Chapter 1
Declaration of Independence

July 4, 1776

Declaration of Independence

NOTE.  The words "Declaration of Independence" do not appear on
the original.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

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 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 institute 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 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 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
mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and
convulsions within.  He has endeavoured to prevent the population of
these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization
of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations
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 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 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 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 neighbouring 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 Forms
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 & 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
endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless
Indian Savages, whose known rule of 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 attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time
to time of attempts 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 of 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 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.

JOHN HANCOCK

  JOSIAH BARTLETT
  W'M WHIPPLE
  SAM'L. ADAMS
  JOHN ADAMS
  ROB'T. TREAT PAINE
  ELBRIDGE GERRY
  STEP. HOPKINS
  WILLIAM ELLERY
  ROGER SHERMAN
  SAM'EL HUNTINGTON
  W'M WILLIAMS
  OLIVER WOLCOTT
  MATTHEW THORNTON
  W'M FLOYD
  PHIL. LIVINGSTON
  FRAN'S LEWIS
  LEWIS MORRIS
  RICH'D STOCKTON
  JN'O. WITHERSPOON
  FRA'S. HOPKINSON
  JOHN HART
  ABRA CLARK
  ROB'T. MORRIS
  BENJAMIN RUSH
  BENJ'A. FRANKLIN
  JOHN MORTON
  GEO CLYMER
  JA'S. SMITH.
  GEO. TAYLOR
  JAMES WILSON
  GEO. ROSS
  CAESAR RODNEY
  GEO READ
  THO M'KEAN
  SAMUEL CHASE
  W'M. PACA
  THO'S. STONE
  CHARLES CARROLL of Carrollton
  GEORGE WYTHE
  RICHARD HENRY LEE.
  TH. JEFFERSON
  BENJ'A. HARRISON
  THO'S. NELSON jr.
  FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE
  CARTER BRAXTON
  W'M. HOOPER
  JOSEPH HEWES.
  JOHN PENN
  EDWARD RUTLEDGE.
  THO'S. HEYWARD Jun'r.
  THOMAS LYNCH Jun'r.
  ARTHUR MIDDLETON
  BUTTON GWINNETT
  LYMAN HALL
  GEO WALTON.

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The greatest single factor in enlisting the aid of France for the American colonies in the Revolution was Benjamin Franklin. The American philosopher and statesman arrived in Paris on December 18, 1777, as American commissioner, to seek recognition and assistance from the French. At his arrival, he found both the Court and the people lukewarm towards his cause, but the charm and common sense of the American soon won the hearts of all who came into contact with him. The illustration shows Franklin being lionized at a court reception. The wreath is being placed on his head by the Countess Polignac, to whose right stands the Count de Vergennes. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are shown seated at the right of the picture.