The broad ax., 1897-07-03
THE DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE

WHEN, N Tue CouEec Va MunaA
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 sep
arate and equal station to which the
laws of nature and of natures God
entitIe them, q 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
evideLt: that all nen are created
equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalien-
able rights; that among these are
life, liberty, and the pursuit OF hap
piness; 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 govern
ment becomes destructive of these
ends, It Is the right of the people
to alter or to abolish it, and to in
stitute new government, laying its
foundation on such principles, and
organizing its powers in such form,
IS to them shall seem most likely
to effect their safety and happiness.
Prudence, indeed, viii dictate that
governments long established should
not be changed for light and tran
sient causes; and, accordingly, all
experience hath shown that man.
kind are more disposed to suffer,
while evils are snfferable, than to
right themselves by abolishing the
forms to which they are accus-
toned. But, when a long train of
abuses and nsurpations, pursuing
invariably the same object, eTinces
design to reduce them under alb
solnte 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 patient suffer-
anee of these 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 of repeated injuries and
usurpations, all having, In direct
object, the establishment of an alb
solute tyranny over these states.
To prove this, let facts be submitted
20 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 press
ing importance, unless suspended
lin 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 dis
tricts of people, unless those people
would relinquish the right of repre-
sentation IN the legislature; q right
inestimable to them, and formidable
to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative
bodies at places unusual, uncom-
Portable, and distant from the de-
pository of their public records. for
the sole purpose of fatiguing them
into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative
houses repeatedly, for opposing,
with manly frmness, his invasions
on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time
after such dissoIutions to cause
Others to be elected; whereby the
ieglsiatlVe powers, incapable or an
inhalation, 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 convul-
sions within.
He has endeavored 70 prevent the
population of these states; for that
purpose obstructing the laws for
naturalization of foreigners, refus-
ing to pass Others to encourage
their migrations hither, and raising
the conditions of new appropria-
tons of lands.
He has obstructed the admins
tration of justice by refusing his
assent to laws for establishing ia.
dietary powers.
He has made judges dependent
on his viii alone, for the tenure Of
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