![\"Declaration](\"https:\/\/abclegaldocs.com\/blog-Colorado-Notary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Declaration-of-Independence-signers-200x140.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.<\/p>\n
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,<\/p>\n
–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 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 shewn, 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.<\/p>\n
–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.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish 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 too 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The 56 signatures on the Declaration of Independence<\/strong> appear in the positions indicated:<\/p>\n Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Column 6 https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/exhibits\/charters\/declaration_transcript.html <\/a> Thomas McKean<\/strong> of Delaware (1734-1817), served as a lawyer, judge, and Notary<\/strong>, was a member of the colonial Legislature and cast a decisive vote for Delaware to support the Colonies\u2019 bid for independence from England.\u00a0 McKean was also the last signer of the Declaration of Independence<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Visit our website for Colorado Springs Mobile Notary<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0services or Colorado Notary Training<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>classes.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Copyright 2015\u00a0 ABC Legal Docs, LLC\u00a0 All rights reserved.\u00a0 Do not copy.\u00a0 Citations welcome.\u00a0 Terms of Use apply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Declaration of Independence 1776 IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. 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 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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1098,1097,920],"tags":[1485,1501,1498,1487,1130,1489,1499,1491,1495,728,1486,5,1502,2159,1492,832,1494,1493,1490,1496,1488],"class_list":["post-1466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-constitution","category-holiday","category-notary-history","tag-1485","tag-benjamin-franklin","tag-colonies","tag-creator","tag-declaration-of-independence","tag-despotism","tag-great-britain","tag-justice","tag-laws-of-nature","tag-liberty","tag-natures-god","tag-notary","tag-oppression","tag-pursuit-of-happiness","tag-taxes","tag-thomas-jefferson","tag-thomas-mckean","tag-trial-by-jury","tag-tyranny","tag-tyrant","tag-unalienable-rights","has_thumb"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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 mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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:<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring 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:<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat 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.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured 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.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nGeorgia:<\/strong>
\nButton Gwinnett
\nLyman Hall
\nGeorge Walton<\/p>\n
\nNorth Carolina:<\/strong>
\nWilliam Hooper
\nJoseph Hewes
\nJohn Penn
\nSouth Carolina:<\/strong>
\nEdward Rutledge
\nThomas Heyward, Jr.
\nThomas Lynch, Jr.
\nArthur Middleton<\/p>\n
\nMassachusetts:<\/strong>
\nJohn Hancock
\n Maryland:<\/strong>
\nSamuel Chase
\nWilliam Paca
\nThomas Stone
\nCharles Carroll of Carrollton
\nVirginia:<\/strong>
\nGeorge Wythe
\nRichard Henry Lee
\nThomas Jefferson
\nBenjamin Harrison
\nThomas Nelson, Jr.
\nFrancis Lightfoot Lee
\nCarter Braxton<\/p>\n
\nPennsylvania:<\/strong>
\nRobert Morris
\nBenjamin Rush
\nBenjamin Franklin
\nJohn Morton
\nGeorge Clymer
\nJames Smith
\nGeorge Taylor
\nJames Wilson
\nGeorge Ross
\nDelaware:<\/strong>
\nCaesar Rodney
\nGeorge Read
\nThomas McKean<\/p>\n
\nNew York:<\/strong>
\nWilliam Floyd
\nPhilip Livingston
\nFrancis Lewis
\nLewis Morris
\nNew Jersey:<\/strong>
\nRichard Stockton
\nJohn Witherspoon
\nFrancis Hopkinson
\nJohn Hart
\nAbraham Clark<\/p>\n
\nNew Hampshire:<\/strong>
\nJosiah Bartlett
\nWilliam Whipple
\nMassachusetts:<\/strong>
\nSamuel Adams
\nJohn Adams
\nRobert Treat Paine
\nElbridge Gerry
\nRhode Island:<\/strong>
\nStephen Hopkins
\nWilliam Ellery
\nConnecticut:<\/strong>
\nRoger Sherman
\nSamuel Huntington
\nWilliam Williams
\nOliver Wolcott
\nNew Hampshire:<\/strong>
\nMatthew Thornton<\/p>\n
\nPhoto credit: Asher Brown Durand [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\nThomas McKean, Notary<\/h2>\n