Show declaration of independence j a let the children read and the S f immortal document J when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the po bands which have connected them with an other and to assume among the powers of the earth the ep arate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature s god ent tie them a decent respect to the opinions of mankind rpaul res that aney should declare the which impel them to the separation we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal i that they are endowed by their craitor with certain unalienable rights that among these are life liberty and abo pursuit of happ ness that to secure anee righta governments are instituted among men deriving their just pow er from the consent of the governed that whenever any form of govern ent becomes obstructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter 01 to abolish t 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 ely to defect the r and happiness prudence indeed will die tote that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causa and accordingly all experience hath a 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 dut when a long train ot abuses and usurpations kursu ng invariably ane same object evinces a deb agn to educe them under absolute despotism it is their right it is their d ty to throw off such government and to provide new guards tor gieir future security such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies and such Is now the necessity recess ity which bonstra na them to alter the tomer systems of government the history of the present king of great britain is a history of repeated injuries ard usurpations all having in d object the establishment of an absolute hianny over these states to prove this ie facts be submitted to a cand d world he has refused his assent to laws the most wl holesome and necessary for the public good he has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance unless in their operation till hi assent should be obtained and when so suspended he has utterly neglected to attend to them he has ref sed lo 10 pass other laws tor the accommodation of large dis tracts of people unie s those people would sh the right of re presenta t on in the leg slature a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only he has called together legislative bodies at places unusual able and distant from the depository of the r public records for the sole pur pose of latigu ng them into compliance with bis measures he has dissolved houses repeatedly for appos ng with manly firmness hi invasions the rights of the peor le he has refused for a long time after such ions to cause others to be elected whereby the legislative powers incapable of annihilation have returned to the deop e at large for their exercise the state remaining in the nean n ean time exposed to all the dangers ot invasion from without and connul ons within he has endeavored to prevent tha poi of these states for that purpose ob trusting truc ting ane laws to natural zat on of tore eners refusing to pass others to their migrations h ther and raising the conditions of new appropriations cf lands he has fed the administration of justice by re using his assent to laws for ihirg jud clary powers he has made judges on his v il alone tor the tenure of their offices and the and of their salaries he has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of of bleers to harass our people and eat out their sub tance he has kept among us in times of peace standing ables without the consent of our leg clatur he has a to render th military independent of and superior to the vil power he las combined with others that is the lords and commons of britain to subject us to a on foreign to our constitution and unac kno by our la s givin his assent to their acts of pretended legis lation for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us for protect ng them by a mock tr al from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states for cutting aff our with all parts of the world for imps ng taxes on us without our consent for depriving us in irany cases of he benefits of trial by jury for transporting us belond seas to be tried tor 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 a our charters abolishing our moot valuable laws and altering fundamentally the forms of our government 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 bis protection and waging war against us he has plundered our seas ravaged our coasts burnt our towns and de strayed the arves of our people he Is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works oi death desolation and tyranny already begun with of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barb orous 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 executioner 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 sav agaes whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages sexes and conditions in every stage 0 these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury A prince whose character Is thus marked by every act may denne a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a tree people nor have we been wanting in attentions to our british brethren we have bained them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an 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 d lavow these usurpations which would in interrupt our connections and correspondence they too have absen deaf to the voice of just ce and of consanguinity we must therefore ac cu esce in the necessity which denounces our separation and hold them as a hold the lest of mankind enemies in war in peace friends we therefore the representatives of the un ted states of america in general contress assembled asem bled 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 ot these colonies solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are ald 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 states they have full power to levy war conclude peace contract alliances establish corn merce and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do and for the support ol 01 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 |