ion 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 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 object, evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute despotism, 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 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