? Whkx, in the course of human events, it be¬ 
comes neoessary for one people to dissolve the 
political bands which have connected them 
wit,h another, and to assume, among; the powers 
of ihe 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 inalien¬ 
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 from the con¬ 
sent 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 abol¬ 
ishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 
But when a long train of abuses and usurpa¬ 
tions, pursuing invariably the same object, 
evinces a design to reduce them under abso'ute 
despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to 
throw off such government, and to provide new 
guards for tbeir 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 govern¬ 
ment. The history of the present king of 
Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries 
and usurpations, all having in direct object the 
ADOPTED JULY -4, 1776. 
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 hi3 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 accommo¬ 
dation of large districts of people, unless those 
people would relinquish the right of represen¬ 
tation iu 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 repository of their public records, for the 
sole purpo.se of fatiguing them into compliance 
with his measures. 
He has dissolved representative houses re¬ 
peatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his 
invasions on the rights of the people. 
He has refused, for a long time after such dis¬ 
solutions. 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 dangers 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; re¬ 
fusing to pass others to encourage their migra¬ 
tion hither, and raising the condition of new 
appropriations of lands. 
He has obstructed the administration of jus¬ 
tice, by refusing his assent to laws for establish¬ 
ing 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 times of peace, 
standing armies, without the consent of our 
legislatures. 
He has affected to render the military inde¬ 
pendent 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: 
ii'K'i.fWOMVIiiMVW'ilVW'u 
JULY 5. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
DECLARATIONIOP AMERICAN INDEUE ISTDENCE, 
