Jefferson's Draft of The Declaration of Independence

Jefferson's Draft of The Declaration of Independence Below you will find the text of Thomas Jefferson's original "draught" of the Declaration of Independence as presented to Congress on 28 June, 1776.
The strikethrough indicates the known edits.

A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN GENERAL CONGRESS ASSEMBLED




When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one a^


dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
people to ^advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto


and to                                                                   separate and equal
^remained, & to assume among the powers of the earth the ^equal and


independent station to which the laws of nature and of nature's god


entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires
                                                                           the separation
that they should declare the causes which impel them to ^change.
                                self-evident,
We hold these truths to be ^sacred & undeniable; that all Men
                                      they are endowed by their creator with
are created equal & independent; that ^from that equal creation they
                  equal rights,    some of which are rights; that these
derive in rights inherent & inalienable ^ among ^which are the


preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness;


                           rights
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 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 pursuing


invariably the same object, evinces a design to subject reduce them


under absolute Despotism [FRANKLIN]
^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 alter their former systems of
                                       the         king of Great Britain [ADAMS]
government. the History of ^his the present ^majesty is a history of
                                                    appears no solitary fact
repeated injuries & usurpations, among which ^no one fact stands single
                                                                             but all
and 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 & 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 accommodation of large


districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
           in the Legislature
representation ^, a right inestimable to them, & formidable to tyrants


only:


he has called together legislative bodies in places unusual,


uncomfortable & 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 & continually, for


opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the Rights of the People.
                                             time after such dissolutions
he has dissolved, he has refused for a long ^ space of 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, &


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
                   states
some of these ^ colonies, refusing his assent to laws for


establishing judiciary powers:


he has made our judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure
                         the      and payment [FRANKLIN]
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 new officers to harass our people and eat


out their substance.

                                            without our consent
he has kept among us in times of peace ^ standing armies,
                   the
         without ^our consent. of our legislatures
& ships of war^:


he has affected to render the military independent of, & superior


to the civil power:


he has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign


to our constitutions, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his

                 acts of
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
         which
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 abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province,


establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging it's


boundaries so as to render it at once an example & fit instrument

for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies states;

                                       valuable
             abolishing our most ^important laws [FRANKLIN]
for taking away our charters, ^ & altering fundimentally 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:


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 and 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 in an


undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, & conditions of


existence:


he has incited treasonable insurrections of our fellow-citizens,


with the allurements of forfeiture & confiscation of our property:
                             taken captives
he has constrained others, ^falling into his hands, on the high


seas to bear arms against their country, & to destroy & be


destroyed by their breteren whom they love, to become the


executioners of their friends & brethren, or to fall themselves


by their hands.


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 to slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable


death in their transportations 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


determining to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold
this excrable commerce ^ and that this assemblage of horrors might


want no fact of distiguished die, he is now exciting those very


people to rise in arms against 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 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
            only [FRANKLIN]
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 belive that the hardiness of one man, adventured
  build
to ^lay a foundation so broad & undistiguished for tyranny
within the short compass of twelve years only, ^on so many acts


of tyrany without a mask, over a people fostered & fixed in

             freedom
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 warrent so strange a


pretention: 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 and magnanimity as well as the ties of our

common kindred to disavow these usurpations which were likely to

          connection &
interrupt our ^ correspondence. they too have been deaf to the

voice of justice & of consanguinity & when occations 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 & foriegn mercinaries to

     destroy us [FRANKLIN]
invade & ^deluge us in blood. these facts have given the last stab

to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce

forever these unfeeling bretheren. we must endeavor to forget our

former love for them, and to hold them, as we hold the rest of

mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends. we might have been a

free & a great people together; but a communication of gradeur &

of freedom it seems is below their dignity, be it so, since they

                                                        & to glory
will have it: the road to glory & happiness ^ is open to us too;

             apart from them
we will climb it ^ in a separatly state, and acquiesce in the

                           de         eternal separation!
necessity which pro^nounces our ^everlasting adieu!

We therefore the representatives of the United States of

America in General Congress assembled, do, in the name & by the

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

                             have
may have heretofore ^ sibsisted between us & the people or parliament

of Great Britain; and do finally we do assert and declare these

colonies to be free and independent states, and that as free &

                                                                full
independent states they shall hereafter have ^ power to levy war,

conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, & do all

other acts and things which independent states may of right do.


And for the support of this declaration we mutually pledge to each

other our lives, our fortunes, & our sacred honor.