1898.] HAYS — DRAUGHT OF DECLARATIOX OF INDEPENDENCE. 103 



The text of the draught possessed by this Society and d^fac-simile 

 of it are appended -} 



[A Declaration by the Representatives of the UNITED STATES 

 OF AMERICA in General Congress assembled.] /;/ Co?tgress, 

 July 4j J776, 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 man- 

 kind 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 [inherent and 

 inalienable] certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, 

 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights, 

 governments are instituted among men, derivnig their just powers 

 from the consent of the governed ; that whenever any form of gov- 

 ernment 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 «Sc transient causes, 

 and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more 

 disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right them- 

 selves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But 

 when a long train of abuses and usurpations, [begun at a distin- 

 guished period &] 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, & to provide new 

 guards for their future security. Such has been the patient suffer- 

 ance of these colonies, & such is now the necessity which constrains 

 them to [expunge] alter their former systems of government. The 

 history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of [unre- 

 mitting] repeated injuries and usurpations, [among which appears 



1 The text is printed in Roman characters. In order to show the changes 

 made by the Congress the parts stricken-out by the Congress are enclosed in* 

 [brackets], and the parts inserted by the Congress are printed in Italics. 



