Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1831-07-04
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
-sIs CoNeREss, July q, 1776.

United States of .4merica.
When, IN the course of human events. il be-
comes necessary for one People to dissolve the po
litlcal bands which have connected them with
another and to assume, among the powers Of
the earth, the separate and equal station to which
the law of nature and OF natures God entitle
them, adecent respect to the opinions of man
kind requires that they should declare the caus-
es winch impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be selfevident:-
That all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalena-
able 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 fom the consent of the
governed; that when any government becomes
destructive to those ends, it is the right Of the
People to alter, or abolish it, and to institute
new government, laying its foundation on such
principles, and organizing ats. 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; aud accordingly, all experience hath
shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer
while evils are suferaoe, than to right themselves
BY abolishing the forms to which they are &C.
customed. But when long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object,
eyinces design TO reduce them under absolute
despotsm, it is their right, it is their duty, to
throw Oh 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 ofthe present King of Great Britain, is
history of repeated injuries and usurpat0ns, all
havingaa direct object the establishment of an
absolute tyranny over these states. To prove
this, let9acts be SUBMITTED toa 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 wheu sosuspended, he has ut
terly neglected to attend to them He has
refused TO pass other laws for the accommodation
Of large districts u people, unless these people
would relihquish the rights Of representation in
the legplature-a right iHestimable to them, and
formidable to tyrahts only. = -
He has called together legislative bodies at |
places aausuaI, uncomfortable, and distant from
tire repository nf their public records for the sole
purpose of fatiguing thent.inte compliance with |
his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeat
eddy, for opposing, with manly irmness, his IN,
yasions.on the rights Of the people. /
He has refused, for a long time after such
dissolutons, to cause others to be elected where
by the legislative powers, incapable of annihila-
ton have returned to.he people at large for their
exercise, the state remaining in the mean time
exposed to all the dangers Of invasion from with
out, and commissions Within.
He has endeayored to prevent the population
of these states; for that purpose obstruotiug the
laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to
pass others to encourage their migration hither,
ard raising the conditions OF new appropriations
e lands.
lie has DISTRACTED the administration of JUS
~ refusing his assent to laws for establi sh-
,ji>iarv powers.
rs1e Judges dependant on his will
tenure of their Offices, and the
o., nent of their salaries.
ii multitude of new Offices. aud
warns of officers, to hairass our
eat out their substance.
sept among US in times of peace, stand
lies, without the consent of our legisla-
has affected to render the military indie
'snt of, and superior to the civil power.
l. mas combined with others to subject US to a ,
.s,lIctiou foreign to our constitution, and un-
: xnowledged by our laws; giving his assent to
yr acts Of pretended legislation: :
For quaEtering large bodies Of armed troops !
among US: I
For protecting them BY mock trial. from pu-
alsiment for any murders which they should 4
commit on the inhabitants of til states: il
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 bene-
its of trial by jury:- !
For transporting US beyond seas, to be tried for a
pretended offences:
For abolishing the free system Of English laws r
n neishbering province, establishing an arbi- =
rsry government. and enlarging its boundaries, q
as to.render it at once an example and fit in >
trument for introducing the same absolute rule =
nto these colonies: ~ ~
For taking away eur charters, abolishing our = =
,ost valuable laws, and altering fundamentally u
be forms Of our governments: ~