美国开国经典之作--独立宣言

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies

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 onepeople to dissolve the political bands which have connected them withanother, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate andequal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitlethem, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that theyshould declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are createdequal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienableRights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit ofHappiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are institutedamong 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 toinstitute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles andorganizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likelyto effect their Safety and Happiness.

 

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long establishedshould not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordinglyall experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer,while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing theforms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariablythe same object evinces a design to reduce them under absoluteDespotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off suchGovernment, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

 

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such isnow the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systemsof Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [GeorgeIII] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having indirect object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over theseStates. 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 andpressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till hisAssent should be obtained, and when so suspended, he has utterlyneglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of largedistricts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right ofRepresentation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them andformidable 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 hismeasures.

 

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 causeothers to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable ofAnnihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise;the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers ofinvasion from without, and convulsions within.

 

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; forthat purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners;refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, andraising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

 

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

 

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 ofOfficers 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 foreignto our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assentto 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 Murderswhich 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 offences:

 

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouringProvince, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlargingits Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrumentfor 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.

 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

 

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenariesto complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begunwith circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in themost barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilizednation.

 

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the highSeas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners oftheir friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and hasendeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the mercilessIndian Savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguisheddestruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

 

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redressin the most humble terms. Our repeated Petitions have been answeredonly by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked byevery act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a freepeople.

 

Nor have We been wanting in 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 wehave conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow theseusurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections andcorrespondence.

 

They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and ofconsanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, whichdenounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest ofmankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America,in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of theworld for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by theauthority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish anddeclare.

 

That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free andIndependent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to theBritish 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 tolevy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to 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 theprotection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other ourLives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

 

The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:

New Hampshire:

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:

John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, GeorgeClymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton