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 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 inalienable 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 institute a new government, laying its foundation 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 established, should not be changed for light and 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 and usurpations, 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 patient sufferance 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 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 inestimable to them, and 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 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 danger of invasion from without, and 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 migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations 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 harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in time 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 jurisdiction 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 benefit of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the powers of our governments:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves 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 perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and 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, and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule or warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
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 injury. 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.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts made by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our 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, 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 colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, 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, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
The 56 delegates from the 13 colonies who signed:
John Hancock (Mass.)
president of the Continental Congress, later governor of Massachusetts (1780-85, 1787-93). Hancock was the only person to sign the Declaration on July 4. It was sent out with his signature. Most of the other delegates signed on August 2.
John Adams (Mass.) later served as the
second president of the United States (1797-1801).
Samuel Adams (Mass.) later served as
governor of Massachusetts (1794-97).
Josiah Bartlett (N.H.) later served as governor of New Hampshire (1790-94).
Carter Braxton (Va.) a member of the House of Burgesses and the Virginia Colonial Legislature (1761-1775) and supported the 1765 Virginia resolutions against the Stamp Act. Later he served in the Virginia Legislature from 1776 until his death in 1797.
Charles Carroll (Md.) was a member of the commission appointed by the Continental Congress to convince Canadians to join the war against Great Britain. He was one of the first U.S. senators from Maryland (1789-1792). He was the last survivor of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independenc.
Samuel Chase (Md.) later served as a
justice for the U.S. Supreme Court (1796-1811).
Abraham Clark (N.J.) was elected a member of the first Congress under the federal government and served until his death.
George Clymer (Penn.) was appointed to replace Pennsylvania delegates who refused to sign the Declaration of Independence. Although not present when it was adopted, he was allowed to sign it. He was a delegate to the Federal Convention and also signed the Constitution. He was elected to the first U.S. Congress.
William Ellery (R.I.) later served as a judge in the Rhode Island Supreme Court and with Rufus King tried to have slavery abolished in the United States.
William Floyd (N.Y.) served as a member of the first Congress under the federal government, and served in the New York state's legislature and helped rewrite the N.Y. Constitution.
Benjamin Franklin (Penn.) later a member of the Federal Constitutional Convention (1787).
Elbridge Gerry (Mass.) later served as vice president of the United States (1813-1814). He died in office.
Button Gwinnett (Ga.) was also a member of the convention that framed the Georgia Constitution (1776-77). He was killed in a duel with American general Lachlan McIntosh, his rival for the command of revolutionary troops from Georgia in 1777.
Lyman Hall (Ga.) served one term as governor of Georgia.
Benjamin Harrison (Va.) served two successive terms as governor. Elected again in 1791, he died the day after he took office.
John Hart (N.J.) was hounded by the British and Hessians for signing the Declaration and his farm, timber, livestock were ravaged and he was on the run. He died in 1780.
Joseph Hewes (N.C.) headed up the naval committee and was in effect the Secretary of the Navy. He was elected to Congress and died a few days after he resigned because of his health in November 1779.
Thomas Heyward, Jr. (S.C.) served in the Continental Congress until the end of 1778. As a captain of an artillery battalion he was wounded in the defense of Charleston and taken prisoner. He served in the South Carolina Legislature from 1782-84.
William Hooper (N.C.) was absent for the vote on independence but signed the Declaration later in the summer. He served in the North Carolina Legislature for five years after leaving Congress.
Stephen Hopkins (R.I.) elected as colonial governor nine times. He served as a delegate to the first Continental Congress and the second. He helped draw up the Articles of Confederation. He was one of the oldest signers of the Declaration.
Francis Hopkinson (N.J.) composer who wrote what many consider the first American opera, "The Temple of Minerva."
Samuel Huntington (Conn.) served in the Continental Congress for a decade and served as its president for two years. From 1786 to 1798 he was governor of Connecticut.
Thomas Jefferson (Va.) later served as the third president of the United States (1801-09).
Francis Lightfoot Lee (Va.) as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, he urged resistence to Britain. He served in the Continental Congress until 1779.
Richard Henry Lee (Va.) in the Second Continental Congress introduced the resolution calling for a declaration of independence. In Letters of the Federal Farmer (1787) he urged the passage of a bill of rights.
Francis Lewis (N.Y.) was a member of the Contintental Congress. Lack of instruction from his province kept him from voting on independence on July 2 or the adoption of the Declaration on July 4.
Philip Livingston (N.Y.) was one of the promoters of Kings College (now Columbia University).
Thomas Lynch, Jr. (S.C.) was elected to Congress to care for, and if necessary substitute for his father. He is presumed to have died in a shipwreck when he was only 30 years old.
Thomas McKean (Del.) served in the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1783. He helped write the Delaware Constitution.
Arthur Middleton (S.C.) as an officer of the militia, he was imprisoned by the British after the fall of Charleston.
Lewis Morris (N.Y.) served as a delegate to the second Continental Congress but took a temporary leave to assume command of the Westchester militia with the rank of brigadier general.
Robert Morris (Penn.) merchant, later raised money for George Washington's army and earned the title of "financier of the Revolution." Spent three years in a Philadelphia debtors prison after his land speculation failed.
John Morton (Penn.) served in both the first and second Continental Congress. He helped persuade the Pennsylvania delegation to the side of independence. He died in April 1777, less than a year after signing the Declaration.
Thomas Nelson, Jr. (Va.) left Congress in 1777 to become brigadier general in charge of the militia of Virginia. He became governor in 1781, and directed General Washington to fire on his own home which was occupied by the British general Charles Cornwallis.
William Paca (Md.) served as the chief justice of the court of appeals in admiralty cases in 1780. He later served as the governor of Maryland from 1782 to 1785.
Robert Treat Paine (Mass.) was one of the prosecutors of the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre. He helped draft the Massachusetts Constitution. He served on the state supreme court from 1780 to 1784.
John Penn (N.C.) served as a member of the Continental Congress from 1775 until 1780. He then became a member of the North Carolina board of war.
George Read (Del.) opposed the Declaration at the time it was adopted, but later supported it. He served as president of the state of Delaware and later become the chief justice of its supreme court.
Caesar Rodney (Del.) cast the third and deciding vote for Delaware's support of the Declaration.
George Ross (Penn.) helped draw up Pennsylvania's declaration of rights. He later became a judge of admiralty court in his state.
Benjamin Rush (Penn.) physician, later
established the first free medical clinic in the United States.
Edward Rutledge (S.C.) at 26 years old, he was the youngest signer of the Declaration. Persuaded South Carolina's delegation to vote unanimously for independence. He was captured by the British when Charleston fell. In 1798 he was elected governor of his state but died in office in 1800.
Roger Sherman (Conn.) at the Constitutional Convention (1787) introduced the Connecticut Compromise. He is the only man to have signed the Continental Association (1774), the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Articles of Confederation (1777), and the Constitution (1787).
James Smith (Penn.) organized a milita company between 1774 and 1776, and was eventually made colonel. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1776.
Richard Stockton (N.J.) was a justice of the state supreme court before being elected to the Continental Congress. He declined to leave Congress to become chief justice of the state supreme court. He was captured by the British when he returned to his state. His home was pillaged. In 1781, he died of ill health due to his captivity.
Thomas Stone (Md.) entered Congress in 1775, served for several years and was then elected to the upper house of the Maryland Legislature.
George Taylor (Penn.) served less than a year in Congress. In 1777, he was elected to the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania but only served a few months before he died.
Matthew Thorton (N.H.) born in Ireland, settled in Londonderry, N.H. He was not a member of the Continental Congress when the Declaration of Independence was adopted but was allowed, by law, to sign it on Nov. 4, 1776 the day after he arrived in Philadelphia to begin the first of two term in the Congress.
George Walton (Ga.) was elected to the Continental Congress in 1776. He was a colonel of the Georgia militia and was wounded and captured in the seige of Savannah. He later served as the chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court and in 1789 became the state's governor.
William Whipple (N.H.) served in the Continental Congress until 1779. He twice took leave to lead the New Hampshire militia against the British. He was appointed a brigadier general by the state legislature and led the militia to important victories in the battles of Stillwater and Saratoga.
William Williams (Conn.) served in the French and Indian War. After the Declaration, he served in Congress for a few more years. He was a delegate to the state convention and voted for ratification of the Federal Constitution.
James Wilson (Penn.) later served on the
U.S. Supreme Court (1789-98) as one of its first associate justices.
John Witherspoon (N.J.) was a staunch advocate of religious liberty. He served intermittently in Congress until 1782 and was a signer of the Articles of Confederation.
Oliver Wolcott (Conn.) was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress in October 1775 but had to leave Philadelphia because of an illness and his substitute William Williams signed in his stead. After he returned, he was allowed to sign, too. He served as governor of Connecticut from 1796 until he died in office in 1798.
George Wythe (Va.) drafted the protest for the Virginia House of Burgesses against the Stamp Act. He served as a member of the Federal Convention of 1787 which framed the Constitution. He was the first professor of law at the College of William and Mary and taught John Marshall, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and Henry Clay. One of the earliest abolitionists, he freed his slaves in his will.