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Educating Young People about the Constitution
such form, as to them shall seem most likely
to effect their Safety and Happiness.
In Congress, Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
Governments long established should not
be changed for light and transient causes;
and accordingly all experience hath shewn,
that mankind are more disposed to suffer,
Educating Young People about the Constitution
He has made Judges dependent on his Will
alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the
He has refused to pass other Laws for the amount and payment of their salaries.
accommodation of large districts of people,
unless those people would relinquish the He has erected a multitude of New Offices,
right of Representation in the Legislature, a and sent hither swarms of Officers to
right inestimable to them and formidable to harrass our people, and eat out their
tyrants only. substance.
He has called together legislative bodies at He has kept among us, in times of peace,
places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant Standing Armies without the Consent of
from the depository of their public Records, our legislatures.
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into
compliance with his measures. He has affected to render the Military
independent of and superior to the Civil
He has dissolved Representative Houses power.
repeatedly, for opposing with manly
firmness his invasions on the rights of the He has combined with others to subject us
people. to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution,
and unacknowledged by our laws; giving
He has refused for a long time, after such his Assent to their Acts of pretended
dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; Legislation:
whereby the Legislative powers, incapable
of Annihilation, have returned to the People For Quartering large bodies of armed troops
at large for their exercise; the State among us:
remaining in the mean time exposed to all
the dangers of invasion from without, and For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from
convulsions within. punishment for any Murders which they
should commit on the Inhabitants of these
He has endeavoured to prevent the States:
population of these States; for that purpose
obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of For cutting off our Trade with all parts of
Foreigners; refusing to pass others to the world:
encourage their migrations hither, and
raising the conditions of new For imposing Taxes on us without our
Appropriations of Lands. Consent:
He has obstructed the Administration of For depriving us in many cases, of the
Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for benefits of Trial by Jury:
establishing Judiciary powers.
Educating Young People about the Constitution
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried He has constrained our fellow Citizens
for pretended offences taken Captive on the high Seas to bear
Arms against their Country, to become the
For abolishing the free System of English executioners of their friends and Brethren,
Laws in a neighbouring Province, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
establishing therein an Arbitrary
government, and enlarging its Boundaries He has excited domestic insurrections
so as to render it at once an example and fit amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring
instrument for introducing the same on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the
absolute rule into these Colonies: merciless Indian Savages, whose known
rule of warfare, is an undistinguished
For taking away our Charters, abolishing destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
our most valuable Laws, and altering
fundamentally the Forms of our In every stage of these Oppressions We
Governments: have Petitioned for Redress in the most
humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have
For suspending our own Legislatures, and been answered only by repeated injury. A
declaring themselves invested with power Prince whose character is thus marked by
to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. every act which may define a Tyrant, is
unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
He has abdicated Government here, by
declaring us out of his Protection and Nor have We been wanting in attentions to
waging War against us. our Brittish brethren. We have warned them
from time to time of attempts by their
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our legislature to extend an unwarrantable
Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the jurisdiction over us. We have reminded
lives of our people. them of the circumstances of our emigration
and settlement here. We have appealed to
He is at this time transporting large Armies their native justice and magnanimity, and
of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the we have conjured them by the ties of our
works of death, desolation and tyranny, common kindred to disavow these
already begun with circumstances of usurpations, which, would inevitably
Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the interrupt our connections and
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy correspondence. They too have been deaf to
the Head of a civilized nation. 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.
Educating Young People about the Constitution
We, therefore, the Representatives of the Column 3:
united States of America, in General MASSACHUSETTS:
Congress, Assembled, appealing to the John Hancock
Supreme Judge of the world for the
rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, MARYLAND:
and by Authority of the good People of Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone,
these Colonies, solemnly publish and Charles Carroll of Carrollton
declare, That these United Colonies are, and
of Right ought to be Free and Independent VIRGINIA:
States; that they are Absolved from all George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas
Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas
political connection between them and the Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter
State of Great Britain, is and ought to be Braxton
totally dissolved; and that as Free and
Independent States, they have full Power to Column 4:
levy War, conclude Peace, contract PENNSYLVANIA:
Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin
other Acts and Things which Independent Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer,
States may of right do. And for the support James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson,
of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on George Ross
the protection of divine Providence, we
mutually pledge to each other our Lives, DELAWARE:
our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas
McKean
The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in
the positions indicated: Column 5:
NEW YORK:
Column 1: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis
GEORGIA: Lewis, Lewis Morris
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George
Walton NEW JERSEY:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon,
Column 2: Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham
NORTH CAROLINA: Clark
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
Column 6:
SOUTH CAROLINA: NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple
Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Educating Young People about the Constitution
MASSACHUSETTS:
Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat
Paine, Elbridge Gerry
RHODE ISLAND:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
CONNECTICUT:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington,
William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Matthew Thornton