1	When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary
     2	for one people to dissolve the political bands which
     3	have connected them with another, and to assume among
     4	the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station
     5	to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle
     6	them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires
     7	that they should declare the causes which impel them to
     8	the separation.
     9	
    10	We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
    11	created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
    12	with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
    13	Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to
    14	secure these rights, Governments are instituted among
    15	Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
    16	governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes
    17	destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to
    18	alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,
    19	laying its foundation on such principles and organizing
    20	its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
    21	likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence,
    22	indeed, will dictate that Governments long established
    23	should not be changed for light and transient causes;
    24	and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind
    25	are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,
    26	than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which
    27	they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and
    28	usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a
    29	design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their
    30	right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government,
    31	and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such
    32	has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such
    33	is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their
    34	former Systems of Government. The history of the present
    35	King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and
    36	usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment
    37	of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this,
    38	let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
    39	
    40	In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for
    41	Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions
    42	have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose
    43	character is thus marked by every act which may define a
    44	Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
    45	
    46	Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish
    47	brethren. We have warned them from time to time of
    48	attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable
    49	jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the
    50	circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We
    51	have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and
    52	we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred
    53	to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably
    54	interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have
    55	been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We
    56	must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which
    57	denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the
    58	rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
    59	
    60	We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States
    61	of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to
    62	the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our
    63	intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good
    64	People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare,
    65	That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be
    66	Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from
    67	all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political
    68	connection between them and the State of Great Britain,
    69	is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free
    70	and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War,
    71	conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce,
    72	and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent
    73	States may of right do. And for the support of this
    74	Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of
    75	divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
    76	Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.