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 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 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 to 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 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 meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 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 harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to 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 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 offenses:
For 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 in 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, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He 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 and 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 endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is 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. 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 the 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.
中文：
1776年7月4日，美利堅(jiān)合眾國13個(gè)州的一致宣言。
在人類歷史事件的進(jìn)程中，當(dāng)一個(gè)民族有必要解除其與另一民族相連結(jié)的政治桎梏，并按照自然法則和上帝的意旨在世界列強(qiáng)中取得獨(dú)立與平等的地位時(shí)，對(duì)于人類輿論的真誠與尊重，要求他們必須將不得已而獨(dú)立的原因予以宣布。
我們認(rèn)為以下真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等，造物主賦予他們某些不可轉(zhuǎn)讓的權(quán)利，其中包括生命權(quán)、自由權(quán)和追求幸福的權(quán)利。為了保障這些權(quán)利，人們建立起來被管轄者同意的政府。任何形式的政府，一旦破壞這些目標(biāo)，人民就有權(quán)利去改變它或廢除它，并建立一個(gè)新的政府。新政府所根據(jù)的原則及其組織權(quán)力的方式，務(wù)必使人民認(rèn)為，唯有這樣才最有可能保障他們的安全與幸福。誠然，慎重會(huì)使得一個(gè)建立已久的政府不因微不足道的和暫時(shí)的原因而被改變，過去的一切經(jīng)驗(yàn)也表明，人類更傾向于忍受尚能忍受的苦難，而不去為了拯救自己而廢除他們久已習(xí)慣了的政府形式。但是，當(dāng)濫用職權(quán)和巧取豪奪的行為連綿不斷、層出不窮，證明政府追求的目標(biāo)是企圖把人民置于專制主義統(tǒng)治之下時(shí)，人民就有權(quán)利，也有義務(wù)*這樣的政府，并為他們未來的安全建立新的保障。這就是我們這些殖民地的人民一向忍受的苦難，以及現(xiàn)在不得不起來改變?cè)日沃贫鹊脑颉?BR> 當(dāng)今大不列顛王國的歷史，就是一部反復(fù)重演的傷天害理、巧取豪奪的歷史。所有這些行徑的直接目的，就是要在我們這些州里建立專制的*統(tǒng)治。為了證明這一點(diǎn)，特將事實(shí)陳諸于世界公正人士之前：
他拒絕批準(zhǔn)那些對(duì)公共福利最有益、最必要的法律。
他禁止他的總督們批準(zhǔn)那些緊急的、極其重要的法律，除非那些法律在經(jīng)他同意之前暫停施行；而暫停施行期間，他又對(duì)那些法律完全置之不理。他拒絕批準(zhǔn)其它有關(guān)人民向廣大地區(qū)遷居的法律，除非那些人民愿意放棄其在立法機(jī)關(guān)中的代表權(quán)；這種代表權(quán)對(duì)人民來說具有無可估量的意義，只有對(duì)暴君來說才是可伯的。他把各州立法團(tuán)體召集到特別的、極不方便的、遠(yuǎn)離政府檔案庫的地方去開會(huì)，其的目的就是使他們疲于奔命，不得不順從他的旨意。
他屢次解散各州的議會(huì)，因?yàn)檫@些議會(huì)曾堅(jiān)定不移地反抗他對(duì)人民權(quán)利的侵犯。
他在解散各州議會(huì)之后，又長時(shí)期地不讓人民另選新議會(huì)；不可抹煞的立法權(quán)力又歸一般民眾行使；而其時(shí)各州仍然處于內(nèi)亂外患的危險(xiǎn)之中。
他竭力抑制各州的人口增長；為此目的，他為《外國人歸化法》設(shè)置障礙，拒絕批準(zhǔn)其它鼓勵(lì)外國人移居各州的法律，并提高了重新分配土地的條件。
他拒絕批準(zhǔn)確立司法權(quán)力的法律，從而阻礙司法行政管理工作。
他使法官的任職年限、薪金數(shù)額及支付辦法完全由他個(gè)人意志來決定。
他濫設(shè)新職，派遣大批官吏來鉗制我們的人民，耗盡我們?nèi)嗣竦呢?cái)力。
他不經(jīng)我們立法機(jī)關(guān)的同意，在和平時(shí)期就把常備軍駐扎在我們各州。
他力圖使軍隊(duì)獨(dú)立于政權(quán)，并凌駕于政權(quán)之上。
他與某些人相互勾結(jié)，要我們屈服于一種與我們的體制格格不入、沒有為我們法律所承認(rèn)的管轄權(quán)之下；并且批準(zhǔn)那些炮制的假冒法案。在我們這里駐扎大量的武裝部隊(duì)。用欺騙性審訊來包庇那些殺害我們各州居民的人，使他們得以逍遙法外。切斷我們與世界各地的貿(mào)易。未經(jīng)我們的同意即向我們強(qiáng)行征稅。在許多案件中剝奪我們的陪審權(quán)力。以莫須有的罪名押送我們?nèi)ズＭ馐軐?。在鄰近的地區(qū)廢除保障自由的英國法律體制，建立專制政府，并擴(kuò)大其疆界，企圖使它迅即成為一個(gè)樣板和一件順手的工具，以便進(jìn)而把同樣的專制統(tǒng)治引向我們這些殖民地。取消我們的憲章，廢除我們那些最寶貴的法令，并且從根本上改變我們的政府形式。關(guān)閉我們自己的立法機(jī)關(guān)，有權(quán)就一切事宜為我們制定法律。
他宣布我們已不受其保護(hù)，并對(duì)我們開戰(zhàn)。這樣，表明了他已放棄在這里的政權(quán)。
他在我們的海域大肆掠奪，騷擾我們的沿海地區(qū)，焚毀我們的城鎮(zhèn)，并殘害我們?nèi)嗣竦纳?BR> 他此刻正在調(diào)運(yùn)大量的外籍雇傭軍，意在制造死亡、毀滅和專制暴虐。他已經(jīng)造成即使在人類歷最野蠻的時(shí)代都罕見的殘暴和背信棄義的氣氛。他完全不配做一個(gè)文明國家的元首。
他強(qiáng)迫在公海上被俘的我們的同胞武裝起來反對(duì)自己的國家，充當(dāng)殘殺自己親人和朋友的劊子手，或者死于自己親人朋友之手。
他在我們之間煽動(dòng)內(nèi)亂，并竭力挑動(dòng)我們的邊疆居民、那些殘酷無情的未開化的印第安人；而印第安人的的作戰(zhàn)原則是不分男女老幼、不論何種情況，一概格殺勿論。
在這些高壓政策的每一個(gè)階段，我們都曾以最謙卑的言詞請(qǐng)求予以糾正；而每次的吁請(qǐng)所得到的答復(fù)都只是屢遭損害。一個(gè)君主，當(dāng)他的每個(gè)行為都已打上暴君的烙印時(shí)，是不配做自由人民的統(tǒng)治者。
我們并沒有置我們的英國弟兄于不顧。我們時(shí)常提醒他們，他們的立法機(jī)構(gòu)企圖把不合理的管轄權(quán)橫加到我們頭上；我們?cè)嵝阉麄冏⒁?，我們移殖來此和在這里定居的情況。我們?cè)?jīng)向他們天生的正義感和俠義精神呼吁，懇請(qǐng)他們念及同種同宗的情誼，抵制那些掠奪行為以免影響我們之間的聯(lián)系和友誼。但是，他們對(duì)這種正義的、血肉之親的呼吁置若罔聞。因此，我們不得不宣布與他們脫離，并且以對(duì)待世界上其他民族一樣的態(tài)度對(duì)待他們：和我們作戰(zhàn)，就是敵人；和我們和好，就是朋友。
因此，我們，集合在大會(huì)中的美利堅(jiān)合眾國的代表們，以這些殖民地的善良人民的名義，并經(jīng)他們授權(quán)，向全世界最祟高的正義人士呼吁，說明我們的嚴(yán)正意向，同時(shí)莊嚴(yán)宣布：這些聯(lián)合一致的殖民地從此成為、而且按其權(quán)利必須成為自由獨(dú)立的國家；它們已經(jīng)解除一切效忠于英王室的義務(wù)，從此完全斷絕、并必須斷絕與大不列顛王國之間的一切政治聯(lián)系。作為自由獨(dú)立的國家；它們享有全權(quán)去宣戰(zhàn)、締和、同盟、通商或采取其它一切獨(dú)立國家有權(quán)采取的行動(dòng)。為了擁護(hù)此項(xiàng)宣言，我們懷著神明保佑的堅(jiān)定信心，以我們的生命、我們的財(cái)產(chǎn)和我們神圣的榮譽(yù)，互相宣誓。
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 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 to 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 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 meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 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 harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to 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 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 offenses:
For 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 in 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, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He 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 and 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 endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is 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. 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 the 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.
中文：
1776年7月4日，美利堅(jiān)合眾國13個(gè)州的一致宣言。
在人類歷史事件的進(jìn)程中，當(dāng)一個(gè)民族有必要解除其與另一民族相連結(jié)的政治桎梏，并按照自然法則和上帝的意旨在世界列強(qiáng)中取得獨(dú)立與平等的地位時(shí)，對(duì)于人類輿論的真誠與尊重，要求他們必須將不得已而獨(dú)立的原因予以宣布。
我們認(rèn)為以下真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等，造物主賦予他們某些不可轉(zhuǎn)讓的權(quán)利，其中包括生命權(quán)、自由權(quán)和追求幸福的權(quán)利。為了保障這些權(quán)利，人們建立起來被管轄者同意的政府。任何形式的政府，一旦破壞這些目標(biāo)，人民就有權(quán)利去改變它或廢除它，并建立一個(gè)新的政府。新政府所根據(jù)的原則及其組織權(quán)力的方式，務(wù)必使人民認(rèn)為，唯有這樣才最有可能保障他們的安全與幸福。誠然，慎重會(huì)使得一個(gè)建立已久的政府不因微不足道的和暫時(shí)的原因而被改變，過去的一切經(jīng)驗(yàn)也表明，人類更傾向于忍受尚能忍受的苦難，而不去為了拯救自己而廢除他們久已習(xí)慣了的政府形式。但是，當(dāng)濫用職權(quán)和巧取豪奪的行為連綿不斷、層出不窮，證明政府追求的目標(biāo)是企圖把人民置于專制主義統(tǒng)治之下時(shí)，人民就有權(quán)利，也有義務(wù)*這樣的政府，并為他們未來的安全建立新的保障。這就是我們這些殖民地的人民一向忍受的苦難，以及現(xiàn)在不得不起來改變?cè)日沃贫鹊脑颉?BR> 當(dāng)今大不列顛王國的歷史，就是一部反復(fù)重演的傷天害理、巧取豪奪的歷史。所有這些行徑的直接目的，就是要在我們這些州里建立專制的*統(tǒng)治。為了證明這一點(diǎn)，特將事實(shí)陳諸于世界公正人士之前：
他拒絕批準(zhǔn)那些對(duì)公共福利最有益、最必要的法律。
他禁止他的總督們批準(zhǔn)那些緊急的、極其重要的法律，除非那些法律在經(jīng)他同意之前暫停施行；而暫停施行期間，他又對(duì)那些法律完全置之不理。他拒絕批準(zhǔn)其它有關(guān)人民向廣大地區(qū)遷居的法律，除非那些人民愿意放棄其在立法機(jī)關(guān)中的代表權(quán)；這種代表權(quán)對(duì)人民來說具有無可估量的意義，只有對(duì)暴君來說才是可伯的。他把各州立法團(tuán)體召集到特別的、極不方便的、遠(yuǎn)離政府檔案庫的地方去開會(huì)，其的目的就是使他們疲于奔命，不得不順從他的旨意。
他屢次解散各州的議會(huì)，因?yàn)檫@些議會(huì)曾堅(jiān)定不移地反抗他對(duì)人民權(quán)利的侵犯。
他在解散各州議會(huì)之后，又長時(shí)期地不讓人民另選新議會(huì)；不可抹煞的立法權(quán)力又歸一般民眾行使；而其時(shí)各州仍然處于內(nèi)亂外患的危險(xiǎn)之中。
他竭力抑制各州的人口增長；為此目的，他為《外國人歸化法》設(shè)置障礙，拒絕批準(zhǔn)其它鼓勵(lì)外國人移居各州的法律，并提高了重新分配土地的條件。
他拒絕批準(zhǔn)確立司法權(quán)力的法律，從而阻礙司法行政管理工作。
他使法官的任職年限、薪金數(shù)額及支付辦法完全由他個(gè)人意志來決定。
他濫設(shè)新職，派遣大批官吏來鉗制我們的人民，耗盡我們?nèi)嗣竦呢?cái)力。
他不經(jīng)我們立法機(jī)關(guān)的同意，在和平時(shí)期就把常備軍駐扎在我們各州。
他力圖使軍隊(duì)獨(dú)立于政權(quán)，并凌駕于政權(quán)之上。
他與某些人相互勾結(jié)，要我們屈服于一種與我們的體制格格不入、沒有為我們法律所承認(rèn)的管轄權(quán)之下；并且批準(zhǔn)那些炮制的假冒法案。在我們這里駐扎大量的武裝部隊(duì)。用欺騙性審訊來包庇那些殺害我們各州居民的人，使他們得以逍遙法外。切斷我們與世界各地的貿(mào)易。未經(jīng)我們的同意即向我們強(qiáng)行征稅。在許多案件中剝奪我們的陪審權(quán)力。以莫須有的罪名押送我們?nèi)ズＭ馐軐?。在鄰近的地區(qū)廢除保障自由的英國法律體制，建立專制政府，并擴(kuò)大其疆界，企圖使它迅即成為一個(gè)樣板和一件順手的工具，以便進(jìn)而把同樣的專制統(tǒng)治引向我們這些殖民地。取消我們的憲章，廢除我們那些最寶貴的法令，并且從根本上改變我們的政府形式。關(guān)閉我們自己的立法機(jī)關(guān)，有權(quán)就一切事宜為我們制定法律。
他宣布我們已不受其保護(hù)，并對(duì)我們開戰(zhàn)。這樣，表明了他已放棄在這里的政權(quán)。
他在我們的海域大肆掠奪，騷擾我們的沿海地區(qū)，焚毀我們的城鎮(zhèn)，并殘害我們?nèi)嗣竦纳?BR> 他此刻正在調(diào)運(yùn)大量的外籍雇傭軍，意在制造死亡、毀滅和專制暴虐。他已經(jīng)造成即使在人類歷最野蠻的時(shí)代都罕見的殘暴和背信棄義的氣氛。他完全不配做一個(gè)文明國家的元首。
他強(qiáng)迫在公海上被俘的我們的同胞武裝起來反對(duì)自己的國家，充當(dāng)殘殺自己親人和朋友的劊子手，或者死于自己親人朋友之手。
他在我們之間煽動(dòng)內(nèi)亂，并竭力挑動(dòng)我們的邊疆居民、那些殘酷無情的未開化的印第安人；而印第安人的的作戰(zhàn)原則是不分男女老幼、不論何種情況，一概格殺勿論。
在這些高壓政策的每一個(gè)階段，我們都曾以最謙卑的言詞請(qǐng)求予以糾正；而每次的吁請(qǐng)所得到的答復(fù)都只是屢遭損害。一個(gè)君主，當(dāng)他的每個(gè)行為都已打上暴君的烙印時(shí)，是不配做自由人民的統(tǒng)治者。
我們并沒有置我們的英國弟兄于不顧。我們時(shí)常提醒他們，他們的立法機(jī)構(gòu)企圖把不合理的管轄權(quán)橫加到我們頭上；我們?cè)嵝阉麄冏⒁?，我們移殖來此和在這里定居的情況。我們?cè)?jīng)向他們天生的正義感和俠義精神呼吁，懇請(qǐng)他們念及同種同宗的情誼，抵制那些掠奪行為以免影響我們之間的聯(lián)系和友誼。但是，他們對(duì)這種正義的、血肉之親的呼吁置若罔聞。因此，我們不得不宣布與他們脫離，并且以對(duì)待世界上其他民族一樣的態(tài)度對(duì)待他們：和我們作戰(zhàn)，就是敵人；和我們和好，就是朋友。
因此，我們，集合在大會(huì)中的美利堅(jiān)合眾國的代表們，以這些殖民地的善良人民的名義，并經(jīng)他們授權(quán)，向全世界最祟高的正義人士呼吁，說明我們的嚴(yán)正意向，同時(shí)莊嚴(yán)宣布：這些聯(lián)合一致的殖民地從此成為、而且按其權(quán)利必須成為自由獨(dú)立的國家；它們已經(jīng)解除一切效忠于英王室的義務(wù)，從此完全斷絕、并必須斷絕與大不列顛王國之間的一切政治聯(lián)系。作為自由獨(dú)立的國家；它們享有全權(quán)去宣戰(zhàn)、締和、同盟、通商或采取其它一切獨(dú)立國家有權(quán)采取的行動(dòng)。為了擁護(hù)此項(xiàng)宣言，我們懷著神明保佑的堅(jiān)定信心，以我們的生命、我們的財(cái)產(chǎn)和我們神圣的榮譽(yù)，互相宣誓。