lHe has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good

lHe 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

lHe 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

lHe 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

lHe has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people

lHe 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

lHe has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws of Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands

lHe has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers

lHe has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries

lHe has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance

lHe has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislature

lHe has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power

lHe 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

wFor quartering large bodies of armed troops among us

wFor protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States

wFor cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world

wFor imposing taxes on us without our Consent

wFor depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury

wFor transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

wFor abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring 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

wFor taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments

wFor suspending our own Legislature, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever

lHe has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us

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

lHe is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete 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

lHe 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

lHe has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored 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 have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People

Nor have We been wanting in attention 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 to 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 States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.