Declaration of Independence Transcript

Note: The following text is a transcription of the Stone Engraving of the parchment Declaration of
Independence (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.) The spelling
and punctuation reflects the original.

Stone Engraving of the Declaration of Independence: In 1820, the Declaration of Independence was
already showing signs of age. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams commissioned printer William J.
Stone to make a full-size copperplate engraving. This plate was used to print copies of the Declaration. The
1823 Stone engraving is the most frequently reproduced version of the Declaration.

ree people.

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 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, 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
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 to do all other Acts and Things which
Independent StateIn 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 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 shewn, 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 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 invasion from without, and convulsions
within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for
Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations 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.

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 harrass 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 offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring 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.
 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 Mercenaries to compleat the works of death,
desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

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 insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of
our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished
destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our
repeated
Petitions
Georgia Maryland Pennsylvania New Jersey have been
Button Gwinnett Samuel Chase Robert Morris Richard Stockton answered
Lyman Hall William Paca Benjamin Rush John Witherspoon only by
George Walton Thomas Stone Benjamin Franklin Francis Hopkinson repeated
Charles Carroll of John Morton John Hart injury. A
North Carolina Carrollton George Clymer Abraham Clark Prince whose
William Hooper James Smith character is
Joseph Hewes Virginia George Taylor New Hampshire thus marked
John Penn George Wythe James Wilson Josiah Bartlett by every act
Richard Henry Lee George Ross William Whipple which may
South Carolina Thomas Jefferson Matthew Thornton define a
Edward Rutledge Benjamin Harrison Delaware Tyrant, is
Thomas Heyward, Jr. Thomas Nelson, Jr. Caesar Rodney Rhode Island unfit to be the
Thomas Lynch, Jr. Francis Lightfoot George Read Stephen Hopkins ruler of a fs
Arthur Middleton Lee Thomas McKean William Ellery may of right
Carter Braxton do. And for
Massachusetts New York Connecticut the support of
John Hancock William Floyd Roger Sherman this
Samuel Adams Philip Livingston Samuel Huntington Declaration,
John Adams Francis Lewis William Williams with a firm
Robert Treat Paine Lewis Morris Oliver Wolcott reliance on
Elbridge Gerry the protection
of divine
Providence,
we mutually
pledge to
each other
our Lives, our
Fortunes and
our sacred
Honor.