Excerpts from The Declaration of Independence

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds 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 inalienable 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 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…

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 the Facts be submitted to a candid world…

He has refused his consent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good…

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 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 harass our People and eat out their substance…

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution,…

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for relief in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyranny is unfit to be the ruler of a free people…