New United States of America!
The Declaration of Independence from the United States of America
Action of First Continental Congress, July 4, 2005 The unanimous Declaration
of the peoples of the 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
and Women 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 and Women, 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 no 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 of their future
Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Peoples; and such is
now the Necessity, which constrains them to alter their former Systems of
Government. The History of the past and present Presidents of the United
States of America is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all
having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these
States and its people. 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
manipulated 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
endeavored to prevent the Population of these States and its peoples; 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 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 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 and its peoples: For
manipulating 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 between States to be tried for pretended
Offences: For abolishing the free System 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 States: For manipulating our Charters, abolishing our
most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For manipulating our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with
Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever. He has abdicated pretend
Government here, by declaring that he is protecting us and waging War against
other Nations. He has plundered our Seas, ravaged other Nations Coasts, burnt
other Nations Towns, and destroyed the Lives of other People. He is, at this
Time, transporting large Armies of 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 and
from other Nations to bear Arms against other Countries, to become the
Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their
Hands. He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us. 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. 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 United States of America,
solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United States of America and its
peoples are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they
are absolved from all Allegiance to the current Government of the United
States of America, and that all political Connection between them and the
current Government of the United States of America, 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.