The Declaration of Independence

When in the course of human events

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 stationJefferson's rough draft: "for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, & to assume among the powers of the earth the equal & independant station" Congress replaced Jefferson's image of a people "advancing from subordination" with the more assertive act of "dissolving the political bands" that connected them to Britain, and reordered "equal & independant" to "separate and equal."¹ 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 separationJefferson's rough draft: "impel them to the change"².

We hold these truths to be self-evident

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rightsJefferson's rough draft: "these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independant, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable" This edit is traditionally credited to Benjamin Franklin. It moves the foundation of the claim from revealed, asserted truth ("sacred and undeniable") to a truth knowable by reason alone ("self-evident") — a small phrase carrying the difference between a theological claim and an Enlightenment one. The redundant "independant" is also dropped, and the source of rights shifts from being merely "inherent" to being granted by "their Creator."³; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happinessJefferson's rough draft: "among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness" Congress dropped "the preservation of" — rights are simply life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, not the preservation of them.⁴; that, to secure these rightsJefferson's rough draft: "ends"⁵, governments are instituted among men, 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 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 abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same objectJefferson's rough draft: "begun at a distinguished period, & pursuing invariably the same object" Congress dropped "begun at a distinguished period" — a tighter, less specific claim about when the pattern of abuses started.⁶, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotismJefferson's rough draft: "subject them to arbitrary power" A sharper, more absolute charge than Jefferson's draft.⁷, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their 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 government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused

• 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 dissolved 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 invasions 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; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 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.Jefferson's rough draft: "he has suffered the administration of justice totally to cease in some of these colonies, refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers:" Congress replaced "suffered ... totally to cease" with the more active "obstructed."⁸
• 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; for cutting off 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 beyond seas, to be tried for 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 away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments; 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 his protection and waging war against us.Jefferson's rough draft: "he has abdicated government here, withdrawing his governors, & declaring us out of his allegiance & protection:" Congress dropped "withdrawing his governors" and "allegiance," and added the more serious charge that the king was "waging war against us."⁹
• He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
• He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign 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 nationJefferson's rough draft: "unworthy the head of a civilized nation" Congress intensified this charge, adding that the cruelty was "scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages."¹⁰.
• He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
• He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savagesJefferson's rough draft: "he has incited treasonable insurrections in our fellow-subjects, with the allurements of forfeiture & confiscation of our property:" Congress dropped this wording and folded it into a single sentence with the adjoining charge about the "merciless Indian savages." The "forfeiture & confiscation" language does not appear here.¹¹, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.

Congress struck an entire grievance from this list: Jefferson's denunciation of the slave trade and of slavery itself, beginning "he has waged cruel war against human nature itself…" Read the struck passage in full on the rough draft page. Two grievances above — legislatures called at "places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records," and citizens "taken captive on the high seas" forced to bear arms against their country — have no counterpart in Jefferson's draft; Congress added both during the July 2–4 debate.

We have petitioned for redress

Congress condensed Jefferson's much longer "Appeal to the British People" — two full paragraphs of grievance and farewell — down to the two brief paragraphs below. Compare with the fuller original text.

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.

Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable 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 disavow these usurpations which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. 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 .. publish and declare

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 the authority of the good people of these colonies solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and 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 independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and 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.

Signers

President: John HancockJohn Hancock was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He was the longest-serving president of the Continental Congress, having served as the second president of the Second Continental Congress and the seventh president of the Congress of the Confederation. Read more on Wikipedia ↗ (CC BY-SA)