WE hold these Truths to be self-evident: that all Men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator
with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, & 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,
& to institute new government, laying it's foundation on such principles, & organizing it's powers in such form,
as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness. Prudence indeed will dictate that governments
long established should not be changed for light & 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 & usurpations begun at a distinguished period and 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, & to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of
these colonies; & such is now the necessity which constrains them to expunge their former systems of government.
The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of unremitting injuries & usurpations, among which
appears no solitary fact to contradictthe uniform tenor of the rest but all have in direct object the establishment
of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this let facts be submitted to a candid world for the truth of which
we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.