Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-07-04
DECLARATION OF
Jy!DEPsEM!D.EHJ gsHEs

The unanimous Declaration Of The Thirteen
United States Of 3merica.
VIXEN, 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 ofthe earth,
the separate and equal station to which
the laws Of nature and Of natures God
entitle them, 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 Sc lf-evi-
dent:-that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Crea-
ator with certain unalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty, and
the pursuit Of happiness. That to Sc
cure these rights, governments are IN
stituted among men, deriving. their
Just powers from the consent OF the
governed; that whenever any form oil
government becomes destructive OF
these ends, it is the right OF the people
to alter or to abolish it, and to institute
a new government, laying its founda-
ton 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 estao-
hshed should not be changed for light
and transient causes; and accordingly
all experience hath shown, that man
kind are more disposed to suffer while
evils are siderable, than TO right them
selves by abolishing the forms to which
they are accustomed. But when
long train of abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same object,
evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute despotism, it is their right, 1t
is their duty, to throw of such govern
ment, and TO provide new guards for
their future security. Such has been
the patient sufferance ofthese 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, Is
a history ofrepeated injuries and usur-
pasions, all having in direct object the
establishment OF an absolute tyranny
over these states. To prove this, let
facts be submitted to candid world
He has refused his assent to laws the
most wholesome and necessary Tor the
public good.
He has forbidden his governors to
mass laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their
oneration, till his assent should be OBJ
tanned; and when so suspended, he has
utterly neglected to attend to them
He has refused to pass other laws Tor
the accommodation Of large districts
of people, unless those people would re-
linouish the right of representation In
the leeislature-a right inestimable to
them, and formidable to tyrants only
He has called together legislative
bodies at places unusual, uncomiort-
able. and distant from the repository
of their public records, for the sole
purpose of fatiguing them into comph-
ance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative
houses repeatedly, for opposing, with
manly Hrmness, his invasions on the
rights Of the people.
He has refused, for long time after
such dissolutions, to cause others to be
elected; whereby the legislative pow
ers, incapable of Humiliation, have re-
turned 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 con7ul-
sions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the
population of these states; Tor that
purpose obstructingthe laws Tor na'u-
ralization oftoreigners; refusing to pass
others to encourage their migration
hither, and raising the conditions oil
new appropriations of lands.
He has INSTRUCTED the adminlstra-