a black line drawn under them; & those
inserted by them shall be placed in the margin or in a concurrent column.
IN THE FOLLOWING, PARTS DELETED BY THE CONGRESS ARE MARKED IN RED, PARTS ADDED
BY THE CONGRESS ARE MARKED IN BLUE
A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in
General Congress Assembled.
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 & 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
inherent
and (
certain) inalienable
rights; that among these are life, liberty, & 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
abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it's foundation on such
principles, & organizing it's powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their safety & happiness. Prudence indeed will dictate that
governments long established should not be changed for light & transient causes;
and accordingly all experience hath shown 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 & usurpations
begun at a distinguished period and
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, & to
provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance
of these colonies; & such is now the necessity which constrains them to
expunge (
alter) their former systems of government. The history of the present king of
Great Britain is a history of
unremitting
(
repeated) injuries & usurpations,
among which appears no solitary fact to contradict
the uniform tenor of the rest but all have (
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
for the truth of which we pledge a faith
yet unsullied by falsehood.
He has refused his assent to laws the
most wholesome & necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate & pressing importance, unless
suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; & 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, & 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
& continually 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 & 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, & raising the conditions of new appropriations
of lands.
He has
suffered (
obstructed) the administration of justice
totally to cease in some of these states (
by) refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made
our judges dependant on his
will alone, for the tenure of their offices, & the amount & paiment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices
by
a self assumed power and sent hither swarms of new officers to harass our
people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us in times of peace
standing armies
and ships of war without
the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independant of, & superior to the civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions
& 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 neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging
it's boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for
introducing the same absolute rule into these
states (
colonies); for taking
away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the
forms of our governments; for suspending our own legislatures, & declaring themselves
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here
withdrawing
his governors, and declaring us out of his allegiance & protection.
(
by declaring us out of his protection, and
waging war against us.)
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, & destroyed the
lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat
the works of death, desolation & tyranny already begun with circumstances of
cruelty and perfidy (
scarcely paralleled
in the most barbarous ages, & 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 &
brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has (
excited domestic insurrection
among us, & has) endeavored 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, & conditions
of existence.
He has incited treasonable insurrections of
our fellow-citizens, with the allurements of forfeiture & confiscation of our
property.
He has waged cruel war against human nature
itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a
distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery
in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.
This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the
CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN
should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every
legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. And that
this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now
exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that
liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he
also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the
LIBERTIES of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against
the LIVES of another.
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 injuries.
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
who mean to be free. Future ages will
scarcely believe that the hardiness of one man adventured, within the short compass
of twelve years only, to lay a foundation so broad & so undisguised for tyranny over
a people fostered & fixed in principles of freedom.
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
a
an unwarrantable) jurisdiction over
these
our states (
us). We have reminded
them of the circumstances of our emigration & settlement here,
no one of which could warrant so strange a
pretension: that these were effected at the expense of our own blood & treasure,
unassisted by the wealth or the strength of Great Britain: that in constituting
indeed our several forms of government, we had adopted one common king, thereby
laying a foundation for perpetual league & amity with them: but that submission
to their parliament was no part of our constitution, nor ever in idea, if history
may be credited: and, we (
have
) appealed to their native justice and magnanimity
as well as to (
and we have conjured
them by) the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which
were likely to (
would inevitably) interrupt our connection and correspondence. They too have
been deaf to the voice of justice & of consanguinity,
and when occasions have been given them, by the regular course of their laws, of removing
from their councils the disturbers of our harmony, they have, by their free election,
re-established them in power. At this very time too they are permitting their chief
magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch & foreign
mercenaries to invade & destroy us. These facts have given the last stab to agonizing
affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce forever these unfeeling brethren. We
must [We must therefore] endeavor to forget our former love for them, and hold them
as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We might have been
a free and a great people together; but a communication of grandeur & of freedom it
seems is below their dignity. Be it so, since they will have it. The road to happiness
& to glory is open to us too. We will tread it apart from them, and acquiesce
in the necessity which denounces our
eternal
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, do
(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
states (
Colonies,)
reject and renounce all allegiance & subjection
to the kings of Great Britain & all others who may hereafter claim, by through or
under them; we utterly
dissolve all political
connection which heretofore
subsisted between us & the people or
parliament of Great
Britain; and do finally we do assert (
solemnly publish) and declare, (
That
) these (
United) Colonies
(
are, and of Right ought) to be Free
and Independent States;
and that as 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 we mutually pledge to each other our lives,
our fortunes, & our sacred honor.
The Declaration thus signed on the 4th, on paper was engrossed on parchment, &
signed again on the 2d. of August.
Go to Declaration of Independence
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