Principles of western civilisation

500 WESTERN CIVILISATION

9. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, JULY 4, 1776.

(Macdonald’s Select Documents illustrative of the History of the United States.)

June 7, 1776.—Richard Henry Lee of Virginia submitted to the Continental Congress three resolutions, the first of which declared ‘‘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.” The resolutions were seconded by John Adams, and on the roth a committee, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingstone, was appointed ‘to prepare a declaration to the effect of the said first resolution.” On the 28th the committee brought ina draft ofa declaration ofindependence, The resolution previously submitted was adopted July 2; on the 4th the Declaration of Independence was agreed to, and signed by John Hancock as president of the Congress. Congress directed that copies be sent ‘‘to the several Assemblies, Conventions, and Committees or Councils of Safety, and to the several commanding officers of the continental troops; that it be proclaimed in each of the United States, and at the head of the army.” The members of Congress signed the Declaration August 2.

In Congress, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen 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 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, 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 organising its powers in such form as to them shall seem most