M. and Sel.. Mackeld's Civ. L.. Magna Charta. Maule and Selwyn's Reports. .Mackeld's Civil Law. Marshall's Life of Washington. Mas.-Mas. C. C.. Mass... McAllister. McLean. Md. Meigs. Met.. Miles.. Minn.. Miss. Mo Monr... Mont.-Montesq. Moore Privy Council. Mumf.... N. H.. N. Y. Herald. N. Y. Reports. O. Bridge Reports. 0... Op... Paige Paine ...Mason's Circuit Court Reports. .Massachusetts Reports. .McAllister's Reports. .McLean's Reports. Maryland Reports. Mississippi Reports. .Monroe's Reports. ..Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws. .New Hampshire Reports. New York Reports. .Sir Oliver Bridge's Reports. .Ohio Reports. Wh. Wheat...........Wheaton's Reports. Wheaton's Life of Pinckney. Wheat. Int. L..........Wheaton's International Law. Wheeler's Law of Slavery. Whiting.. Wil. M. C... Wils. Law Lect. Will...... Wirt.. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled. 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 a 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 govern ment. 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 |