The Declaration of Independence
The American Institute for History Education
Thomas Jefferson’s Original Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence:
A Declaration of the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress
assembled.
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that
subordination in which they have hitherto remained, & to assume among the powers of the earth the
equal & independant station to which the laws of nature & 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 change.
We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independant,
that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the
preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any
form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to
abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation on such principles & organising 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 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 & usurpations, begun at a distinguished period, & pursuing invariably the
same object, evinces a design to subject[4] them to arbitrary power 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 his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and
usurpations, among which no one fact stands single or solitary to contradict the uniform tenor of the
rest, all of which 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.
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 & pressing importance, unless suspended in
their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has neglected utterly to
attend to them.
he has refused to pass other laws for the accomodation of large districts of people unless those people
would relinquish the right of representation,[6] a right inestimable to them, & formidable to tyrants
alone:
he has dissolved Representative houses repeatedly & continually, for opposing with manly firmness his
invasions on the rights of the people:
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he has refused for a long space of time 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, & 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 migrations hither; & raising the
conditions of new appropriations of lands:
he has suffered the administration of justice totally to cease in some of these colonies, refusing his
assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers:
he has made our judges dependant on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and amount of their
salaries:
he has erected a multitude of new offices by a self-assumed power, & sent hither swarms of officers to
harrass our people & eat out their substance:
he has kept among us in times of peace standing armies & ships of war:
he has affected to render the military, independant of & superior to the civil power:
he has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions and
unacknoleged by our laws; giving his assent to their pretended acts of legislation, for quartering large
bodies of armed troops among us;
for protecting them by a mock-trial from punishment for any murders 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 of the benefits of trial by jury;
for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:
for taking away our charters, & altering fundamentally the forms of our governments;
for suspending our own legislatures & declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all
cases whatsoever:
he has abdicated government here, withdrawing his governors, & declaring us out of his allegiance &
protection:
he has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns & destroyed the lives of our people:
The Declaration of Independence
The American Institute for History Education
he is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death,
desolation & tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty & perfidy unworthy the head of a
civilized nation:
he 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, & conditions of existence:
he has incited treasonable insurrections in our fellow-subjects, with the allurements of forfeiture &
confiscation of our property:
he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in
the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in
another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare,
the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to
keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for
suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this
assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to
rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the
people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the
liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.
in every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our
repeated petitions have been answered 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 people who mean to be free. future ages
will scarce believe that the hardiness of one man, adventured within the short compass of 12 years only,
on so many acts of tyranny without a mask, over a people fostered & fixed in principles of liberty.
Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. we have warned them from time
to time of attempts by their legislature to extend a jurisdiction over these our states. we have reminded
them of the circumstances of our emigration & settlement here, no one of which could warrant so
strange a pretension: that these were effected at the expence of our own blood & treasure, unassisted
by the wealth or the strength of Great Britain: that in constituting indeed our several forms of
government, we had adopted one common king, thereby laying a foundation for perpetual league &
amity with them: but that submission to their parliament was no part of our constitution, nor ever in
idea, if history may be credited: and we appealed to their native justice & magnanimity, as well as to the
ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which were likely to interrupt our
correspondence & connection. they too have been deaf to the voice of justice & of consanguinity, &
when occasions have been given them, by the regular course of their laws, of removing from their
councils the disturbers of our harmony, they have by their free election re-established them in power. at
this very time too they are permitting their chief magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our
common blood, but Scotch & foreign mercenaries to invade & deluge us in blood. these facts have given
the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce for ever these unfeeling
brethren. we must endeavor to forget our former love for them, and to hold them as we hold the rest of
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mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. we might have been a free & a great people together; but a
communication of grandeur & of freedom it seems is below their dignity. be it so, since they will have it:
the road to glory & happiness] is open to us too; we will climb it in a separate state, and acquiesce in the
necessity which pronounces our everlasting Adieu!
We therefore the representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled
do, in the name & by authority of the good people of these states, reject and renounce all allegiance &
subjection to the kings of Great Britain & all others who may hereafter claim by, through, or under
them; we utterly dissolve & break off all political connection which may have heretofore subsisted
between us & the people or parliament of Great Britain; and finally we do assert and declare these
colonies to be free and independant states, and that as free & independant states they shall hereafter
have power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, & to do all other acts
and things which independant states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration we
mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, & our sacred honour.
The Declaration of Independence:
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 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 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. — 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.
The Declaration of Independence
The American Institute for History Education
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 mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions
within.
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.
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 legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the 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 a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on
the Inhabitants of these States:
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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 benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
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
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, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
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.
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 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.
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 attentions 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 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.
The Declaration of Independence
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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.
The Declaration of Sentiments 1848 (Seneca Falls Conference)
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to
assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied,
but one 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 that impel them to such a course.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution
of 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 duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future
security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now
the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled. The history
of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having
in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted
to a candid world.
The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward
woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyrranny over her. To prove this, let
facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.
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He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.
He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men--both natives
and foreigners.
Having deprived her of this first right of a citizedn, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without
representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides.
He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.
He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns.
He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes with impunity,
provided they be done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to
promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master--the law giving
him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement.
He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes, and in case of separation, to
whom the guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardles of the happiness of
women--the law, in all cases, going upon a flase supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all
power into his hands.
After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single, and the owner of property, he has taxed
her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it.
He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow,
she receives but a scanty remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction
which he considers most homorable to himself. As a teacher of theoloy, medicine, or law, she is not
known.
He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her.
He allows her in church, as well as state, but a suborinate position, claiming apostolic authority for her
exclusion from the ministry, and, with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of
the church.
He has created a false public sentiment by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and
women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated, but
deemed of little account in man.
He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of
action, when that belongs to her conscience and to her God.
He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her conficence in her own powers, to lessen
her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.
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Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and
religious degradation--in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel
themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that
they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the
United States.
The Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
The Commander in Chief to the People of Haiti
Citizens:
It is not enough to have expelled the barbarians who have bloodied our land for two centuries; it is not
enough to have restrained those ever-evolving factions that one after another mocked the specter of
liberty that France dangled before you. We must, with one last act of national authority, forever assure
the empire of liberty in the country of our birth; we must take any hope of re-enslaving us away from
the inhuman government that for so long kept us in the most humiliating torpor. In the end we must live
independent or die.
Independence or death... let these sacred words unite us and be the signal of battle and of our reunion.
Citizens, my countrymen, on this solemn day I have brought together those courageous soldiers who, as
liberty lay dying, spilled their blood to save it; these generals who have guided your efforts against
tyranny have not yet done enough for your happiness; the French name still haunts our land.
Everything revives the memories of the cruelties of this barbarous people: our laws, our habits, our
towns, everything still carries the stamp of the French. Indeed! There are still French in our island, and
you believe yourself free and independent of that Republic which, it is true, has fought all the nations,
but which has never defeated those who wanted to be free.
What! Victims of our [own] credulity and indulgence for 14 years; defeated not by French armies, but
by the pathetic eloquence of their agents' proclamations; when will we tire of breathing the air that they
breathe? What do we have in common with this nation of executioners? The difference between its
cruelty and our patient moderation, its color and ours the great seas that separate us, our avenging
climate, all tell us plainly that they are not our brothers, that they never will be, and that if they find
refuge among us, they will plot again to trouble and divide us.
Native citizens, men, women, girls, and children, let your gaze extend on all parts of this island: look
there for your spouses, your husbands, your brothers, your sisters. Indeed! Look there for your children,
your suckling infants, what have they become?... I shudder to say it ... the prey of these vultures.
Instead of these dear victims, your alarmed gaze will see only their assassins, these tigers still dripping
with their blood, whose terrible presence indicts your lack of feeling and your guilty slowness in
avenging them. What are you waiting for before appeasing their spirits? Remember that you had
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wanted your remains to rest next to those of your fathers, after you defeated tyranny; will you descend
into their tombs without having avenged them? No! Their bones would reject yours.
And you, precious men, intrepid generals, who, without concern for your own pain, have revived liberty
by shedding all your blood, know that you have done nothing if you do not give the nations a terrible,
but just example of the vengeance that must be wrought by a people proud to have recovered its liberty
and jealous to maintain it let us frighten all those who would dare try to take it from us again; let us
begin with the French. Let them tremble when they approach our coast, if not from the memory of
those cruelties they perpetrated here, then from the terrible resolution that we will have made to put to
death anyone born French whose profane foot soils the land of liberty.
We have dared to be free, let us be thus by ourselves and for ourselves. Let us imitate the grown child:
his own weight breaks the boundary that has become an obstacle to him. What people fought for us?
What people wanted to gather the fruits of our labor? And what dishonorable absurdity to conquer in
order to be enslaved. Enslaved?... Let us leave this description for the French; they have conquered but
are no longer free.
Let us walk down another path; let us imitate those people who, extending their concern into the
future, and dreading to leave an example of cowardice for posterity, preferred to be exterminated
rather than lose their place as one of the world's free peoples.
Let us ensure, however, that a missionary spirit does not destroy our work; let us allow our neighbors to
breathe in peace; may they live quietly under the laws that they have made for themselves, and let us
not, as revolutionary firebrands, declare ourselves the lawgivers of the Caribbean, nor let our glory
consist in troubling the peace of the neighboring islands. Unlike that which we inhabit, theirs has not
been drenched in the innocent blood of its inhabitants; they have no vengeance to claim from the
authority that protects them.
Fortunate to have never known the ideals that have destroyed us, they can only have good wishes for
our prosperity.
Peace to our neighbors; but let this be our cry: "Anathama to the French name! Eternal hatred of
France!"
Natives of Haiti! My happy fate was to be one day the sentinel who would watch over the idol to which
you sacrifice; I have watched, sometimes fighting alone, and if I have been so fortunate as to return to
your hands the sacred trust you confided to me, know that it is now your task to preserve it. In fighting
for your liberty, I was working for my own happiness. Before consolidating it with laws that will
guarantee your free individuality, your leaders, who I have assembled here, and I, owe you the final
proof of our devotion.
Generals and you, leaders, collected here close to me for the good of our land, the day has come, the
day which must make our glory, our independence, eternal.
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If there could exist among us a lukewarm heart, let him distance himself and tremble to take the oath
which must unite us. Let us vow to ourselves, to posterity, to the entire universe, to forever renounce
France, and to die rather than live under its domination; to fight until our last breath for the
independence of our country.
And you, a people so long without good fortune, witness to the oath we take, remember that I counted
on your constancy and courage when I threw myself into the career of liberty to fight the despotism and
tyranny you had struggled against for 14 years. Remember that I sacrificed everything to rally to your
defense; family, children, fortune, and now I am rich only with your liberty; my name has become a
horror to all those who want slavery. Despots and tyrants curse the day that I was born. If ever you
refused or grumbled while receiving those laws that the spirit guarding your fate dictates to me for your
own good, you would deserve the fate of an ungrateful people. But I reject that awful idea; you will
sustain the liberty that you cherish and support the leader who commands you. Therefore vow before
me to live free and independent, and to prefer death to anything that will try to place you back in
chains. Swear, finally, to pursue forever the traitors and enemies of your independence.
Done at the headquarters of Gonaives, the first day of January 1804, the first year of independence.
The Unanimous Declaration of Independence made by the Delegates of the People of Texas in General
Convention at the town of Washington on the 2nd day of March 1836.
When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its
legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far
from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an
instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression.
When the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer
has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their government has been forcibly changed,
without their consent, from a restricted federative republic, composed of sovereign states, to a
consolidated central military despotism, in which every interest is disregarded but that of the army and
the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the everready minions of power, and the usual
instruments of tyrants.
When, long after the spirit of the constitution has departed, moderation is at length so far lost by those
in power, that even the semblance of freedom is removed, and the forms themselves of the constitution
discontinued, and so far from their petitions and remonstrances being regarded, the agents who bear
them are thrown into dungeons, and mercenary armies sent forth to force a new government upon
them at the point of the bayonet.
When, in consequence of such acts of malfeasance and abdication on the part of the government,
anarchy prevails, and civil society is dissolved into its original elements. In such a crisis, the first law of
nature, the right of self-preservation, the inherent and inalienable rights of the people to appeal to first
principles, and take their political affairs into their own hands in extreme cases, enjoins it as a right
towards themselves, and a sacred obligation to their posterity, to abolish such government, and create
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another in its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending dangers, and to secure their future
welfare and happiness.
Nations, as well as individuals, are amenable for their acts to the public opinion of mankind. A statement
of a part of our grievances is therefore submitted to an impartial world, in justification of the hazardous
but unavoidable step now taken, of severing our political connection with the Mexican people, and
assuming an independent attitude among the nations of the earth.
The Mexican government, by its colonization laws, invited and induced the Anglo-American population
of Texas to colonize its wilderness under the pledged faith of a written constitution, that they should
continue to enjoy that constitutional liberty and republican government to which they had been
habituated in the land of their birth, the United States of America.
In this expectation they have been cruelly disappointed, inasmuch as the Mexican nation has acquiesced
in the late changes made in the government by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who having
overturned the constitution of his country, now offers us the cruel alternative, either to abandon our
homes, acquired by so many privations, or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny, the combined
despotism of the sword and the priesthood.
It has sacrificed our welfare to the state of Coahuila, by which our interests have been continually
depressed through a jealous and partial course of legislation, carried on at a far distant seat of
government, by a hostile majority, in an unknown tongue, and this too, notwithstanding we have
petitioned in the humblest terms for the establishment of a separate state government, and have, in
accordance with the provisions of the national constitution, presented to the general Congress a
republican constitution, which was, without just cause, contemptuously rejected.
It incarcerated in a dungeon, for a long time, one of our citizens, for no other cause but a zealous
endeavor to procure the acceptance of our constitution, and the establishment of a state government.
It has failed and refused to secure, on a firm basis, the right of trial by jury, that palladium of civil liberty,
and only safe guarantee for the life, liberty, and property of the citizen.
It has failed to establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless
resources, (the public domain,) and although it is an axiom in political science, that unless a people are
educated and enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty, or the capacity for self
government.
It has suffered the military commandants, stationed among us, to exercise arbitrary acts of oppression
and tyrrany, thus trampling upon the most sacred rights of the citizens, and rendering the military
superior to the civil power.
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It has dissolved, by force of arms, the state Congress of Coahuila and Texas, and obliged our
representatives to fly for their lives from the seat of government, thus depriving us of the fundamental
political right of representation.
It has demanded the surrender of a number of our citizens, and ordered military detachments to seize
and carry them into the Interior for trial, in contempt of the civil authorities, and in defiance of the laws
and the constitution.
It has made piratical attacks upon our commerce, by commissioning foreign desperadoes, and
authorizing them to seize our vessels, and convey the property of our citizens to far distant ports for
confiscation.
It denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience, by
the support of a national religion, calculated to promote the temporal interest of its human
functionaries, rather than the glory of the true and living God.
It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defence, the rightful property of
freemen, and formidable only to tyrannical governments.
It has invaded our country both by sea and by land, with intent to lay waste our territory, and drive us
from our homes; and has now a large mercenary army advancing, to carry on against us a war of
extermination.
It has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the tomahawk and scalping knife, to
massacre the inhabitants of our defenseless frontiers.
It hath been, during the whole time of our connection with it, the contemptible sport and victim of
successive military revolutions, and hath continually exhibited every characteristic of a weak, corrupt,
and tyrranical government.
These, and other grievances, were patiently borne by the people of Texas, untill they reached that point
at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. We then took up arms in defence of the national
constitution. We appealed to our Mexican brethren for assistance. Our appeal has been made in vain.
Though months have elapsed, no sympathetic response has yet been heard from the Interior. We are,
therefore, forced to the melancholy conclusion, that the Mexican people have acquiesced in the
destruction of their liberty, and the substitution therfor of a military government; that they are unfit to
be free, and incapable of self government.
The necessity of self-preservation, therefore, now decrees our eternal political separation.
We, therefore, the delegates with plenary powers of the people of Texas, in solemn convention
assembled, appealing to a candid world for the necessities of our condition, do hereby resolve and
declare, that our political connection with the Mexican nation has forever ended, and that the people of
Texas do now constitute a free, Sovereign, and independent republic, and are fully invested with all the
rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations; and, conscious of the rectitude of
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our intentions, we fearlessly and confidently commit the issue to the decision of the Supreme arbiter of
the destinies of nations.
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. Liberia
A Declaration of Independence by the Representatives of the People of the Commonwealth of Liberia in
Convention Assembled. July 16, 1847 . We, the representatives of the people of the commonwealth of
Liberia, in convention assembled, invested with the authority of forming a new government, relying
upon the aid and protection of the Great Arbiter of human events, do hereby in the name and on behalf
of the people of this commonwealth, publish and declare the said commonwealth a free, sovereign, and
independent state, by the name and title of the Republic of Liberia.
While announcing to the nations of the world the new position which the people of this Republic have
felt themselves called upon to assume, courtesy to their opinion seems to demand a brief accompanying
statement of the causes which induced them, first to expatriate themselves from the land of their
nativity and to form settlements on this barbarous coast, and now to organize their government by the
assumption of a sovereign and independent character. Therefore, we respectfully ask their attention to
the following facts:
We recognize in all men certain inalienable rights; among these are life, liberty, and the right to acquire,
possess, enjoy, and defend property. By the practice and consent of men in all ages, some system or
form of government is proved to be necessary to exercise, enjoy, and secure their rights, and every
people have a right to institute a government, and to choose and adopt that system, or form of it, which
in their opinion will most effectively accomplish these objects, and secure their happiness, which does
not interfere with the just rights of others. The right, therefore, to institute government and powers
necessary to conduct it is an inalienable right and cannot be resisted without the grossest injustice.
We, the people of the Republic of Liberia , were originally inhabitants of the United States of North
America.
In some parts of that country we were debarred by law from all rights and privileges of man - in other
parts, public sentiment, more powerful than law, frowned us down.
We were excluded from all participation in the government.
We were taxed without our consent.
We were compelled to contribute to the resources of a country which gave us no protection.
We were made a separate and distinct class, and against us every avenue of improvement was
effectively closed. Strangers from other lands, of a color different from ours, were preferred before us.
We uttered our complaints, but they were unattended to, or only met by alleging the peculiar
institutions of the country.
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All hope of a favorable change in our country was thus wholly extinguished in our bosoms, and we
looked with anxiety for some asylum from the deep degradation.
The western coast of Africa was the place selected by American benevolence and philanthropy for our
future home. Removed beyond those influences which oppressed us in our native land, it was hoped we
would be enabled to enjoy those rights and privileges and exercise and improve those faculties which
the God of nature has given us in common with the rest of mankind.
Under the auspices of the American Colonization Society, we established ourselves here, on land,
acquired by purchase from the lords of the soil.
In an original compact with this society, we, for important reasons, delegated to it certain political
powers; while this institution stipulated that whenever the people should become capable of conducting
the government, or whenever the people should desire it, this institution would resign the delegated
power, peacefully withdraw its supervision, and leave the people to the government of themselves.
Under the auspices and guidance of this institution which has nobly and in perfect faith redeemed its
pledge to the people, we have grown and prospered.
From time to time our number has been increased by immigration from America , and by accession from
native tribes; and from time to time, as circumstances required it, we have extended our borders by the
acquisition of land by honorable purchase from the natives of the country.
As our territory has extended and our population increased our commerce has also increased. The flags
of most civilized nations of the earth float in our harbors, and their merchants are opening an honorable
and profitable trade. Until recently, these visits have been of a uniformly harmonious character; but as
they have become more frequent and to more numerous points of our extended coast, questions have
arisen which, it is supposed, can be adjusted only by agreement between sovereign powers.
For years past, the American Colonization Society has virtually withdrawn from all direct and active part
in the administration of the government, except in the appointment of the governor, who is also a
colonist, for the apparent purpose of testing the ability of the people to conduct the affairs of
government, and no complaint of crude legislation, nor of mismanagement, nor of mal-administration
has yet been heard.
In view of these facts, this institution, the American Colonization Society, with that good faith which has
uniformly marked all its dealings with us did by a set of resolutions in January, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and forty-six, dissolve all political connections with the people of this
Republic, returned the power with which it was delegated, and left the people to the government of
themselves.
The people of the Republic of Liberia , they, are of right, and in fact, a free, sovereign, and independent
state, possessed of all the rights, powers, and functions of government.
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In assuming the momentous responsibilities of the position they have taken, the people of this republic
feel justified by the necessities of the case, and with this conviction they throw themselves with
confidence upon the candid consideration of the civilization of the world.
Liberia is not the offspring of ambition, nor the tool of avaricious speculation.
No desire for territorial aggrandizement brought us to these shores; nor do we believe so sordid a
motive entered into the high consideration of those who aided us in providing this asylum. Liberia is an
asylum from the most grinding oppression.
In coming to the shores of Africa, we indulged the pleasing hope that we would be permitted to exercise
and improve those faculties which impart to man his dignity; to nourish in our hearts the flame of
honorable ambition; to cherish and indulge these aspirations which a beneficent Creator had implanted
in every human heart, and to evince to all who despise, ridicule, and oppress our race that we possess
with them a common nature; are with them susceptible of equal refinement, and capable to equal
advancement in all that adorns and dignifies man. We were animated by the hope that here we should
be at liberty to train up our children in the way that they should go; to inspire them with the love of an
honorable fame; to kindle within them the flame of a lofty philanthropy, and to form strongly within
them the principles of humanity, virtue, and religion.
Amongst the strongest motives to leave our native land - to abandon forever the scenes of our
childhood and to sever the most endeared connections - was the desire for a retreat where, free from
the agitation of fear and molestation, we could approach in worship the God of our fathers.
Thus far our highest hopes have been realized. Liberia is already the happy home of thousands who
were once the doomed victims of oppressions; and, if left unmolested to go on with her natural and
spontaneous growth, if her movements be left free from the paralyzing intrigues of jealous ambition and
unscrupulous avarice, she will throw open wider and yet a wider door for thousands who are now
looking with an anxious eye for some land of rest.
Our courts of justices are open equally to the stranger and the citizen for the redress of grievances, for
the remedy of injuries, and for the punishment of crime.
Our numerous and well-attended schools attest our efforts and our desire for the improvement of our
children. Our churches for the worship of our Creator, everywhere to be seen, bear testimony to our
acknowledgment of His providence.
The native African bowing down with us before the altar of the living God, declares that from us, feeble
as we are, the light of Christianity has gone forth, while upon that curse of curses, the slave trade, a
deadly blight has fallen, as far as our influence extends.
Therefore, in the name of humanity, virtue, and religion, in the name of the great God, our common
Creator, we appeal to the nations of Christendom, and earnestly and respectfully ask of them that they
will regard us with the sympathy and friendly considerations to which the peculiarities of our condition
entitles us, and to that comity which marks the friendly intercourse of civilized and independent
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communities. Written by Hilary Teage, the signers of the Declaration of Independence were twelve
representatives to the Constitutional Convention which convened in Monrovia on July 5, 1847: Samuel
Benedict, Hilary Teage, Elijah Johnson, John Naustehlau Lewis, Beverly R. Wilson and J.B. Gripon
(Montserrado County); John Day, Amos Herring, Anthony William Gardiner and Ephriam Titler (Grand
Bassa County); and Jacob W. Prout and Richard E. Murray (Sinoe County).
The Unilateral Declaration of Independence (Southern Rhodesia) 1965
Proclamation
Whereas in the course of human affairs history has shown that it may become necessary for a people to
resolve the political affiliations which have connected them with another people and to assume
amongst other nations the separate and equal status to which they are entitled.
And Whereas in such event a respect for the opinions of mankind requires them to declare to other
nations the causes which impel them to assume full responsibility for their own affairs.
Now Therefore, We, The Government of Rhodesia, Do Hereby Declare:
That it is an indisputable and accepted historic fact that since 1923 the Government of Rhodesia have
exercised the powers of self-government and have been responsible for the progress, development and
welfare of their people;
That the people of Rhodesia having demonstrated their loyalty to the crown and to their kith and kin in
the United Kingdom and elsewhere through two world wars, and having been prepared to shed their
blood and give of their substance in what they believed to be the mutual interests of freedom-loving
people, now see all that they have cherished about to be shattered on the rocks of expediency.
That the people of Rhodesia have witnessed a process which is destructive of those very precepts upon
which civilization in a primitive country has been built; they have seen the principles of Western
democracy, responsible government and moral standards crumble elsewhere; nevertheless they have
remained steadfast;
That the people of Rhodesia fully support the requests of their Government for sovereign independence
but have witnessed the consistent refusal of the Government of the United Kingdom to accede to their
entreaties;
That the Government of the United Kingdom have thus demonstrated that they are not prepared to
grant sovereign independence to Rhodesia on terms acceptable to the people of Rhodesia, thereby
persisting in maintaining an unwarrantable jurisdiction over Rhodesia, obstructing laws and treaties with
other states and the conduct of affairs with other nations and refusing assent to laws necessary for the
public good; all this to the detriment to the future peace, prosperity and good government of Rhodesia;
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That the Government of Rhodesia have for a long period patiently and in good faith negotiated with the
Government of the United Kingdom for the removal of the remaining limitations placed upon them and
for the grant of sovereign independence;
That in the belief that procrastination and delay strike at and injure the very life of the nation, the
Government of Rhodesia consider it essential that Rhodesia should attain, without delay, sovereign
independence, the justice of which is beyond question;
Now Therefore, We The Government of Rhodesia, in humble submission to Almighty God who controls
the destinies of nations, conscious that the people of Rhodesia have always shown unswerving loyalty
and devotion to Her Majesty the Queen and earnestly praying that we and the people of Rhodesia will
not be hindered in our determination to continue exercising our undoubted right to demonstrate the
same loyalty and devotion, and seeking to promote the common good so that the dignity and freedom
of all men may be assured, Do, By This Proclamation, adopt, enact and give to the people of Rhodesia
the Constitution annexed hereto
God Save The Queen
Given under Our Hand at Salisbury, this Eleventh day of November in the Year of Our Lord one
thousand nine hundred and sixty-five.