The Pennsylvania evening post — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-07-06 00:00:00, page 1

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
A Declaration by the Representatives
of the United States of America,
in General Congress assembled.
W HEN, in the course of human events, it be
comes 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 insti
tute new government, laying its foundation on such princi
ples, 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 esta
blished 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 usurpa
tions, 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 pa
tient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the neces
sity which constrains them to alter their former systems of go
vernment. The history of the present King of Great-Britain
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 inesti
mable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their pub
lic records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into com
pliance with his measures.
Vol. 11.
Price onty Two Coppers.
SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1776.
Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Evenings.
335
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for op
posing 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 con
vulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these
states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturaliza
tion of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their
migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new appro
priations 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 harrass 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 jurisfiction
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 neigh
bouring province, establishing, therein an arbitrary govern
ment, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once
an example and fit instrument for introducing the same abso
lute rule into these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable
laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our govern
ments:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring them
selves 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
[Num. 228.